Monkey Business

We have been hanging around the house a lot lately. To fill in some time, I got the boys this monkey bobblehead craft set from Target. It was regularly priced at $14.99, but was on clearance for $3.74! I love me a bargain!

The set makes 5 bobbleheads. Riley made two, and Quinn three. It took about 7 minutes, but they liked it. They have gifted me all of the bobbleheads too! So sweet.

These are Quinn's three bobbleheads. I love the faces and decorations he drew on them. Hmm, they have stickers in interesting places. Oh, belly buttons I'm told.

Here are Riley's 2 bobbleheads. Cute. Love the green hair!

Oh, I got in on the monkeying around too. I made this original sock monkey last night. I'm working on a new one, a pink one!

This? Well, this is no monkey business! It's my new bag. No, I didn't make it. Vera Bradley did. I love love love the fabric.

Tuesday Fun

Today the boys and I went into SF to visit the Aquarium of the Bay, at Pier 39.

These sardines are so cool. They travel in huge schools, and I enjoy watching how they move together, separate and rejoin. I really expected them to form themselves into a huge arrow-oh maybe that's in Finding Nemo.

These are the famous sea lions of Pier 39. They arrived one day, and they have been there ever since. They are rather stinky, but make a cool sound, and are fun to watch.

Here's a faraway view of Alcatraz. I liked the flag above the island. I think it looks like we are on a boat. Nope, just the end of the pier.

Here are Riley and Quinn eating in our favorite Pier 39 restaurant, Wipeout Bar & Grill.

I liked this giant crab. It's got plants/flowers growing all over its middle. It is at the entrance to Pier 39.

Mamma Mia, here I go again...

We had a very busy, productive weekend. We finished cleaning out the entire house-I went room by room, cleaning and getting rid of stuff. Our goodwill pile is huge. The boys spent the night on the USS Pampanitio (a submarine) in San Francisco on Saturday night, with the scouts, and I had a Girls' Night Out (well, we were actually in, doing crafts). Kevin and I also saw Mamma Mia (LOVED it!!!) and Step Brothers.

Here's Riley, vacuuming his own room. What a man! He was quite efficient too. Doesn't it look like he's having a blast too?

Here's Quinn with his lovey. I'm super sad though. When he was packing for his overnight trip, I asked him if he was going to take his lovey (he's had this blanket since he was a baby, and it has gone EVERYWHERE with us). He said he wasn't going to take it because he thought "the guys" would make fun of him. I said I understood. He then told me he didn't need it anymore, he was ready to give it up. AND he wanted to give it to a little baby! I told him we would pack it away to keep for a child of his own some day. It's official. These boys are all growed up! Sniff.

These are the projects we did for my Girls' Night. We decorated 2009/2010 calendars, stamped the top, inside of a bookmark, decorated a box, covered binder clips with paper, decorated a clothespin, and made scrabble tile pendants. It was lots of fun. Oh and we rocked out to G.N.O-Girl's Night Out by Miley Cirus!

So Sweet!

New Candidate for president

San Francisco Zoo

My BFF, Kristi, and I took our kids to the San Francisco Zoo today. Good news! All of the animals remained in their enclosures!  No reason for them to try and escape, as we did not bother the animals. After the zoo, we went downtown to the City Centre and had lunch, and then did some shopping at H&M.

Here's a map of the zoo.  I guess it's pretty hard to read from where you are sitting.

I love these guys!  I think it's amazing that they can be so tall.  This one's just a baby.

These signs are posted around the zoo.  It's really sad that 3 individuals are the cause of these signs.  I guess it never occurred to me to tease/torment or throw things at the animals. Hopefully these signs will prevent any future problems.

Here's the new fencing added to the tiger and lion enclosures.

Grizzly bears!!  These two are so cool.  This is a pretty new exhibit at the zoo.  It's really well done.  They have lots of room and it looks really natural.  These guys are so cute! I have more pictures, and maybe I'll post some tomorrow.

So Cute

Owen loves to cuddle, and the boys are especially happy for this.  Our other two cats are not huge fans of Quinn or Riley, so this is a treat for them.  

So cute.

Comfy.  This cat is just too freaking cute!  

Working Boy

Kevin's work held their annual "Take your son or daughter to work day", Wednesday.  Riley went with Kevin and had a great time.  They did lots of activities, and got lots of freebies.  This badge was a favorite-just like dad's.

Awwwww.

Isn't he cute???  Owen. He's really a sweet cat.  He loves stuffed animals. We had to get him some of his own.  Quinn was becoming quite upset when Owen would leave his room with one of his beloved stuffies in his mouth.  He's got two big ones of his own-a dog (ha ha ha) and a giraffe. He wrestles with them, and chews them.  He's discovered his jumping legs the last 2 days and loves to run across my kitchen island, and the kitchen table.  He's really, really cute.

Redecorating (sort of)

A couple of months ago, we got a new cabinet for our TV in the living room.  I like it much better, and it has more storage.  The wall that the TV is on, is rather big and I was at a standstill about art for it.  The old entertainment center was taller, which cut the wall in a weird way.  This one is shorter, so I had more space.  What to do?  What to do? I saw a Michael's add in a magazine, and it inspired the following.

I wrapped 12x12 canvas squares in material.  The walls are a light green, which doesn't really photograph very well.  I like the way it looks with the black and white against it.

There's the new cabinet.  Our old TV looks a little lame, but we plan on upgrading to a flat screen down the line. 

View from the fireplace side.

Here's the rest of the fireplace.  I'm really pleased with the black accents.

Animal Cookies

I bought these cookie cutters and the mix at Williams Sonoma.  I got this as an end-of-the-school year present for Quinn's kindergarten teacher.  I liked them so much that I bought some for us too.  I made them last week, and they were really fun!  The cookie cutters were pretty easy to use.  They make the shape, and then the image is stamped on from the middle and you also can push them out with the little button on top.  I had some trouble with the tiger and lion, but when I used flour, it was a little easier.  

These are the same cookies as the little box of Animal Crackers, but a little bigger, I think.  They pretty much taste the same too.

Here are some finished cookies.  Aren't they cute?  Yummy too!

Check this out!

You can also check out his website.  Thanks to Betz White for the inspiration.  It's on her blog too.

Saturday

Today I went to the 1st annual Renegade Craft Fair in San Francisco.  It was a busy, cold Saturday in the city.  Lots of bikes, lots of people, lots of cars.  The fair was located at Fort Mason.  I walked down the end of the building where I could see the Golden Gate Bridge and took a few pictures. Lots of boats on the bay today.  It's very gray-only in the mid 60's today.

Golden Gate

Alcatraz

The things I purchased at the craft fair today.

Two lolabee dolls-one is a present, a ring made from vintage watch parts, a crocheted pink owl and a felted house (from Tart Heart), and a sock monkey kit.

Back to Cool

I am sooo excited!  San Francisco is getting a CB2!  It's a store, which is affiliated with Crate & Barrel.  Currently, there are only 2 stores, both in Chicago.  Looks like I can do a little shopping there next month!  Whoo hoo!  Not as exciting as being between two Ikeas, but pretty cool, nonetheless.

We have some news...

We added to our family today, thanks to Quinn's pal Zack and his family!

Meet Owen.  He's almost 12 weeks old.

Just ignore all that stuff on my counters.  We are still unpacking from our trip.

He explored all afternoon.  He's been happy playing with his new toys, and ping-pong balls. He's pounced all over and has run all around.  I think he will sleep pretty well tonight.

Thanks Zack and family!  We love him!

Homeward Bound

On our drive home today, we stopped in Baker, California.  It is the home of the world's largest thermometer.  You can't tell from the picture, but it was 101 degrees (at 10:30 in the morning).

Baker is the Gateway to Death Valley.

It gets so hot here, you can fry an egg.

Look what we found at the "Alien Jerky" store.  

Those two adults are responsible alien parents.  Their baby and toddler aliens are strapped into their carseats.

Aliens were everywhere.

We are happy to be home.  We had a really great time and saw lots of great places.  Riley loved Chicago, Philadelphia, and Vegas.  Quinn loved Chicago and the Crayola Factory.  Kevin loved Bear Country USA, and I loved Chicago and Philadelphia.  We are already planning our next roadtrip-but not tomorrow!  For now, we are happy to be back in California.  It was 71 degrees when we got home.  AHHH.

Vegas Baby!

We left Green River, Utah early, and headed for Vegas.  We stayed the night at Excalibur.  

Here's the view from our room on the 24th floor.

Paris Casino. 

Oh yeah, it was HOT.  110 degrees.  We went from air conditioning to air conditioning.  The boys loved playing in these misting fans. They would get really wet, and then dry really fast.

New York, New York Casino.  See the roller coaster track?

Bellagio.  We watched a couple of the fountain shows in front of this casino.  The fountains are really amazing.

We left Vegas at 9am this morning, headed for HOME!

Four Corners and Arches National Park

From Albuquerque, we drove to Four Corners, where Arizona, Utah, New Mexico and Colorado meet (at the corner).  This was a pretty exciting day, on many levels. 

Here's Riley with body parts in all 4 states.  This was his favorite part.  His least favorite part?  When he fainted while looking at souvenirs.  Not fun.  It was in the high 90's and all of a sudden, he really started complaining.  I had a hold of him, and out he went. We got him to the car (and the air conditioning) and we were on our way.  He was fine.

After the drama of Four Corners, we took in the spectacular views of Arches National Park.  Wow.  It really is something to see.

Balancing Rock

Delicate Arch-this one's really famous.  Many Utah residents have this on their license plates. We were pretty far back, thank goodness for my 12x zoom.  We did not hike out to it (it's over an hour and pretty strenuous), it was really hot.

Wow.  I believe this area is called "Park Avenue."

We headed for Green River, Utah for the night.  It was the 4th of July, and we did see some fireworks in Green River.  We used our sparklers and snakes.

New Mexico

We left Amarillo, Texas around 9 am this morning.  We went in search of the Cadillac Ranch, which was harder to find then you would think.  The directions we had were crazy, but alas, we found it. It was raining, so we didn't go out to the cars.  There are about 8 cadillacs with their noses buried in the ground.  People come along and sign them, so they are very colorful.

Finding these cars, slowed us down a little this morning.  We set out for Roswell, New Mexico. We made it as far as Clovis, NM and then headed for the interstate.  The weather was so horrible, and the roads were not real great (not an interstate, just little country roads).  For a good long time, we were the only ones heading south-scary.  It was a monsoon!  At one point, I went through a giant puddle of standing water.  The boys were impressed with the splash. I was not.  We decided it was not worth it to try and make it to Roswell on these little, unoccupied roads, in these little Texas and New Mexico towns, in the middle of nowhere.  It will have to be visited on another trip.  We went straight to Albuquerque, New Mexico.

My car is dirty.  See the dirt around my happy family?  We decided not to wash it.  We are going to see how much more dirt accumulates. 

Kevin took the boys to the New Mexico History Museum, and I went to Old Town-lots of restaurants, stores, and galleries.  It was HOT.  95 degrees.  I sweated my bottom off!   This was a cool building though, and I got to shop, without children, so it was good.

We stayed at the Hotel  Albuquerque.  It's really nice.  We were on the 10th floor.  It's next to Old Town.  I could have walked there, but I didn't.  It was hot.

Here's the sunset from our room, this evening.  Quinn said, "It's just beautiful."  That about sums it up.

We are heading for Green River, Utah, tomorrow.  We'll stop at 4 corners (Riley is psyched that he can stand in 4 states at once), and we will also visit Arches National Park.  Green River is where we will spend the 4th of July.  Kevin bought sparklers and snakes for tomorrow.  The boys are so excited-we can't have any fireworks in the city we live in.

Did I mention I got to go to Hobby Lobby in Albuquerque.  I did.  Yup.