Two Months in a Jiffy

I'm sorry.  I've been a slug lately.  I have recently lost all motivation to do anything but the bare minimum, and this blog wasn't that.

Oddly enough, on the day I feel the worst (have a cold) I've decided I can't stand it anymore and I'm going to recap, tornado version.  Because if I don't do something now, I'll just feel even more overwhelmed and never do it.  

Here goes:

The Frog with our sole snowman of the year

Pink (beet) pancakes for Valentine's

sadly didn't stay pink once cooked...

Peach does this cuddly thing.  A LOT.  It's adorable.

This time, though, she did it on the counter?

I went all out this year, and made a Valentine's card for Jay.

3D style.

I don't think I'll ever be able to top this.

Homemade Okonomiyaki.  Hopefully I'll give a step-by-step one of these days.

The cuteness magootness

she loves those shoes.  and all shoes.

daddy and Iris went to Disneyland and brought back the hugest lolly-pops ever.

I wish I had the after pic with their black mouths.

The Frog pulls down all his clothes in his closet when he gets mad at me.

This time, I guess it tired him all out.

They are actually occasionally nice to each other now.  Hooray!

Pistachio cake for St. Patty's Day, since I was too lazy for corned beef and cabbage.

She wanted me to take her pic for some reason.  She immediately says "cheeeeeese" whenever she sees the camera and it's hard to get her to not look like this.

Riding the train together.

don't you just want to SQUEEZE her?

Update: I just uploaded photos from my camera, thinking it would be Easter on, turns out I had photos from March 22 on, so this is really more like "5 weeks in a jiffy".  I changed the date on this so I could try to make it reflect chronology better, 'cause I'm just anal like that...

Peach's First Haircut!

We actually did this on January 20th, but I used my phone to take quick pics and I don't sync my phone to my computer very often.  Her hair was long enough to get 2 adorably wild pig-tails, but they never lasted more than a few seconds due to her protestation, so I decided the mullet needed to go...

Before

After!

As you can see, she still looks nearly bald in front (I didn't touch anything from this view).

PS. She loves brushing her teeth!

Another Pillow

I actually made this pillow cover over a month ago, but I made it at night when the lighting was bad and kept for getting to take a picture in the daylight.

I love making these pillow cases because they are SO EASY.  Next time I'll try to remember and make a tutorial of it.  Seriously- 30 minutes tops!

 The blue is it.  I saw it at American Quilting and thought it would go great in my living room (which I'm just realizing I didn't get an over all shot...) and couldn't pass up the 20% off price tag :)  However, since it is a quilting fabric, I had to do something slightly trickier, because the width was only 42" wide and I usually make covers with home fabrics (usually 54" width).  So, what did I do?  I made it wider by adding a little sumpin' sumpin' to each end that is only visible upon further inspection.

It actually makes me really happy to have the contrast.  I'm the kind of person who falls in love with a piece of clothing because of the color of the lining... which really makes no sense because nobody really sees that...

I guess for me, it's what's on the inside that counts :D

Last Week

It's been so nice not having a million things on my plate!  I've had so much fun just playing and reading stories with my children!  

The Frog has been wearing underpants all week long, which I'm really, really excited about.  Turns out, when you put underpants on little sister (just to try) all of a sudden it looks like a good idea to big brother...  

He's also discovered the "funny face"-

 Little Peach amazes me with her vocabulary increase, and will often try to repeat the last thing anybody said, just to see if she can say it.  She loves to pick out books and then come sit on my lap to read them (usually with her feet stuck between my legs). This is  picture of her pushing her "bankie" in the stroller- a favorite activity of hers. She is very particular that the blanket can't have any edges poking out beyond the seat of the stroller, it's so funny.

 The Frog loves to pretend he's a dog, and Peach loves to copy her brother, so I often get little barking children at my feet, who try to get my attention by scratching my legs.  This particular day, The Frog found a pacifier and decided he was a baby dog.  Peach found a bottle nipple and decided the same.

 My neighbor had an idea for an awesome book that they really created to market toward taiwanese school children who are learning English, but he gave one to us and my kids LOVE it.  It's an ABC book and you're supposed to glue in pictures of your own kids with the alphabet item mentioned.  Brilliant!  What kid doesn't LOVE looking at pictures of themselves!

It is THE Most requested book in my house- and I haven't even glued the pictures in yet...  I keep meaning to print out pictures to put in- most of them I will use ones we already have.  For example, A is for Apple- we have an apple tree, so plenty of kid-with-apple pics to choose from.  B is for Book- I might even use this picture for that one!  H is for "Happy Birthday"- who doesn't have at least ONE birthday shot of their children...  There are a couple pages where I might just put in my own picture- like I have a cute one of The Frog eating ice cream that I'm going to use for I.  If anyone wants to buy a copy, I think they're $12, and I can figure out how to get one to you.  The pictures are adorable and each page has a few things drawn that also starts with that letter of the alphabet.

Monster Pancakes!

One of Jay's favorite breakfasts is blueberry pancakes, so once the price of blueberries starts to fall (around now) we eat them regularly.  The Frog doesn't like having the squishy little blueberries in his pancakes (though he likes blueberries separate) and so for some reason I thought I would try making a blueberry sauce (1 c blueberries + 1 t sugar on the stove.  Mash blueberries witha spoon and cook until thickened) to mix into the pancake batter I usually make.

Boy was I surprised by the result!

 That batter turned BLUE.  Much bluer than I expected.

 These are whole-wheat pancakes so I didn't think it would have as great an effect.

 Peach says "cheese" whenever I take out the camera :)

 It worked!  The Frog liked the "Monster Pancakes"!

I think they creeped Jay out though, so I probably won't make them regularly...