Oct 26th-It’s a month late-oops!

Last week Craig and I had lots of adventures, we used our daddy weekend to the fullest. You see, every other weekend from Fri at 5:30 until Sun at 5:30 Rachel is with her dad. Craig and I usually try to actually go out or at least stay up late because we essentially have a free babysitter and why not take advantage of that while we can?

So, one of my best friends, Jessy, has a new boyfriend and we decided to “get to know him” a little by spooning his yard. (She said he wouldn’t mind so I promise this isn’t hazing) We drew silly, happy faces on about 50 spoons and stuck them in his lawn. It sounds silly and it is, but it’s not destructive and it’s cheap easy clean fun. Plus it aerates their lawn, yeah that’s it. The next morning we found out that the boyfriend’s mom thought it was someone from church and that the spoons were kinda cute. Although we aim to please it wasn’t the reaction we were hoping for. Craig and I are hoping to spoon the house again because the mom enjoyed them so much.

We spent Saturday juicing grapes. Craig’s parents have a monstrously huge grapevine in their yard and they were kind enough to pick a bunch of purple concord grapes for us. We borrowed their steamer and started the process of making homemade grape juice. It sounds hard but really isn’t. If it was, I would so not be doing it-I AM NOT SUZY HOMEMAKER (despite what Craig says). Although I have become more domestic since being married to Craig, I still believe in buying things (ie: bread, most jam, juice veggies etc) from the store, cooking from a box and asking my mom-in-law to do any hemming. Anyway, one of the perks about “doing grapes” is that your house smells so good. In fact, when we had the box of grapes in the trunk of my Civic (best car ever) my garage smelled like grapes. The process is simple: wash grapes, put grapes in steamer, wait about 1 ½ hours and carefully pour juice into quart jars, seal jars, dump out dehydrated grapes (AKA: grape guts). The only bummer about doing grapes is that it requires you to be home for most of the day because you need the stove on to help dehydrate the grapes and it can over take your kitchen with minimal effort. Now with just 2 cups of sugar, 2 quarts of water and the juice we have a quenching, healthy organic (not important but sounds cool) drink. I feel so domestic!! Martha Stewart, eat your heart out-just kidding- I can’t even hem pants.

This week my blinds came in!!! J J J I’m so excited to be rid of the ugly blinds I have in my 95 inch front window. Craig didn’t have time to install them today, but he promised to do them one night next week when his dad can lend wisdom/experience and his power drill. Oh I am so excited. I know it sounds silly, but as a stay at home mom, I see my blinds quite frequently through out the day and it’s harder to look at ugly ones than it is nice ones(I think). Stay tuned for the conclusion of the new blinds adventure.

Better Late Than Never- from 10/20

Hi there peeps! So I didn't write this week-oops! Anyway, it was the week of Rachel's birthday. She had about 3 "parties" between my family, Craig's family and her dad's family. Not to mention her first friend party. On Friday morning, Rachel and I went to see our friends Jack and Laura. Jack and Rachel are about 2 months apart and look like they could be related. They are also "active" children (Jack more so-honest). Laura & Nate (his parents) lived next door to us when Craig and I first got married. They also have twin girls who are adorable and now 2 and a half. Jack and Rachel and Laura and I became fast friends. We saw them several times a week between church and play dates. Sadly for us, but good for them they bought a house in Nampa (about 20 minutes away) about a year ago. Rachel and Jack always have fun when we go to see them about once a month. Another plus, Rachel plays so hard there that she always takes a little nap on the way home :)
Rachel had her first friend party this week too-it was a big production for me, but so much fun for Rachel. I spent most of the morning dusting/vacumming and sweeping/mopping because one of the girls that came is allergic to cats. I didn't want her to be miserable while she was here and besides, a lot of moms would be at least dropping kids off. About an hour before the party I realized that I had to do some light prep work for the games by decorating a posterboard and making pixie dust for the Tinnkerbell themed party. Oh yeah, don't forget the cake. Cake? Oh crap!! No offense, but I have the best husband out there-Craig made the cake for me while I did prep work and showered. It all came together and I made it by the skin of my teeth-which is how a lot of things work with me anyway. A few moms stayed but most left and the girls had fun taping the "glow" back on Tinks wand and playing. When I suggested a game of pixie tag, the girls all ran outside to play on the swing set-not what I anticipated, but OK with me. After 15 minutes I suggested tag again but then they started chasing each other and screaming outside. Whatever right? Rachel got some great stuff too-paints with paper, a Barbie, a puzzle, candy and a stuffed horse. I requested the gifts be $5 or less because honestly, with how "well taken care of" she is, she doesn't need tons more stuff. One of the moms actually told me it was a great idea because a lot of people have tighter budgets these days and not to mention pressure (real or implied) to give a really nice gift. All these girls are from Rachel's preschool class and were so polite- "Ms. Heather, where can I put my shoes?" "Ms. Heather, can I be done with my cake?" Craig put together goodie bags and frosted the cake and helped whenever and however he could. It was a lot of work, but worth it. Besides, now we have a really cool Tinkerbell tablecloth and matching balloons and streamers too. The only bummer was that I couldn't find my camara and didn't get ANY pix!!! Grrr!! Maybe I can recreate some of the scenes since we still have decor.... I'm still trying to put pix on the blog but am not getting too far. I added one from last year at the bottom though. Have a great week.