Willa did it. She went and turned 3!

I know I am going to find myself saying this every year, but how on earth do I have a 3 year old?!?  One that is so smart and so tall and so pretty and so stinking funny?  (Whoa, Allison.  Calm down.  This is also the same girl that told you the other day that you were not a good listener and that she was going to kick your a$$).  But foul language aside, she is a very cool kid.  The craziest part of this whole "turning 3" business is that she will start school this year.  As in, in a few weeks.  As in, go to a place all day long 2 days a week where there is no mom, no grandma, no one to hold her hand when she feels shy, no one to make sure that she wipes well, no one to remind her a million times that when it is lunch time you need to actually eat and not just play...And there will be other kids there.  Kids that might try to get her to do drugs and have sex.  Maybe not exactly this year, but I'm sure (at the rate I see things going in the hospital kids) that it will happen in the early elementary school years.  Agggghhhh!!  If only I didn't desire my child to be smarter than me, I would just home school her.  I think I got a little off track...let's get back to Willa's first bike!!

AND...her first time playing mini-golf!

And of course, some pics of the 3rd birthday party!  So many wonderful family and friends joined us the day after W's birthday to celebrate.

A special shirley temple cupcake with a bajillion cherries on it, just for the birthday girl.

As usual, Willa got shy when everyone was watching her blow out her candles.  Thank goodness for Borne, or that little cupcake might have gone up in flames!

So special that Great Grandma Luth could join us again this year.

And our first birthday party attended by Best Friend Baby Sam!

Brad brought home a bounce house that was big enough for the grown ups.  Post-party, we were all in it!  Even Uncle Chris and Grandpa.  What a perfect little birthday weekend for Willa-Roo.

A Necessity For Someone Who Likes Marshmallows As Much As Me

We decided that our "big" yard project this summer would be our fire pit.  (It really wasn't that big of a project.  But we are lazy and poor this summer:)  We had fire pit visions from the first time we looked at this house last year.  We put the metal ring in right away, and it was certainly usable in the sense of being a fire pit, but we had intended to make it a little prettier and more substantial all along.  I won't even show you the pictures of fire pits that I pinned, as ours look nothing like the gorgeous, modern works of art that I drooled over.  But I must say that I am proud of the nice little area that we created all by ourselves and pretty darn inexpensively.  Bringing the supplies home from Menards took several trips, as those pieces of concrete are REALLY heavy!  Like tons and tons and tons of heaviness!

While Brad and I worked, Willa discovered new yard friends like the super fuzzy caterpillar and the worm that she named Abbey (and made a bed for and fed grass to and then pulled into several pieces which she called his brothers and sisters).

 Doesn't it look like my dad is a great supervisor??

We had a bit of a time trying to figure out what to do with the edges of our pit.  The pavers we were using were designed to make a square or diamond shape but we really wanted it to turn out round.  So after we had created a somewhat roundish shape, Brad broke the extra pavers into chunks, then we used little rocks to fill in the spaces between the pavers and the edging.  It worked out perfectly!

Ta-da!  What a lovely place to make s'mores, to read a magazine and have a cup of coffee, or just to sit and look into the fire.  I can totally picture Willa having slumber parties some day and all the little chick-a-dee birds sitting around telling ghost stories. 

Juicing!!

Oh boy!  It finally happened!  I got a juicer!  I know, I whined about it a lot.  Maybe not a lot on the blog, but a lot in my personal, real life.  And then one day I came home and Brad had bought me one!  He goes to great lengths to NOT listen to me whine:)  Not only did he buy me a juicer, he pretty much bought the best one that is available for non-commercial use.

That's the guy!  You can stick anything in there and it will liquefy it!  Well, we actually discussed what would happen if you put meat, a sock, or pop tarts in it.  Maybe you shouldn't juice some things.  

I gave myself a few days of testing out the machine, then I did a 2 day juice fast.  Just to see if I could and if I liked the results.  I tried to do mostly veggie juices, but once in awhile you just have to throw in a green apple and a pear.  And don't get confused by the photo, its best not to juice bananas or avocados.  I bought those for smoothies.  The combo of veggies I liked the best were carrots, cucumber, celery, kale, jalapeno, cilantro, garlic, tomato and sweet potato.  But I felt like as long as I had garlic and something spicy, I could throw any other veggie in there and it would be drinkable.  The 2 day fast was awesome.  It really surprised me that I had so much energy when I wasn't eating solid food, but I guess that just proves how much energy we expend on digesting and processing our food.  By the end of the 2nd day, I was pretty hungry so I had a smoothie instead of juice but I felt great and can't wait to do it again.  Hopefully for longer.  And not that my goal was to lose any weight but my summer shorts definitely fit better after the 2 days!  

How pretty is the juice when you add a beet and a polka dot straw??

  

Checking in with our feline friend

In case anyone was wondering about Stickers...He has yet to kill a mouse.  He is very kind to Willa.  He is doubling in size.  We like him.

In which the only person who lapped Brad was Sean

We spent a very windy Sunday in June at the mini-bike races at the Abbott Sports Complex.  It had been awhile since I had been to a dirtbike race and it was fun, as usual!  (Brad was a good sport about the whole "getting lapped by Sean" thing.  Sean is freakishly fast.)

Favorite places

One of my biggest weaknesses (and possibly one of the reasons we are not quite out of debt) is going out to eat.  Especially when the weather is beautiful and you can sit outside and have a good drink.  It doesn't have to be a whole meal, either.  I get unnaturally excited about iced coffee and/or scones, too.

 Mom, Willa and I like to frequent Bread and Cup after the Downtown Farmers Market on Saturday afternoons.  Oooh.  Or the Green Gateau.

A favorite with Brad?  Yia Yia's.  The vegan pizza with capers is delish.  Not everyone can get their vegan "cheese" so melty and cheese-like.  Another plus is the fact that I don't think I've ever had the same beer twice there.  Extensive beer menu.  If we are downtown and aren't at Yia Yia's, the second best bet is probably Bison Witch's.  We even rode our bikes there one night!

Willa had a doctor's appointment one day, not too far back.  Nothing big, not even any shots or anything.  But I *might* have told her if she was a big girl during the appointment that we could go somewhere for ice cream or a cupcake.  Does anyone else do this with their kids?  Reward them with things that they themselves want??  We couldn't make up our minds which sounded better so we went to Toast, where they have both!  We didn't actually order both, but I did let Willa decide which she wanted and she went with ice cream.  She said chocolate, I ordered cappuccino behind her back.  She didn't know the difference:)  If you've never been to Toast, it is fantastic.  It just happens to be the closest place to our house to eat and we are darn lucky.  They have great sandwiches, soup, and a homemade veggie burger that is very impressive.  And their coconut iced coffee is my favorite treat after I go for a long run out in Fallbrooke.  It is very hilly there, so I always earn my treat.

So, there ya have it!  Our favorite places to eat this summer!  In addition to all the sushi places, but I feel like we have covered our family's love of sushi.  Brad and I have a little "date night" in the next few days.  We have been making a date night out of shopping for Willa's birthday and Christmas presents for the last 3 years...so that makes about 2 dates per year that we go on.  I think I have him talked into trying something new (to him.)  We'll see how that turns out (he's kind of the pickiest eater on planet earth.)  Not to spoil the surprise about where we go...but if you had to pick between Thai and Indian, which would you pick?!?

Back and better than ever

Would ya look at that???  A month has gone by since the last time anything went on in our lives, apparently! Since we all know that that isn't true, prepare to be bombarded by all things Van Boening-ish.  Don't worry, I'll ease you back into our lives.  I'll save the sad story about how my tiny, infant baby Willa is almost 3 for sometime later in the week.  You can bet I had to scroll through the 'ole camera roll on my phone to see what you all have been missing out on, as my memory is non-existent.  I came up with these 2 sweet gems.

We have had several opportunities to visit the Christensen (great) grandparents in the past few months.  What a pair!  I think that listening to my Grandpa C's stories may be one of my top 3 most favorite things to do.