My 4 Year Old

Yesterday, Blake turned four years old. My blogging has been slow because my sister, mother, and father have been treating Blake to some great, overnight stays.

Birthday pancake breakfast:


His Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle/Ariel/Transformers birthday cake:


Happy Birthday to Blake:


So many great gifts:


Blake got to invite his friend Chase to his birthday party. Watch out, for there are two Darth Vaders running around the world!


Such a wonderful big boy I have.

Plant

Does anyone know what plant this is? We saw it on our walk to the park and have never seen anything like it. The buds look like roses, but the plant looks like maple leaves:


The buds look much bigger in person:

Bicyclist

I was putting books on a bookshelf and heard Reade playing behind me. My camera was on top of the bookshelf so I tried to start the video without him catching me. He knew what I was up to, but I really want to capture his personality at this age. It is my favorite age for kids and I love their innocence. Before I started videotaping, he was pretending he was riding a daddy bicycle with his water attached to it:



Blake and Reade playing canoe surfing in the top and bottom of an orange box:

Camp

I can't believe I bought my first pair of shinguards for Blake. Who knew four-year-olds need these for summer camp? Don't they just become a beehive and kick each other instead of the ball (ah, now putting two and two together)? So it begins. The cost of sporting goods/accessories:

Names

Why is it hard to find a name I like for a girl? Ever since I was little, I knew my daughter would be named Hallie Kay. I have an issue with Hallie since people will mispronounce her name by calling her Hayley.

In my head her name will be: First (Something?) Middle (Hallie Kay) Last (Hurst)

If I were to follow the pattern we currently have she would be: Elizabeth Hallie Kay Hurst. Today, I opened those big books of names and came up with these:

Rosie Hallie Kay Hurst (I vowed to not repeat the first letters of my kid's names)


Lollie Hallie Kay Hurst (a little much)


Dixee Hallie Kay Hurst


Ivee Hallie Kay Hurst
Scratch that, I like Ivey Hallie Kay Hurst


I liked the idea of having the name end in "E" like Blake and Reade. This is the first my husband will see of my choices so rest assured, I am sure 100% of these will be vetoed. Vote amongst yourselves. Oh, and my absolute name of choice would be Dolores Hallie Kay Hurst (after my mother), but she fights that one tooth and nail. I love the idea of calling her Dee. Oh well.

Bump Continued...

Baby Bump Shot



Past bump photos:
http://shandrew.hurstdog.org/2012/02/weeks.html

Jealous?

Happy Birthday to my friend Danika. Happy Early Birthday to my friend Peter. Danika threw her own birthday party and baked her own birthday cake. This could be construed as somewhat sad, but no one is going to ever turn down a chance to eat her homemade cake and party fare.

Her magnificent cake:


This will be somewhat painful for those of you who attended Blake's baby shower before he was born. Danika made the cake for my party and people still rave about it to this day. Guess what? She made that same cake and it tasted equally as delicious. Sorry to make you all jealous.

Leprechauns

Better late than never. I was wiped out yesterday and realized we didn't do any leprechaun preparations. I told the boys today that leprechauns party on this day and we try to trap them in the evening after all of their pub crawls.

First we have to eat:


Traps were set right before bed:


Blake wrote, "Leprechaun, Pot of Gold" with an arrow going the wrong direction (got to love him):


The boys after setting up the leprechaun trap:


That naughty leprechaun replaced all the boys' coats with the dress up costumes and made a trail of their shoes from the front door to the leprechaun trap:


Not too big of a mess so I am okay with this leprechaun:


Now, to go make sure that darn leprechaun doesn't turn two sippies of milk green.

Fun

Fun Fridays are always better spent with friends. Blake got to meet up with his best friend Chase for a play date. We went to a place called The Jungle to stay out of the rain.

All the kids climbed into the photo booth for some snapshots. I love how the first picture doesn't have any kids because I told the kids to sit down on the bench and they weren't tall enough for the camera to capture them. You can see them standing up in the next few photos. We figured it out the second time around:


A cool roller coaster ride:


My plan was to hit up Target after the Jungle, but I was just too pooped. I ended up at Ellen and David's house with two, sleeping children. They napped and then baby #3 demanded an Indian food buffet dinner. So off we all went to enjoy some yummy food:


What a great Friday.

Sister Sourdough

This is my sister-in-law Sandy. She is Andrew's oldest sister and I knew I loved her personality the second I met her. Her teenage son loves to make videos and Sandy is a top-notch cook so the two collaborated to make her first cooking video on YouTube. Don't expect measurements of any kind (um, do you guys need a publicist?) or a finished project! Just sit back and enjoy the entertainment.

Sandy's Sourdough Bread Tutorial

Thrifting

Some new baby girl things home from the thrift store. I got this nesting instinct to clean these clothes (I won't admit how many hot wash cycles I use) and arrange them in cute baskets for baby's arrival. They only last in the basket long enough for a photo since Reade or Blake usually dumps all the contents out so they can pretend they are in space jail. Fleeting moments of cute before real life sets in. Hm, that sounds a lot like parenting.

I am curious to see what outfits get worn and which ones stay on the hangers:


A mini pregnancy diary:
* I have been having some serious Braxton Hicks contractions to warm my body up for the big day. One was so big I had to breathe through it and grasp on to my Costco shopping cart.
* A scene I replay in my head 100 times a day: I take a crochet hook, size E or F, and dig deep into my rear end and pull my sciatic nerve out with my bare hands.
* I have entered into that phase where I lean up against a counter and accidentally knock things over with my belly.
* I have no motivation to take another picture of myself pregnant.

Lorax

Blake's grandma took him to the movie theaters for the first time for a grandma/grandson afternoon to see The Lorax. He loved the experience and had a blast:


3-D glasses and everything:


My doggy bag of popcorn traveling home with them:


Ellen took Blake back to her house and we met up with them once Reade woke up from his 3+ hour nap. Andrew made some delicious sourdough loaves to go with dinner:


Looking forward to another week of fun.

More Products

Here are a few more products I saw yesterday that caught my attention.

Why did I find these bunnies in hutches so fascinating? They seemed so life like as they all sat there begging people to take them home:


This was at Bed Bath & Beyond and I like how it acts like bed bugs would not crawl up into it for a ride home to your house:

Amazon

This post is to review an item I bought at Costco that I found thanks to the reviews on Amazon.com. Blake sleeps on a blow up mattress in our bedroom when guests stay overnight. We have been through two blow up mattresses and I got fed up with them popping after the fifth use. I know I can patch the things, but they seem to blow out somewhere else on the next inflation. Andrew told me he used to sleep on a trifold foam mattress whenever he slept over at his grandparents. I looked them up and couldn't believe that they are $200 from futon shops. My kids are little so I decided to go the cheap route. They have them on amazon.com for $65, but they looked so cheap. For the first time, I read the eight comments attached to the reviews. Someone posted that you can find a similar product at Costco for $48. That sounded better to me. I called Costco the next day and the customer service woman told me they had 72 in stock. Let's just say they now have 71.

Unfolded:


Trifold:


Info:


Item # (from Mountain View, CA Costco):


It is not the firmest mattress, but will definitely do the job.

Scones

I had a play date with our old neighbors today and decided to bring everyone some scones since my lemon tree is full of ripe fruit. The recipe was super simple to use and turned out yummy.

Reade got out his stool and tried his hardest to reach those lemons:


I decided to save time by using the Cuisinart:


Who needs a scone pan anyway?:


Packaged and ready to go:


I found the recipe here. I doubled the amount and prepared it my way:

3 CUPS white flour
1 CUP whole wheat flour
1/2 CUP sugar
2 Tsp baking powder
2 Tsp baking soda
1/2 Tsp salt
1 CUP chilled butter (2 sticks)
1 CUP sour milk (1 cup milk with 3 tsp. lemon juice added - let sit for 5 minutes)
Zest of two lemons
Additional sugars

Add all ingredients into Cuisinart. Pulse slowly until the dough sticks together. Dump onto floured counter and knead until it all sticks together. Split dough into two balls and shape each one into a flat disc about and inch thick. Cut with dough cutter (like a pizza) to get eight pieces each. Arrange on two, oiled cookie sheets with enough space since they will puff out a bit. Bake in 350 degree oven for 20 minutes.

There was lemon juice left over so I added about 1/4 cup of powdered sugar to the mix and a bit of water. It was really runny, but I lightly brushed the mixture over the top of the cooled scones and then sprinkled them with sugar. This way they aren't super dry and have a tiny amount of sweetness on top.

Clover

I need to get cracking on my St. Patrick's Day crafts/leprechaun traps. This is one of my favorite holidays and there is so much to do before that leprechaun tries to make off with anything he deems lucky from our house:

Can clover stand up to my brilliant idea involving a glue gun? We shall see:

Photo

Permission was granted from our neighbors to gather some clover from their yard for terrariums/traps:

Photo

You have to check out this blog post. Kind of sickens me to think about eating it, but what a great idea:

Crazed

I wanted to breath beach air. I didn't mean to freeze us. Yahoo weather said it was 62 degrees and sunny in Pacifica, but when I got there it was 54 degrees and windy. It was so cold it made my inner ear hurt. Blake ran around like it was summer and even waded in the water until I forced him to sit up in the sand with us. Reade was wrapped in towels and seemed okay playing in the sand right next to our blanket. Hot baths followed once we returned home.

How the heck do they do it? The surfers would jog around in circles to get warm before heading into the surf. One guy even had his dog go out with him. Poor dog and poor kids being forced into a chilly beach day:


I came up with the idea of re-purposing old board shorts into kids beach pants. I thought it would keep them a bit warmer since Northern California beaches aren't always warm:


Reade wearing his pair (a bit too short):


I really did enjoy how quiet the beach was:


Different kind of play:


That fog is so calming:


Taco Bell looked less like a fast food joint and more like a place where I would curl up next to a warm fireplace:


I am still working out the timing where the beach is that happy medium between shivering and sunburn.

Good Behavior

After weekend shenanigans...


it was time to get back to some good behavior.

Smoothies for breakfast:


Andrew's homemade croutons on salad for lunch:


And that simple something to get me through a Monday:

Friday

I didn't want to be bored today. In a selfish way, I didn't want this day to be focused around my kids. My dreams came true.

My friend offered to show me around a Korean market (super fun). Then, another friend was invited to shop along and we got to go out to lunch afterwards and talk about adult things (again, super fun). Here is my loot:


I went to an Open House in our neighborhood and got to see the finished product after a quick remodel by an investor. I hope we get some fun neighbors in there. A realtor sent a flyer around saying that his last listing got 20+ offers on it. Another realtor told me he had 15 on the last house he sold. Everyone is in panic mode to get into houses before the Facebook people drive the prices up even further. This tree is down the street, but I just wanted to showcase how alive the end of winter can be in California:


Ellen had stopped by to have some tea and it turned into an impromptu date night for us. We promised Blake he could watch Star Wars for the first time so why not turn it into a grandparent movie night? Andrew and I had a great dinner together and laughed when we walked by this store on our way to Peet's Coffee. I said, "What is it exactly?" Andrew replied, "I think it is a hipster bike store. Yup, it's a hipster store." Funny:


Full day. Can't say I was bored one bit.