I went with Curtis on anther preschool field trip. We learned about owls. And they even brought a real one.

Peter wanted a strawberry cake, so I made him one. When I went to frost it with chocolate frosting, it fell apart. I have not mastered cake decorating. How do the people make it look so easy? I was sitting with a mess of a cake in front of me and had the brilliant idea of making cake pops.

I mushed up the crumbly cake and sticky frosting and formed balls. After the first batch of candy coating was ruined when water got in it, I melted another batch, dipped the cake balls and added sprinkles. They are not technically cake pops either because I skipped the stick part. These are so far from perfect. But they were yummy.

When life gives you lemons a cake disaster make lemonade cake balls.

How to have a good birthday:

Open presents. First thing in the morning of course!

Have a lot of dessert.

Throw a big birthday party and invite everyone you can think of.

Blow bubbles and do an obstacle course

Blow up lots of big balloons

These happy people came for a visit. I always love having my twin and her family over! I don’t love living far away from her, but the best part of living far away is the long visits.

Sunflowers are quite pretty for about two weeks. Before that, they’ve spent months just growing leaves and stems. A flower lasts about two weeks if you are lucky. Then they start doing this:

It isn’t pretty. But if a sunflower didn’t bend down and spend weeks looking strange, it wouldn’t produce seed. And if it didn’t produce seed, there wouldn’t be sunflowers next year.

One single seed produces hundreds of more sunflowers. But only if I allow it to stick around after it isn’t beautiful anymore and really get to work.

Sometimes I feel like this. I’m not spectacular, I’m not doing anything worth looking at. But if I don’t keep going and keep working, I won’t produce anything. If I keep going, I will have joy that keeps going with not just one short flower, but hundreds and hundreds of moment.

From a field trip with Curtis’s preschool

Well, soccer season is nearing its end. The smiling blonde kid in the front row liked soccer. But he needed a lot of encouragement and tended to be a little slow. Not bad for his first year.

I went on a walk early in the morning, just as the sun was rising. It’s always quite a beautiful time of day, but this particular morning was quite spectacular. The sky was pocketed with storm clouds. Not too many that they blocked out the sun, just enough for an occasional light rain and peak of sky. The sun played off of the clouds, creating vibrant colors and dramatic backgrounds. I wished I had my camera with me.

When I got home, I told Joe he should come outside because it was quite pretty. We looked towards the rising sun and enjoyed the view. I turned around to look westward as well and was overwhelmed to see a beautiful rainbow.

I ran and got my camera. I pulled my kids outside to see it. I texted a friend next door. It was the best rainbow I remember seeing. I stayed outside for the next half hour, unwilling to go on with my day.  It was too beautiful to miss.