The Family Vacation

So, remember the super glam and fabulous vacation I mentioned last week? No? That's probably because I told you it was actually The Husband's family staying with us for a week. Not to pish-pish that, because it was actually a nice time. It's just that six kids in your house does not a vacation make.

{elle j photography. She's pretty much a miracle worker.}

Observations from a week with half a dozen kids aged 6-10:

A family of twelve under one roof eats a LOT of food. Think two or three carts full of groceries. Also think another cart of beer for the daddies and wine and Skinnygirl margaritas for the mommies.

If you run out of nacho cheese on taco night, there is a good chance a ten year old boy will weep openly about it.

If your spouse recently had ankle surgery and wears a walking cast, he probably will not think to bring a pair of shoes. Just the one. So, be prepared to shoe shop for him before the family photo session.

Amidst the hustle and bustle in packing for such a trip, it's possible that you might forget to pack pajamas for the children. But it turns out that little boys like to sleep in their clothes. In fact, little boys who have pajamas readily available will probably choose to wear clothes to bed, too. It's just cool.

Photos, paintings and busts of Popes prominiently featured at Buca di Beppo might frighten children. And some adults, too. But bread makes you feel better.

Water park slides are torturous, terrifying, dizzying, possibly life-ending horrors. Avoid them at all costs.*

Those kids would disagree, but they're totally wrong and obviously were too hopped up on churros to notice how terrifically scary they actually are.

*opinion expressed is merely my own

Now, pay attention to this one: Baby wipes will remove this nail polish -while wet- from carpet. To avoid any embarrassment to family members that are not children, I will leave it at that. Accidents happen.

Sometimes mommies need to go to bed at 7:45. They just do, ok?

Vacay.

I'm on vacation! Well, sorta. The Husband's mom, dad, sister, her husband and their three boys are staying with us this week. They drove all the way from Ohio and Missouri (The midwest, people! -That's just for you, Jen.) to be with us here in Arizona. That's a total of twelve of us in my house, six of which are kids aged six to ten. All is going well. Nobody has a black eye yet.

Anyway, that's why I am MIA this week.

Also, I was going over my blog stats this morning (I told you it was only kind of a vacation) and saw somebody found my blog by searching:

"where can i buy frosting in paris"

You have no idea how much that made my day.

Buy This, Try This: Paris and what to do with Heirloom Tomatoes

It's Wednesday! Are you inspired?

I'd love to buy:

This dress from Old Navy. I used to {LOVE} sundresses in the summertime, but three kids later, maxi dresses just seem like the way to go. Like a muu muu but way more socially acceptable.

{Old Navy}

I adore this necklace from Piano Bench Designs on Etsy.

{PianoBenchDesigns}

I big fat puffy heart Paris. Did you know that? Here are The Husband and I in 2003. I noticed he looks almost exactly the same, but I do not. Huh.

I'm {GOING TO} Make:

This Heirloom Tomato Gratin. Oh gosh, I am so hungry right now.

{Woman's Day}

 In our last basket of produce from Bountiful Baskets Co-Op, we got some heirloom tomatoes. I wasn't exactly sure how to use them... to be honest, we usually get at least one fruit or veggie that I've never used before... and sometimes I'm not even sure of what it is. And that's part of the fun of it! I already made a swiss chard quiche this week and I never would have normally considered swiss chard.

(Side note: The Husband breaks out in giggles like a 12 year old boy over the word "chard" because it sounds like a similar word that ends with a "t" instead of a "d".)

*sigh*

But anyways... I was talking about being hungry, so back to the appetizing things!

My soul sister Jen (who painted a couch for her sewing room!) and I hit up the Goodwill  last Saturday (half off day! Woot!) and although it felt a lot like Black Friday for thrifters, we both scored some great stuff, including a tart pan.

(She actually found it first and I ended up buying it. I don't know how that happened, but I'm about 75% sure I didn't swipe it from her.)

So now I simply must make a tart. And I am dreaming of this Lemon Tart. Oh godness, I adore lemon desserts!

I have to go eat something.

Patriotic Summertime Moss Wreath

Officially, officially summer vacation at mi casa. It's the first Monday since school let out and it was absolutely time to update the saying in my big ol' chalkboard!

{My newly-6 year old told me he could make better suns than I did.}

It was time to update my door wreath, too. I was thinking fresh, fun, and super easy. Like, a monkey could make it easy. So I came up with this!

Memorial Day is on the horizon... and well, I like to do it up red, white and blue style pretty much all summer long. U-S-A! U-S-A! (My husband is in the Air Force, so I'm allowed to do that.)

All this took was:

A grapevine wreath- I fell in love with this one from Michael's, but you can get a less attractive and cheaper version at the dollar store. I just happen to live much closer to a Michael's.

Moss- I stumbled upon this kind at (oh, I am shamed to say it...) Walmart. Two bucks a bag and I have to admit, it's pretty good stuff! It even smelled like outside. (Strange that I liked that since I do not like the outdoors. At all.)

Premade flower embellishments from -again-I swear I live 5 minutes from it, ok?- Michael's. I'm not the kind of crafter who makes everything, like my friend Jen. I keep the premade embellishment companies in business. Just doing my part! (U-S-A! U-S-A!)

And... The trusty hot glue gun

Lay down some newspaper (moss is adorbs but mess-ayyy) and glue on your moss. Initially, I was going to cover it entirely, but I liked the mixture of the vines in it, so I just covered most of the front.

Embellish away! I did, in fact, make ONE flower on my own. I had the metal sign from last year, probably from Hob Lob.

Yes, my front door is depressingly mud brown. Everything in the desert is brown! I'm considering painting it red, but I'm not sure it will gel with my tan stucco house... It's a thought.

Have a good one!

Link partying with:

Random Musings...

It's been a busy week. Last day of school stuff, birthday and bowling party for the new 6 year old boy, yadda, yadda, yadda...

So. Busy week = random stuff. Let's begin.

I finally completed a project that I had been putting off for months. Not too get you too excited, but it looks something like this:

Don't worry! It only looks like that at about step 3. The finished product is way, way, cuter and contains far fewer bits and pieces of foam. I'll show you next week.

I uploaded pics from my camera and found this:

Evidence that at least one of my children helped themselves to my computer and watched Annoying Orange videos on YouTube. Are you familiar with Annoying Orange? It's exactly as the name implies.

I have concluded that old fashioned mustaches are the new bird. They're everywhere and I'm not exactly sure why we (yes, myself included) like them so much, but we do. We just do!

EQUALS

I totally bought my daughter this:

{little miss momma}

School's out! Day one of summer vacation and my kids are already bored. One took a 2 1/2 hour nap! They delivered these to their teachers yesterday...

I used FREE printables from Skip to my Lou. Love it!

Cookie cake is preferred over regular cake by children 10 and under. It was a shared party, so we had both. Yes, of course I ate both!

And I would have eaten more of those darn kids would have left me.

Happy weekend!