in celebration of the bride

This is the post in which I document the dinner we had for Rachel's bridal shower - - where Rachel tells us about her first kiss with Brett,
Gabrielle tells a funny story,
and I'm pretty sure that the people behind us wish that they were at our table:

Selma is three (and has a party to prove it)

goodness.
that was fun.
and more work than I anticipated. (Parties are always that way for me; I never seem to be quite prepared enough)

We had "run with a button in your spoon" races. I thought this would be a really good idea - - simple enough for the three year olds at the party . . . and fun enough for the five year olds there. But somehow it went all wrong; one of the five year olds kept cheating, and one of the three year olds kept insisting on getting a different colored button to put in her spoon. There was one four year old who did everything perfectly but she didn't get any credit because everyone else was crying because their buttons kept falling out.

so the race was a tremendous failure; but golly! look how cute all those little ladies are!:

some things I loved about this party:

1. my neighbors came!

2. my friend Catherine was there, and was not just a delightful participant . . . she was a trusty helper so that when I realized "AAAAHHHH! I forgot to cut the quesadillas into button shapes!!!" I could ask her to take over while I ran into the kitchen to do the necessary quesadilla shaping. thanks Catherine!

3. there were little girls running everywhere; that never happens at my house!

4. my neighbor Deanne grabbed my camera so that me and my three year old girly could be in the same picture!

(Selma getting her new earrings put in - - look at her face! her hands! her toe! she loved it)

cake and bbq; but not together.

Tomorrow we have a little birthday party for Selma.
we invited some old friends
and some new friends.
"my girls" Selma calls them.
we're both excited.

So we baked her birthday cake today.
And since I had the oven going already, I decided it was the right time to cook the ribs I had in the fridge.
I bought them last week to make these:
six hours later, when I pulled those bad boys out of the oven
it was too hot in my kitchen to eat them in my kitchen,
so we all carried our plates to the front yard and dined under the stars.
Not that we could see the stars,
but I'm sure they were there; and that was nice.

p.s. I discovered that if I reduced my bbq sauce way, way too much
it turns into a caramel of sorts,

I think I could probably pour it into a buttered 8x8 pan,

cut it into cubes,

wrap it in wax paper

and sell it to someone.

there must be a niche market out there for bbq caramels. I've just got to find it.

unmet haircut expectations. and a trip

There were haircuts all around today.
Josu cried when he realized that his hair wouldn't be straight after the cut.
Malachai freaked out when I cut off the hair in front if his ear; he thinks they are sideburns, and he feels like a man when they grow long.

Tomorrow begins our long awaited trip to Idaho;
while we are there, I am going to:

1: spend long hours talking with my dear friend Evy (who expresses her gift of encouragement in the most marvelous way possible)

2. try to keep my boys and her boys from kicking each other in the face, because I know they are going to want to wrestle and play kung-fu all day long . . . and I know they are going to love it.

4. run a 10k with Evy (who am I kidding? I will probably run half of a 10k and then walk the other half)

3. make Jedi Knight costumes for all the boys in the house.

and then, after Idaho. . . we go to Texas! for Rachel's wedding!

ice cream for breakfast, of course

After we fed the kids their dinner we sent them upstairs - - and to bed. It turns out that along the way they remembered that 8 hours earlier I had promised them ice cream for dessert after dinner.

But I couldn't give them dessert.
the adult dinner table was set;
Catherine's famous blackened chicken was piping hot.
there was not time for a child's dessert.

so I did the only reasonble thing possible:
I promised them ice cream for breakfast the next morning.

we've got it good

Some good things about today:
1. We had a family date to Starbucks and Trader Joe's
2. Selma wore her purse. (sometimes, when she takes her purse she puts food in it; smart girl)
3. We asked for our small coffees in mugs (did you know you can do that? Yes you can. I think that it's classy and I like that my coffee doesn't end up tasting like paper); our local, friendly Starbucks only had size gigantic mugs; so we got a coffee upgrade - - from small to huge for free.
4. While we drank our giant coffees, Malachai read The Hobbit out loud to us (in Spanish - - clever, clever boy . . . )
5. Our friends Matt and Stephanie are out of town and they asked us to pick up their 20 pound box of organic fruit and vegetables from their co-op. they told us to eat as much of it as we wanted. we may eat it all.
6. We are going over the Pue's house tonight. we are going to hang out with a new cute couple from church and watch Once. And Catherine is going to make us that awesome blackened chicken thing that she is famous for.

we've got it good.

double your running distance . . . just like that. easy.

Selma ate a pickle today
and I went for a run

not at the same time though.

But I'm not here tonight to tell you how cute Selma is when she wakes up from her nap and eats a pickle (she is cute though; isn't she cute?).

I'm here to tell you how to up your running distance in five easy steps:

1. decide to go for a quick run - - just real quick - - not long at all
2. don't look at a map before you leave
3. convince yourself that the weather is so nice - - you can run just a half a mile more
4. cut across from that one street to that other one that you are pretty sure meets up with that other street
5. turn around and run home. drag yourself up the hill.

just like that.
easy.