Posted in family and friends, holidays on May 12, 2013 | Leave a Comment »
Happy Mother’s Day to all of you Mamas, especially my own! I hope the day brings you fun and happiness and peace, and quite a bit of pampering! I’m looking forward to a bloody Mary brunch made by my boys…they went shopping together today to buy all of the ingredients!
Posted in family and friends, get outside!, holidays, tagged Easter egg hunt on April 2, 2013 | 1 Comment »
Despite the number of times we uttered this phrase over the weekend(!), we all had a really fun time in the surprisingly springy weather painting eggs, hiding and hunting plastic eggs filled with toys and candy, cooking food on the grill, and enjoying cocktails in the backyard.
We started a tradition last year that Jack plants a jellybean on Easter Eve and in the spot where it is planted, his Easter basket appears the next morning…he loves picking out just the right place and making sure the jellybean is completely buried under the dirt. And, his excitement the next morning is completely infectious!
What a smile new Crocs (indoor shoes for school) can bring, especially if they are super hero ones!
I hope you had a fun Easter weekend too!
Posted in family and friends, holidays, Seattle on February 15, 2013 | Leave a Comment »
Dear Three-Day Weekend,
Please don’t disappoint. It feels like we have been trapped indoors under a pile of Kleenex coughing, sneezing, and not being able to properly breathe for a month now! We have tried to have some fun despite our feeling under the weather with ski lessons, a concert date to see Father John Misty, cozy snuggling by the fire, watching tons of movies (more than should have been allowed!), and even a girls night out to enjoy a delicious dinner with one of my best friends, but I tell you, we are feeling ready to have a long fun weekend with no stuffy noses, no stomach bugs, and no fatigue!
We have a lot of hopeful fun planned for ourselves…feels like such a treasure to get three days at home all together. We’ll be having our routine Friday pizza night, trying the much anticipated Blue Star cafe for breakfast- the menu is so long and looks so delicious, I might just have to order several things! especially after the stomach bug that took hold of us this weekend stole our appetite for days, visiting our neighborhood farmer’s market, going to a friend’s for a play date and pizza, taking a trip to the zoo, celebrating Valentine’s with take-out dinner for two, a homemade dessert, and fancy cocktails, and spending the better part of the day at the Children’s Museum followed by lunch at the Armory at Seattle Center- lunch here requires a major decision- will I choose a savory pie or BBQ and cornbread from Bigfoot or a fresh, vegan sandwich from Plum Bistro or stick to my favorite- Skillet: Counter and get a burger or poutine or the chicken sammy???…mmm, all so good!!! Maybe I will mix and match (or sneak bites from my boys’ plates!)…!
I hope the weekend is good to all of you. And, I hope we are well enough to have the fun we want to (and think we deserve to!) have…in all honesty, I can’t imagine having the energy to do this many fun things as I haven’t even left my bed much this week not to mention actually shower, get dressed, and leave the house to do anything, but I’m hopeful! And, I’m certainly ready to feel well and play!
Posted in holidays, tagged super hero lollipops, Super Hero Valentine's on February 14, 2013 | 2 Comments »
I made these super hero lollipops for Jack’s school friends. We are BIG into super heroes these days so this seemed completely fitting for the occasion.
I hope all of you have something sweet planned for today (or for the weekend like David and I do; we always wait until it’s more convenient to really enjoy the time together rather than pack it into the already busy day when it falls during the work week). My heart feels more full of love this year than ever before, that’s for sure. xxo!
Posted in family and friends, holidays, travel on January 6, 2013 | Leave a Comment »
We’ve been back home for nearly a week, yet we can’t quite seem to jump back into our pre-holiday routine. I think all three of us are still tired from all of the fun we had in Florida! This has definitely been the most difficult transition back for me; hence, the delay in this blog post. So, before it becomes irrelevant, here are a few of my favorite photos from our Christmas vacation in Pensacola.
Some of my favorite holiday moments include: Eating (a lot of) cookies and sharing ONE cookie and eggnog with Santa (only one cookie for Santa was a very clear instruction given by Jack!).
Jack wished for two things from Santa- a Big Woody and a Big Batman. Of course, Santa felt him worthy of both of his wishes! But, the Batman Jack was hoping for was more of the size demonstrated by his hands in the photo above, not quite as big as the one he received! He didn’t seem too disappointed in Santa’s mistake.
(Too much) Bowling fun!, the day after Christmas family tradition. And, tooters…a green apple shooter taken as a result of a losing bowling game.
Waiting with his cousins at the top of the stairs for “Christmas morning” festivities at Mia and Popi’s house.
Lots of outdoor playtime in the Florida sunshine!
Celebrating Great Pawpaw’s 90th birthday!
This year’s family Christmas photo taken at the beach (on a windy morning!) with the new beach ferris wheel in the background.
Another holiday post to come highlighting our annual apps and brew dinner (with recipes!).
I hope you are enjoying a nice start to your New Year!
Posted in family and friends, holidays, tagged Family rituals, resolutions, weekly traditions on January 1, 2013 | 6 Comments »
Like many of you, as the countdown to a new year approaches, I start scratching my head wondering what will end up on my list of goals for this year. The start of something fresh and new triggers my organizing gene big time and all I want to do is sit down and plan for a successful, happy, peaceful, and fun-filled new year. Sounds easy enough, right?!
This year I’ve decided to base my list of goals for 2013 on rituals. I simply adore a good ritual. They help to set the pace of the day, they give you something to look forward to, they help you to anticipate what comes next (which is particularly important for the younger set, especially my younger set who is just as obsessed as his mama about knowing “then what?).
We have many rituals in place that I intend to hold onto. For instance, the ritual of weekly pizza night (which is often paired with a movie); the ritual of devoting 3 nights each week to reading instead of watching movies or TV; the ritual of declaring one day each week as a “mama and Jack” day- a day to stay home from work and school and be together; the ritual of eating family dinners every night; the nightly ritual of a bath-2 books-a story-then lights off; the ritual of green smoothies in the morning almost always paired with a peanut butter sandwich; the ritual of making a yearly book of photos starring our little; the ritual of taking a family photo every Christmas and displaying them in Christmas frames every December; the ritual of running at Greenlake at least one morning each weekend as long as the weather allows; the ritual of giving our little a gift-a-day for every day in December; the ritual of giving David a good bottle of liquor for our anniversary every New Year’s Eve (just started this one!); the ritual of a weekly family date to Starbucks; the ritual of celebrating our dating, engagement, AND wedding anniversaries; the ritual of sharing an apps and brew dinner with my parents and sister every December.
And, then there’s the list of rituals I want to begin, with the start of this new year:
the ritual of a family walk after dinner on non-rainy (and not too cold) nights
the ritual of going to a farmers’ market at least one Saturday morning per month
the ritual of a weekly date night…not a date that requires the services of a babysitter, but a dedicated night each week when we hang out with each other- no distractions to tempt us away. Some ideas I have are to share a pint of ice cream and watch multiple episodes of one of the TV shows we follow (Breaking Bad, Top Chef, Mad Men), to make desert once Jack is tucked away, to get take-out for just the two of us and watch a movie, to make a special cocktail and listen to music, to cook a fancy dinner for just the 2 of us. I’m really looking forward to this one…it seems like it will be such a luxury bestowed upon us every week!
the ritual of starting a memory jar where we write down on a small note card our sweet, memorable, or funny moments as they happen during the year and then read them aloud next New Year’s Eve or Day.
Wishing you a wonderful and peace filled 2013! Thank you for sharing this space with me…I’m looking forward to all that this New Year holds!
Posted in family and friends, holidays, tagged family photo greeting, Merry Christmas on December 21, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Happy, Happy Christmas from David and I, our own little reindeer, and Sadie (little helper)!
We hope that you have the most joyous and peaceful of seasons and that all of your spirits are merry and bright!
May Santa be good to you all!
Much love, David, Stephanie, Jack, and Sadie
Posted in birthdays, family and friends, holidays, tagged Kidd Valley, Liberty, Skillet Counter, Teatro Zinzanni, Top Pot, Vios on December 17, 2012 | 1 Comment »
We had so much fun this weekend celebrating my birthday! It really makes a difference when your birthday falls on a weekend day and when you have such wonderful boys, like I do, to spoil you rotten…I feel so lucky!
I came home from work on Friday to find our family birthday banner displayed on our living room wall. It set such a festive mood! We kicked off the weekend with burgers, fries- both regular and garlic fries which have tons of freshly minced garlic and spices mixed throughout-, and eggnog milkshakes from Kidd Valley. Kidd Valley is the Northwest equivalent of Whataburger and I have a soft spot for Whataburger. I love the addition of the fresh, spicy jalapeños I can add to my cheeseburger and the milkshakes are sooooo yummy, especially the eggnog one! We watched Home Alone while we ate dinner and Jack loved it…he was laughing with his mouth wide open and his head thrown back at all the tricks Kevin played on the “bad guys”.
Saturday (my actual birthday) was a perfect day. We took a long, very cold, drizzly winter walk to get coffee and doughnuts from Top Pot Doughnuts. I got an apple fritter (my favorite) which is always perfectly glazed and deliciously crunchy on the outside and gooey with apples and cinnamon swirls inside…mmmmm! The rest of the day was filled with presents (including the very cool red squirrel nutcracker from David’s parents that is equally loved by Jack!), a Greek lunch at Vios, a long nap! (mmhmmm…a deliciously restful 2 hour nap!!! It was awesome!), family, friends, cocktails (a perfectly made French 75) and sushi from Liberty, and a late night!
We spent Sunday at the circus, eating a delicious lunch at Skillet Counter at the Armory in Seattle Center, seeing the model trains and the winter village that Jack wanted to buy and take home (note the village scene was as large as one floor of our home!), and going to the Children’s Museum.
It was a super fun weekend. A perfect birthday…one of my best ones ever.
I hope all of you were having fun too!
Posted in holidays, tagged Advent calendar on December 11, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
There have been so many lovely advent calendar ideas floating around this year (like this one designed like a woodland scene found in the magazine Nido , this one of gold paper and lights so beautifully crafted by Famille Summerbelle, a special one just for daddy made by a super crafty mama, and this one made of small boxes used by one of my best friends with her 3 year old son).
I grew up with an advent calendar…it was a cloth one that hung in the kitchen. Inside each cloth square was a little treat (and on our birthdays- my sister and I both celebrate in December- was a bigger treat) and a small mouse marked the day once the treat was removed (and usually eaten). I’m also partial to the paper ones filled with bits of chocolate (why is the chocolate in them always so good?!) that we always had at my grandparents house.
I love the tradition of the advent calendar. I love having something, even a wee little something, to discover each day of this magical month. Last year, instead of buying an advent calendar (or making one), we decided to use a special Christmas box that David’s dad made for Jack when he was 1.
Like last year, Jack gets a small gift in his box each day and it’s such a joy to see the smile on his face when he discovers his treat! Most days, he gets a new tiny animal toy, but he’s also received new books, candy, and a wishbone. I love celebrating the holiday with this kiddo!
Posted in holidays on December 2, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
I just wanted to pop in to say hello with the hope that this post will open the door to many more waiting to come. Eeeks…it’s been a while! It turns out that I’m not good with balancing life, work, and my blog with a BIG UNEXPECTED MOVE! Unpacking boxes and decorating trumped writing and picture taking. But, now that we are all settled and happy in our wonderful new home, I hope I will be getting back here more often. And, I even hope to have house pictures to share here soon.
I sure hope that each of you are feeling merry and bright this holiday season…I can assure you that we are enjoying ourselves! We’ve been making modeling clay Christmas decorations for the house and drinking egg nog and apple cider like they’re going out of style!
Merry, merry!
