no calories post & chicken poop giveaway

hello again. seems like summer time, i have more time to post but i still post sporatically!
here is a recycled altoid tin i covered and made into this:cute, no? i really do love this stamp set.

inside, i filled with 2 instant coffee packets, rich hand cream, and lip balm. and yes, the lip balm is named 'chicken poop'! see the end of this post for blog candy giveaway.

i WAS going to give this to a coworker who just had a birthday but after i finished it, it was too cute to give up! [shhhhhh, she won't know!]speaking of delicious, we love going here after our trips to the wild animal park or the san diego zoo. such a treat! the boys will have a fresh cup of homemade sorbet or ice cream.not only are their desserts decorated beautifully but so is the front of the shop. such inspiration!almost looks too good to eat!

we always get some to go too in addition to the ones we ate there already!!

so how about a giveaway? i so happen to have an extra tube of chicken poop lip balm! wanna try it? some of you may [or not] know that i am very OCD about lip balm. i must have it on all the time. there is one in every single room of the house. 1 if not 2 in my purse. and i'm always game on trying new lip balm flavors. you'd think i was crazy if you saw a picture of my lip balm "collection"!!

so just tell me what your all time favorite dessert is or favorite dessert place. or tell me your favorite lip balm brand. comment on this post til august 12th and i will pick a winner then.

thanks for stopping by and always leaving lovely comments.

crabby

hello! just a card i made for this challenge here. very simple & fast to do. flower is made from vintage music sheet paper.
i am working on things for my sister's baby shower that i am throwing her. lots to do & make!!last weekend, we went to the sealife aquarium at legoland. not as big as i thought it was.sharing a few pics. some of these pics were from my iPhone and some from my camera (with no flash) so some pictures may look grainy.

SHARK!!

mr. crabby

cup of tea

if a teacup with a face doesn't make you smile, then i dunno what will! maybe 4 teacups with faces?? kept this card clean & simple for this challenge. teacups were paper pieced with 2 different patterened papers. we've been exploring our area more this summer. just seeing what the community has to offer. and surprisingly, there are tons of things to do with the kids. many of them FREE! we happen to find out last sunday that it was the sunday of the month that gave free rides on these mini trains. of course the boys loved it! brandon was a HUGE thomas the train fan by the time he was 1 1/2 yrs old. he could identify all the trains even though they all looked the same to me.

we told brybry that there were little people passengers in the front.

we look a little ridiculous right? the weather was nice---sunny, not too hot with a nice cool breeze.

better than the temps we've had days before where it was in the high 90's.silly boys! we rode the train 2x! fun day! after that, we went to the local library. they had free craft day. the boys made a caterpillar and a butterfly.

i wonder what our next adventure will be this weekend.....what does everyone else have planned? check your local city page.......you will be pleased with all the events your city (and nearby cities) have to offer. just fooling around with a picture of bryan.

brybry's eggies

one of brybry's favorite breakfast foods are "eggies". not sunny-side up like these but scrambled. i always enjoyed the times when i was home having breakfast time with brybry when brandon was in school. that was 'our' time. while i made his breakfast, he'd sit at the dinner table and insist i give him homework to do or paper so he can write & draw. so cute! cannot wait for the school year to start so i can have me & brybry time again!
hope this card is fun & cute to you all.....joining in on the moxie challenge here.

apparently, not everybody can do the tongue roll---can you? like the silly things bryan does! and i love how he's hugging a tree cause i told him to! ha!

shabby & HOT

created this shabby vintage card out of a card i received from a friend (hi leesa!). too pretty to throw out! i cut a panel out from part of the card and added a bit of this and that. there's a Moxie challenge going on here so check it out if you like doing shabby/vintage cards OR if you just like looking at this style, there are lots of good looking entries to feast your eyes on. (contact me if you want the supply list too lazy to list.

sooooo, just the other week, i was complaining how gloomy and ugly its been here. and now--- it hotter than hot!!

i took the boys on a mini picnic friday to the great park. it's nearby our house and it has this great big air balloon that you can take a ride. it's anchored down but still, an experience to be had. there's also lots of grassy area for them to run and the plus---no one around so they can be as loud & annoying as they want and i don't have to worry about them bothering anyone!

i surprised brandon & bryan by secretly inviting a friend of ours to join us. brandon & peyton went to preschool together but were not in the same class for kinder but we still had our playdates and saw each other since we live steps away from each other. she has a brother, jax, who is a little bit older than bryan (and another little brother, evan, who is not in this pic).

the kids all had a fun time! did i mention it was 92* that day??!! hot hot hot!!!

it's the pits

how is everybody's summer going? we are discovering fun places to explore with the boys this summer. this past sunday, we went here, the la brea tar pits. amazing that all of this is in the middle of a busy city! you can read more interesting facts here.

learning some fun facts with daddy

a rear view

scary

there were other panels exactly like this one here totalling 404 wolf heads found in the tar pits. pretty amazing.

the picture below here is called the fishbowl. you can see real scientists working on cleaning fossils or putting together bones back.

these are all eagle foots found in the tar pits too........no wonder they're close to extinction.they have a little garden area outside where we saw some turtles & koi.

we took a walk around the outside to get the whole effect-----tar smell and all! if you click on the photo below, you can see the oily slick of the tar.

brybry having fun walking around w/ his juicebox. i just LOVE that hat on him. my favorite!

apparently, there are still lots of areas to be excavated.walking around the grounds, this is a common sight. a puddle of tar in the middle of grassy areas.

bitter melon growing in the backgroundnext door to the tar pits was the LACMA. the boys had fun running zig zag around these 202 old cast iron street lights. look at the little monkey in the back......

of course i was waiting for the 1st boy to run smack into a light post but i am happy to report, neither brandon OR bryan were injured =)

self timers are great, aren't they?

funny note here......

BEFORE:

AFTER:

the hill is pretty steep so i told the boys not to run down it. so what do they do? run down it. and brybry takes a spill rolling down half the way down. me & hubs were just laughing so hard!!! i guess we really should have helped brybry up BUT, i told him not to run & he did it so he deserved it right? no blood----it was all good. look at brandon's face too....little "i-told-you-so"face!

TFL at all these pics and for stopping by!