THE COLORFUL HOTEL BIRTHDAY BONANZA

For her 6th birthday, she made a request to stay at a hotel. This idea of hers was inspired by her favorite book character Eloise, who is 6, and lives at the Plaza Hotel. We also asked her if she wanted a party and she said, "Yes, just the six of us." Other requests she had were swimming, watching My Little Pony in the room, and a vegetable cake. You shake up all the little requests she had in a box and this is what we came up with. 

I did show her a picture of the hotel once and she was quickly smitten with it. When it finally came time to figure out her birthday plans, I knew The Saguaro was a must, especially a room with pink. We started the adventure off with a stop for lunch and pick up some date shakes at Hadley Nut Farm (thanks to Heather's recommendation) and then we were off to the hotel. 

Once there, we gave her the suitcase, which pretty much contained all her birthday goodies, but we slowly revealed each item to her through the course of two days. That first afternoon there, they relaxed in the room watching My Little Pony, then we went to dinner at Tinto, which was pretty good. We had never tried tapas before and we like it, though I don't think it is something we will crave. After that, the girls went for a night swim and then that was that for the first day.

The second day, was her actual birthday and because it is tradition, she got her breakfast in bed (don't worry the other girls got breakfast too) and they spent the rest of the morning swimming. I hung out with them for a bit, but most of the morning, I was in the room getting her own little private party set up. Armed with all the goodies in the suitcase, I set out to prep her mini party. 

I knew a rainbow cake would be perfect the celebration, and I thought she would like that more than her request for a vegetable cake (what's that?). I baked the cake the night before we left home, using this recipe (this for the frosting) and wrapped each layer in saran wrap separately and froze it all. Then, when it was time to put it together it was easy peasy. This was all a surprise to her, so you should have seen her face when she came back to the room. My heart swelled knowing that her little heart was full of joy for her birthday surprises. She was so excited for everything! 

After the party, we wrapped up and checked out and then had a late lunch at El Jefe (yum!), stopped by Ace for some photo booth action, and then headed home. As soon as we got home, True started crying because she missed the hotel so much. It was real sweet. I'm thinking now her next request will be two nights at the hotel for her 7th birthday! 

I can hardly believe we have a 6 year old, but we were so happy to be able to oblige some of this sweet girl's wishes. Now, if she starts asking for us to buy a hotel, well, that just ain't gonna happen. Just to be clear. This little girl of ours has Ben's mischief, it's in the eyes, and my bossiness. She is also hilariously funny and a good big sister, when she isn't manipulating Brave. We love her so much and I think I forget she is still a baby, though she is also becoming a big girl. By golly, time just goes too fast. We love you True! 

See True's past birthdays... 5, 4, 3, and 2.

p.s. cause you're probably wondering... yes, i taped crepe paper streamers up to the wall for her mini party and tore it all down before we checked out and her birthday dress is from misha lulu.

FAMILY MEALS: WEEK EIGHT

This week has been busy, busy. I have a friend's wedding that I have been prepping for this weekend and a few other busying things. Despite the frenzy I feel, I have still been trying to keep up the cooking for my family. They deserve good meals after all...

Monday was Wintery Spring Rolls...

True still hasn't taken to tofu, but Brave and Soul loved this. Ben and I did too, but I knew we would instantly. I have made spring rolls before and forget how easy it is to make. It looks like a fancier dish, but really the wrap is so simple. I am thinking a version of this using shrimp must be made very soon. The recipe didn't come with a sauce recipe, so I kind of winged it. It turned out alright. I made the girls one using sunflower butter because True is allergic to nuts.

Tuesday I made Oven Fried Chicken and Mashed Sweet Potatoes since it was True's request...

I have cooked that chicken dish before (see here) and oh gosh, it is still so yummy! We were all devouring it pretty quickly. The mashed sweet potatoes were similar to this, but I winged it a little more. I am really slowly getting more comfortable to trying things out not exactly like a recipe. Maybe one day I will be almost as good as Ben because that guy is just good at putting things together to make something yummy without following a recipe. I just feel more comfortable following things exactly, but hopefully I will keep learning how to break away from it.

Week 3/12 - 3/16

Monday: Mexican Pizza

Tuesday: Garlic Soba Noodles

Wednesday: Chicken Piccata (from week 3)

Thursday: Leftovers

Friday: Pizza

I haven't decided on vegetable dishes yet, but you can be sure they will be there next week! How do you do your weekly dinners? Any tips or guidelines you use for family dinners?

See the past weeks...

|week 7|week 6|week 5|week 4|week 3|week 2| week 1|

HYPNOBIRTH CLASS 5

Meet Dr. AnnaLynn and see the teeny tiny us in the right corner...

Our HypnoBirthing classes officially ended and they were all done through skype. Technology can be such a wonderful thing! Last class we watched some more amazing birth videos, did some last wrap ups, talked about more scripts to use and did an amazing practice session. The last practice was an interesting one and I don't want to divulge too much just in case some of you decide to take the class (I haven't gone through birth yet, but all I can tell you is good things thus far). I feel prepared and ready and have very positive feelings about the impending birth. If you have any questions regarding HypnoBirthing, I would pick up the book or even give Dr. AnnaLynn a call (or email) wherever you are because remember all our sessions were done entirely online.

Overall, the classes have taught me skills to be able to bring my entire body into complete relaxation, yet still have my mind completely in control and alert. It really is such an astounding feeling. Now, game time is coming up and I keep visualizing how it will all play out, in a positive way of course.

Time is dwindling down and the birth seems so far to me, though I know it is actually closer than it is far. I probably look like I could pop at any minute and sometimes I feel like it too! I still have to get the hospital bag ready and a few other loose ends to tie up until I think I am officially ready. I really can't believe it is almost time, whenever that time is! September is here and that means baby is coming... eeks!

The girls are ready and get super excited about the baby. Well, Soul doesn't really know what's going on and I think she is going to be in for a shocker when baby comes home. Other than that we are chugging on through with school, house stuff, and just life. Though I must say that today was a lot harder than most. The girls were easily and exceedingly disgruntled and I wasn't the best mama. Today was one of those days that I feel like I just failed miserably at parenting and training my children. If I were given a grade for today, I would have gotten a big fat F! Man oh man. I wish I could get a do over.

Actually a funny thing, kinda not really, was that I took away some toys from the girls as a consequence for their disobedience. The result is that they drew me on their chalkboard with a big fat X over me. Really! They said I wasn't being nice. I went back to take a picture to blog it of course (it was too funny not to share), but then they had already erased it. I had to talk with them about the choices they made that led to their toys getting taken away. They stated they knew it was their fault and so I told them they should draw an x on them too and then I did it. Really mature Ruby! See I told you, today I get a big fat F and would probably have made it onto the fail blog. Tomorrow's post on the fail blog should be my picture. No joke.

I am glad my God is gracious to forgive someone as foolish as me (I am so foolish) and that tomorrow morning his mercies are brand new. I am also thankful that my children also have very forgiving hearts. Tomorrow will be a better day, at least I will pray it is...

class 4...

class 3...

class 2...

class 1...

vintage here, vintage there: sunday afternoon

This whole picture session first started out awry. It was after church and Soulie was pretty cranky (see first picture), True and Brave were complaining, and Ben was kinda hangry (hungry + angry, which is a word made by the BFF). Eventually, everyone gave me several minutes of cooperation and we snapped some photos. After which, we hopped in the car and headed home and all the girls knocked out within the first few minutes. If you ever think my girls are always so cooperative for photos, they aren't. They're real kids after all.

Ben and True were being little hams together in the back, they are both so similar, Ben relates so much better to True than I do. It is so interesting to watch each child's differences and how you really do have to deal with each child differently. Each of them is very special and I can't wait to get this fourth one in the mix!

I really need to do some reorganization of closets in a major way. I am bad at putting away summer clothes in the winter and winter clothes in the summer and since we live in Southern California, don't all the seasons seem to blend together anyways?! Rachel got hers organized earlier this week and I probably should do the same, but my nesting fire burned out long ago and now I am in survival mode with three kids. I also took a nice long break from buying any vintage clothes for the girls, since our closets are jammed packed, but lately I have succumbed to adding more to our collection because some dresses are too pretty to resist!

Once again, my only vintage are my shoes, which I love (thanks Stacy for finding them for me!). I actually pulled my black maxi skirt up into a tube dress, my mama bought me this crop top from H&M and I just put that on top. The top is a random print of safety pins, but I love it so much! I also got bored putting my hair up all the time, so now I leave it down, but I need a hair cut in a bad way. Time to make an appointment with the stylist sister.

on me: dress, target. crop top, h&m. shoes, vintage via marie's vintage. bracelet, vintage.

on true: dress, misha lulu. shoes, salt-waters c/o tea. hair bow, h&m.

on brave: dress, vintage. shoes, salt-waters.

on soul: dress, vintage c/o little reader vintage. leather booties, handmade by me a long time ago (see here).

I have mentioned Misha Lulu here many times before as it is one of our most favorite children clothing brands, and Misha Lulu has big news as her fall line includes a collaboration she did with Sanrio for Hello Kitty! True's dress is from that line and I have seen the rest and it is pretty wonderful. I am not all too keen on cartoon characters all up on children's clothing, but this collaboration is too pretty and has such a handmade feel that I really couldn't resist some pieces. I am sure you will be seeing my girls sporting more of it in the coming weeks in this space. Misha Lulu has such a whimsical, vintage feel that it is no wonder that Hello Kitty really wanted to be part of that Misha Lulu world. There are even coats this fall season that are just A-D-O-R-A-B-L-E!

Pretty things on my etsy favorites list (buy them, so I won't be tempted) : black and green, red bird wrap, sunny cotton day dress, alice floral skirt, cream mocs, and woven flats

The weekend is upon us (ours will be pretty packed with parties) and I will be back later with my Friday recaps! Don't forget to head over to Rachel's later to see what pretty things they wore to celebrate her birthday over at the Red Velvet shop.

snap it pretty :: a photography workshop

Danni and I started planning this workshop in February and had a location picked out in March, but then life happened and we didn't have it until July! Thankfully, we had 15 wonderful ladies be brave enough to test out our first workshop ever and we think it went pretty well. We are so thankful for their emails and evaluations and now know what we did well and what to do better for next time. We are so excited to have another soon!

Our featured photographer who was sharing the know-how part of the workshop was Jennifer Young from I ART U. It is great to have someone who knows her camera, has great pictures, but is also very familiar with the blogging world. She was the perfect fit for Danni and me!

I think Danni and I were a ball of nerves, but super excited and couldn't wait to get the show on the road. We had one heavy crafting day and about 300 emails going back and forth between the two of us. It was pretty crazy for a couple of weeks; plus throw in my rascally 3 girls and her insane craft shows, and you just have two crazy ladies running around with our heads cut off. Our husbands are patient men (Thanks Ben and Nick!).

The workshop was held at the beautiful George Key Ranch and ran from mid-morning to mid-afternoon. Danni and I love making things looks pretty, hence our email welikeitpretty(at)gmail(dot)com, so we wanted everything to be absolutely perfect for all our guests! I hope they enjoyed it as much as we enjoyed planning and making everything perfect for them.

At the welcome table, we had handmade crepe paper flower pins for name tags, moleskine notebooks with a cute little camera stamp, pens, and a little program for the day.

For the "talk" of the day, the ladies sat on vintage folding chairs and we hung up a little backdrop on the trees.

After the "talking" portion, everyone had an opportunity to practice what they learned. There were various lighting conditions with the bright sun and shading for the trees that you definitely got to practice adjusting for the varying brightness.

We had a pretty table set up with all the lunch goodies. The sandwiches were from Rialto Cafe, cake pops from local baker Pop Culture Desserts, and macarons flown in from Salt City Patisserie, baked chips and drinks. We made fabric wraps to wrap the sandwiches and chips together; it was color coordinated depending on the type of sandwich they ordered. I must say, I loved both the cake pops and the macarons so much! But I am a dessert girl, so it ain't hard to please me in that area. We laid picnic blankets out for everyone to sit and everyone was chatting up a storm and usually it involved blogging. What more do you expect?!

After lunch, we had two stations set up with boxes full of props. We separated everyone into a Nikon or Canon group and they went at it styling their little table. Both groups did great and were so natural at it that I want them to come over and decorate my house now! After they styled their areas, everyone practice snapping away at those and just continued with the area surrounding them.

Danni and I could have not done this day without these two ladies... RJ and Linda. They are simply the best in letting us boss them around and doing everything with such a cheerful heart! We love you guys!!!

The workshop ended with some questions and Danni and me sharing our tips for taking good pictures. We don't claim to be pros, but we just shared the little things we do know and use for our own pictures.

Of course, we couldn't end the day without without raffling off some pretty cool camera goods. We had 4 big raffles: This Lisa Leonard necklace, a polaroid camera, a Ketti Handbags camera bag, and this bag from JoTotes. Seriously, such good prizes. If that ain't enough, anyone who didn't win a "big" raffle prize went home with an iMo camera strap. On top of that, we had a goody box for every single person to take home. There was so much goodness in those boxes that those boxes (and the raffle goods) will get its own post, just so we can outline each little goody. Seriously.

The best part of the day was getting to spend time with all of the lovely ladies. Making new friends is always a good thing. Everyone was so kind and sweet and it was seeing their excitement that makes us want to do this all over again!

Bloggers in attendance were: Cinthya from Lo Fidelity Love, Tiffany from See the Skyline, Katie from A Day with Kate, Kira from Her New Leaf, Bri from Hello I am Bri, Becky from Little Wickies, and Vivien from The Eclectic Life. If you check out these blogs you will also see their views and thoughts of the workshop. Sorry if I missed anyone, but just leave me the link in the comments and I will correct it.

And if the picture overload wasn't enough, well, here is a little video of our day (if you read in google reader, the video won't come up)...

Above photos courtesy of Jen and Danni. And a huge thank you to Salt City Patisserie & Pop Culture Desserts for sharing with us their delicious sweets!

Danni and I are definitely planning more workshops soon, so if you are interested be ready...