Dear Cool,

Seriously, we are so over you. You burrow yourself into the minds of many from a very young age and cause a variety of emotions. Sometimes feelings of greatness and accomplishment, but most times discouragement and despair. 

You can set the precedence for what's socially acceptable and what's not. You can create confidence and self-consciousness at the exact same time. You rob dreamers of dreams and getting lost in a world of imagination all because of your ridiculous standards. You become a fixation; taking away the little things that make life fun. You create unnecessary expectations that never need to exist for a child.

Really? Who are you anyway? I know you got to me as a kid and throughout my teenage and early adult years and I think I'm lucky that I made it out alive considering those days weren't very long ago. I see you messing around with my kids, causing doubt and fear and I've had just about enough. 

I know it's not going to be easy but I know I've had enough of being in your clutches. I'm going to be ME and my kids are going to be THEM and well if that's just not cool enough for ya, get over yourself.

I WILL NOT allow you to take away my kids ability to have fun and enjoy things that they love to do regardless of what age they are. I WILL NOT let you influence them to do things they aren't comfortable doing and I DEFINITELY WILL NOT let them feel like they need to change who they are in order to be accepted by YOU.

Signed, 

WE ARE SO OVER COOL FAMILY!!

We Love Oregon! Part 2

Thanks for tuning in again! My last post had us back at our hotel for a much needed moment to recharge our batteries. I must say I was quite impressed with how our girls handled the heat (it was about 29-31 degrees out) and the trek around the park. It wasn't until 3/4 of the way through that we noticed they offered strollers for rental. They look a lot like bike trailers so it definitely would have accommodated the 2 girls during those my-legs-are-so-tired-they're-about-to-fall-off-moments.

Off to downtown Portland we went, with our tummies hungry for some good grub. We've enjoyed visiting the Deschutes Brewery a couple times before that after a hot day like we had, we couldn't stop thinking about the ice cold beer we'd like to enjoy. Best part? Well there's many, but one of them is the fact that it is a child friendly brewery/pub/restaurant complete with a kids menu and coloring pages.

While we enjoyed our sampler (either our own picks or brewer's pick of 6 different types of beer) and a bowl of beer nuts (seriously addicting and the kids loved them too!) the kids enjoyed their delicious mac 'n' cheese and cheeseburger respectively. Hubs enjoyed the brewery burger which he could not stop raving about and inhaled in about 10 minutes and I ordered the steak and blue cheese Caesar salad. Not that I'm complaining or anything but like, there was a LOT of blue cheese. Almost too much. Almost.

Once our tummies were full, we walked over to Powell's Book Store for a peruse in the many millions of aisles of books they had to offer. Emma finished the first 4 books of a series she got for her birthday and I was more than certain they'd have more to grab there. Seriously can't get over how reasonably priced books were. They each got to pick out 4 books. We threw in 2 extra (the Judy Moody series) for Emma because hey, if they cost $2.50 each, why wouldn't we?

After that lovely visit, what better way to end off our night in Portland than by satisfying our sweet tooth over at Voodoo Donuts!

Hubs ordered the original Voodoo donut, Emma ordered the Double Bubble, Olivia ordered a chocolate frosting and I ordered the apple fritter. Now I'm not one to complain about a dessert per se, but this apple fritter was sooo oily, I could feel my arteries congealing with grease. Can't say that I was impressed.

The children zonked out on the car ride home and that was just fine with us. The more sleep they got tonight, the more energy they'd have to play at the beach the next morning!

We have visited the Oregon coast twice before this visit and both times we were welcomed with mediocre weather. The forecast mentioned we'd be greeted with sunny/cloudy skies with a temperature of 20 but feeling like 24. We have learned from the past that it is best to check the weather the day of before we decide to trek to the coast, but since this was the last leg of our trip and we wanted some sand time, we didn't care too much if the sun was out.

Enter rain. Thankfully only during the drive there. I was stupidly dressed in a bathing suit thinking I'd be optimistically dressed for the weather only to be greeted with a slight breeze and a lot of overcast. Off into the car I went to change out of said outfit and then off we went to the beach. 

The view is really breathtaking; especially of haystack rock. You forget how large it really is! 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/40/Haystack_Rock_Oregon.jpg/1280px-Haystack_Rock_Oregon.jpg

(ok cannot take credit for this picture, we were much further away from haystack rock

and none of my pics did it justice!)

The little town of Cannon Beach is also so charming, complete with plenty of handmade goods and delicious food.

It didn't take very long for us to find a spot to set up camp and play in the sand. We walked closer to the shoreline, only to visit for a short time because the water was frigid! Thankfully we were set up by a tide pool which allowed the girls to get their much needed water to build their sandcastles. 

Even I got my hands dirty and even got ambitious enough to recreate Disneyland in sandcastle form. And then I made my family pretend they were visiting different lands. It's not weird.

We flew our kite and built some more and definitely built up an appetite for lunch. We loaded up the car and then took a quick stroll over to Bruce's Candy Kitchen, because of course who doesn't eat desserts before their main meal? They are very well known for their salt water taffy, so we chose an assortment to take home and enjoy. 

Then, off to lunch! There's an adorable little creperie called Crepe Neptune that the girls adored the last time we visited so it was without hesitation that they agreed to crepes for lunch.

Someone is thoroughly enjoying their nutella, strawberries & whipped cream crepe!

The hubs and I decided to order some pizza from Fultano's (GREAT PIZZA!) that would serve as lunch and dinner for us so we would save ourselves a stop on the long journey home.

Another successful trip to Oregon done! We always have a great time and look forward to our next visit back! 

My Summer Make Up Must-haves

Now that summer has seriously arrived around here, wearing make up 

can be a definite challenge. While some might like to walk around with their 

party face melting in the hot sun, I would prefer to go as light as possible!

Here are my picks for keeping it simple:

1. Garnier BB Cream - I mix this with 2. Femme Couture Complexion Enhancer to 

create a glowy skin base. I used to apply it with a foundation brush, but now I just

use my hands. Doing it this way blends the cream into the skin a lot nicer and doesn't

rub off as much as foundation would. Then I take my big round brush and contour my 

cheekbones, temples and jawline with 3. Rimmel Natural Bronzer. Once blended I use 5. Watts Up! by Benefit to highlight my nose, chin, brow bone, upper cheekbones, corner of my eyes & mid forehead. With

a sponge I apply 4. Ladyblush cream blush by MAC on the apples of my cheeks and blend outwards.

Number 7. Waterproof Define-a-Lash by Maybelline has got to be my most

favorite mascara ever. It holds a curl amazingly and I always get compliments when I wear it!

Finally, I finish off with one of my newest fav find: 8. Revlon Colorstay Matte Balm in Showy

to add some pop to a pretty simple face. It goes on smooth, stays on for many hours 

and even has a hint of mint for plumping and freshness!

Voila!

Our visit to the Earthwise Society

About a week ago, Emma's grade 2 class went on a field trip to the Earthwise Society in South Delta (Tsawwassen). The Earthwise Society is a non-profit organization that promotes sustainable farming that is organic and less of a carbon footprint by means of composting. They are an education center and that being said, even I learned a thing or two on this trip!

Here are some photos of their lovely garden:

    

above: here the kids are playing "bug bingo" in which they need to find an assortment of bugs that would typically be found in composted dirt!

    

above: did you know? peonies only bloom if they've been "kissed" by a pollinating bee!? they apparently otherwise do not open!

    



    

above: A plum tree. Our tour guide mentioned that the week before we visited, this little orchard was infested with caterpillars. I HAD to ask: if they're an organic farm, how did they get rid of all the caterpillars? By plucking them out one by one BY HAND! If you can't appreciate why organic food costs what it does, just think of this and I think it's justified!


   

The children went on to learn about the different kinds of plants that are native to BC, along with bees. Did you know there are 500 different species of bees native to BC? Some of them look like flies (mason bees) but still do the important job of pollinating our plants. They even learned about composting and all the good things that can go into one.

All in all a great field trip! Their website has a summer calendar of events that can be fun for the whole family and best of all, its around the corner from Centennial beach so you can stop over for a beach bbq afterwards!

It was a great way to end off the school year and we certainly had a lot of fun!

2013 recap: a girl turns 7!

If you've ever met our kids, you'll know that they are certainly one of a kind. Sometimes they think alike and other times they can have individual interests that engulf them completely.

Last year, Emma had asked that we throw a Princess Leia/Star Wars themed birthday party for her and of course with a BIG Star Wars fan in the house (dad) how could we possibly say no?!

Here are some shots of our big girl (71/2!) at her party last October :)

Princess Leia herself! She was also dressed up like this for Halloween.

One of my newest favorite thing to do for my girls' birthday parties is a dessert/

treat table. Its a great focal point for the party and who doesn't enjoy treats at a party?!

I took the colors from the characters to make up the tissue paper accordions

as a backdrop. So much fun!

star wars themed dessert/treat table

At the time Emma was really into playing the Lego Star Wars game on

XBox so naturally she requested her Princess Leia cake look like the one from the game.

Princess Leia Lego cake made by The Cake Mama (me!)

You're gonna laugh about how I came up with the idea of using the cookies below
for my Wookie Cookies: I was at Superstore in the frozen section looking for punch
for the party. At the end of the aisle I saw these:





and INSTANTLY a light bulb flashed above my head. I grabbed a
bunch of boxes of these and cut the beak off the penguin and voila:

Wookie Cookies!

I added some white and milk chocolate to make the "belt" he wears across his
chest.

Star Wars Wookie Cookies

a Star Wars party just isn't a party without pretzel light sabers!

are you a Jedi or Sith?

Star Wars pretzel light sabers

Emma's friends were invited to dress up as whichever character they chose.

I think it's safe to say she had a great time at her party. We also made a R2D2

pinata that was virtually indestructible! (would you believe it was

made out of a paper bag recycled from Target lol!)

I had so much fun putting this together for Emma. She is a sweet

and sensitive soul with incredible talent. She is so loving and I know

we can all expect great things from her! Thanks to everyone who

came out to celebrate our 7 (going on 8) year old!

MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU!!

summer bucket list

i can't even believe how quickly summer is approaching in our neck of the woods. it's surreal to think that in just a few weeks my littlest will be turning 4 and my oldest will be finishing grade 2. nevertheless the biggest buzz word around here is SUMMER! and we definitely cannot wait to embark on some adventures this year.

here are a few of the items on our bucket list!:

1. camping:

every year we go away somewhere on the last day of school. this year we have booked a campsite at okanagan lake! while camping is usually all about being one with nature, we definitely know we won't be able to deny ourselves the opportunity to visit a bunch of wineries nearby. we are in one of the wine-making capitals of BC after all!

2. water parks:

provided that we have a nice and hot july, we love to frequent the neighborhood water parks. we are very fortunate to be living very close to multiple parks and look forward to cooling down this way!

3. date nights:

need i say more???

4. the drive in:

summer doesn't end until we pay a visit to the drive in for a family friendly movie night! if we're lucky we even take advantage of the fact that the girls will sleep in the van and watch a grown up double feature!

5. the fair

we don't always go every year since typically we are in disneyland (wah! not this year though!) so since we'll be local this summer we'll be sure to check out playland to enjoy the rides and what i also like to call: the day of pure gluttony! wiggle chips, whales tails, fischer's scones, caramel apples, c-lovers fish n chips and vina's spring rolls - get in my belly!

be sure to follow me on instagram: @thisisjzzy as we cross off more things on our summer bucket list! what are some fun things you like to do in beautiful bc?

somewhere beyond the sea....

A special little girl who turned three last year requested a Little Mermaid birthday party

 to commemorate this special day!

We were fortunate to have Ariel herself join our party, here are some photos

of Olivia's magical day :)

The dessert table!

Clockwise from top left: seashell sugar cookies filled with

chocolate ganache and topped with a little pearl, a 3 tiered vanilla cake

with vanilla butter cream in an underwater theme, treat cups filled with colored white  

chocolate mermaids and goldfish crackers, a little princess adoring Ariel!

Emma contributed to the decorating and made a sign for

the lemonade.

The calm before the storm.

Clockwise from top left:  Who's the birthday girl? Me!!, I think I was more excited about

present opening than the birthday girl at one point, sharing a song with Ariel!

And finally Olivia hamming it up with Ariel!

Olivia is my little word girl. She comes up with the darnedest

things to say and leaves everyone amazed at how

well she speaks especially considering that in these

photos she's only 3!

Happiest of happy birthdays my sweet little girl, 

here's now a glance of how much she's grown!

Love you baby girl!