Yum... Vegan Cheetos!

I'm so addicted. It doesn't take much to get me excited about food, but these are really awesome. I can eat the whole bag in prolly ten minutes. Maybe it's a good thing that the health food store by our house doesn't carry them. We have to go about fifteen minutes away to find these Tings. Last time we got two bags of them and they were both gone in less than 24 hours. Hmmm, maybe we'll have to make a special trip today to pick some up for our potluck party tomorrow. I guess I'm not shy about letting people know that it's my birthday. Hope it's not too busy at the park 'cause it's also Memorial day. Ahh, mems. We'll be making more mems with our families and maybe lots of bags of Tings.

Botanical garden fun

We went to a couple of gardens two days in a row, last week. It's going to be too hot to go anywhere like this after the next couple of weeks, so we have to soak in as much leisurely outdoor time as we can.

A.J. has just started clapping her hands, and it's so much fun that we are constantly trying to get her excited about anything, just so we can see her do it.

It was a super, windy day.

Paranoid Mommas like me have to keep the kid in the shade, even though I know darn well that she's covered in sunscreen. Will I always be this crazy?

What everyone thinks about me...

T-rex is cool

*from qwantz.com

My brother Sam

He just got back from an extended trip to Hawaii. The last time he saw Ava, she was just a couple of weeks old. So I guess he was gone for over 7 months. I still can't believe how grown up he's gotten. When I think back to when I first learned how to change diapers and take care of a little baby, it's Samuel that comes to mind. He was so cute and funny (and still is). And when he grew his li'l baby teeth, they were so white and round that my sisters and I started to call him Pearl. Sometimes it would be Pearly, so it didn't sound as much like a girl's name- it just drove my Mom crazy. He's 10 years younger than me and towers over everyone in my family- and we're a family of mostly tall people to begin with! Somehow, he managed to be the only boy among 7 sisters, up until a few years ago when our brother Seth was born. Sometimes I can't believe he survived the trauma of it all. When he left, I didn't really say goodbye to him 'cause I thought he would just be back, shortly. He's only 18 and had never been on an airplane before. He went to Cali., with virtually no money to speak of and planned on camping out in the Redwoods. Somehow he ended up in Hawaii a few weeks later and was living on a commune. He's one of the greatest artists I know and such a little hippie kid. He can sell his art on the streets and at the Farmer's Markets, and get along with pretty much anyone he meets. Since this trip, I think he's caught the traveling bug, and I'm sure he'll be on his way to some other awesome destination in no time. But I'm glad that he's back in town and in our lives, again. I love my widdo bwudda!

What a cute kid Shawn was

This is what Ava will look like with top teeth!
It's uncanny how much they look like each other.

Ahh, springtime at last

Our darling's first time sitting on the grass.

Pretty in pink.

I caught a kissy-face!

Yeah! Our April Fool's prank was perfectly executed. For some reason or another, that week when Shawn would come home for lunch to see us, we kept missing him. So ,when I talked to him earlier that day, I told him that he should come right home so that he could help feed A.J. some rice cereal- which was particularly exciting for us because we were just beginning to feed her solids. I assured him that we would be there this time and it was only an hour and a half before her bedtime. Then, I hid the car seat and diaper bag and wrote a really stupid note to him saying "sorry" and that "we got invited to go to the LDS General Conference and it sounded like fun." Since he fell for it, this makes me question whether Shawn really knows me at all. Then when he pulled in the driveway I grabbed A.J. and hid with her by the back door, peeking out the window to see when he got out of the car. I guess it's been a while since I did anything sneaky like this 'cause I got a total adrenalin rush from waiting for him to come in the house. Plus, our kitty-Skunkbelly was back there cleaning herself and driving Ava crazy, making it hard to keep her hushed (when she sees kitties she says "kee"). And then, he was sitting in his car for about five minutes listening to some podcast. And finally, when he got out, we snuck out the back door and ran over to our neighbor Lincoln's yard and hid out for a few minutes. I guess maybe this isn't all that crazy of a prank, but I thought it was great because I couldn't really leave the house right then and I didn't want to do anything too mean to him right when he got home from a long day at work. Then, I ran up to the porch and knocked really loud on the front door so he would get spazzed. Then, when he answered the door I said "April Fool's!" Perfect. He was out-witted and totally surprised. And just beginning to feel sadness for us not being there, like I promised. I guess he didn't even remember that it was April Fool's Day.

Happy Birthday Badtz Maru!

Speaking of cute lunches, whoever made this beautiful dish should get an award. I can't believe I almost forgot today is his Birthday. I love my Badtz Maru. Funny little penguin born on April Fool's Day. I am working towards trying to get Ava to fall in love with Badtz, so that we can be unstoppable in our mission to collect as much Badtz Maru paraphernalia as possible. Sounds pretty greedy, I know. That's why I have to get her in on it, so I can tell people that it's just childsplay and what not. In honor of his highness, I will be thinking of some kind of prank to play on Shawn. Three cheers for Badtz!

Cute lunch

Making food look this adorable takes some serious dedication. I'm not sure I could even eat my lunch if it looked this cute, but I'd definitely take a picture of it. I don't even know what most of this stuff is but it looks tasty -minus the egg, of course. Looking at other vegan websites has made me realize that I could really step it up a notch at the table. Maybe in the future I will post some of our favorite vegan recipes and some original ones that I've been working on lately, and take a nice picture. I'm not promising anything this fancy, though.