Lovey

You guys, Valentine's day is a big deal around here.  It has long been pegged as my favorite holiday, and Sir O seems to love it even more than me.  Probably because he associates Valentines Day with scissors and glue, and the kid loves nothing more than decorating for a holiday.

It's also a big deal because Valentines Day figures prominently in the love story of Mr Renn and me.  We started dating just before Valentines day in 2003, and that first Valentines Day was such a flop that it nearly did the relationship in.  Luckily Mr Renn was persistent.  And he's felt pressure to perform every year since then.  (He'll probably still never live it down, because it's going to come up every time someone asks us how we me.)

This year wasn't our best Valentines' performance ever, but it was really a lovely little day for our family.  The day before I happily stumbled upon a free train table, so we had a fantastic gift for the boys (that they have spent every spare moment with since then).  We spent the days leading up to Valentines day making sugar cookies and constructing ridiculously complex Valentines for the boy's classroom exchanges.




Somebody needs to tell me "Step away from the Paper Source Catalog, Emily." No child of yours wants to spend 10 hours making Valentines."

Mr Renn surprised me by coming home from work early with these:




Which I promptly turned into 3 arrangements to cheer up the house.



Then we left the boys with my cousin and a heart-shaped pizza and went to the Valentines Dinner at the Clarion, where the food is always good.  Bunny didn't quite cooperate with our attempt at enjoying dinner together, but we sure enjoyed it in shifts!



And for my gift?  Mr Renn picked up on my not-so-subtle hints and got some of my collection of floral paintings on canvases stretched and framed.  I told you, getting art on the walls is going to HAPPEN this year.

   

I also, coincidentially, got this Pascal Campion print framed for Mr Renn.  We'll call it romantic multitasking.

making merry

How was your Holiday friend?  We had a delightful, if not too-busy one on our end capped off with the Gentleman's baby blessing and the Captain's 2nd Birthday party yesterday.  Incidentally I've had a Texas-sized sinus infection since Christmas Eve and you could knock me over with downy feather.

But with a hefty dose of having Mr Renn around all of my boys have been pleasant and sweet more often than not.  And perhaps a little more OCD than usual.



This will be remembered as the year Sir O was obsessed with collecting candy canes and hanging them on our tree, then squirreling them away in a tiny tote bin.  And eventually eating them.  He also spent a lot of time (at least 2 days straight) coloring pages from coloring books, then wanting adults to cut thing out and tape them to our Christmas Card wall.

This will also be remembered as the Christmas where the Captain was teething and kept sucking/chewing on his fingers until they were cracked and bleeding.  The Christmas where we used an entire tub of Aquaphor.




It was also the first New Years since the Captain was born that we all stayed up until Midnight on New Years Eve.  And payed for it dearly.



It was also the year that my mother took a day off of work to Sew the Gentleman's blessing outfit - since that project was procrastinated (by me) until it was a dire emergency.  I think it's gorgeous.  (My SIL took some great photos that show it in all it's glory - can't wait to see and share them).  And it's the year I decorated her kitchen with dozens of snowflakes (and a clearanced shower-curtain) and took the usual flak for my party decorating habit.





A good year I think.  Now, to get us all healthy, and to clean and clean and stop ignoring the laundry volcano.  Life is good.

survival fun

Sir O ended up joining us at the church last night. And in all honesty he was better behaved than a lot of the 9-11 year olds, (thanks largely to Jenna's watchful eye).

He was also terrified of Santa Claus.
And the photographer insisted it would be cute to have the belly monster's first Santa photo op. Hope this kid appreciates how silly I felt. (Get a look at my fabulous beat-up-shins. Pregnancy makes me so graceful.)

happenings

Our little family at the ward party tonight. About 1/2 of the folks there were able to figure out what Renn was (even with Oliver close by). Can you? I, on the other hand, went the "barely made an effort" route. Can you blame me? (The rest of our party photos here)

Stay tuned, I let Mr Renn go to the World Series game Monday on the condition that he blog about it himself and bring me a treat. But since the game got rained out half way through, both you and I find ourselves waiting for our reward. (But the World Series Part I photos are here... coming soon, part II !)

O and his cake

O and his cake
Originally uploaded by mlehess

Yeah! The birthday party pictures are finally up.
Check them out here.

If you were there, there's a good chance there's a cute picture of your kid trying to hit the pinata!
Thanks Mils!

Birthday Cake

finished birthday cake
Originally uploaded by mlehess

We all survived Sir O's birthday party today. It was melt-your-brains-out hot, but we still had a great turn-out. I asked the Mils to take photos, so hopefully I will have some to share soon.

In the meantime, I promised that the next time I decorated a fondant cake I would share a little how-to. I've kind of broken it down in a flickr set, you can access here.

What's coming...

Name that uber-quotable Peter Bogdanovich film:

"You have got to get out of here"
"And miss all the good stuff that's coming?"
"She will be here any minute"
" That's the good stuff that's coming.."








I am endeavoring to plan Oliver's 2nd birthday party. I am CRAZY. I must be banking on having a REALLY good FUNCTIONAL day sometime around his birthday.
But since about every 3rd word that comes out of his mouth lately has been "Seuss?!" (He LOVES having Dr. Seuss books read to him lately, especially "If I Ran the Zoo"....) We are running with the Seuss thing. Obviously not so pre-packaged and matchy-matchy as this fabulous illustrative photo, but I have found some vintage 1 fish 2 fish flashcards and am gearing up to make a bright bunting banner. We'll see where it goes from there. What is it with me and parties anyway?

It's my party

Well, Mr Renn did his darnedest to make up for this morning. And for Valentines Day. And for our Anniversary.... (hee hee)

After he got home from school he made me this yummy dinner of Steak with Bernaise sauce, Boulangere potatoes, and bacon-wrapped asparagus (because everything is better with bacon... especially if you're Renn). All very yummy. I ate too much. And Mr Renn got all giddy about serving me a 1st course salad in a chilled bowl with a chilled fork. It was good to see him enjoying himself while he was doing something sweet for me.

Then Mr Renn gave me some sweet presents. I finally got a new (metal) cookie dough scoop, since my plastic one didn't survive Christmas baking. And he spoiled me rotten and got me a Criterion Collection DVD of one of Krzysztof Kieslowski's films. My friend Jeff can tell you about how the Criterion Collection is manna from heaven for those of us who who let it be. But they're also expensive, so it was a sweet gift.

Then I found myself (my already stuffed-self, I might add) being whisked away to Zwahlen's for a birthday treat, and SURPRISE... a nice evening out with most of our neighbors. Then I ate even more too much, with a caramel-apple on top. Wow, I feel loved. And bloated.

And Sir O, as you can see by that messy face, was just as happy about my birthday (at least the food) as I was. Cute kid.

TrunkorTreat

Sir O likes Halloween about as much as he likes getting shots.

Struggles.

So he was an "almost lion" for most of the evening. Because he HATES to dress up, and will keep NOTHING on his head for a solid second. (Renn and I were pirates.... and Renn managed to escape the camera.... I'll fix that situation tomorrow!)

This is where Renn assured me that we'd gotten a "good" photo of Oliver with the headpiece on and begged me to stop torturing him. Liar Liar pants on fire.

Our ward (church congregation) pretty much rocked at costumes. I love it when people actually dress up with gusto. (Why do it halfway?) Here's Oliver's "almost lion" with neighbor Cole's zebra. Everybody loves Lee.
Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette... candid.
A tin man made of metal roofing material and a very large funnel. (His wife was an awesome Dorothy... and I told Mr Renn to get a photo of their whole family. Again he's losing camera privileges)
And EVERYBODY loved the Incredibles. Costumes hand made. I kid you not. Happy Halloween Eve to you!

From the other end of party planning

One Neapolitan Girlie baby shower:

Miss Gracee graciously sharing her birthday with our party.



The cute prego girlie mammas

(there was also a cute prego mamma of a will-be-boy there...to be fair...as well as at least 2 not -yet showing prego mammas of unknowns... but I digress)

See, once it's all over I think it was fun again. And that's why I will always do it again, over and over. Hoorah for being anxiously engaged in good party-planning causes!

ETA:

I do not make my own fondant. (Although I'd be willing to try sometime....maybe) I buy the block of white Wilton fondant, then knead in coloring and usually some flavoring. Fondant is only intimidating if you feel like you have to make a seamless, perfect cake the first time. Since I'm fine with my cake having oodles of seams, and looking very much homemade, I just follow the directions on the package and play with it a bit. Next time I make one I'll document it better and share the whole process.

Let them eat....

I'm in party-mode again. A fun girlie baby shower tomorrow.

Unfortunately what that really means is that I'm irksome, absentminded, and a bit stressed. Poor Mr. Renn.

I spent about 6x longer working on this confounded cake than I was planning to. Why do I always plan so inadequately? Always. "Sure, I can get that done in 2-3 hours." Where is my brain when I think thoughts like that? What about the 2 extra trips to the grocery store to get the stuff I should have realized I didn't have on hand? That might have added some time. Having to knead the darn color into the fondant....20 minutes. Running out of chocolate frosting, and then being (really dumb) and buying frosting that has mini chocolate chips in it? HELLO, HOW WELL DO YOU THINK THAT IS GOING TO PIPE THROUGH A TINY DECORATOR TIP?!?!? Really, I wonder what is wrong with me.

All I can say is, this cake had better get eaten!

{yellow} Party recap

Here's some of the great photos taken by my cousin Sam.

Sir O tastes his b-day cake....mmmm, lemon!

opening presents! (he lost interest after the 2nd gift.....darn kids!)

consider it an "aerial" view


the candy bar!

some slightly schlumpy cupcakes...... happens in 100+ degree heat!

Meeting HSF!

more of the cake!