Simpsons in Seattle

Our cousins, Frances, Grace, and their family visited LA last week which meant it was the perfect excuse for us to do a quick trip down to have a big family reunion!  It was just me and the girls who flew down since Scott had to work all weekend, and I had a great time with them. Oh, Nora had a few whiny moments but in general, they were both well behaved, listened to me and didn't cat fight too much. It helped, of course, that there were so many cousin friends to play with in LA. At one point we had 11 kiddos under the age of 10 in the house! The highlight of the trip for me was the taco dinner party my mom threw on Sunday night. She hired a taco guy to set up a station on the patio and it was a beautiful night to sit outside and stuff your face silly with tacos! It was also super fun that other cousins from Boston, SF and SD made the trek too so it was a really big family reunion - the last few Christmases we were missing people who were traveling so I think this may hav

Since Nora is a summer baby she doesn't usually get to celebrate her birthday at school. She was super excited then for us to pick a different day to pretend it's her birthday so we can celebrate with her classmates!  The celebration consisted of us reading and subsequently donating a book of her choice to the classroom. She fretted for days over what book to pick, and in the end we went with a Ling and Ting book. I think some of the jokes in the book went over the kids heads but it was nonetheless fun to read to her class.  Happy birthday (again), Nora!

I turned the page of my notebook while at work and look at this cute little note that Evie wrote me! I didn't realize she had taken my book and drew in it. I especially love the "Happy not even close to Halloween" comments. Funny girl.

I got a  call from the school this afternoon to let me know that Nora won a "shout out" award today. Apparently, this is a new thing they are doing and Nora's teacher nominated her for this special treat because she is helpful and kind to all of her friends. As a reward, she gets to have her name up in the office for the week and they call the parent to let them know. How fun is that? It's also funny because I didn't even know she has friends at school! Every day we ask her about the names of the kids in her class and she barely remembers any of the names of the kids she plays with (or so she tells us)!  Anyway, to celebrate we had some brownies and ice cream for dessert. Here's her cute little happy face. This girl luuuuuves her sugar. I'm so proud of our little Nora bear! 

I thought I had lost all of the digital photos from our honeymoon so I was really surprised and super excited when this came up in my emails a few weeks ago (so technically this is a DOUBLE throwback, woah!). Look how young we were! So fun! It was a goooood trip. =) Photos from the top of the Eiffel tower!

Last weekend I had some girl time with my HS buds down near Palm Springs and we had such a blast. It's been several years since we had some good quality time to catch up because we usually only get together for dinner over Xmas. I've known them going on 30 years now and even though we don't see each other that much anymore, we fall right back into gabbing and laughing our heads off. We worked off all the rose we drank with some pool time and a great hike scrambling up giant boulders near the place we stayed in La Quinta. We also did an escape room, which was my first time and it was super fun. We opted to go for the hardest one and we got out in time (we got hints) but technically didn't solve the puzzle all the way so I feel like we found a loophole in the game! Anyway, the weekend was a really great getaway. Big thank you to Scott and Grammie and Grandpa for watching the girls while I was away! Dinner at the Cliffhouse in La Quinta. No filter! We stay

The annual Salmon Days festival was this past weekend, and of course we had to go! We try to go every year (see here and here ) and the one main thing the girls look forward to each time? Face painting! Evie opted to do a henna tattoo instead this year instead, which makes me a little sad that she's outgrown facepaint.  Not sure what this is, but she wanted a "mask" and for it to be rainbow colored. It looks like mardi gras? We waited a LONG time in line for this! Pineapple and flowers! A pretty design.