a lovely outdoor summer wedding

Our family enjoyed the most lovely outdoor wedding last weekend at a farm in the hills of New Jersey.

When we arrived, we were greeted by a clothesline full of handmade tote bags with treats for each family — trail mix, homemade fruit leather (strawberry rhubarb and apricot lavender!), kazoos for the ceremony recessional, and sparklers for the part of the festivities we missed because we have children who needed to get home to bed.

Each tote bag was stamped with a chicken and was strung up with a tag that featured the same motif and the names of the guests. I was especially eager to see the tote bags, because I made the tags… but when I gave them to the bride, they didn’t have any farm animals on them yet!

For the wedding ceremony, we sat on hay bales that were covered with white cloths. It was a warm summer afternoon, so there were baskets of woven fans available for all the guests.

The aisle was lined with simple wildflower bouquets in blue mason jars tied to sticks with twine.

Between the ceremony and the reception, we made sure to visit the do-it-yourself photobooth. The white curtains and the woods made a lovely backdrop.

We used the camera provided, but also took some shots with my camera. Not pictured: our kids + my expanding baby bump.

Most people don’t take pictures of the bathroom facilities at a wedding, but the setup was just too unusual not to share! As you may have noticed, the bride and groom planned a very green wedding… right down to the toilets. This sign greeted you at the edge of the meadow near the entrance to the woods.

At the end of a short dirt path, guests could use one of two toilets. They were carefully angled away from guests and each other, because the third side of the toilet stall was completely open. It looks pretty primitive, but there was actually a regular toilet seat built in to the structure on top of some kind of container with wood shavings. It was much better than a port-a-potty (no smell! no icky door handle to touch! no claustrophobia!), but it was especially important to remember to flip that sign from vacant to occupied before entering.

In spite of the rain that fell during the reception (good thing we were under a tent!), it was a lovely day celebrating a lovely couple. Congrats, Ben and Ashley!

a purple birthday party

Stars, sparkles, and purple all came together for a fun birthday party for our sweet nine-year-old. Magen’s favorite cake is angel food, which means I didn’t have to attempt any fancy cake decorating (hooray!), but it did add the challenge of coming up with an interesting cake topper. Last year I just used tall spiral candles, but this year I made some sparkly stars with her name (which should have been higher up).

That’s not a custom metal topper — I just cut her name out of card stock with my X-Acto knife and painted it silver. (The font is Japan, which is a nice thick cursive font.)

Magen wanted to do some of the same activities this year that I had planned for her party last year, including a photoshoot with a giant number and a water balloon fight.

She also requested another treasure hunt, so this year I came up with various activities that would each reveal a clue about where to look for the next clue. It was somewhat complicated to get it all planned out, but also very fun. The girls played charades, Wheel of Fortune, balloon darts, and other games. I didn’t have a Wheel of Fortune game, and couldn’t seem to track one down among any of my friends, so I made my own (of course). I just taped little pieces of paper over the letters written on a chalkboard, and the girls took turns spinning a little spinner to win another Starburst before they guessed a letter.

The girls also enjoyed hitting water balloon piñatas, an idea from Scrap Happy Heather that I discovered via Pinterest. I hung the balloons from a rope tied between two trees, and the girls took turns whacking the balloons with a bat. With a camera in my hand, I made sure I stayed out of the splash zone!

At the end of the treasure hunt, the girls found drawstring goody bags full of fun little trinkets that almost made me wish I were a nine-year-old again.

while I was gone

Hi everyone — I’m back! Yesterday we returned home from a wonderful week of vacation… and I found some happy little surprises waiting for me. Look what happened in our backyard while we were at the beach:

A few little cherry tomatoes finally turned red! And this regular tomato plant is now growing a little green tomato. Fresh tomatoes are my favorite vegetable, but it’s been three years since I’ve had a garden, so I’m pretty excited about these.

I can’t wait to tell you more about our vacation. It was great in every way.

our happy news

I’m delighted to share the news with you that we are expecting a little one in December!

my senses today: beans and bingo

What did you notice today? These are a few things that captivated my senses.

heard: “B-14. G-57. N-39.” Tonight was candy bar bingo night at the kids’ school, and we got to use these awesome old bingo cards. They’re the same style as the travel bingo cards we had when I was a kid.

saw: a beautiful golden moon hanging low in the sky on the way home from bingo. “THAT is gorgeous,” I said. “THAT is gorgeous,” came the sweet echo from the back of the van.

smelled: beans, unfortunately, when we walked in the door. I cooked up some pinto beans for a pot of chili I want to make tomorrow, so the house will soon be filled with a much better aroma.

tasted: a super-salty soft pretzel. It was so salty that I brushed off a lot of it — and it still seemed too salty. And I like things salty!

touched: the smooth keys of my newly tuned piano. There’s always something a bit magical about sitting down to play a perfectly tuned instrument.

my senses today

The spring-like weather today must have really perked up my senses. These were some of the things that caught my attention.

smelled: earthy fresh air. It was a gorgeous day, and I left the doors open for a while when I got home from work.

heard: “We Owned the Night” by Lady Antebellum. I bought the entire “Own the Night” album on Amazon today for a quarter. Of a dollar.

tasted: a sweet, juicy clementine. I’m on my fourth 5-pound box of the season. Only a few of those have been eaten by someone other than me.

saw: Jane Eyre. Oh my. It was slow and mysterious and almost haunting. And free from Redbox.

felt: the wind whip my hair around. March is making sure the “in like a lion” part of the month really happens.

How about you? What have YOU been noticing?

Alt

For the next few days, a bunch of people I admire are getting together to learn about things I wish I knew, to talk about things I’d love to discuss, and to share ideas I wish I were creative enough to come up with.

The third annual Altitude Design Summit (nickname: Alt) officially kicks off tomorrow morning in Salt Lake City, but a quick glance at Twitter makes it clear that the fun has already begun.

Alt is a conference for design and lifestyle bloggers, and if you’ve never heard of it, this article will help bring you up to speed. At least nine bloggers I regularly follow are participating this year, along with others I’m familiar with and probably hundreds I’ve never heard of. I’m excited that Alt is finally underway — even though I’m not there. I can’t wait to be inspired by all the words and photos that the attendees will share with the rest of us who envy them.

I don’t know if any Alt attendees read my blog (maybe a couple?), but if you’re lucky enough to be at Alt, I hope you have as much fun as I think you’re having!

celebrating the first day of summer

What better way to celebrate the first day of summer than with ice cream and water balloons!

Last evening we invited a bunch of friends to come over for a party to celebrate the official arrival of SUMMER!

I snapped a few pictures as we were setting up, so don’t be surprised if toppings and props seem to appear and disappear in these pictures. Goodbye beach ball, hello fruit and ice cream!

We had no shortage of toppings for our ice cream: sprinkles, oreos, gummi bears, M&Ms, chocolate sauce, caramel sauce, whipped topping, strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries! The brand new beach buckets held puppy chow and pretzels.

The kids enjoyed Laffy Taffy, all kinds of outdoor toys, and glowsticks at dusk. They also had fun with 200 water balloons!

Welcome, summer.

 

our first three daylilies

Our first three daylilies bloomed today. They’re such a welcome burst of color!

an illustrated grocery list

Taking a four-year-old to the grocery store does not rank high on my list of fun things to do. A few weeks ago, Hayden was {this close} to having a meltdown in the grocery store because I refused to buy him the fun five dollar toothbrush he grabbed off the rack. Never mind that we were there to buy ammo for the marshmallow shooter I was making for him.

So when he and I needed to pick up a few items at the grocery store before heading out of town the other weekend, I decided to try a creative approach. Before we went to the store, I wrote up a five-item grocery list — and since he can’t read yet, I illustrated it.

He figured out everything but the bottled water.

When we got to the store, I handed Hayden the list and put him in charge of making sure we got everything. I told him that we were only going to buy the items that were on our list, so every time he saw something else he wanted, we admired it and talked about it for a moment, and then I asked him if it was on the list.

“No…”

“Sorry. Then I guess we can’t get it.” I added just a slight twinge of disappointment to my voice, as if the person prohibiting us from buying these things was someone other than me.

I had written the list in the order that we would find the items in the store, and with only five items on the list, the little shopping adventure was over pretty quickly. But we had fun while we were there, and it might have been my favorite grocery shopping trip ever… because I left the store with a smile on my face and a proud, happy little boy by my side.