Summer Snaps 2

It was a busy week for us, filled with celebrations and sunshine.

1. We spent time by the pool.  Oddly, my boys don't spend much time in our pool.  

I'm sure it has something to do with accessibility equaling lack of interest.  

But I love it ~ I grab a book, iced tea and some sunscreen and head outside.

2. This little cutie turned 1 year older and we celebrated by...

3. having hamburgers for lunch {his choice} and we went to see Super 8 as a family.  

{Side note: I loved Super 8.  It was a great movie full of action and suspense.  I was worried about it being too scary for our Birthday Boy but after talking to a friend who had seen it I felt more at ease.  Our youngest is 11 and I'm not sure it would be appropriate for kids younger than that.  It was similar to Goonies, Stand By Me, or ET}

4. I HAD to take a picture of this yellow rose.  

It was unbelievably beautiful and the smell was intoxicating. 

5. NASCAR came to our area -- Sonoma to be precise.  It never fails, the hubs and I always seem to head that way over NASCAR weekend when that little, two lane country road is packed with 40,000 cars.  Lucky for us, we didn't get slowed down too much.

6. This palm tree looks a bit like a living firework to me 

and reminded me that the 4th is just days away!

7, 8 & 9. I went to a hotel/country club in Calistoga called Solage 

to celebrate the engagement of one of our friends.  

It could not have been a more perfect day full of cocktails, sunshine, 

laughs and chats.  Just fabulous!

I am just loving this linky party hosted by Starfish Blog! It is reminding me of

how fun our summer has been so far, even though the days

can seem so monotonous sometimes.  Head over to her blog and take a look 

at all the other fun snapshots.

Hugs!

Carrie


PS I'm also linking up here:

PPS ~ I've got a post coming up with before and afters of my oldest son's room. 

So stay tuned for that.

Well Dang It

My youngest has a birthday tomorrow.  

I'm a slacker and have nothing planned.  

Well, not "nothing", just not a friend party.  

Here's the deal....my little guy and I talked about his friend party several weeks ago and decided on a movie date to see Cars 2. 

Then back to our house where we would do cake and presents.  

And he could have a few buddies sleep over.  

Perfect!  

Almost...

He must have mentioned it to a "friend" at school because the next day he came home explaining that he didn't like that plan anymore and that Cars 2 is a "baby movie". 

UGH!!!

The last several years we've done pool parties at our house.  

They're great ~ he has fun.  

His buddies have fun.  

But, I thought it would be nice to change things up a bit.  

Well, after the "baby movie" fiasco conversation I sorta, kinda let party planning fall apart.  

Which brings me to the real problem...

I'm a loser Mother who should have her 

mothering license revoked!  

{Lucky for me they let any old boob have a baby so there's no chance of losing my license.}

What kind of mother lets her child go friend-birthday-party-less?!?

Tomorrow we will go to a movie with his older brother.  Have the lunch of his choice and a special dinner with cake and ice cream.  

Hoping this will tide him over 'til I can get that friend birthday party going.

In the mean time, I'll be online searching for boy party inspiration for the tricky "I'm not a baby" but "You're not a teenager either" age.

Wish me luck....

Hugs,

Carrie

Summer Snaps, Week Numero Uno

I follow {and LOVE} Jones Design Company and last week she posted about 

a new snapshot linky party being hosted by The Starfish Blog every Wednesday.  

Because I seem to be completely obsessed with photos right now 

I thought it might be a fantastic party for me to link up to. 

Here is our week in snapshots ~

Summer has started out fabulously for our little family.  I hope it has for you too ~

Hugs!

Carrie

PS ~ these images were taken with my iPhone with the exception of the last two pool shots.

A Perch On Our Porch

The sun is finally shining consistently here in NorCal and I am giddy.  I feel like every moment should be spent outside soaking up the rays and getting our vitamin D.

Because of the return of the sun and realization that the solar panels that heat our pool aren't working so well ~ our family ventured out doors and up on the roof to replace the panels.  I nervously supervised from the patio reminding the hubs and the kids when they were "Too close to the edge", and to "slow down Please!"

{More on this soon}

Anyway, to ease my nerves, and give them a break, I went to the other side of the house and cleaned up our front porch.  It's not too different ~ just a couple little tweaks.

Before ~

It was fine.  A little neglected due to weather....see the rain boots?

After ~

I washed everything, changed placement slightly and added some pillows.  

I'm on the hunt for a small table and some flowering plants.

Looks like a nice place to perch.

Hugs!

Carrie

PS ~ my house is black.  You can read about that here

InstaGram Lovin'

It's Friday again and I had such a fun time linking up to Life Rearranged last week that I thought I'd do it again.  Plus, I love posting to Instagram so it's a win win!!

Some of our closest friends came to town on their way home from a business trip.  They were only here for one night, but we managed to eat as if they were here for a week!!

First we had lunch.  A burger and fries at our favorite place,

Gott's in downtown Napa.

After lunch we went next door to Oxbow for cookies and coffee where we

chatted about kids and life and marriage and work ~ 

all the major subjects.

After lunch, husbands and wives separated for a bit.  

I think they bought a ShopVac while we sipped wine.  So much better being us!

Latter that night we went to dinner.

The hubs ordered a salad...

I ordered steak and potatoes.  

Should I be embarrassed that waiters often confuse our meals??

We all woke up VERY early {5:30a} to head down to the Alameda Flea Market.

Several months ago when I visited their website it noted the flea happens

"Rain or Shine", so even though the weather was iffy at best, 

we headed out on the 45 minute drive.

Only to find a BIG HUGE sign saying the flea had been postponed due to weather.

I felt bad ~ the hostess should have checked the site the night before...

It was particularly frustrating because the rain never came...

We ended up at Omega Salvage and I stumbled upon this bike.

Not very useful, but sort of cool ~

Our littlest guy graduated from elementary school this week.

It was exciting, and sad at the same time.

I shed some tears that day ~ the hubs teared up too, shhhh.

I think even Lola Dog was a little nostalgic

We rounded out the week with a Giants game at AT&T Park.

Find me on Instagram at csedwards.

Happy Photos ~

Carrie

Slacker!

It's been a busy month.  Our youngest graduated from elementary school and there were so many activities associated with the end of 5th grade.  It's left me little time to post on my blog, or even read all my favorites!!

Here's a little glimpse of what we've been up to over the last week...

This handsome fella finished his first year of high school 

and we celebrated by lunching with friends.

And our youngest created and presented his final project for Renzulli, 

which is a program at his school for accelerated learners.

He received an academic award from the President 

and a medal for 'Graduating' from elementary school.

The child of each family who was leaving the school for good was recognized when their student gave them a yellow rose...I stole a kiss too :-)

There was some huggin' and lovin' from a fabulous teacher we didn't want to say goodbye to.

We went on a field trip to the ballpark and watched the Giants play the Nationals.

We got to see our favorite players on our favorite team.  

This is Cody Ross chewing gum in Right Field

We were fearing the beard as he warmed up...

But Brian Wilson never went into the game.

And we WON!!!! Giants 3, Nationals 1

It was a great day for the Black & Orange!! 

{Even if it was a bit windy and my hair ribbon was standing up}

Now I'm off to plan our summer vacation ~ we're thinking of a road trip with friends to Carmel, Yosemite and Santa Barbara.  

We're shortening our trip because our oldest son decided to retake the 2nd semester of math to try and raise his grade.  It's worth it...

Hugs!

Carrie

InstaGram Lovin'

A while back my dear friend Holly told me about the Instagram App for our iPhones.  

It was free so I downloaded it but I didn't think about it much more.

Then a couple weeks ago I saw a link to an Instagram photo pop up on my Twitter newsfeed.  It reminded me of that app I hadn't ever used and I liked the look of the image so I decided to play around with the it and see what all the fuss was about.

Turns out ~ it's super FUN! I love how you can change the entire feeling of an image just by picking a new "filter" for it. And you can follow people and they can follow you.  

It's like a marriage between photos and social networking.  

It's Phocial Networking!

Well ~ today when I was reading one of my favorite blogs she referred to this blog and when I clicked over for a visit, I learned about Insta-Fridays at Life Rearranged.  

It was like Insta-fate!

I thought ~ I have a bunch of Instagram photos from this week and I'd like to play along...

This is my week in snap shots.

The weather has been so bad and Tuesday the clouds were breaking

This is an image taken over the Oakland Hills while we were running

our bay area errands

This is a shot from the other side of the Caldecott Tunnel.

I couldn't get enough of how gorgeous the sky was

That night I got sick...a bad flu-y coldish thing.  No Bueno

Because I stayed in bed as much as possible my hair turned into a giant rats nest.

My curly hair had doubled in size and taken on a life of it's own 

it was scarrrryy ~

This is one of the vineyards by our house.

Still bad weather here in Northern California, but at least the sky

is helping to keep things somewhat interesting.

{I'd still take some sunshine over this cold cloudy ickiness}

So you play along too ~ find me on Instagram at csedwards. 

Follow me and I'll follow you right back!

Happy Weekend!

Carrie