Orange County Parks

The Husband and I have been talking about taking some hikes with the kiddos (they'd like to see a waterfall) so I was online this morning looking to see if, in fact, we had any waterfalls around us. I came across a great website with reviews of different hikes all over Southern California. While reading a review of one trail, I clicked on a link to this blog, where I saw the Dinosaur Park in Laguna Hills (thats my bean above hanging out in a whale skeleton there this morning) and a link to this site. I LOVE THE INTERNET. I now have a great go -to source for those days we want to get out of the house! And now you do too (provided your in the OC). Such a great comprehensive guide to all things outdoors in the OC, I already want to visit most of them. They do a great job of providing pictures and all the features and pros and cons. LOVE IT!

Check out Fun Orange County Parks here and LocalHikes here.

Happy Weekend!

Hopefully your week went a little smoother than mine, my poor little family has been under the weather. One kiddo had a tummy bug (which is the worst isn't it, when little ones get it? My poor little guy declared it was "the worst day of his life") and The Husband and I are in head cold limbo, where we're well enough to work, but still can't stay up past 8:30 and sound like seals when we cough. But enough whining! The weekend is finally here! We've got some veggies to sow and I'm personally loving this June gloom weather.

Oh, and remember these thrift store finds of mine? They've been up on my wall along with some silhouettes my lil sis made me, thought I'd finally share the finished product. I love that yellow, it makes that little corner "office" so cheery.

Have an easy weekend! Hope you and your family can avoid these bugs, wash those hands! :)

Decals by Mae

OH. MY. LORDY.

I just fell in love. Saw this over on Ohdeedoh (one of my fav blogs) and literally gasped so loud my four year old ran in the kitchen and yelled, "What?! Is it a SPIDER?" I love, no I lurve these "paper" dolls for your walls. They are made of fabric, you can wash them, and move them over and over. What's not to love, I ask you?

Umm and how cute would these creatures be with that mobile from yesterday?

In the immortal words of Rachel Zoe: "I die."

Find them here.

Petit Collage

I've seen Petit Collage's bird mobile in a couple of different blogs and always loved them. Went to their website today and found out I love a lot of things they make! Like this alphabet print. I can't pass up a well made ABC print. So simple and sweet, I love the color combos. And this tree mobile, and the collages on wood they do and just about everything. Le sigh.

Check it out for your self here.

Book Crush - Not A Box & Not A Stick

I was instantly drawn to this book when I laid eyes on it. I was drawn by the simple graphic punch of the line drawing next to the bold red text, a breath of fresh air amongst the glittery, pop-up, squeak toy, electronic button books that drive me up the wall. I'm a purist, I want my book to be a book, and while I've slowly come around to the idea of the "touch and feel" books (by seeing how much my kids enjoyed them as infants), my favorites are still the simplest. And over and over I find the gadgety books get played with for ten intense minutes, and then are forgotten ever more. But I digress...

Based on the idea of kids playing with a cardboard box this sweet book asks its protagonist, a bunny, "what are you doing with that box?" over and over to which the bunny always replies, "its not a box!" His box becomes a race-car, a robot, even a mountain top in Antoinette Portis' simple line drawings. Not A Stick follows the same tradition, with a stick and this time a pig. I love the simple story and pictures because it allows my kids to follow the story on their own, and enables them to "read" it to me. There is also room for them to decided what is happening in the picture, something that can be missing from a more detailed picture book. I define a book's success in my house by how many times I am asked to read it, and how often I am asked to read it immediately after its finished. These are two little books I could recite in my sleep, as could my four year old, and now even my two year old. They are instant classics.

Find them here.

From the Desk of A.J. - Breadwinner Breads

Gifts. I think I mentioned this before…but gift giving season is all year round, with some peaks and lows…but never the less, all year round. I love giving gifts. I love making them, baking them, buying them, wrapping them up and finding the perfect card to go with. I’d love to say that Pinky Swear offers the best gift for every occasion…but I can’t…and I don’t think you’d believe me if I did (although our lovely jewelry is really close to being the best gift for every occasion:)

So. My favorite gifts to give are usually ones that I have received before and have luuuurved so much I want to make someone else just as happy as I was when I opened it. Rewind to almost a year ago. The Hubster and I were in our “new parent fog” of being home with a newborn for about 4 days. I literally was watching the Food Network on baked goods and my mind, body, and soul yearned for something baked and yummy. Neither one of us wanted to bake anything…being in a sleepless, euphoric delirium that a certain baby boy had put us in. Ding dong…”who’s that?”. It was the UPS man with a package! As I have mentioned previously…any package arriving at your door is an excitement all in its own…being new parents…we had received a lot of ding dongs during that time and it was still exciting. Anyway…we opened up the package to find…two “Bunk Breads”. HA! Sweet breads from this fabu bakery named The Bread Winner. We were given a perfect pick me up gift…”Houdini Zucchini” and “Papa Don’t Peach”. Yes…those are the names…and there are a lot more where those clever ones came from. Lovely family owned (we love that) bakery that ships yummy…oh so yummy, sweet breads for you anywhere. Perfect for a housewarming gift (which I just recently sent), new baby arrival (hey, along with a certain piece of jewelry it would be the perfect gift...I'm just sayin') anything you can think of. And did I say they were yummy? I’m a picky person too…I bake and anyone who bakes knows it’s hard to impress oneself with other peoples baking skrillz.

So…when you need a gift for someone…or you need a pick me up after anything (new baby, new house, long day of shopping), be a Bread Winner and send some sweet treats:)

Find Breadwinner breads here.

Book Crush - Piggy and Elephant

Oh Piggy and Elephant, how do we love thee.

We started our love affair with Mo Willems when I was still pregnant with my first and came across Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! and the rest of the Pigeon series (more on those wonders in a different post). Then we discovered the Piggy and Elephant books and our love was sealed forever. These books are the kind that when we bring them home and read them, the immediate response is to read it again. And again. And yet again. Ad infinitum. And yet, despite the simple pictures and simple story line (or perhaps because of) I never tire of reading it myself. My kids belly laugh and giggle through them, and they even cause me to laugh out loud. My son loves to "read" them back to me, following the story through the pictures. By far the best "early reader" series out there.

You can find them here or at your local library (ours has several copies of the entire series!)