200 Years Too Late!

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 I think in some ways, I was maybe born 200 years too late. I love the Regency Period (think Pride and Prejudice--1800-1820). My two friends met an author at a book signing who writes books set in the Regency Period that we love. When the author mentioned that she has numerous dresses from the period that she's recreated, my one friend said that we should do a party at one of our book clubs. That lead to an invitation to this author's annual Jane Austen Tea Party. The four of us set to work, sewing fancy dresses and getting sooo excited for this big event. We thought there would be others there like us, but no. It was the four of us and about 12-15 AUTHORS!! I was almost star struck--because I love to read and have read almost all of these authors books! Wow. It was sooooooo much fun. We took pictures, mingled, had musical selections, and a real little tea party with our own antique tea cups that we each brought--herbal tea and hot chocolate; cucumber sandwiches; bite-sized truffles, cookies, etc; berries and chocolate covered nuts. Afterwards, my three friends and I did our own photo shoot close to home. We had a blast!!! We're already talking about next year. :)

Front view

Mid-twirl

Back view

Opposites

Jarren has a really, really good friend, Noah. They have been friends since Kindergarten and are in the same class together this year. They get along so well and I think it's because they are total opposites. They do have some things in common--Mario, tag, etc to name a few. But where Jarren is soooo loud and talks soooo much, Noah is the total opposite. He doesn't talk--at all! He's in therapy to help him, so he's actually said a few words to Jarren lately, but I think one reason they get along so well is Jarren can be as loud as he wants and talk and talk and talk to his heart's content and no one interrupts him or stops him. And Noah's as happy as can be because he doesn't have to say a word. They sure do have fun together.

Happy 6th Birthday, Jenna!!

Happy 6th Birthday, Jenna!!!

 Jenna's 6th birthday was yesterday. The poor girl has been counting down the days for months now! She was soooo excited and then didn't even get to open any gifts until about 7 pm (between everyone's school,work, and Jarren's scouts (they went on a nature walk) schedules, it was crazy). I asked her what kind of cake she wanted and she said, "Vanilla!! And I want the bread part vanilla too." Hmmm....since when is cake just frosting? She wanted me to decorated it with a frosting Littlest Pet Shop horse. Uh, yeah. Me--the most artistic mom in the world--NOT! I tried. 

LPS Horse Cake

She looked at it and said, "Mom, that's pretty nice. But maybe we should have had Dad do it." Hahahaha!!! She wanted a turkey dinner, but then changed her mind and decided on omelets for dinner. She LOVES scout omelets (in a bag). She got a lot of LPS (Littlest Pet Shops) and animals. 

The LPS collection she was dying to have!

Fun gifts.

 That's all she wanted. Of course, we did the balloon hunt to draw it out.

Popping balloons to get the clues.

Opening gifts.

  She was so excited to finally get her new birthday toys, that she didn't even want to eat cake and ice cream!! She really had a great day.

Blowing out the candles.

Having fun with her brother!!

Beyblades

Notice anything different?? Jarren got a haircut!!! We offered him $5 to cut it all off and he took it.

Playing Beyblades on the tramp

More Beyblades

Jarren has a new obsession: Beyblades. They are these metal tops that have a ripcord that you use to get them to spin. There's a little tool that you can attach and detach different parts to make them different. He has an arena and he has battles with them--they hit into each other and you see which one lasts the longest. He recently discovered that they work well on the trampoline, so he's often out there playing with them. A couple of our neighbors have joined in the obsession and they have so much fun!

PS I LOVE his new haircut!!!

The 5 Love Languages

For my book club this month, we were supposed to read "The 5 Love Languages" by Gary Chapman. He claims that every person has a "language" that needs to be spoken in order for them to feel loved.

Words of Affirmation--this person needs to be told how loved s/he is; complimented often. Words are very important to him or her.  
Acts of Service--this person needs to be shown love. When loved ones do things for this person, s/he feels very valued and loved.  
Quality Time--this person needs to spend one-on-one time with his or her loved ones, with undivided attention to feel loved. Even just doing nothing, but being together is great.  
Gift Giving--this person needs little gifts, even if they are inexpensive or free, to feel loved. Little notes, presents, a flower picked from the garden, etc.  
Physical Touch--this person needs to be hugged, kissed, little touches on the arm, etc to feel the love.

There are so many versions of this book and some have a quiz in it and some don't. I found a super short quiz  to take to find out what your love language is and then a longer quiz. My copy didn't have a quiz, so I took the longer quiz and had Jon take it too. I was very surprised by my results!!! By one point (ONE measly point, people!!), my love language is Physical Touch. In close second, my secondary language, is Quality Time. I'm surprised because I'm not a touchy-feely person. But...apparently with my loved ones, I need that to feel loved. I almost think that Quality Time is just as important though. I mean, really. ONE POINT!!

New Vanities

When we remodeled the kitchen, we decided to have the bathroom vanities and sinks updated as well. The guy got busy and we let it slide--until now. We finally got them done yesterday! We had a little problem with the main bath (the granite guy only drilled one hole instead of three), so that will be wrapped up today. They sure look nice! Here's the master bath--I'll post the other one when it's finished.

Master Bathroom BEFORE

Master Bathroom AFTER!

Bird Show

Two of the cute birds! They had a lot of personality.

Anyone who knows my family, knows we love birds--especially Jon, Kendall, and Jenna. I took the kids to the library about 2 weeks ago and Jenna noticed a sign advertising a bird show there at the library. She begged to go, so...against my better judgment, we went last night. Why I say that is this: I took Kendall and Kristen to story time at the library years ago and it was so crazy crowded that I never went back. Poor Jarren and Jenna never got to experience that. We got there about 10 minutes early and couldn't even find a parking place. We walked in and there were about 100+ people in a room made for 40. It was insane!! They crunched all the kids together on the floor and the adults lined the outside edges. Of course, my kids got crunched behind a tall lady with a dancing toddler and couldn't see a thing.

The lady in the pink shirt is right in front of Jenna (long dark hair with a turquoise shirt)--and her toddler is right in front of her (blond). Jarren is in front of the lady in the flowers and Kristen was already done by this point.

  The lady in charge kept telling everyone to sit on their pockets, but do you think the dancing toddler sat for more than 2 seconds? Nope. And standing up, he was taller than his tall mom was sitting down. After about 30 minutes, my kids decided they'd had enough, so we went and looked at books and checked some out, beating the crowd. The birds were pretty cool!! I'm glad we went so that Jarren and Jenna got that crazy library experience.