Reptile Zoo

Summer Groupons, gotta love 'em.

We drove an hour to visit the Reptile Zoo in Monroe, WA.

We all loved it.  I can't get enough of crazy animal collections.

Two headed turtle.

The video was actually entertaining.

I gave in and bought everyone a $4 snake souvenir.  

Bike vs. Stroller

Reade will be switching preschools in the fall and the school will now be 1.4 miles from our home.  It will be great for him to be so close so now I have to figure out if I want to get him to school via bike or stroller.

This mom of six traded in her Suburban for this bike:

Can you believe parents pay $550 for double jogging strollers.  That means most of the double jogging strollers are on craigslist used for $300.  Not going to happen for one stroller!

That leaves me with this local craigslist option.  An American Doll double doll stroller for $40.  I wonder how far I could get before Piper ripped a seam and fell out the back?  Maybe I will try this with her wearing a bike helmet.  Just to play it safe.

Potato Farmers

Andrew harvested our first crop of potatoes:

Blake and Reade got Andrew his wallet so they could sell him their farmstand goodies.  I think they made $0.25 each.  That is about market value for actual farmers.

Wet Garden

Summer garden pictures have been on my mind, but it has been raining for days now so all the flowers are drooped over.  

"You get what you get and you don't throw a fit." - Blake's old preschool teachers.

Little gardeners

The garden

Ferns were on sale for $3/each at the store so I bought a bunch.  

Apples on the apple tree!  Plus, Andrew's wildflowers all abound.

Picking

I've been work wardrobe thrifting so I can build my base of basics.  

 I finally found the black harem pants I was looking for at the mall for $17.99.  We will see how long those hold up.  The shirt is my own and the beads were $4 and the shoes were $3.

I scored these basics!  $7 dress, $6 heels, $4 & $7 skirts, and $3 beads.  Will my signature look become one with those junky, thrift store beads?  You betcha!

It will take some time to get comfortable with bright colors like beautyandbows does.

Doughssant

I spied this doughssant at the grocery store.  Yup, not that exciting.  I'll stick with the originals of both.

Fall 2014

It rained yesterday so my summertime blues went away the second I heard the tip tapping on my window.  I was getting bothered by those sunny days.  There are two sunny days ahead and then the rain comes back.  That lead me to think about fall fashion.  What do I get to look forward to?

A bit drastic.  This makes me feel like someone isn't excited about fall:

This inspires me to try harder to pull myself together (can someone please force me to go get my hair cut?):

The reality seems to fall into the sweater dress and booties category.  I hate low booties, but for fashion's sake I'll oblige:

All of this at style.com.

Bake Off

Tomorrow is an oatmeal cookie bake off. I am hosting an event for work tomorrow and am thanking a speaker with oatmeal raisin cookies, per his request (men are easy at times).  Let the paddles start whirring.

Who will win?

These

Or these

PTuesday

H&M Home

When did H&M get a home section?  Everything on the site makes me happy.

Cactus Hand Towels (2 for $7)

Mini Plates ($3.95)

Space Guy Towel ($9.95)

Manger

I want to travel to Paris one day.  That means I need to start expanding my palate ASAP.

Hip Paris Blog

Happy Birthday Andrew

Andrew has been in two countries today on his birthday.  Canada in the morning and the US by afternoon.  Welcome back and I am glad I get to celebrate in person with him.

My beef with chocolate cakes.  The recipe on the blog showed a deep chocolate bundt cake with drizzled icing on top.  I baked it and it looks like a golden donut.  Then, the drizzle turned into one big clump of chocolate.  I whipped up some chocolate buttercream frosting and now it really looks like a big donut.  Fail.  Lame.  I hate blogosphere chocolate cakes.

 Decompression video gaming:

Aunt Shirley's banner still lives on and ages beautifully:

Basil Today

What to do with those strawberries growing in the front yard:

Something Swanky

Tokyo

Because I want to visit Tokyo someday:

This Beautiful Day

Blogcation

It is time for me to take a weeklong blogcation.  Please enjoy a blog a day of blogs I think you should read:

The Burning House

(what people would take with them if their house was on fire)

Cronuts

It all started in NY.  Donut x Croissant = Cronut.

The West Coast had to keep up and labeled theirs (due to Trademark): "cro-doughs", "O-Nuts", or "dosants."

I haven't met one person who thinks they are spectacular.  I think I need to do my own research and test this one out.  So began my Google search.

Called this place: "No, we don't serve them anymore."

Then this place: "Nope, we don't serve them anymore."

But this one does.  She said the line begins at 8:30am tomorrow, but they open at 7am.  If Piper gets up early we just might have to head over there and try one out.

The boys are in Vancouver, B.C. with Andrew for the weekend so I deem this a perfect bachelorette activity.

Fireworks

Happy 4th of July

Why not wear red, white, and blue on other days too...

$10.80 Top - Forever 21

I have been searching high and low for navy harem pants.  I won't spend this much but maybe you will?
Parker Devlin Pant

This would be so fun over that white top.
$15.00 - Etsy

If you bought the pants, then shell out the $150 for these pumps to go with it.
Joe's Laney Pump

This Week

I seem to be getting into a summer routine.

AM - Hit up new bakeries and other delicious food joints:

PM - Getting those dental and doctor appointments out of the way:

Did you know that NASA has a Live TV station?  Awesome!  We watched some of it this morning and it was fun to learn that the International Space Station is over Australia today: Click here!