We ended up doing what we always do, which is waiting until the last minute to decide whether we’re going to try to do a dinner date or a movie date… frantically waffling between should we or shouldn’t we try to go (will Edie wake up while we’re gone, will we get an SOS call like our last dinner date?) and whether or not it’s worth it. Tonight the movie won, and since it was an early (7:10) showing we were *fairly* certain we could make it back before she woke up, even if she did have an early wake-up night. We saw Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, which until today I didn’t even know existed (and definitely wouldn’t have picked based on its name but lucky for us Ben reads the synopses of even the ones with horrible titles). But it was cute. And WE SAW A MOVIE! Hooray! I am so excited I think we might just have to see another one… you know… before next year

One more list item, check! Actually, I have another one that’s done as well but not quite blogged… I made the kids matching outfits for Easter. Cuteness overload! I will hopefully get those photos up soon.

As Charles Schulz’s Linus character from the PEANUTS® comic strip was comforted by his blanket, Project Linus strives to do the same and more for children who are seriously ill, traumatized, or otherwise in need. The blankets our nearly 400 chapter coordinators collect from thousands of “blanketeers” (volunteers) across the United States and then distributed to these children provide love, a sense of security, warmth, and comfort.

When Paul and Amelia were born they spent 2 weeks in the NICU. The first week and a half of that was spent in isolettes, little plastic baby bubbles where they wore only diapers and were hooked up to all sorts of beeping, buzzing, glowing machines. Once they reached a certain size and were able to take their food by mouth rather than tube they were moved into an open crib. When we walked into the NICU to find them in open cribs it was pretty much the happiest moment of my life. They finally looked like they were snuggly and cozy, just as babies are meant to be. Part of it was that they weren’t in their isolettes anymore, but a lot of it was that they were also covered up by beautiful handmade blankets given to them by Project Linus.

Ever since that day I have had blanket making on my to-do list. It made me feel so comforted and loved to know that someone out there took the time and effort to make blankets for my babies. I knew I needed to do the same for someone else who was going through a rough time. Paul and Amelia actually still sleep with their Project Linus blankets every single night.

I started this blanket sometime in 2010 and have had it mostly finished for almost a year now. I was just dragging my feet on weaving in the ends (I don’t like that part) and getting it mailed off, but I’m proud to say it’s on its way as of this morning. Hooray! I finally finished my blanket! Now to make a second one…

For those curious about the how-to on this blanket… it’s pretty much the easiest crochet project on the planet. All you need to know is chain, single crochet and double crochet. I believe it’s actually this shell stitch pattern from the Project Linus website, but almost all the shell stitch patterns I found were basically the same idea. Three cheers for finishing a project!

One more item checked off my 30 by 30 list, hooray!

When I finished it he climbed all over it, inspecting it and pointing out all the squares he liked best. He also told me which of the clothes he remembers

He seems to love his just as much as his sister loves hers

Both of their quilts are made from the clothes they wore during their first year… I can’t believe it’s already almost time to make Edie a quilt (yikes!) time is certainly flying! If you happened to miss Amelia’s quilt post and are wondering how to make one of your very own go and check it out – there are tons of links/explanations on how I made it and all of the tutorials I used. Hooray for baby clothes quilts!

So what’s a lady to do?

I started searching around on a few of the blogs that I read for a dairy free cake (because it doesn’t have to be *vegan* just dairy free… I can still have eggs) and didn’t find any that tempted me but I DID find this cake which looked simply amazing – Forgiving Martha’s vanilla buttercake with strawberry icing. I had first seen her blog thanks to a facebook post by a friend for her chavocado pudding (and yes, it sounds weird but it is delicious as well!) and knew that she posts a lot of vegan recipes… but this butter cake was anything BUT vegan (hello, butter!) I decided to try it anyway, using earth balance (a butter substitute) and just following the rest of the recipe exactly. The batter actually reminded me a lot of the batter for my favorite sheet tray but I was skeptical as to how it would turn out. Ben suggested we test out the convection setting on our oven (hey, at least if it has to be tiny it’s somewhat fancy) and to my shock and amazement the cake cooked perfectly evenly all the way through. It was also not too dense or too dry… just simply delicious! Mmmmmm.

I tried to make the frosting as well (because it looks SO good) but let’s just say that the earth balance and strawberries did NOT want to mingle. No matter what I tried I couldn’t get an emulsion out of them, just a gloppy mess. Maybe it was my fault and the temperature was off, or maybe it’s just a fact of using a butter substitute but, but that whole batch went straight to the trash can. I decided instead to make a variation on the icing I’d made for Ben’s birthday cupcakes for work earlier in the week (mmm cupcakes). It’s a recipe for vegan chocolate mint cupcakes but I altered it to be an almond icing – substitute almond extract for mint and leave out the food color. This kind mixed up much much better.

I put a layer of icing and a layer of strawberries between the two layers of cake, coated the whole thing in icing and decorated with strawberries.

The effect wasn’t quite exactly the same (no fluffy pinkness in the icing) but still pretty mouth-watering if I do say so myself. Mmmmmmm cake. I’m glad that even with a tiny oven and non-dairy requirement I was still able to make a tasty cake

(photo via instagram… I didn’t have time once it was finished to take a picture with my camera… oops)

We had a couple of games – the traditional baby shower bingo and a guessing game for what the gender will be (clearly no winner yet since baby is still baking away in mom’s belly!) and I loved the idea of leaving words of wisdom for the new momma to be!

Sue found these adorable bee chocolates and while I didn’t have time to bake nearly as many treats as I would have liked I did manage to at least come up with some cupcakes.

There were of course lots of adorable tiny outfits to be opened

although I didn’t have much time to photograph the gift opening portion of the day since Ben came by and brought Edie to play with everyone for the second half of the shower. Her friend Harper was in attendance as well.

And one last shot of me with Tara (looking fabulous!) and my cohost Sue. Congratulations Tara!! I am so ridiculously excited for the arrival of my new niece or nephew… I cannot wait!

Paul and Amelia noticed instantly “Mommy your toes are yellow” “Why are your toes yellow?” “Your toes are usually pink”… these observations/questions lasted an entire day and started up again this morning. I think I rocked their world just a bit by stepping outside my norm.

One more item on my list complete! Only 27 to go.

I can’t even tell you how NICE it was up there on the hill… I am a sucker for the California golden hour glowy light, especially on a warm breezy day when the wild mustard flowers starting to bloom. My mom says you can tell I don’t have allergies because if I did I would hate them, but those mustard flowers are one my absolute favorite things about living in southern California. I know it’s spring when they come out and I just can’t get enough of their cheery yellow blossoms. I wish we could hike together every day.

LOVE the views from way up on the hills, next time I want to hike the other side of the hill so we can get the ocean view!

Both kids fell several times but are so resilient. I love that they just pick themselves up and keep on going, even though they were covered literally head to toe in dirt. Amelia at one point did a face plant and ended up with a completely dirt covered nose but wasn’t fazed by it at all. We kept cheering them on, telling them what a great job they were doing and how much fun hiking was… Amelia said at one point “I love hiking, we should go hiking again soon!” Yes… yes we should!

dirt covered and loving life…

One more list item… CHECK!

I am SO ridiculously excited to grow our very own delicious avocados at home and even more excited by the prospect of virtually unlimited numbers of them. The tag that was on the tree when we bought it had, in addition to planting and watering directions, a description of the fruit which said that the tree would be prolific. Ben said not to count my avocados before they’re hatched… but come on… prolific?! Doesn’t that just make your mouth water dreaming of all of the delicious guacamole and avocado topped lentil burgers that could be in your future? It does for me.

Our little tree is just that… a little tree right now. A sapling really.

It will take a long time for it to get to full on tree status, and even longer for it to start producing fruit. I think that an optimistic estimate is that the first avocados could appear three years from now.. which means that Edith will be the age that Paul and Amelia are now before we will see any fruit. In those terms it seems like a million years away. And it actually could be up to five years. I’m confident that it will be worth the wait

Grow, tree. Grow!

I will be updating my original 30 by 30 list and crossing out each item as I go along. First item … check!

I will turn 30 years old this summer. It’s a weird idea because if 30 is a stage of life I feel like I’ve been there forever – having three kids, a dog, two cars and a home of our own makes me feel decidedly 30ish. But if 30 is a feeling of being mature and accomplished I think I am still firmly rooted in my 20s (or teens). I still feel like a kid playing “grown up” most days. I saw the 30 by 30 idea on a few of my favorite blogs and have been meaning to post my list for ages but keep forgetting. Today I finally decided it was time to start. If I can’t get to all of these by my birthday I won’t beat myself up about it… but I’d like to at least try. They aren’t my grand life ambitions but more things I always want to do but don’t make time for. I’d like to get to as many of these as possible in the next 5 months or so. So without further ado, my 30 by 30 list. A lot of these are actually things that I have done at one time or another but haven’t done lately.

1 try surfing – I’m going to need to enlist the help of one of my surfing friends for this one
2 learn a song on my guitar – I actually used to know a couple but haven’t played since highschool. My guitar will certainly need a good dusting and tuning as well
3 plant an avocado tree – now that we have a yard I want to take advantage of it. I would love to grow tasty food at home. Done!
4 run on the beach – I used to do this often but haven’t in over a year and I miss it
5 do yoga outdoors – I practice yoga 4 times a week but always in dimly lit sweaty rooms. I’d like to try it al fresco
6 host an outdoor dinner party – so many ideas for this one… lots of twinkle lights will be involved
7 wear an out of the ordinary nail polish color – just because Done!
8 take a swimming lesson – I can swim but poorly. I’d like to be faster so that I might someday be able to race in a triathlon
9 go for a hike on the trails near the house – there are lots of great hiking spots 5 minutes from our house and we’ve never tried them. Done!
10 go for a bike ride – another thing I used to do often but haven’t lately.
11 find and drink a picon bierre – my favorite drink when we lived in Paris. I’ve never found them in the US
12 go see live music being played – we haven’t been to a concert in probably close to 5 years. I’d like to see one Done!
13 shop at our local farmers market – another right near our house but we never make it there list item
14 see a movie – I can’t even remember the last one we saw. Done!
15 join a book club – adult conversation and an excuse to sit down and read a book every once in a while? Yes please!
16 have a girls night out – maybe some wine and a dinner where I don’t have to refill anyone’s milk glass. Sounds lovely
17 go visit San Francisco – it’s been way too long and I’m so excited to see Chris and Tara’s new apartment
18 send someone an unexpected gift – just because
19 finish and donate a blanket to project Linus – Paul and Amelia got blankets from them in the NICU. I have been working on a blanket for 2 years now. done!
20 sew myself an item of clothing – I haven’t made myself anything in over a year
21 run in a race – hopefully a 5k
22 reupholster a chair – we currently have two chairs that we’ve been meaning to reupholster. I even have the fabric but just haven’t done it
23 write a short story – I’ve been meaning to write more but haven’t (other than blogging) in ages. I’d like to start
24 be photographed with my sister – we don’t have any photos together since Allison’s wedding.
25 sew matching outfits for the kids – maybe for Easter? I’m dreaming of sun dresses
26 volunteer somewhere – I would love to take the kids to volunteer with me but they’re probably a bit too young. I really want to find a regular volunteer activity to make part of my weekly routine
27 do couch to 5k – since I’m so out of practice I’ll probably need to do this to work up to numbers 4 and 21
28 take the kids to fly kites in the park – they LOVE watching kites but we’ve never tried it ourselves
29 take the kids on a train ride – since trains are one of Paul’s favorite things we really should take one sometime soon
30 build a deck outside our house – our backyard needs a lot of work. Ben and I have been talking about doing this ourselves and I’m excited to try it

To finish all of these by my birthday I’ll need to do 6 every month. Wish me luck.