pretty, happy, funny, real | Revolution of Love

~ Capturing the context of contentment in everyday life ~

I feel like I have hardly posted on the blog lately and I missed last week’s {p, h, f, r} so this one is going to be extra long! For those of you that follow me on Instagram, you have already seen these photos but I’ll post them anyway for those who don’t.
By the way, if you don’t have a smartphone (I break into hives just thinking about it) and you want to follow people on Instagram, you can see their photos online at web.stagram.com. Here is the link for my page: http://web.stagram.com/n/mamabee04/ I’ll put a link in the side bar.

{pretty}

If you are ever visiting the central coast of Cali, make sure that you visit Pacific Grove, particularly Lover’s Point. Along the Monterey Bay Trail you’ll find views of the ocean like this.

You’ll also find these gorgeous patches of color as the flowers bloom.

If you are afraid of the California earthquakes and tsunamis that may result, don’t worry. There are directions posted.

{happy}

This photo makes me incredibly happy. I love the way Andrew takes his “big brother” role seriously and looks out for John-Paul.

This little guy just makes me happy. Period. (Well, when he’s not driving me nuts.)

{funny}

Matthew has a new way to relax now. He loves to climb into my laundry basket and make himself comfortable. His favorite days are when I take warm towels out of the dryer. He literally rests his head on them and sighs.

Here he is nice and contented now.

Soon, Andrew wanted to join in on the fun. (Good thing JP didn’t see or they’d really be squished in there.)

{real}

Last week I mentioned that Bella’s fish Francis died. Over the weekend she picked out a new fish. Meet “Spike.”

Andrew wanted his own pet too so he picked out a fish as well. He loves the color blue and immediately chose this guy since he looked so blue in his little cup, although when you view him in bright light he looks completely different. it’s the craziest thing. Meet “Rocky.”

Rocky in low light.

Rocky in bright light.

We found this great tank that could house two Bettas. I loved it since I’d only have to clean one tank. That is, I loved it until we put the fish together!

The fish lived up to their names and they kept fighting with each other through the barrier. I was getting flashbacks of “West Side Story” as the rival gangs would take a swipe at each other then dance around. Finally Rocky managed to squeeze himself though a small crevice and invaded Spike’s turf. So much for the Rodney King motto “Can’t we all just get along?” It was back to the pet store so the hotheads could each have their own tank. (Yay, more clean up for me.)

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Okay, I still have all the photos from our walk on Memorial Day so I am going to post those as a separate post so this won’t be ridiculously long. You can view those photos here.

~ Capturing the context of contentment in everyday life ~

{pretty}

My mother’s day flowers. I love them! (Brian finally figured out that I am not a “pink flowers” kind of girl.)

Bella gave me a flower and a flower pot that she decorated herself. She painted a picture of her fish Francis. 🙂

{happy}

Mama and her little man.

{funny}

I had to laugh at the answers Andrew gave about me. According to him I am 13 years old (I love how that age is “old” to him.) I am prettiest when I sleep. (LOL) I like to make cookies. I always say I love you. (Awww.) And I am funniest when I go to sleep. I asked him why I was funny…did I snore or talk in my sleep? He said it is because on Saturday morning he woke up and Brian said he had to be quiet since I was still asleep. He said I was silly because daytime was for being awake, not sleeping. Hence my funniness. 🙂

{real}

On special occasions Brian will get “real” donuts. For years I have been looking for the kind I used to love as a kid – chocolate cake donuts with nuts on top. He had never seen those. Finally on Mother’s day we found one! I savored the moment and the memory. (You may notice at the top left side there is a piece missing from the bite I couldn’t resist taking, but I tried to hide it in the photo. LOL.)

Two Quick Notes:
First – I wasn’t able to do this week’s book discussion of Style, Sex and Substance. I should have the next post on Wednesday, 5/16.
Second – Today is your last day to enter the RoL Birthday Care Package Contest! The winner will be announce tomorrow. Good luck!
Okay, now we return to our regularly scheduled post…

~ Capturing the context of contentment in everyday life ~

{pretty}

Today is Mother’s Day in Mexico so Bella’s Spanish class made cards for their madres. Here is the cover of Bella’s card to me. (She didn’t notice her “typo” until after I took the photo. 😉 Today was also the boys’ preschool moms’ party. Each made me a wooden flower frame with their photo in it. So cute!

{happy}

A quick pic from my iphone at Andrew’s party.

It was a little tricky to be at both parties at the same time (and also try to keep Matthew quiet in my arms), since they are in different class rooms, but I made it. 🙂

{funny}

The other day I invited my in-laws over for dinner. My mother-in-law brought over a cake she made for dessert. There was enough cake left over for Brian and I to share for dessert the following night after the kids went to sleep. Well, John Paul must have heard about our plan. The next day I was putting Matthew to sleep and after I put him in bed I went into the kitchen and found that JP dragged a chair over to the counter and helped himself to our dessert…

I told Brian that there were two large pieces of the cake left but this is all I found on the sink…

The guy didn’t even have a stomach ache! I can’t imagine what JP’s bottomless pit appetite is going to be like when he is a teenager!

{real}

Speaking of Mother’s Day, in the animal world it is the harbor seals’ pupping season. Where I take my morning walk, they have part of coastline fenced off for the mama seals and their pups.

Looking for the seals against the large rocks feels like playing a game of “Where’s Waldo.”

But as you get closer you can see the seals resting on the rocks and frolicking in the water. (Although the frolicking seal went down in the water just as I snapped my photo.)

~ Capturing the context of contentment in everyday life ~

This week’s {pretty, happy, funny, real} will be like last week’s. I wanted to share a few photos from Matthew’s birthday. Since they could be considered in more than one category, I’ll just lump them as one big {p,h,f,r} category.

{pretty} {happy} {funny} & {real}

We had a small party for Matthew on his birthday. I love the birthday sign that Bella made to go with the circus theme.

While I was decorating the family room Matthew kept himself occupied by decorating our long hallway. I think he mistakenly took a roll of toilet paper for streamers.

On every first birthday we make cupcakes and let the birthday boy eat one on his own. (Once the child really gets into it Brian says, “Come one! Do you have to let him make such a mess?!” My mind immediately start playing the song “Tradition” by Tevia and I respond, “Of course, sweetie! That’s half the fun! And think what a fun post this will make.” 😉

Matthew points out which cupcake he wants.

He digs right in.

He says, “Wow, this cupcake is bigger than I thought. I need a breather.” (And so you don’t think I am an abusive mother, I do remove most of the cupcake from his hand so he won’t get too full.)

He is one happy camper and I must say the neatest of all our baby eaters. He didn’t want to waste any of the yummy goodness on his hair. (Brian was relieved.)

I also wanted to get photos of the kids and when I was taking Andrew’s picture he was more concerned that he had to keep an eye on John Paul so that he wouldn’t eat his cupcake when Andrew wasn’t looking.

Lastly, here is the birthday boy playing on his new birthday toy. 🙂

~ Capturing the context of contentment in everyday life ~

This week’s {pretty, happy, funny, real} is going to be a little different. I wanted to share a few photos from the trip Bella and I took with her class last week. They could be considered in more than one category so I’ll just lump them as one big {p,h,f,r} category.

{pretty} {happy} {funny} & {real}

Bella’s fourth grade class has been learning about California history. She is working on her Missions project right now, which is special since Bl. Junipero Serra is buried at the Carmel Mission. (Our family parish.) Last week her class took a two day trip to Sacramento and the Gold Country.

Here is the state capital in Sacramento.

After our stay and tour at the capital, we headed to our camp in Coloma, CA. The surrounding area was so pretty and the camp was situated right along the American River.

Here are our tent/cabins.

The view from our deck

Bella the happy camper. (It was so sweet that throughout the weekend she kept hugging me and thanking me for joining her on the trip. I’m so glad I went!)

We stopped at various places and museums – Sutter’s Mill, Sutter’s Fort, A Gold Mine, etc.

Bella and her friends are panning for gold.

One of my favorite visits of our trip was to the California State Railroad Museum. It was amazing! I told Brian we have to go back and bring the boys with us. They would love it.
We learned all about the First Transcontinental Railroad. They actually had the Central Pacific Railroad No. 1 Gov. Stanford, which was Central Pacific’s first excursion train in the 1860’s.