A few quick stops at a few stores and we were in business. We used a small basket, a piece of red gingham fabric, red and white paper, and a small piece of wire to attach the sign to the basket. Madeline was in charge of putting the gift together. After all, she benefits from her teachers awesomeness every single day.

I just love Madeline’s handwriting. She’s still holding on strong to that capital R. (Madeline insisted it was grate, her teacher informs me this is because she has mastered the magic E and great sounds like ti should be grate.)

“I couldn’t have picked a better teacher. I think you are berry great.”

A package of beautiful organic strawberries helped pull the whole thing together. We also threw in a small ChocoLove chocolate bar and a Target gift card. What can we say, We think her teacher is BERRY great!

What sorts of things did you do for teacher appreciation?

I’ve signed Maddy up for a few camps throughout the 9 weeks of summer break. She’ll get to spend a few hours a day for a week hanging out on a farm taking care of animals petting ponies and having fun. She’ll hang out at the pool or hiking or cooking for a handful of  hours a day for a different week. During another week she will swim or craft or ice skate for a few hours a day. She also will spend some time being a scientist for a each morning for a week. Of course we also have some trips to family cabin planned.

Madeline is a pretty go-go-go kind of kid and without her classmates and a full day of school to keep her busy I am sure she will get stir crazy. With this in mind Luke, Madeline and I took a few minutes while swinging on our porch swing this weekend to brainstorm a list of things we definitely want to make happen this summer. Some of the ideas were funny. Some were just plain fun. Today while Delaney napped I turned our list into a big poster to hang in our kitchen and remind us of the awesome things we want to do this summer. It also meant I got to play with my sharpies. It might seem silly but I’m hoping “I’m bored” and “I don’t know what to do” will not be heard in this house for quite a while.

I’m happy with the balance of things we will need to plan out in advance and things we can spontaneously decide to do. I think we’ll be fairly busy this summer.

What is on your list for this summer?

I love our room. It has vaulted ceilings, windows that look out over our backyard, dark wood furniture that I love and lots of wall space to hang things. All that wall space is like a blank canvas. Years back we visited the Japanese Tea Garden in Golden Gate Park. Luke, of course, took a ton of pictures. We have a couple of the photographs from the visit framed in wide dark wood frames and hanging on one wall in our bedroom. I love the bright colors in the photos.

So now that we have completely settled into our home it’s more than time to focus on the master bedroom. The walls are mostly bare and we need more than the two large photos from the tea garden and large metal wall-hanging made up of sleek lines my dad made for me as a birthday gift. Using our sleek but sturdy dark wood furniture and our few pieces of art as inspiration I have pulled together a possible direction for my master bedroom. It was easy to lose track of time clicking around Minted looking through hundreds prints made by talented designers.

Using the bold colors from the Luke’s photos as a guide I selected a few prints that could hang in a grouping on one of my bare walls. My plan is to hang several small pieces in varying mediums, sizes and shapes together on the walls flanking our bedroom window. We generally chose larger pieces to hang throughout our house and I think more of a pulled together collage will spice things up a bit.  The Cherry Blossom Tree, Variegated Plant and Highway Wildflowers all have the vibrant colors and feel that I am looking for. A slight Asian feel without being too touristy in nature. I don’t want my master bedroom to feel like I decorated it all with kitschy souvenirs from China Town.

Add in some bold red curtains and a few accessories and I am really getting excited about how this idea is coming together. Now to decide if we should paint the beige walls or not. Maybe just an accent wall?

How is your master bedroom decorated? Or is it sadly under-decorated like mine?

This is a sponsored post on behalf of Minted.com written by me. All thoughts and opinions are mine alone. 

The first time it took by surprise. As did the second, third and, well even now. Even today, this moment took me by surprise. I’m running along already having worked through whatever craziness was in my head at the beginning of my run and I’m calmly listening to whatever music or book is playing in my ears and taking in the sights around me when about two-thirds of the way through my run I’m suddenly thinking thoughts that bring about a bit of tightness in my chest. And it’s amazing. It’s the most wonderful amazing thing.

So many things clutter my thoughts every day. Running has given me a way to work through everything. My runs are like mini organizing sessions for my thoughts and feelings. Once I take the time to process all the things rattling around my brain there is so much free space. After I clear away all the stress, organizing thoughts and to do lists, dusting off and putting away my everyday frustrations and worries I get some time to get comfortable with all the mental space left behind. The space doesn’t stick around long though. Just as I’m really feeling the freedom and lightness of a clear head and getting ready to really sink into the last third of my run the space suddenly fills up as if a dam in the corner of my thoughts broke loose and sent a tidal wave of emotion over me. And it’s amazing. It’s the most wonderful amazing thing.

In that moment I’m filled with so much gratitude I could burst. I’m unabashedly thankful, and happy, and so so grateful. I think of my husband and daughters, friends and family. The amazing life I live. I think of my health and the health of those I love. I’m grateful I can run and that I am running. I think of all the time my family gives to make it possible for me to reach my goals. I think of the opportunities my girls have. The truly endless possibilities that lay at their feet. And it’s amazing. It’s the most wonderful amazing thing.

I’m not sure why this moment rolls over me at nearly the same point in nearly every run regardless of distance or length, but it does. Some people might run for the runner’s high, but I run for the gratitude high. And it’s amazing. It’s the most wonderful amazing thing.

When our baked pancake emerged from the oven Madeline was thrilled with it’s big puffy shape. She raved over our delicious breakfast and even lamented at how sorry she felt for all the people who were not so lucky as to get to try our delicious pancake. She isn’t afraid to pat herself on the back and I like it. Unfortunately Luke was one of those people missing out on our amazing pancake. He ended up going to the gym – with two kids and a busy schedule when you have the chance to go to the gym you go – and didn’t get home until much later in the morning. We were nice enough to save some leftovers but there is no substitute for having this pancake fresh from the oven.

So on a recent “snow day” – I put that in quotes because the weather forecasts called for nearly a foot of snow and we got nearly an inch – Madeline and I decided it was time to show Luke exactly what we had been raving over. He was glad to be let in on our little berry filled puffed pancake secret. So thrilled in fact he ate half of it himself. Delaney was pretty happy to not miss out on the pancake fun this time either. With a Madeline, Luke, Delaney and Catherine thumbs up I would say this puff pancake is a winner. Now go forth and make some baked berry-filled pancake. You’ll love it.

Triple Berry Puff Pancake Ingredients
1 cup milk
4 eggs
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon lemon zest
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup white whole wheat flour
1/4 salt
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 cup thawed frozen mixed berries – blueberries, blackberries, and raspberries (you can also use a mix fresh berries

Lemon – Vanilla Yogurt Ingredients
1 cup vanilla yogurt
1/2 teaspoon lemon zest
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

Place the butter in a 12 inch cast iron skillet, place the pan in your oven and then preheat your oven to 400° F.

While the oven and pan preheat prepare the batter. whisk the eggs, milk, sugar, lemon zest and vanilla together until the eggs are well incorporated  Add the salt and flour and whisk until the batter is smooth.

When the oven finishes preheating, carefully remove the pan from the oven – the butter should be melted is just slightly browned. Pour the batter into the hot pan. Gently pour the berries even over the whole surface of the batter. Return the pan to the oven and bake for about 20 minutes or until the outside edges are puffed and golden brown and the center is firm.

While the pancake bakes, mix yogurt, lemon zest, and lemon juice together and set aside.

The triple berry puff pancake is best when eaten warm from the oven. Slice your pancake and serve topped with lemon-vanilla yogurt immediately.

We ended up with a sweet baby girl and she ended up with that sweet baby bird themed nursery. The color plans stayed the same through the daydreaming, planning and execution phases with shades of turquoise and dark brown mixed with splashes of pinks and greens making up the backdrop of Delaney’s bird themed bedroom. After lots of pinning to my bird themed nursery board on Pinterest and hanging out in craft stores I settled on a handful of projects to pull the bird theme together. I must be honest, I love sitting in Delaney’s room singing her songs as I rock her. I love looking around and seeing all the little touches we made for her.

Even though Delaney is nearly 10-months-old – I’m not sure how that happened – I’m still I little obsessed with turquoise and sweet bird things so today I will take you on a tour of Delaney’s space and show you some of the things we did while we waited for her to make her grand entrance into the world. We decorated Madeline’s nursery with flower photographs Luke took especially for her and I sewed a curtain and crib skirt so I knew I wanted to decorate Delaney’s nursery with our own art and handmade things. A DIY bird nursery was the plan.

When I started planning out everything to go into Delaney’s room, Luke was a bit worried. When I came home with bags and bags of crafting supplies he was very worried. He’s a photographer but doesn’t see himself as much of a crafter and I  made it pretty clear he was going to have to take part in the fun. Also, I have a long history of picking projects that are substantially above my skill set all the while thinking I will magically be able to do things I am not actually capable of, and then getting supremely frustrated with everything. The sewing machine gets the best of me sometimes and I end up cursing at it, a lot. I must say I did a good job of keeping my cool and none of the projects were over my head. Maybe I’ve turned over a new leaf?

First Madeline and I made Initials for each girls room. Madeline made her own M to match her colors and decor and I made Delaney’s D to go along with her bird theme. I was so excited to find the turquoise feathers for Delaney’s D. Her twine wrapped and feather adorned D hangs on the wall above her crib. I’ll share more of the details of how I made the D and Madeline’s M in the near future.

One of the ideas that caught my eye right away and just wouldn’t get out of my head was bunting. I just had to sew some adorable bunting for Delaney’s room. Bunting to go with the gathered crib skirt I was also going to sew. If  you know me you know I have a love hate relationship with my sewing machine. We fight more than we get along. There are things in this world I am good at, sewing is not one of them, so you can imagine Luke’s worry when I came home with a stack of fabric with plans to sew a huge part of the decor for our baby’s room. It took some time – mostly because of my very, very sub-par sewing skills – but I accomplished my sewing goals.

And even though I am not great with a sewing machine I am so happy with how everything turned out.

Sewing is not my favorite thing, but painting is something I love to do. I’m not great at it, but I enjoy it. I painted some flower canvases for Madeline’s room a few years back and I knew early on that I wanted to paint something for Delaney’s room. After some thought I decided on flat 5×7 canvases and a selection of brown, shades of turquoise, pink and green. Luke and I spent an evening at the kitchen table painting, and stenciling, freehand drawing, and then painting some more. Nine mix-matched frames later and we have a wall of hand-painted bird silhouettes hanging above Delaney’s dresser/changing table.

Since a lot of planning for Delaney’s room took place when craft stores had all their spring merchandise out I was able to grab quite a few fun bird items. Birdhouses were on the shelves everywhere last year, so Luke, Madeline, and I took a filed trip to Micheal’s and we each picked out a plain wood bird house. These birdhouses were to become mobiles and they have a fun sentimental touch to them. Guests at the shower friends threw for me decorated each of the birds hanging from the bird houses. Delaney loves looking at the birds at the swing and turn and I love how the birdhouses  represent Luke and Madeline and me as well as our wonderful family and friends.

Another baby shower item turned room decor was the bird tree my friends made as decoration for the party. It’s made of tree branches spray painted brown. The branches are stuck into a foam block sitting in a flower-pot and covered with rocks. I love the little birds on the branches. It’s right at her level s we’ll see if Delaney starts to get a little too interested in it as she gets older but so far she hasn’t done more than look at it.

I love that the theme of Delaney’s nursery is obvious when you walk in and take a look around but I also love that it isn’t over the top birds covering every inch of everything thing. Instead of plastering pictures of birds and bird figurines everywhere I was able to use a mixture of things – everything from feathers and twine to give the feel of a nest, to simple bird silhouettes and personalized birdhouses – along with the color palate to pull the whole look together.

What nursery themes are your favorite?

After some thinking we decided to extend the egg hunt fun a bit. I found a cute 60 pice puzzle with a mare and foal on it. We filled eggs with pieces of the puzzle. Some eggs had more than one, some only one. On Easter Madeline woke up and couldn’t figure out why there were no eggs to find spread through the house or yard. This was all a part of our plan. We simply said the Easter bunny would come when he could and that he would be so sneaky and fast that no one would know he was there. After everyone had arrived we sent everyone out into the front yard so Madeline could show off her 2-wheel bike riding skills. While everyone watched and ooohed and awed, Luke and I went to worked setting up the hunt. While Luke hid the puzzle piece filled eggs all throughout the backyard I set out a special message from the Easter bunny to Madeline complete with the prize if she was able to complete her task.

Jump up and down and shout hip hop hooray!
It’s time to hunt without further delay!
Go out the place where you play in the sun,
that’s where you’ll find all the Easter fun.
That like you always do, just like is you habit,
put all the pieces together and you get to keep this cute pink chocolate bunny rabbit!
Hoopy Hunting ,
The Easter Bunny

After her bike riding show Madeline and the family returned to the house to find what the Easter Bunny had left. After reading the message and figuring out the clues Madeline set to work finding the eggs. She zipped through the yard filling her Easter basket – a new bike basket for her bike – with plastic eggs in varying shades.

Then the puzzle fun began. We opened all the eggs and she focused on finishing that puzzle, both for the joy of finishing the sweet horse puzzle and to earn the Easter bunnies final prize, a chocolate Easter bunny.

Last Easter was a win all around. We all had fun, candy played a very small role in the day and we were able to sprinkle a little extra magic into our daughter’s day. We’ve made a similar decision for this year. I’m not sure what we’ll put into our eggs just yet or if we will skip the plastic eggs and have fun hunting for our dyed Easter eggs, but candy will not play much of a role in our hunt or basket this year either.

Do you fill plastic eggs or do you hide dyed eggs? What fun things do you fill your Easter Eggs with? 

Hip hip hooray spring is here!

Spring is in the air!

Actually as I type this there is 4 or 5 inches of snow in the ground and more falling from the sky. More like blowing sideways as it falls from the sky. Alas, this is spring in Colorado. Days of 60 degree weather lead up to a big old snow storm. I’m not complaining though. We need it and honestly spring snow is the prettiest snow. Even though this sort of weather is par for the course in Colorado it doesn’t mean we haven’t had traditional spring things on the brain around here. A little rainbow, flower, or butterfly craft can brighten your day even if it is 25 degrees and snowing outside.

Also, crafting when it’s snowy is a must in this house. Madeline is a bouncy energy filled girl and crafting helps her release a little creative energy. And so we craft with sun, happy flowers, and pretty rainbows in mind and then share it with you! Maybe you have snow in your yard right now too or maybe you are enjoying one of those lovely spring showers that will surely be followed by a happy rainbow, or maybe you’re enjoying a warm and sunny spring day either way You can’t help but love spring right?

Supplies needed to make a Woven Ribbon Rainbow

• Plain white paper plate
• Scissors
• A razor, exacto knife or other sharp cutting tool (you can also use scissors but a cutting tool will be easier)
• Red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple ribbon
• Cotton balls
• School glue

How to make a Woven Ribbon Rainbow

Step 1. Fold the paper plate in half and then cut along the fold.

Step 2. Cut slits fanning across the paper plate halves leaving about a half an inch space at the top edge and enough space at the center to be sure the slits do not intersect.

Step 3. Starting with the red ribbon weave through the slits threading the ribbon over one section through a slit and then under the next section and through the slit.

Step 4. Repeat step 3 with the orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple ribbons. Make sure to alternate starting over the first section and starting under the first section to create the woven appearance of the rainbow.

Step 5. Once each color is woven through the plate trim the ribbons. On one end trim the ribbon to leave about six inches of length. Trim the ribbons on the other end even with the edge of the paper plate.

Step 6. Glue the ribbons onto both sides of the paper plate to make sure they stay in place.

Step 7. Gently pull apart and fluff 1 or 2 cotton balls. Cover ends of the ribbon trimmed to match the edge of the paper plate by gluing the fluffed cotton balls over them. We decided to glue a fluffed cotton ball on the back too.

Step 8. Punch a small hole at the top center of the rainbow and string a length of ribbon through the hole and tie the ends. Your woven rainbow is now ready to hang and display.

I did forget that the week after my 5k was spring break and Madeline would be home.

I did not know that while getting myself and the family ready to head downtown for my 5k I would slip on the stairs while holding Delaney and bruise large portions of my body. Luckily Delaney is fine and I took the brunt of the fall.

I obviously did not anticipate Delaney waking up sick around 11:00 pm on Sunday night and then continuing in a cycle of puke and diarrhea followed by spurts of seeming totally fine for the next 36 hours.

So, Monday evening rolled around and I was exhausted. Caring for a pukey baby and her hyped-up “I’m on Spring Break!!!” sister after a night of caring for a pukey baby had taken its toll. Dinner still needed to be made, the kids needed to be read to and bathed and put to bed. Really, all I wanted to do was break down into that overly emotional cry that sometimes bubbles up when I’m overly-tired and worked-up. Then order a pizza and drink a glass of wine.

This is why I was at the gym at 9:00pm on a Monday night. Usually you will find me reading and drinking a cup or tea or working on my Italian course or writing. It is accurate to say I was not thrilled to be there, but even though I knew I was attempting my longest run yet with less fuel in the tank then was needed this run needed to happen. A training plan is a schedule and my plan leads me right up to my first half-marathon in early May. I just told myself I needed to buck up, push myself and run off this grumpy, tired fog hanging over my head.

You guys. I wish this was a “and I totally showed that run who is boss” post. But it isn’t. I didn’t run 9 miles last night. I tried. I really tried. In the end I only got to 6 miles. Which, yes I know, considering everything 6 miles is still really great, but 6 wasn’t the goal.

I know that training programs aren’t always week after week of success. Gold stars after every workout. fortunately, and unfortunately, this is my first fail. My first run left unfinished, and honestly it hurts. I just wish I could have put last night’s run in the win column. There is no “A for effort here.”

The St. Patrick’s Day card idea came together after Madeline and I talked about a bunch of different ideas, but Chelsea – a fellow Right Start Mom – really got our creative juices flowing with her Lucky Green Thumbs craft on the Right Start Blog this past week. You all know how much I love handprint crafts, so obviously fingerprint crafts are pretty exciting to me too.

This fingerprint craft is simple. All you need are a few supplies and a lucky someone to give some St. Patrick’s Day love to.

St. Patrick’s Day Fingerprint Craft Supplies

• White cardstock
• Paint: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple and black
• Paint brushes (you can make it by with one, but a handful would be helpful)
• Marker
• Glitter glue (optional)
• Damp paper towels

Step 1: Fold your cardstock in half to form a card.

Step 2: Dip your child’s pointer finger or thumb into green paint. On the front of the card, in the place you want a four-leaf clover, gently press their finger down. Rotate the paper a quarter turn and press their finger down again. Repeat this twice more to make all four leaves of your four-leaf clover. Apply more paint to their finger as needed as you stamp all four leaves. Using a paint brush paint a stem onto the clover.

Step 3: Once the four-leaf clover on the front of your card is dry it’s time to get started on the inside. Paint the top potion of a black pot on the bottom right side of the card. (Hint: I the outline of the pot using pencil for Madeline to paint over.) 

Step 3: Dip your child’s finger in yellow paint. Have them make yellow dots just above the top of the black pot to look like gold coins.

Step 4: Paint a rainbow across the inside of the card with one end starting just above the pot of gold and the other end ending at the edge of the left side of the paper.

Step 5: Once the paint is dry it’s time for the finishing touch… the adorable sentiments.

On the front of the card write: I’m so lucky you are my… (friend, teacher, cousin, dentist, whatever).

On the inside of the card write: I wouldn’t trade you for a pot of gold

Madeline and I are so proud of our cards. Okay, really they are her cards and she worked hard to make them. Fancy letters and all. I love crafting with her.