sometimes we dress up

In honor of Grandma Selma's birthday at Le Chene and the approaching Easter festivities, I decided it was high time my boys dress up, proper-like.

Inspired by Mrs. Priss, I've been making some of her felt hair bows as little gifts lately(It should be noted that hers look better than mine). The first time I made one, I thought "Hey, these look like little bow ties for men". Indeed they did. I decided to make some for my boys. Yellow for Ollie and blue for Calvin. And ties for Finn and Twain.

Twain's brown tie is a tiny clip-on tie I found at Ross.

Finn's tie was a men's vintage tie(John is wearing it in my header). I cut it down to size for Finn, using this tutorial as my guide.

Near the end of the aforementioned tutorial, I skipped the "dimpling" step of her knot(tsk, tsk) and just tucked the 2 tails of my tie neatly into the top knotted portion(don't mind my loose threads. I was in a hurry, making it the morning of Grandma's party).

John thought I should have dimpled the knot portion to make it protrude more. He said "your tie looks cheap!" And I was devastated for about 5 seconds, haha. John felt terrible for his comment and all was forgiven very quickly.

I first saw chalkboard eggs when the lovely Alyssa posted them on her blog, Woodland Dreams. I instantly knew I wanted to try them out, and immediately rushed out to Home Depot to buy some chalkboard paint.

Just spray some hard-boiled eggs with chalkboard paint.

It was a really fun alternative to dyed eggs, because you get to draw on them with chalk! And erase mistakes!

One tip: If you refrigerate the chalkboard-painted-eggs, take them out early the next morning and let them get to room temperature before attempting to draw on them. Because egg shells are porous and sweat beads of water upon going to room temp. And water+chalk=mess.

We hosted a little drawing competition on the chalkboard eggs for the cousins on Easter day. I will show you photos of that on my next post--those pictures have not even been loaded to my computer yet, I have been so busy lately:(

Happy Calvin makes me happy.

Calvin had his kindergarten check-up appointment at the doctor's office this morning. Can you believe he's going to school this fall???

He had to get 4 immunizations, a tb test and an anemia check. That's SIX needles, people! Six! And the boy did not flinch even once. He's such a tough cookie. Everything went so well and I was so proud of him.

Ollie has been talking up a storm lately. Warms my heart to hear his little thoughts, prattling on and on. And on, LOL. LOVE it.

Goodness he looks so grown-up in these pictures. He still looks like a little boy in real life...honest!

Tweetle Beetle is turning 2 tomorrow. TWO! I am still in major denial and keep putting his onesies on him anyway. In my defense, he's little! 15% percentile height and 50% weight!

Twain went on a napping strike the last 2 days(hence my lack of blogging) and is FINALLY asleep right now.

I realize I am not dressed up enough to fit it with my crew, but that's ok.

So thankful for these dear, dear boys...and eternally grateful for Jesus dying on the cross for me and rising from the dead, so I can one day live with him forever!

ps. i know lent is over. and my comments are still off. it just feels right, for now. no huge reason, just an overall feeling of contentment with the way things have been for the last 40+ days. and just not ready to change that yet:) Love to you all! XXOO

Two Selmas

We recently got to celebrate the birthdays of TWO Selmas in our family.

My cousin Jamie's baby Selma just turned one!

Such a precious little peach of a doll.

She had an adorable french 'Marie Antoinette' party.

Love her feathered hair piece.

All the little cousins were there.

Sister Jessica's little girls. The skirts, I die.

Little pointed toesies, I die again.

My little niece Ansley kept saying how nice cousin Jamie was...apparently bright pink lipstick + pink shoes = very nice! The way to a 4-year-old, I tell you!

Selmie and Tweetle with their fuzzy little heads.

Tea, Oliver?

Twin Hayley flew in from New York just to be here. She is Selmie's 2nd mommy:)

Snuggling with her grandma and two mommies.

My Uncle Pat{also Selmie's Grandpa}

Eat your cake Selmie! Check out the progression of these shots...

The dread. Oh the horror.

Hilariously dramatic. Poor Selmie.



My, my there is a lot of pink on my blog today.

Do you think 'take 2' went better?

Oh, we think so!

Happy Birthday little angel!

And just to prove that I was indeed there...somewhere...

The following weekend, we got to celebrate my Grandma Selma's 80th birthday at a quaint french restaurant, Le Chene. I don't know who we think we are, gallivanting to these fancy places! But I am not complaining.

Ha, I just now realized that baby Selma's party was french too! Maybe I should learn french, parlez-vous francais?

Grandma Selma is a hoot. She said "look how fast I can get up" and then she dropped to her knees and stood back up at the speed of light. "I don't do this in front of my old lady friends or they'll give me the kina hora(yiddish for evil eye)", she said. HAHAHA. Love you Grammy. Hope I am that agile at 80!

Her life reads like a Seinfeld episode, LOL. Lived in New York most of her life, then migrated to Florida.

She calls me 'Davala', even though my name is just Davi.

People always ask me "Is Davi short for anything?" To which I respond, "No, it's just short"(Oh I think I'm so clever).

Grandma Selma's sister, Aunt Terry, came all the way from New Joisy(New Jersey for the rest of you folks).

And hailing all the way from Puerto Rico...Uncle Allen, Aida and 2 kiddos Harris and Jamie!

It was soooo good to see them again!

There was also a special new addition to the family 9 months ago...

Baby Jake. He's preeeeeeeecious. Those bright eyes are just darling!

He belongs to my cousins Jared&June and big brother Luke!

Ok, that was a lot of photos posted, and if you can believe it, most of my immediate family escaped my camera...I don't know what's up with that. I should be fired.

Or my little sister Lindsay should be hired...at least I managed to sneak a shot of her.

It felt so good to be with the whole family again. I love them all so much.