We had an awesome Valentine's Day yesterday.

And today was the start of a 4 day weekend for Ty.

Basically we're partying non-stop.

The boys were thrilled with their Valentine's treats.

They got candy, gum and bubbles.

In typical fashion Jay ate every last piece of his stash in about half an hour and Leo still has about half of his left. Jay keeps sneaking Leo's though, so I'm not sure how much longer it will last.

Ty and I had a hot date with a Redbox movie on the couch after the boys were asleep.

Then today we did something awesome.

Seriously, I'm so sad that we took so long to discover this.

We would have been doing it all the time.

We rented a surrey and biked along the bay trail.

 There's a little bell up front where the boys are sitting.

It was being rung by one boy or the other almost the entire time we were biking.

They loved it.

We stopped for a few minutes to climb on the rocks and watch the waves crash.

 Ty almost got swept out to sea.

We had lunch at Bubba Gump.

Jay does this funny thing where he's more than happy to share your food, but he refuses to share his.

Ty got a strawberry lemonade and Jay immediately claimed it as his own.

It's hard to see, but I have Jay's root beer in my hand.

As soon as I tried to take a drink he grabbed it from me and drank it.

So then I tried to drink the lemonade.

Since he couldn't drink from both straws at the same time he just covered up the lemonade so I couldn't get at it.

Awesome Oatmeal Muffins

AKA The perfect "on the go" breakfast.

• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla 
• 2 cups unsweetened applesauce
• 1 mashed banana
• 1/2 cup honey
• 5 1/4 cups rolled oats
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 3/4 cups milk 
• Optional toppings: fruit, nuts, chocolate chips

Mix together the wet stuff. Add in the dry stuff. Finish with the milk. 

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 - 45 minutes

This seems to works best as 24 muffins, although you can use a 9 x 13 pan. Use cupcake liners because the muffins will stick like crazy if you don't. These can be frozen. Just thaw overnight in the fridge and microwave for 20 seconds or so. 


Here's a funny story:
I found this recipe on Pinterest and it's awesome! Seriously, I've been eating them every day. My favorite ones are with dried blueberries, but I like them every way I've tried them. But the lady who originally posted the recipe is like, "This recipe and my photo are protected by copyright law and you can't post it on your blog." (BRAT!) So I looked up the copyright law for recipes and it basically says that you can copyright your specific instructions for something, (ie "Lightly toast the bread and add a thin layer of peanut butter.") But you can't copyright the list of ingredients. So I wrote the instructions in my own terms, and I even altered the ingredients a little. (Because I'm not putting 1/4 cup of groundd flax seed in anything.) Nanner, nanner. 

Happenings

I started packing. We're not moving for a good 6 weeks, but I prefer to limit myself to under 10 boxes a day. Also, I would much rather pack something up because I want to than because I have to.

 Side note: The process of packing up a house makes me happy. I love organizing everything into boxes and getting it out of the way. The only part I hate is when I get to the end and things get messed up because I can't pack up the stuff we still need to use.

Ty got me this beautiful bouquet, and Leo was in love. 

He kept climbing on the counter to check the progress of the buds that hadn't opened yet.

And he constantly had his nose in one of the flowers.

He kept saying, "I love these flowers. They're really beautiful."

 Side note: Jay will only let me take pictures of his feet these days.

If the camera is out he'll say,

"Mom, you take a picture of my foot?"

Same outfit, different day.

And another. Random

Also, I made fruit snacks.

(Yep, from Pinterest.)

They're really weird.

Maybe they would be better with regular Jello instead of fat free, sugar free.

We won't be finding out.

Yeah, that happened

I saw these curlers at the store the other day and decided I needed them.

Then I decided that I didn't need them and put them back.

Then I decided that I really did need them and went back another day and got them

They were supposed to make "soft waves" in my hair, but really they are pink foam curlers in disguise.

I kept them in for several hours and ended up with this:

Awesome!

Lat Week's Pinterest Projects

First off I turned these:

into these:

It required 30+ hours of soaking in bleach water before I could dye them.

The stitching stayed gold so they make me feel my old Mesa pride.

Go Rabbits!

I also had some fun in the kitchen.

I made these:

Red Velvet Brownies

 Red Velvet Cake Mix + 1/2 C melted butter + 1/4 C brown sugar + 2 eggs + 375^ for :25-30.

And topped them with this:

World's Best Frosting

(Mix one vanilla pudding packet with half of the milk called for on the package. Whisk until it begins to thicken. Then fold in one container of Cool Whip. )

And they were delicious.

Pinterest

I love Pinterest.

I can spend hours browsing and re-pinning hundreds of amazing crafts, recipes and ideas.

But I realized that I almost never do any of the things I pin.

They're just sitting around for "later".

So I decided to try and do at least one thing I've pinned on Pinterest each week.

This week I made these for Leo:

 I was planning on making slippers for me, but Leo just kept asking,

"Are those for me?"

and,

"Can you make some for me?

and,

"Why aren't you making mine yet?"

So I finally gave up on mine (which weren't working out any way) 

and modified the pattern for little boy feet.

I think they turned out pretty good.

These, on the other hand, did not turn out so well:

I was trying to "watermark" a picture onto a shirt, 

but the pictures we used were too detailed.

The top one isn't too bad, (although the goat looks a little demonic)

but the one underneath was a complete disaster.

You can't even almost tell that it's a dinosaur coming out of an egg.

Good thing Leo has no fashion sense.

He loves wearing them any way.

Stay tuned for next week's project.

I'm going to attempt to turn a pair of regular jeans into a pair of purple jeans.

We'll see how it goes.

A Few of Their Favorite Things

Lately the boys have been loving this box:

They stab it repeatedly with pens and other sharp objects.

It's provided literal hours of destructive fun.

Also, their room always looks like this these days:

As soon as they wake up everything goes in a pile on the floor.

Sometimes they jump on it, sometimes they don't.

All I know is that if I clean it up I get in trouble.