Three mini things, in reverse chronological order

1. I just opened the pantry and a box of Whoppers fell on my head. That's dangerous. So I ate them.

2. Tonight at dinner both kids were wolfing down some canned pears, and Kenley finished hers and wanted me to open some more. I told her she had to finish her dinner and then think about if her tummy was really still hungry before I opened another whole can. For some reason that sent her into a frowny-faced funk and she went and sat on a duffel bag and started to cry. And my sweet little Parker, even though he had been eating his pears rather enthusiastically (?!?), decided to offer his pears to her and then proceeded to feed her all the rest out of his bowl as she sniffled and wiped her tears. It was so sweet. Those two just warm my heart, I tell ya.

3. Yesterday morning James was home and told the kids they couldn't watch cartoons, and he turned on Fox News instead. While he dutifully emptied the car from our trip, I slept on the couch and Kenley hatched a plan. She comes up to me and whispers in her most conspiratorial voice, "Um, Mommy? Dis show is kind of crazy. And you not really crazy. You dest... nice. So how bout we watch a nice show instead? Like a cartoon."

The Big 3-0

You know those demure, humble people who would like nothing better than for their birthdays to slip by unnoticed and unacknowledged? Yeah, that's not me. I love my birthday. I love a whole day dedicated to celebrating that I was born. That's awesome! Reflects on my self-centeredness, but if you know me, you know that's not a trait I go to great lengths to hide anyway.


Luckily I have an awesome husband, amazing family, and wonderful friends who are willing to celebrate me to my heart's content. Except my mom? Refuses to make me my favorite cake for my birthday! She will only make her own favorite! We compromised this year and did brownies instead (Ghirardelli. From a box. So there, pastry chef husband). But I'm getting ahead of myself.

So anyway, this year I turned 30 - can you believe it?! We started the day with my favorite breakfast... These... Yes, the Pillsbury kind. You can wish mean thoughts upon me for wasting my husband's culinary talents. Whatever. It was my birthday.


Then I had to go to the DMV for an hour to renew my license. Not that fun but I did appreciate listening to other people's toddlers instead of my own, for a change.

Then I got back and we did birthday presents and lunch. We were going to wait for a while to do presents, but Kenley was walking around clutching a present saying things like, "Is this box for your lip gloss? Oh, I mean your jewelries? So do you put your lip gloss box, I mean your jewelry box, right down here? Oh. You working on the lip gloss Mommy? I mean the computer? I just holding these lip glosses, I mean special present for you." So I had to quickly open my (surprise!) lip gloss and some cute new maternity capris before she realized she was spilling the beans on her special present when she was trying so hard not to.


Then we headed down to my mom's and I picked up my crazy sister from the airport and hung out with her for a while. She's been gone for a few weeks, so just having her back was a great birthday present all by itself. Then I got a nap (HOORAY!), and then we had a birthday dinner.

After dinner we rented the mini-field at the Soccer Park and had a Katie Hampton Commemorative 30th Birthday Soccer Classic. It was so much fun, and a great workout. We played 4-on-4, and just rotated out as we needed to, which was embarrassingly often. It made me realize I miss playing soccer though. At our "halftime," we let all the kids come down and "play" on the field. Kenley was the oldest of the six kids there, so that was for sure some entertainment. My team won 3-2, thanks to TWO goals from awesome Whitney and one from my talented husband. Thanks to everyone who came and played!

Also, thanks for the many birthday well-wishes via Facebook, texts, e-mails, and phone calls. Really I felt so loved. And if you're reading this thinking, "Oh crap I totally forgot it was her birthday," just don't even worry about it. The ironic thing is that while I love people making a big deal out of my birthday, I am HORRIBLE about remembering everyone else's. So... happy birthday right now to all my friends.

Now for a total overload of soccer pics:

The teams....




Cute kid pics:




And the adult pics (sorry, tried to keep the most awkward-looking ones out of there):

Santa Rosa Plateau

It's been raining a lot lately, and is supposed to rain all through the weekend, so I wanted to take advantage of the nice weather today and get out of the house. The kids have been getting a little bit of cabin fever.

So today we headed up to the Santa Rosa Plateau for a little hike. Yeah, the scenery isn't really that pretty. I realize that. But the kids had fun. Kenley provided constant narration the entire hour, about everything, just jabbering away. "Hey I see a lizard. I talk quiet so I'm not scared of them. Oh I thought that noise was a bug. It's just people, saying some crazy words. Hey are we in Africa?" Never stopped talking. I'm sure any animals that would have been around were scared away. Parker spent most of the time in our hiking backpack, amazingly happy to just be chilling. It was a fun day.

It made me think of when we went when Kenley was little. Don't remember? Weren't a follower then? Check it out! Click here.



I love Kenley in the background of this picture scouting things out.

Cute little monkeys

It's been a while since I did just a random post about the kids.

Kenley: Despite being 3, Kenley has still mostly remained her sweet, tender, and helpful self. She is so nurturing and always tries to make everyone happy. Right now she's really into "solving her own problems" (a little echo of mommy there) and helping out around the house. We started a little co-op preschool where I switch with a few other moms and she is learning so much! She is quite the little chatterbox and talks constantly, always amazing me with the stuff she comes up with. ("And Mommy, then I realized, I DO eat fish! Just like a penguin!") She is sooooo excited about having a new baby this summer, but will be crushed if it's not a little sister. She wants one so badly. Kenley wants to contribute to this post. She says, "I like to play with my grandma. I like to play with my mom. I am good at obeying my mommy. I like to play with my daddy. I like to play with everyone!"

Parker: This is one funny little man. He is so absolutely obsessed with all things boyish - any form of transportation, robots, etc. He can be found 100% of the time toddling around with cars in his hands, seriously driving them on every surface of our house. He is still frustrating us with his picky eating ways, and I am comtemplating various ultimatums. Stay tuned for that riveting adventure. My favorite thing about Parker these days? Whenever I ask him if he is my big boy, he says, "No, baby!" and snuggles into me. Awwww... he wants to stay my baby forever! Unlike his sis, who is always telling us how she is sooo big and soooo old.

Although 90% of the time the kids play really nicely together, but they have recently started to fight. Yes, just now. Ohhhh... it is so aggravating! They fight over toys, over doing things first, over me, over everything. I think I'm in for a looooong next decade or two.