Willa is 4. F.O.U.R. Seriously.

I'm not going to lie, I turned into a weepy, blubbering mess at the end of this long birthday weekend.  And all because my little monster is 4 now and is turning into such a pretty, grown-up, monster.  I've said it before, but how on earth is she so pretty?  I ask her that about every other day.  And she just says "Moooo-ooom."  (Imagine that is a voice just like a whiny teenager.  Because that is what she sounds like all the time now.)  One day a few weeks ago, we were sitting on the couch together and she crawled in my lap for a little lovin.  I asked her what I was going to do when she was too big for me to hold her like that anymore and she said, "I will still sit by you and hold your hand."  I fought back tears that day, too.  What a great 4 years it has been, getting to know Willa.  If you are curious, she is really into singing these days, the movie Pitch Perfect is just about her favorite thing, she is awesome at puzzles, she knows her right from her left (thanks to Uncle Chris), she can quote movie lines like nobody's business, she likes hamburgers but not cheeseburgers, and she would love for us to get a big dog.  Oh, and she usually farts first thing when she wakes up in the morning, then giggles and tells me that she is just farting out the rest of her sleep.  Just when I start to wonder whose kid she really might be, she proves that we are, in fact, related.

And now, some pictures from all the fun...

Prepping for the outdoor movie

Brad figured out a fancy-schmancy way to play a movie outside on a screen that he constructed.  So, we had a gaggle of Willa's friends over...late...and fed them a bunch of candy and pop and gave them face paint and silly string and glow sticks and then had them watch Wreck-It-Ralph and then sent them home...late...with their parents.  Your welcome, parents.  It was fun.

On Sunday, the day of the actual birthday, we gave Willa a trampoline and some tiny cupcakes.  I consider buying a giant trampoline a mark of my adulthood.  I wanted one for our yard SO BAD so I made the executive decision that Willa would get one for her birthday.  It was either that, or a big dog, and I'm not quite ready for another pet.  I...I mean, WE, are in love with the trampoline.  And don't worry, we put the safety netting up after these pictures were taken.  Willa just kept telling us "safety first, guys."  She is a much more confident bouncer with the net up.

The Monday following the birthday, we slept in, and then took a trip to Grand Island to visit Grandma Van Boening, Great Grandma Christensen, and Island Oasis Waterpark.  I figured it was about time to introduce Willa to the place that shaped her mother's young adult years.  We had a great time at the water park.  And I am proud to say that in the absence of the '95-'02 crew, the I.O. still seemed to be running smoothly and very well maintained.  And, all the lifeguards appeared to be no older than 13.  

That was Willa's 4th birthday, in a nutshell.  She has yet to receive a pet snake.  She is ok with that.  Her Uncle Chris promised to buy her a snake for her birthday.  It drove her nuts when he would talk about it.  One day, he asked her what she was going to name her pet snake and her response was, "Knife.  Because that is what I'm going to kill it with."  Hmmmmmm.   

Pinterest is always there for me. Its such a good friend.

Almond Milk Iced Coffee from Oh She Glows

Roasted Strawberry and Toasted Coconut Popsicles

I use my Pinterest account.  I really, really do.  When I'm on my game, and planning my meals, and packing my lunches, I use Pinterest heavily to decide what to make and create grocery lists.  I admittedly have NOT been on my game the last few weeks, but I thought I'd share a few things I did try.  First of all, the iced coffee.  It tasted so, so good.  And it wasn't a difficult process at all, until I got to the step where you strain the coffee concentrate and I don't own a cheesecloth or a nut milk bag.  So I was trying to do it with coffee filters and that took ages and was pretty messy.  But you can bet your sweet patooty that I am going to get a nut milk bag and use this recipe all the time.  Plus, that will really aid in my other goal of making my own nut milk.  Duh.  The second thing I wanted to share was the strawberry-coconut Popsicles.  They look a little bit intimidating, as far as making Popsicles goes, especially since you can buy them for cheap.  But the taste on these bad boys was just so good.  And they really were not hard at all.  You do want to make sure to toast the coconut VERY briefly.  Like 2 minutes.  And the suggestion to use full fat coconut milk probably isn't a bad one.  I used the Trader Joe's light coconut milk and it still tasted good, but I could for sure see why they said full fat.  

I have a list going of recipes that I want to try in the next few weeks, and I'm very excited about it.  I'll share.  Because I am constantly over sharing.  Just ask the poor girls that I work night shifts with.  They know all about my hemi.

Fourth Favorites

We hope that everyone enjoyed the fantastic 4th of July holiday!  We did!

Congrats to dear brookie!

First of all, I love this picture.  It was taken a few months ago on a nice girl's night out.  Second of all, the lady on the left, my most favorite brooke, won a very cool blogging contest and I want every single person I know to hear about it!  brooke's blog is called grace and light, and she won Typepad's 10th Birthday Blogging Contest..  Do read about the contest, and then read every single one of brooke's blog posts, because they are all worth your time.  She is so very thoughtful with what she writes, and her words are so elegant.  I suppose you could read the other 2 winners' blogs as well, if you work night shifts like me and dink around on the internets for, like, hours.  Or, you could google yourself, then shop on Amazon for nut milk bags and donut pans, then pay a tiny portion of your taxes online, then look at tons of pictures of cute baby animals on the Huffington Post, then try to refocus yourself by looking at your own blog post about your goals, and then spend the rest of the night looking at lipstick shades.  Yeah.  Do that.

Because, wine.

I'm not exactly sure what the theme was for Summer, 2012 but I have decided that 2013 is all about the vineyards.  Wine is gluten free.  Vineyards are beautiful.  Yes, I realize we live in Nebraska but I'll take what I can get.  And the place we visited on Friday evening was the bee's knees.  Glacial Till is near Bennett, Ne which is a decent drive from our house, but totally worth it.  The Chambourcin was red and dry and I had the whole bottle to myself.  The music was fun.  I danced with Willa.  They had a visiting brewery, which made the gentleman happy.  You know where to find me every other Friday night from now until the end of summer.

And...if you don't get the title of this post then you have not been following my directions all along.  Shame on you.