Niiiieeeeces!

A couple of days ago The Bean and Double simultaneously sent me pictures on Facebook messenger:

This was The Bean's choice.  I love that it's a cow patterned cowboy boot.

The rest are from Double A.  I love the colors.

This is really cute.  You know I love the blue flowers.

I like how details almost blend in somehow.  Notice the butterflies?  Double A loves butterflies!

I could do without that crazy, curved toe, but the colors and details are fun.

Perfect for the weekend!  I told her she should wear these to our family reunion on the island on the 4th.  With her swimming suit.  Yeah, I know I'm a mean auntie

Thank you, awesome nieces, for thinking of your auntie and sending me shoes!  You are the bestest and I love you to the pond and back!

Memory Lane: 2013. 2014. 2015.

Seminary

According to a friend's post on Facebook today we graduated from seminary 9 years ago.  Like my auntie said, it doesn't seem like 9 years until I see how how little Double A was in the pictures. She was 7 in 2007 and her birthday present was to get to go to graduation with Mom and Dad.  Actually, she couldn't have cared less about graduation. The real birthday present was that graduation was in the Bay Area which meant she got to see the Golden Gate Bridge.  She was obsessed with the Golden Gate Bridge and you should have seen how excited she was to visit it, walk on it, drive across it, etc.  It was adorable.  Anyway, 9 years.  Time flies.  I'm going with an anagram post tonight because it's time for bed and I didn't want to do anything too elaborate (and I still have to run the dishwasher and upload another podcast, blah).  I graduated from Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary:

P is for Pacific and purple.

L is for Lutheran and lime green.

T is for Theological and teal.

S is for Seminary and silver.

Memory Lane: 2013. 2014. 2015.

And Also With You

Happy Star Wars Day!  I have always loved Star Wars and am very happy that this is a holiday, even if I haven't had time to watch anything Star Wars-y today.  The day started with me getting Double A and The Bean up for school as they spent the night last night (yay) since I left today (boo).  Turns out I'm THAT mom (auntie) who drops her kids (nieces) off at school wearing her pajamas and slippers.  They were fed and dressed and had their homework, I just wasn't exactly put together.  I even got out of the car for good-bye hugs which meant people witnessed my lovely, bra-less attire.  The kiddos didn't seem to care, though.  After I finished packing and actually showered and dressed, Mom, Dad and I headed off to the seester's and from there we went to Flower's school for her 4th grade school program.  She was awesome!  She was a pirate in the show, which was all about pirates, but even more awesome, she was in a special choir called Kids in Motion that is comprised of 3-5 graders.  AND even more awesomer, she is also part of the Junk Band, which is a percussion group that uses things like buckets and garbage cans, etc.  She was so good, and it was so fun!  Also, she was totally the cutest pirate in the whole show.  After a couple of hours hanging out with the fam it was time to head to the airport.  Sigh.  I'm currently in the Salt Lake airport, having completed the first part of my journey.  I have a 3 hour layover and free wi-fi, so thought I'd do a quick post.  I'm so lucky and blessed to have had 2 weeks at home with my family, but it always tears me apart a little bit to leave.  I miss the hubby and am looking forward to seeing the puppies and dragons, but I hate leaving the fam.  Yes, I am a 41 year old woman who wants her mommy.  And her siblings, and auntie, and nieces.  I love being with them.

Back to Star Wars Day.  Part of the reason I was less than put together for school drop-off this morning was because the girls wanted Star Wars hair for school.  I am not great at doing my own hair, let alone someone else's, but we watched some Youtube tutorials last night and came up with the following:

The Bean has Rey's hair from The Force Awakens.

Double A has Princess Leia's Cloud City hair from The Empire Strikes Back.  I thought they turned out pretty well considering I have no experience and we only decided last night to give it a shot.  

That was the hair, let's look at shoes! 

Our friends at Irregular Choice even have Star Wars shoes!  Poor R2-D2 is being stepped on.

The artwork isn't great on these (although WAY better than I could ever do), but I like that they're of the newest movie.

 

Awww...BB-8 is adorable, as are these shoes, although BB-8 seems implied rather than explicit.  Maybe he's on the other side.

 

Ooooh...the bad guys!

These crack me up.  So very romance-movie-esque!

I know 2 of these are the same as the first picture, but now you can see Yoda (whose head is also being stepped on), and because this led me to this page which is 14 pairs of Irregular Choice Star Wars Shoes.  You should go look.  No really.  Go look.  And May the Fourth be With You!

Memory Lane: 2013. 2014. 2015.

Sweet 16

My Double A is 16 today!  Which is crazy, because just yesterday she looked like this:

She was such a happy baby.  She's still a happy kid, even if she is a teenager and more prone to rolling her eyes.  As a teenager, she is:  A Sophomore, into drama (the good kind where she acts in plays), on student council, driving (learner's permit, no driver's license yet...which reminds me, I need to have her take me for a drive), a sci-fi/fantasy nerd (I'm so proud), and VERY into Marvel comics.  MARVEL.  NOT DC.  We don't talk about DC around here.  So in honor of that love, here are some Marvel-themed shoes.  You'll notice they're all flats as my Double A is not a fan of heels.

Happy Birthday, Double A!  I'm so very happy I got to stay longer and celebrate your actual birthday today!

Memory Lane: 2013. 2014.

Family!

Today was awesome.  We had a family dinner to celebrate my (late) and Double A's (early) birthdays.  The rain from yesterday continued today which meant that Flower's and Laughter's soccer games got canceled, which meant that their whole family got to come to dinner when we didn't think they would be able to.  There were 12 of us:  me, Mom, Dad, the Brother, the Seester, the Brother-in-Law, Double A, the Bean, Flower, Laughter, the Auntie, and the Uncle (who I haven't seen in a couple of years, so that was extra-special-awesome!).  We were only missing DJ and the hubby, which is very very sad.  There was German chocolate cake, which is never ever sad.  Sigh...it was lovely, and I wish it could happen more often.  Here are some shoes from the day:

The Auntie's thrift store boots.  They're crazy, and cool, and totally work for her.

Dad and the Uncle were both wearing Keene's today.  One of these days I should round us all up and take a Keene family picture. 

The Seester's adorable brown sandals, with a slight, unintentional photo-bomb from the Brother-in-Law.

So it was a pretty fabulous day.  So fabulous, in fact, that even going to the mostly terrible and very long Batman Vs. Superman couldn't ruin the overall fabulosity.

Memory Lane: 2013. 2014. 2015.

Holidays!

Last night I had a sleepover with Double A, The Bean, Flower, Laughter, Pippi and Tink.  Mom's house was a bit crowded, but it just made it more cozy.  Today they were all on hand so we could do Holidays!  For those of you unfamiliar, this is the day when we do a whole bunch of holidays in one day while I'm home because I miss most of them with the kiddos during the year.  For Easter we dyed eggs and then had an Easter egg hunt in the yard.  Then we did Fourth of July with leftover smoke bombs and snaps that the brother brought over.  Lunch was a Thanksgiving dinner with turkey and stuffing followed  by a birthday celebration for everyone with cupcakes and candles.  After lunch we did Halloween with face paint and Trick-or-Treating at various doors (usually we do this outside, but today it was pouring down rain so we did it inside).  Last we did a St. Patrick's Day treasure hunt to find the gold that the Leprechaun hid.  Hopefully a good time was had by all.  Mom and I were fairly tired afterwards, but I had fun.  Here are the shoes everyone wore today:

The Bean and Double A's matching fleep flops.

Tink's whole outfit was that crazy color combination, plus these fun, colorful shoes that light up.

Laughter.  I think these are adorable.

Flower.  She's siting next to me and says these shoes are oooooold.  But look at her cute polka dot socks!

I love Pippi's colorful laces.

Today was another awesome day with the fam.  Laughter, Flower, The Bean and Double A are staying the night again, so that will be fun.  And slightly less crowded.

Memory Lane:  2013. 2014. 2015.

From the Brain of the Bean

Tonight's post is brought to you by inspiration from the Bean because I couldn't come up with anything and I didn't take pictures of the kiddos' cute shoes today.  So she suggested I type in all of the nieces' names + shoes, and then she helped me pick a pair for each niece:

DJ.  She likes black, she's not terribly girly when it comes to shoes, and apparently she wants a Harley.

 

Double A.  These aren't real, they're for a doll, but she loves green.  She wouldn't actually wear these, though, because they have heels and she's strictly a flats girl.

The Bean chose cute sandals for herself, which is kind of funny as she loooooves heels.

Flower.  We like the colors.  Not sure if they look like Flower or not.

Laughter didn't have a lot of choices.  These were the best of the bunch.  At least they're blue!

Speaking of blue, Pippi gets awesome blue wedding shoes.

This is actually a little sedate.  Tink loves color and crazy patterns, but The Bean and I thought this was really cute.

And that's it from Montana.  I'm tired and the 6 girls who are having a sleepover tonight are probably going to wake up much earlier than I am prepared for.

Memory Lane: 2013.

Poor Barbie

Between the purple sausage toe and unpacking I didn't leave the house today. Since we don't yet have Internet I'm writing this on my phone, which is a pain, so this will be short (I can't guarantee sweet).

Last night I found this barbie boot in the backyard:

There's a barbie somewhere with only one black boot! She probably has an outfit that is now ruined. 

On a happier note, Double A and the Bean got new Converse, and they both got blue! Sniff, sniff...I'm such a proud auntie. 

And soon I and the purple sausage toe shall go to bed. 

No memory lane tonight because my phone is being difficult. I think it was only 2013 anyway. 

3 Things

1. I got a ton done today, despite the toe and totally over sleeping. 
2. I overslept! It was lovely. 
3. It's Palm Sunday and the beginning of Holy Week. I have major guilt about my lack of spiritual relationship, but I'm putting it on the list anyway, because Holy Week is a beautiful part of the church year.  

Butterflies

In addition to everything else, yesterday was also Learn About Butterflies Day.  I was going to include a couple of pictures in that post, but when I went looking for butterfly shoes, I found too many cute ones and decided they needed their own post.  Besides, today's holidays aren't that great.  I mean, it's the Ides of March, but who wants shoes about betrayal and stabbing?  Plus, Double A loves butterflies.  So here is a post to celebrate my beautiful second niece:

 

How crazy/fun are these?  I'm not sure I could see myself wearing them, but I think they're cool, and they come in a whole bunch of color combinations.

Double A is one of my lovers of green, so I had to include at lease one green pair.  Except that she doesn't wear heels, so these would only be loved in an aesthetic sense.

Double A and The Bean could have matching butterfly shoes! The Bean would actually wear the heels, and Double A could just set her pair beside her while we took a picture or something.

Yeah, these are for me.  They would make good wedding shoes.

Ahhh, now this is more Doulbe A's style.  Maybe not the colors so much, but definitely the butterflies and the comfy shoes.

Or these! I think we all need a pair.  The Bean and Flower could have their purple, Mom, The seester, Double A, and Laughter could have their green, and I could have my blue!

 

Is it weird that I like these?  They are bright and crazy and fun.  Zazzle has a whole bunch more butterfly tennies, too.

Memory Lane: 2013. 2014. 2015.

3 Things:

1. Double A.  My beautiful 15 year old niece.  She is sweet and loving and funny, and never fails to brighten my day.
2. Silly hubby, who was making me laugh even as he was making me roll my eyes on the phone last night.
3. Sunshine.  I need to spend more time in it and soak up some Vitamin D.  It was lovely to drive with the sun roof open earlier.