Oregon Coast Weekend

This past weekend, we got away for some much needed family time. We took a few days and went out to Depoe Bay and had an amazing time.

We went to the beach . . .

 and built sand castles.

 We tried to fly a kite, but amazingly enough, there wasn't enough wind!

 We put a puzzle together . . .

 and some new Legos.

 We even read a bit!

 We took walks and visited shops.

 We found gluten free clam chowder. Yeah, I was sad about the bacon, too. ;)

 We had more time on the beach.

 And came home with a beautiful sounding wind chime . . . something I've wanted for a long time.

What an amazing time we had!

New Glasses & Homemade Sidewalk Chalk Paint

Princess got new glasses last week and not just any glasses, but Transitions® Lenses that darken in the sun. She loves them! Doesn't she look so grown up?

 That day we made sidewalk chalk paint. It's super simple! One part corn starch, one part water and some food coloring.

What a fun time we had! We will be doing this again . . .

A Bicycle Built For . . .

Last week I showed you Princess' new bike.

This past weekend Princess and the Lizard King headed out to go ice skating. Princess dressed in long sleeves, long pants and made sure to take socks. LK grabbed his skates and they both left. They were gone for quite some time and I had the house to myself.

I didn't do anything too exciting, just some laundry and a little clean up. I was in the kitchen cleaning up dishes when they got back. Princess walked into the kitchen and asked me to come out to the garage because she wanted to show me something. We had bought a bike rack for my car and I thought maybe they had come back and put it on.

I walked out and saw this. A bike! For me!

Isn't it pretty?! I was so surprised. First time ever. I truly had no clue. They were both pretty pleased with themselves.

We have plans to find bike trails around town and we're taking our bikes to the beach this weekend so we can ride together. So much fun! :)

Getting Cozi

No, it's not a spelling mistake or a typo. Cozi is an online family calendar, shopping list, to-do list, journal and more! It's also available as an iPhone and Android app. I am receiving nothing for posting this, we just think it's that awesome.

We have been looking for a family calendar and shopping list, something we can share easily across devices and that updates in "the cloud". We knew it had to exist somewhere, but hadn't been able to find it and gave up looking.

I was at my friend Gypsy Mama's house and she thought of something for her "to-do list" and mentioned Cozi as she typed it in. Intrigued, I asked about it and learned that this was exactly what we were looking for . . . and more!

We can assign calendar items to Princess, LK, me and even the royal dog or any combination of us. We maintain a separate shopping list for each store we frequent and we each have our own to-do list as well as a combined to-do list. There's even a menu planner (online only) and a place to save your favorite recipes (online only). There's a journal that I had no intention of using, but Princess discovered it and has begun posting photos and thoughts to it. Super cool! Best of all, it's all FREE! Of course there's an upgraded ad-free version available for purchase, if you prefer.

Head on over to Cozi and check it out!

Princess Jokes

Princess is a pretty funny girl . . .

She likes to make up jokes. Here are a few to tickle your funny bone.

The first joke she ever made up:

Why did the chicken cross the park?

To get to the other slide.

And more recent ones:

What do you carry bugs in?

A bugget.


Where do you take your sick dog?

To the dogter.


Hope you got a good giggle!

Big Girl Bike

Princess has outgrown her bike. It's the one with training wheels and where her knees come up to the handlebars when she pedals. It was definitely time to upgrade to a new bike, so I began the Craigslist search. I quickly found 3 bikes and Princess chose her favorite. Shockingly, she didn't choose the pink one. Purple is a close second favorite color . . . and the purple bike has a basket and "jewels" that make noise when you ride. It just doesn't get any cooler than that!

There's only one catch. Princess didn't know how to ride without training wheels. With her new bike, she was determined.

Armed with some great learning tools from my friend Pink and a tip from my friend Hydro (school parking lots are a perfect place to learn), Princess was ready to make it happen.

And she did!

WARNING! Turn down your volume! And the video is a little shaky because I was running.

Veggies Gone Wild

Not sure how, why or what, but we've got rogue veggies growing. Well, I kind of know the how and the why and some of the what. Here's what we've got.

a tomato forest, but we're not sure what kind of tomatoes

 with blossoms, so I guess we'll find out

 a giant squash plant of some sort, either zucchini or yellow

 with lots of blossoms so we'll find out soon

 and a look at the garden going down

 and looking up the garden

Things are coming along quite well. We've been eating lots of lettuce and a few green beans. I'm about ready to start picking kale, too!

How is your garden growing?