Hamburger Garden

   "Can I have my own garden?" A relentless question Chris and I heard all winter. As a matter of fact I distinctly remember Kal-El asking all the way back last summer. It came up in a pretty funny way. We were having hamburgers for lunch one day and I looked over and saw Super picking his sesame seeds off his bun. He got up and got a small bowl. He worked quietly then looked up long enough to say "you said these are seeds right?" I concurred that yes they were in fact sesame seeds. He said "thank goodness, I'll use these for my hamburger garden!" Too cute! Although we cant really plant hamburgers (yummy, wishful thinking) we did let him pick some things he might like to plant. This is really him and Chris's garden. Logan and I are really just observers and eaters lol! Can you really see me tilling(??) Yeah, no. We have tomatoes, squash, and a few other yummies growing! I even had one of my awesome vendors and friend little sign made to say hamburger garden! Cant wait to see if we actually have a green thumb over here. If we dont we can always make burgers and call it a day! :)

Design Challenge for Happy Family!

 A couple of months back I had a representative contact me at Capes & Crowns (my business page) from a company called Happy Family. Their products are sold nation wide at Wal-Mart, Target, etc. They sell a variety of organic toddler foods and snacks. I had sworn off voting contests bc honestly even after winning the big Pottery Barn challenge it was SO stressful. I ended up agreeing to this one however bc its a smaller company and honestly just seemed like tons of fun! I was thrilled I didnt have to do an entire setup this time, instead my design challenge was with a set of cookie jars! Simple enough. Who doesnt love cookie jars?! Or at least whats inside of them right? :) The contest begins the 26th. Just like with the Pottery Barn contest only 4 stylists are hand picked to participate. Im honored to be asked to be apart of it. I wish the other 3 talented designers luck and I really cant wait to see everyones designs!
   When it came to the design itself I knew immediately knew what I wanted to do. Its was a no brainer. We were to do something that represented one of our children and their best friend. Being that I actually live with a child named after Superman I really couldnt see going in another direction. I usually try to do themes that I havent seen done anywhere...yellow polka dot bikini, vintage boxing etc but I knew that this theme had to represent my child. His best friend Charlee is also the perfect supergirl. She even looks like her! Perfect pairing for the cookie jars. When the jars arrived the first thing I noticed was what nice, classic pieces they were. I almost hated to do too much to them. They were Crate & Barrel brand and were almost begging to just be left alone lol! Thats when an idea came to mind to make them not only one of a kind but reversible so to speak. A cookie jar koosie, if you will. I decided to go completely with felt for the base of the jar and then simply adhere to the jar! You could basically do the same thing with any jar for any theme. I love the idea of changing them out for holidays and birthdays to coordinate with other decor! I chose to had a little sparkle to both jars for the sake of the contest and just bc, well, I love sparkle. Danielle shot these adorable pictures of the completed jars with our two little models. We would love to have your vote when the contest begins but I again there will be no begging or hounding :) Enjoy!

"Yep!"

   We are nearing the end of baseball season. We almost made it all the way thru incident free. ALMOST. Somehow my child has managed to convince his team he's a little shy...if you know him this is rather funny. Still, baseball is new for him so I gave him the benefit of the doubt on his newly acquired "shyness" Super has really loved his first year of baseball with one exception. As with most little leagues, the defense on the field will chant as a distraction when the opposing team is up to bat. Kal-El has never liked the idea so he never yells the infamous word "YEP!" at the batter. Never. Not once. He actually threatened to leave the team over it. Dramatic? Always. Chris and I manged to talk him out of over reacting and Chris relayed the message to his coach  about his sensitivity on the matter lol! Of course that was no problem...lets face it who cares  what they are saying(with in reason) as long as the are paying attention and trying to pick up the fundamentals of the game. We had a game last night. Everything was going smoothly until roughly the 4th inning. Apparently our assistant couch didnt get the memo about Kal-El's 'yep' phobia.....soooooo he asked him a couple of times to say "YEP".......
     Everything went down hill very fast after that. Apparently Kal-El told his coach he could move or walk. He then asked Super if he was ok to which he insisted that he was NOT ok. Thank God I was talking my head off since our team wasnt batting so I missed him being carried off the field. Yes, carried off the field as in the game stopped carried off. When I made it over to here the were standing around him he was saying he wanted to go to the hospital. My heart dropped and my knees were literally hitting. My mind raced a 1,000 miles per hour. He wasnt hit with a ball, he wasnt even running. He's very tiny hip incident from jumping down stairs a few weeks back was clear and his follow up xray was completely normal. But he wasnt moving when it happened. I, of course started thinking about internal issues. Was my childs heart ok? What would cause this....we looked him over. He acted completely lethargic. It was very, very scary. My mom and I argued briefly (of course) regarding our next course of action. We all agreed on the ER bc he couldnt even walk. I called Chris to see if he could call his train master and be taxied back home for a family emergency as we walked.  Larry carried my limp child the first half of the walk and then mom insisted on carrying him. This child is 58lbs....I couldnt carry him if I wanted to ..and still get him to where he needed to be safely and quickly.
   As we got a good ways from the playing field and closer to our vehicles he asked my mom to put him down. His head popped back up and he said it again...in a loud whisper. "You can put me down now Im not actually sick" We set him down in the car and started quizzing him some more about his "injury". He looked ashamed...he took no pride in it but he told me "I pretend to be sick bc I didnt want to say 'yep' and you said you already told my couch that" Umm Thank God my child was ok but I couldnt figure out whether I wanted to slap him or kiss him hard. Being that Im not a spanker I opted for the latter and then told him how disappointment I was. I didnt feel the need to make him feel any worse then he already felt so I quietly shut his door, laughed a half crazy hysterical laugh with my mom and walked back to the field to at least let some of the others know that he was just fine. This is still not quite all funny just yet but I know it will be soon ...prob by the end of the day. I sincerely feel terrible for the scare it gave everyone else at the game. I hate he bailed on his team over a word but hes 5. Hes always been a little dramatic...ok alot but hes never been non truthful with me. It was very uncharacteristic of him. The funniest aspect to me is the fact that he expressed such an embarrassment over saying one word but him falling out and stopping a game wasnt embarrassing at ALL. In any event, he's perfectly fine and I think he learned a good lesson from this. I can say in all honesty that I can read people like a book psychology background and all. I can definitely read my own offsping. So when I tell you that he needs an oscar Im completely serious. It was more than convincing. He SOLD it. There was no little gold man or nomination however I later found out that he did receive the game ball. I think we'll graciously decline that bad boy. Wonder if there are any local acting classes....I have a teacher for them if they do ;) Never. Ever. A. Dull. Moment. Long road ahead Im afraid...at least Logan acts like Chris. :) Kal-El = Lauren Jr.

                        Sorry about the pictures of the pictures lol. Our scanner bite the dust!

Claudia and Buttons :)

 Claudia is our sweet, pretty little next door neighbor. Before Kal-El's big Superman party he made an invitation just for her and put it in her mailbox. The next day he received a sweet little letter of his own. She had drawn Olaf from Frozen for him :) Now Im no Frozen fan....not a huge one anyway. I just find it a little over rated. Olaf is totally my favorite though! So my heart melted a little, right along with Kal-El's when we retrieved it from the mailbox. He's pretty much smitten with her! Her dog, Buttons, is a different story. He took a nipple out of Super's leg last month :( It was a pretty superficial bite but still no fun. Its all healed now and no rabies to speak of lol! Kal-El and Claudia still play with each other but I always hear him ask where Button is...He cant be more then 8 or 9 lbs but he obviously is not a fan of my oldest superhero ;) Im so glad he's made a friend in our neighborhood. He had a huge handful of flowers the other day and I thought they were for me....they werent...they were for Claudia....it begins. Sniff Sniff.

Playing Catch Up

Once again I am soooo behind on blogging. Its really hard to blog in the Spring/Summer especially. For one Chris is on a train constantly and I have to sit down to blog and pray my boys dont burn my house down in the process. Always the challenge lol!  So where to start.....lets see, Easter came and went. I have the olbigatorty bunny picture to post. Logan hated him, of course. Kal-El was posing so hard on him that I dont even think he realized that he was with the funny. No clue where he gets it from ;) Im trying my best to get a few other posts done today so when I order this years blog book at the end of the year it wont be totally bare! Heres flea bait in the mean time ;)

Kal-El's *BIG* Superman Party!

 I feel like I have been waiting to plan this party ever sense my first born took his first breath and we named him Kal-El!  The day finally came! This event was my largest under taking and without a doubt my most sentimental party thus far. I wanted to pull from all elements of Superman. Vintage, modern, and especially the most recent Man of Steel movie! I knew I had to narrow down to 3 tables. Trust me, I could have easily done more!
  For the first table I knew I wanted to incorporate his feature in our local newspaper bc that was such a special thing for them to feature him and cover why Chris and I decided to name our children after Superheros. I decided to mod podge the article (bc who am I kidding we bought like 100 papers) to the backdrop and then showcase one of his portraits over it. The table represented The Daily Planet....Clark's job with the newspaper. I wanted superman elements all over the table...bc Clark is really Kal-El. :) I just didnt want anything overt or commercial looking so I focused on various aspect of his life. One of my favorite details of the main table was the simple satin table cloth hinting at Superman. My most favorite had to be Clark's "office desk" complete with professional nameplate in the front. I also placed Kal-El's article on the desk, along with a coffee mug in his likeness. If you look closely at the post card on the "Clark" desk you will also notice there is a post card. It says "wish you were here"....its a picture of Krypton. :) Perfect reminder of "home" at work.
    My next table would cover Clark's/Kal-El's young life in Smallville, Kansas with Jonathan and Martha Kent. I wanted to showcase everything that made his early years special. The backdrop was based on a very emotional moment in the movie for me. A young Kal-El, being raised as Clark in a conforming but mostly loving world, amongst a clothes line in the middle of the country, with a make shift cape made from a sheet hanging to dry he found his identity. Even as I child he some how understood his calling and that scene foreshadowed it. I had an amazing artist I found online paint her version of that scene on canvas for me. I then bought shirts and carried the clothes line element all the way across the backdrop.  For the cookies, I had farm and Kansas elements, I also requested quote cookies. I got about half way thru opening them and got to the cookie that said" the worlds too big mom" Not going to lie I cried like a baby :) There was also a dog in that scene that can be seen running with Clark  as he plays on the farm. I wanted this event to represent Kal-El in the same way so I had peg dolls created in the likeness of our 3 dogs. Everything felt so personal. It was just what I envisioned.
  Lastly, and just for fun I made sure to have a candy table. Sugar can be the enemy for parents so what better than a kryptonite table to indulge their sweet tooth and sent them back home lol! So wrong I know! The green really popped and I think it was the perfect note to end on!
 This was a huge milestone birthday...the big 5....not sure how much longer he'll want us party planning momma making a dessert table fuss over him so I knew I had to make it extra special. These beautiful images were created by Danielle McCann. Ill post the web verions soon but I wanted to post this size on the blog since I print it ...it looks better in my blog books! Enjoy!