I think the whole body art thing is still lingering from Canada. And honestly, my tip for you is you just gotta go with it sometimes in order to keep both the peace and your sanity.

It all began with drawing pictures to hide an ugly temporary wall…..

But then Addie happened.

HOLY MOLY has it been a bit crazy since we returned from our trip.

Truly, I’m surprised we are all still breathing around here…it feels like we have been running circles inside a tornado.  But I suppose that’s to be expected with most families.  Come on Shanna, get with the program!

It gets me in the gut though when I get so swamped that I can’t post something, like when you have that feeling you’ve forgotten something.  You count all the heads of your kids…

As I’ve said, we’ve just returned from my parents cabin in Canada where we’ve been on vacation for the week. When you have a cabin by a lake in the woods, the surroundings give you LOTS to do.  But it helps when you can “help” your Littles jump start that fun.  Because my parents drove up, I sent up a bag of “goodies” to pull out with the kids throughout the week.

Washable paint was one of those good times!

The girls and I went on a walk one…

I had such a fun date night with my 2 year old little last week!  We went to see the Greatest Show on Earth, Ringling Bros. & Barnum and Bailey’s, “Barnum’s FUNundrum” last Wednesday. (If you missed the details, check this post out). My girlfriend and I took our older kids (Older!! Ha!! They are 2 and 3!!) and had a ball! The girls were in awe and amazement!  (And we liked the fact we could actually strap them both down in car seats and were…

So I took a road trip this past Saturday to see family and friends in the Bay Area.  The drive took me about 7 hours, which is what I had guessed it would with the kids.  I pretty much thought I had lost my mind to even think doing a drive like that with a 2 year old, 1 year old and 4 month old was a good idea.  My husband thought so too, but he didn’t do a very good job of convincing me NOT to do it.

(He…

I took a little adventure on Saturday and drove 7 hours with the babes to see friends & family.

Yes. Drove. In the car. Just me.  And 3 babes, 2 years old and under.

Fun.

In all honesty, not that bad…I had pretty much thought out how the drive needed to play out and had a few contingency plans, but all in all, it went off without a hitch!

But I think I really have Dora and all her friends to thank for that.

Now I’m not a big DVD in the car…

We’re kind of slave drivers around here. You pull your weight, all 30 lbs of it in the Littles’ case, otherwise no dinner for you!  You work for room and board…..

We don’t even give much time to fasten your onsies…

Nice girls.  Good work on that rim Hayden!

Addie, keep your eye on the goal….clean car for Mama.

Be sure to ring that rag out, no dirty streaks on the car please.

Hayden: “How do I…

When you leave your kids and your husband for 3 days, your always a little nervous to what you’ll come home to….there is always good and there is always bad.

Now the bad wasn’t soooo bad as far as the house and kids were concerned…

Nothing a little straightening couldn’t handle.

No broken bones.

But the garden had a few hiccups…

The Powdery Mildew we’ve been fighting on the Zucchini and Yellow Neck Squash has won.  We could continue to fight it,…

(Image: Picky Palate – And please note, how amazingly PERFECT this looks!! Not so much for ours!)

I am on such a recipe kick these days!  Must have been that Thermador event last week!!!  It actually IS because of the Thermador event…I was surrounded by some of the BEST food bloggers in the country, along with some of the BEST cooking appliances in the country…how could I NOT be inspired to do more cooking???  That post is coming soon, very soon….but until…

So fun to get all our your emails and questions!!  Please know that I will try my very best to answer you.  I am VERY slow at replying!!  I don’t mean to be, but well, there are these 3 kids that seem to take up A LOT of time….

Anywhoooo, one of the questions I often get is what does my daily schedule look like…and I’ve been meaning to post that one for quite some time.  But it’s somewhat of a moving target, no day is ever perfect! I will get to that post…

One of the things I put on my list of goals was to find time to have “alone time” or “special date days” with each of my baby girls.   It’s crazy to me how much they get along and learn from each other, but it’s also amazing to see their own personalities come out when we have one-on-one time together.

I signed Addie up for a Combo Dance Class for 2-3 year olds, and Hayden for a Tumbling class for 12-20 mos olds.  I have only done one other “Mommy & Me” type class…

With Addie now 2  years old, And Hayden our 1 year copying EVERYTHING Addie does, we’ve entered this fun stage of Hubs and I getting to be kids again.  What do I mean you ask?  Well before you had kids did you often find yourself jumping in bouncy houses?  Spending long afternoons at Disneyland? Riding kids roller coasters? Staring in fascination at aquariums, trash trucks and airplanes in the sky??  Maybe you did, maybe you didn’t.  No one has to know your secrets!

BUT Hubs and I have lately been enjoying all those carefree…

Get your kids their passport.

I think the current (normal) quoted time is 6-8 weeks.

Piper’s came in 3 weeks.

I have gotten each Little their passport within a few months of birth.

It’s EASY!

Make an appointment (or walk in) at your local post office.

Or check here for local places for your area.

You will need your husband, your babes birth certificate & Social Security #, both parents IDs (drivers licenses) and a…

It’s a local love favorite today….the beat goes on in Orange County at the OC Fair!!!

I love the OC Fair.  And I think at different stages of life you appreciate different things about it.  I remember going in high school and feeling sooo old (in a good way) and soooo cool spending those late summer nights with friends at the fair. When winning all those prizes just made you that much cooler, and having…

I’ve been asked by many about my travel tips for upcoming summer vacations.  This is definitely an area I can help with.  Well, I guess what I mean is, it’s something I’ve done A LOT of with our Littles!  Last year in total we were on 17 planes in 3 time zones.  Not yet with all 3 children, but we started last year when Hayden was 5 weeks old and Addie was a year.  Stay tuned for a full post next week, but until then, here’s a few tips to chew on……

OK, I NEVER would have guessed this is where our garden would be at this point!

I posted 2 weeks ago about the vegetable garden we had planted around Mothers Day.  Thought I would give you a garden update.

This is where it was the day we planted.

This is where it was a month later.

This is where it is 2 weeks after my last post.

HELLO!?!?!?

Needless to say, when…

So a few weeks ago I posted this photo on Facebook and asked people to guess what we were building.  The responses were great…bunk beds? Chicken coop? A fort? A playhouse?

But what we (read = my fabulous husband) was actually building were vegetable beds. We decided that we just didn’t have ENOUGH stuff going on, that it might be fun to add ONE MORE THING to our lists.  I actually take full blame for this project as I thought it might be fun and…

All kids love backpacks

It really doesn’t matter how old they are.

It’s THEIR place to keep THEIR things.

When they are younger, they keep their toys  in there.  As they get older, it’s their treasured school supplies.  And even older, their laptop.  It’s how they carry a peice of their home or their very favorite things with them where ever they go.

It’s because of this and in the spirit of today, I felt compelled to tell you about a mom I was recently introduced to…

I have 3 newly found websites, that I am IN LOVE with!!!

So Happy Friday Favorites to you all…..here goes…

“Hair Thursday“.  LOVE this site!  From beauty tricks, quick hair fixes, to the most darling little boy’s haircut (though super stiff competition with my nephews’) you absolutely must check out this site.  Most especially this post, 4.9 – Preschoolers Need Style Too!

(Photo: Hair Thursday)

And if you like this undeniably handsome little guy’s haircut, then you definitely need…

It was my dad’s birthday this past week and I wanted to make something with the Littles for his garden.  He and my mom have been working on an awesome vegetable garden that I will write more about later.  But since our Littles are a bit too little to do anything that requires too much skill, I went with painting rocks that Grandpa could add to his flower pots, as well as painting a little potted basil plant.

Super easy projects, and the