Clever clever.

My dad sent Bentley this birthday card. So clever! The creative genes run on both sides of the fam!

The finished product.

Here's to my first time ever making pillow 'shams' instead of just sewing pillows all the way around. It was much easier than I thought! I turned one pillow around so you can see the sham fold.

This bench is actually to our indoor dining set. I hope to find a table and chairs to go outside on our porch. There might be some good sales as summer comes to a close.

I didn't realize until after I bought this home decor fabric for Bentley's curtains that it was actually outdoor home fabric. So, I get to see this happy peony pattern as I walk up to my porch.

And yes, if you've been super sleuthful, you can see our new house color in this photo. Alas, the painting is not complete. (which is why I have yet to post any after photos.) Drew did agree to redo the accent color since it looks more like masking tape... Not what we intended. The blueberry color is growing on me. Though the color is called, Artist's Grey, it is more blue with a hint of grey instead of grey with a hint of blue as we hoped.

Bentley often says as we come home from outings, "oh, I love my blue house, mommy."

Here's to a blue house.

the grabber.

Emery. Grabs. Everything.

Fabric leftovers and ugly 99¢ IKEA pillows = afternoon project

I had a long thin piece of fabric leftover from the curtains I made for Bentley's room. When I saw these marked down (rightly so, they were ugly!) pillows at IKEA today for only 99¢ each, I knew what I had to do.

family game night

We had our first ever family game night tonight. We played a little game called Bingory; a combination of memory and bingo. We played three games. Bentley won all three games. Drew and I didn't let her, we just need to seriously hone our memory skills. She just turned 3. The box says ages 4 and up. Who is this kid?

This is her victory face.

a garden dinner

Thanks to the generosity of one of Drew's clients, we just enjoyed a dinner from the garden - even down to the wine. Drew came home carrying bags and bags of garden vegetables, fruits, homemade jams, jellies and even wine!

I cooked beautiful swiss/rainbow chard for the first time. Though I had to enlist the help of friends to figure out what the greens even were and how to cook them. I knew Bentley would love the pink stems. First I chopped them, stem and green, and sauteed them for about 10 minutes in garlic and olive oil. Then I served them with a little lemon juice (lemons from her garden) and shredded parmesan. While I sauteed the chard, I made pasta mixed with her homemade pesto (basil also from her garden), and then I tossed it with a little more olive oil. It was surprisingly divine.

We prayed, toasted with our Dry Rhubarb Wine (homemade with rhubarb from her garden) and savored the meal amidst a lovely bouquet of perfect dahlias (again, also from her garden).

Thank you to 1420 Grant Street for a stellar meal,
the Websters

the pink room.

Emery has been in our room for the last 6 1/2 months. When she was about 4 months, we tried moving the girls into the same room. Well... let's just say, no one got any sleep during the attempt at that transition. Finally, we decided to move Bentley upstairs into the play room.

When Bentley came home this morning after a weekend with both a night at Grammy's and with Nana and Papa, we invited her into her new room upstairs. I wasn't exactly sure how she would take it, but as she saw her new room, she exclaimed, "Oh, it's SO cute!"

The first 5 minutes of being in her new room...

Emery is enjoying having her own room too.

THE party.

When I asked Bentley what she wanted to do for her party... she just couldn't decide between several "themes". So, her invitation looked like this:

She drew that picture of a shark. When she saw her own drawing a few days later, she said, "Mommy, look, a whale!"

I still love her original "shark."

The party in pictures.




The dance playlist included several Bentley's favorite dancing songs; All She Wants to Do is Dance, Dancing with Myself and Electric Feel by MGMT.

Cameron donned a shark fin that I made and played "shark" while the kids got to squirt him to get their goody-bags.


Uncle Josh and Emery in amongst the party-goers.

To see more from the party, click here.

"I want my money back."

My mom gave Bentley a coin purse for her birthday filled with eight quarters. We have since lost one of the quarters. Down to $1.75. We went to the $1 section at Target and I told her she could pick out anything that had a "1" on it. She browsed and browsed; alice in wonderland board book, an accordion bendy tube, plastic Tinkerbell rings, a bendy plush flower, and finally, it was between three different puzzles.

She joyfully went up to the cashier to give her the money and counted out five quarters. (I had to teach her about tax. :) The cashier was so kind letting her hold the scanning gun and scan her own item and was graciously patient as Bentley counted five quarters into her hand.

After getting in the car, and looking through her coin purse, she says, "Uh!! Where'd all my money go?!" I explained that she had to exchange some of her money to buy the puzzle. She said, "I want my money back." I then told her if she wanted her money back, she would have to give the puzzle back. She said, "Ok, I don't want the puzzle." I was about to go into explaining about how to return something and thought, nevermind, I don't want to drive back to Target right now to take back $1 puzzle. :)

When we got home, she wanted to play with her puzzle.

All she wants to do is...

...dance.

Bentley's favorite thing now is to put on this dress, get her new Ballerina Barbie, turn on music and twirl and twirl and twirl.

My friend, Stacey, made this dress for Bentley for her birthday. When Stacey asked her daughter, Paige, what she wanted to get Bentley for her birthday, she told her Bentley needed a twirly dress like hers.

Miss B is 3

Our Miss Bentley Brooke turned 3-years-old August 5! We celebrated her turning 3 with a party with her friends yesterday. (Photos of that to come later :) Drew made her birthday video for her this year.

Enjoy!

Bentley's 3-year-old Video from Drew Webster on Vimeo.

Wednesday is Ballet Day

Bentley loves ballet, however, you wouldn't be able to tell by the photos from class. She does most of her dancing "behind the scenes" at home. Last week was observation week. My mom was able to come and observe Bentley with me. At one point during the little 30 minute class, Bentley is shyly holding her tutu up and watching herself in the mirror or the parent's video cameras as the other girls tiptoe around her. It's at this time that my mom leans over to me and says, "You were just like that too." Nearly 30 years ago, I too, was in this very room at the beautiful, historic South Park Community Center, donning my own leotard, tights and ballet bun, trying out my ballerina skills.

My darling Bentley Brooke, almost 3-years-old, is no longer a baby girl, but truly a little girl now.

Bentley and Paige. Paige is my friend, Stacey's daughter. She is one year older than Bentley, but the two play well together. Before taking this photo, all I said was, "Do you want to give each other a hug?" Voila. This photo was taken the very first day of class.

rompers

I couldn't resist - I bought the girls matching rompers. Here we are at our neighborhood National Night Out.

I thought she was sleeping

It turns out, she apparently had to get one more thing before putting herself back to bed. The other day, it was her "Baby Han" and just now at nap time, I found her clutching her tiara. I will take this little act of disobedience over a dozen out-of-bed screaming meltdowns any day. Plus, she just looks so darn cute. Love that almost 3-year-old.