CA: day two.

day two. sea world.

Well, after day one, we were all very excited it was day two. Our kids still being on NY time, greeted us wide awake at 4:30am CA time and staaaaarving. So, after a quick bite we quickly put them back down for a nap until 7:30am. Then, it was time for Sea World. We were ALL excited! I honestly think David wins the prize for being the most giddy about it all.

David's cousin, Shannon, who we visited the night before is a trainer at Sea World and hooked us up in a major way. We got to go "back stage" at the Blue Horizons dolphin show and meet and greet the dolphins! Amazing.

Meet Captain.

Wesley was not so scared at this point to meet Captain and even give him a little love pat.

Kate, on the other hand, was not getting any closer than this right here.

But then, when it was time to take a family pic with Captain, Wesley freaked. I don't blame him. This large creature jumping out of the water and sliding right in front of you is not necessarily the most normal of things and I think Wesley quickly realized he could quite possibly be eaten whole. So much for a Christmas card pic with the dolphin.

Now, time for the show! Shannon escorted us up to our VIP seats and we took one last pic.

The next time we see Shannon, she is getting pushed through the water by a DOLPHIN. Yes, she is riding a Dolphin here. Umm, yeah. That's her day job. Amazing.

Then, you know, she's just hanging out in the water with them like they are all best friends.

My favorite part.

Here is WJ enjoying the show...and his food, of course.

This is not Shannon, but check this out. This girl is being pushed straight out of the water by a pilot whale. Are you kidding me!? Great great show!

Then, on to some rides. This one was Kate's favorite - the Abby spinning cup ride. (well, that's what I call it anyway) Each time they spun past Wesley and I, they would make another funny face. Those two are trouble when they get together.

And... you can't go to Sea World and not enjoy some Shamu time! This show was so incredible. I won't say who - but someone might have even gotten a little teary at one part. It really is amazing. Here's Shamu spraying water on people in the audience.

After Sea World, it was a huge treat to meet one of my sweet childhood friends, Andrea, and her boyfriend, Jules. Crazy we have known each other for 20+ years. We had a great time catching up.

Overall, a great day two! Things are looking up here in Southern Cali.

CA: day.one

Day One:

Wake up at 7AM in NYC. Everyone ready and out the door. Catch a cab and head to the airport. Take off at scheduled time riding on the swanky Virgin airlines which was a first for me. Like the blue and purple lights and club music playing as you board. Like the black leather seats and flight attendants in all black. Like the individual TVs.

30-45 minutes into our flight, Wesley James poops. He needs to be changed. The seat belt sign is on, which means he cannot be changed at the moment. A few more moments go by. I realize I have a tired little boy who won't be able to nap unless he has a clean diaper. I mean, can you blame the little guy? I look at David in the middle seat and look at him like, you are going to have to take one for the team. David agrees, reluctantly. I change Wesley on David's lap. Stinky Wesley. I am a diaper-changing ninja. I quickly remove the dirty and replace with the clean. The dirty diaper is quickly placed in my seat behind me while the new one is fastened securely. Then I reach back to get the dirty diaper and seal appropriately and, yes, the poop falls out. On my seat. Everywhere. Yikes. I am reaching quickly with a wipe to grab each piece before the lovely odor carries to the other rows. At some point I think I even ditched the wipe and just used my hands. Let me say I liked the fact the seats were black until I lost my sons feces all over it. I believe I got it all and we enjoyed the next 4 1/2 hours of flight time. (5 1/2 hrs total)

Kate gets motion sickness and with even a hint of turbulence it can all come up. So, we went through three barf bags on the descent alone. We survived. We land. We gather our bags, finally, and head to the rental car place where David proceeds to stand in line an hour. I did not mind. I was outside on a bench letting Wesley nap and letting Kate run around before we get in a car and drive two hours. David gets the keys to the car and escorts us to the luxurious Grand Marquis. What?! A Grand Marquis for 8 days in San Diego and L.A.? OK, we can roll that way but just not what I was expecting. Here we go in the boat.

Kids get buckled in (well after Kate told me Wesley was falling over in his car seat and I realized I didn't quite finish buckling him in - oops) and off we go for a 2 hour drive to La Jolla. 15 minutes out, Kate throws up everywhere. Incident #2 or #3? We drive as safely and as quickly as we can (think throw up smell in car) to a place to grab lunch and have a wardrobe change. In-n-Out Burger will do just fine. :) We eat and we change. We head immediately to a grocery store to buy Oxi Clean, ziploc bags (a.k.a. sealable barf bags), paper towels, and ... some wine. Yep. Gonna need that later.

Throw the grocery bags in the back seat next to Wesley. We get back on the highway. Maybe 2 minutes later I hear choking. I ask Kate, "Is that Wesley choking?" She says, "Yes mom, he is eating the grocery bag." Oh, nice. By the time I could undo my seat belt while David's driving on I-405, Wesley threw up everything, everywhere. Great. Incident #4. Really? Who knew my son would eat grocery bags? I didn't. We are starting to see a pattern.

Kate throws up again 30 minutes later, but thankfully the Ziploc bag saves the day. Incident #5.

We arrive in BEAUTIFUL La Jolla. Everything is beautiful in La Jolla, well, everything except the place where we decided to stay. You see, the short story is that David travels to this area several times a year for work and his company puts him up in the nice historical boutique hotel in the area. But, $500-$800 a night on our dime for the family to just have some relaxing days together was not quite how we wanted to spend our budget. So, we found a fabulous deal online and got a TWO bedroom suite right next door to said boutique hotel. It was a better location, had not only the two bedrooms and living room the size of our apartment, but had a balcony that overlooked the water. I guess we should have realized that the reason we got such a good deal (30% off each night and stay two nights get the third night free) was because it was not a hotel at all. No, it was more of a 70's Motel. With a capital M. We pull in the parking lot in our Grand Marquis after 8+ hours of travel and throw up and check in the Motel. I would be lying if I was not fighting back tears at this point. OK, I can do this. I'm breathing. We can roll this way. It was clean. Very clean. It was fine. I checked the mattresses, inspected the showers. It was fine. The bed -not so fine - but oh well. I remind everyone to NOT touch the bedspreads. I was really going to be fine. Change expectations. Change visions of the trip. Hold back the tears. We are fine.

Everyone back in the car and we are heading over to David's cousin's house for a pizza dinner with the kids and their darling new cousin, Aiden. Keep in mind it is 6PM CA time (9PM NY time) for our kiddos. They were champs. We had a lovely visit, fortunately did a load of laundry for all of our barf clothes and then we came home and crashed in our Super 8 motel beds.

Welcome to vacation, Sullivan Family! Day one ... and we are done.

sullivan.wedding

March 5th - We celebrated David's brother, Daniel, and my new sister-in-law, Ashley, becoming one. It was a special and fun family affair in the big City. I wish I had more pics, but these will have to do for now. Enjoy!

The flower girls: Kate and Ashley's niece, Anika.

The handsome groom and brothers waiting for the bride.

The flower girl seriously performing her responsibilities.

The beautiful bride. The vows.

The flower girl wondering when the ceremony will be over. (no offense JR)

Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Sullivan

The first dance.

march showers.

Oh how I love that Spring brings new life (though it hasn't quite arrived in NYC yet - boo!) and it's just the perfect season for a baby shower and a wedding shower, don't you think?

I was privileged to be apart of some happy days this month. The first was a wedding shower for my brother-in-law, Dan and his now wife, Ashley. It was a lot of work to host solo, but really fun to use it as a reason to work on new projects. Lucky you - I thought I would share some fun *affordable* ideas and resources for parties. I will most definitely be re-using some of them myself.

For starters - I used THIS DARLING BLOG post as my overall inspiration for the theme and presentation. (Thanks Katy for the find!) So, it really doesn't compare, but a girl can't be blamed for tryin' to create some country in the big city.

Invitations: Using my new Christmas present, I sewed vintage looking fabric purchased at a craft store in Harlem for $1/yard onto the top of card stock cards that I already had from years (literally) ago. I sewed the fabric in a ruffle just on the top and got the idea from this darling blog. I have since seen invitations with the ruffle on just one side as well as on both the top and bottom. Then I just printed the words in a vintage font on our home printer and used those scrapbooking shears to create a "torn" look.

For the table:

Here is a charger I picked up at said craft store for $2 and then painted the inside with chalkboard paint. Then used it to introduce the table. I have two of them and am keeping them out because I love them so much.

For flowers and place cards detailing each food item, I used mason jars and placed them near each dish.

Nothing like a salad bowl to keep the beverages cool.

The table.

Then: I used some old frames to display the wedding invitation hung by clothes pins and twine. Didn't cost a thing!

Banners: A new favorite for me. I made this one below by printing letters and using my circle cutter and then just taping on a ribbon to hang above the table.

This banner I printed off on cardstock and glued it other cardstock, punched holes and strung twine through it to hang. I thought it was a fun idea to have their wedding date up, but you could put names or a birthday - anything! Love it.

Another Decoration: The FOOF ball. Makes me happy to say it. It was a perfect addition to the wedding shower.Completely made of yes, you guessed it... coffee filters! Believe it or not, we had a box (still do) of coffee filters we ordered off Amazon.com that were too big for our machine and well, I guess I could have returned them, but this project seemed like a better option to me! Just looks bridal to me. You can find the tutorial HERE.

Easy Addition: Yellow and white candy set out in votives from Target and placed on some of my favorite little plates I found for $1.50 each at the craft store. We may not have Hobby Lobby, but we have Harlem!

Then, we hosted a Sip N See baby shower for a sweet new friend here in the City and her three month old baby girl.

Gifts: One of my favorite ideas for a baby gift and one that makes a darling decoration for a baby shower is this one-of-a-kind onesie. Think ruffle from the invitations and put it on a onesie. Love that. Hostess #1 made these for this particular shower and I think she did a fabulous job. Three ruffles around the bootie and one ruffle around the neck. Love it.

Then, Hostess #2 made these darling fabric flowers that she made into hair clips for the baby. I believe the tutorial can still be found on Jones Design Company blog. Fabulous!

Activity: I love this blessing jar that hostess #2 also made. I love how the paper around the jar is added to each mail tag to coordinate.

Favors: At the wedding shower, I made chocolate covered pretzels. Easy and delish! For the "sip n see" baby shower, I simply wrapped up a tea bag and called it a day. Now that's what I call simple!

Blogs: Some of my "go to" blogs for great ideas and DIY projects are:

Jones Design Company

Ashley Ann Photography

Little Green Notebook

Retropolitan

Bake It Pretty

Sweet Designs

Kate Landers Events

Thrifty Decor Chick

One Pretty Thing

Frugal with a Flourish

Design Aglow

A Little of This, A Little of That

Design Sponge

CityCraft Sewing

**If you have a favorite idea or inspiration blog, please leave a comment and share!**

Thanks for coming. Hope you found an idea to take with you!

{leaving} on a jet plane

We head out for California this week and I could not be more excited! Definitely have that giddy feeling like it's Christmas Eve. For the first few days of our adventure, we will be waking up to this each morning. A little different than our usual concrete jungle, eh? We are so ready as we have just about made it through our SEVENTH New York winter. Wow.

Then we'll be headed to the L.A. area to celebrate my older sister, Alicia (a.k.a Auntie 'icia'), as she is having her "stateside" wedding for those of us that weren't able to join the international wedding celebration last summer in Israel (as someone was having a baby boy, named Wesley, at the time). And, of course, Kate gets to be in the wedding...again. I'm afraid this is going to start going to her head - with all of these fancy fun dresses and special attention. Ha.

We can't wait! We were able to spend some good time with Alicia and her wonderful man, Deddy, last October when they came to NY to visit.

See you in a few weeks with updates on BOTH of our March family weddings.

If anyone has some fun ideas of places to eat or things to do in the San Diego, L.A., or Santa Barbara areas - by all means, please share!

{forty} days

40 days

40 is a familiar time frame throughout the Bible, included in various ways and throughout various stories. One of the first to come to mind is the Exodus, where God so sovereignly and powerfully delivered His people out of the hands of the Egyptians and then led them into the dessert for 40 years as he established a new nation.

The wilderness - a time of searching the heart of God - a time where there aren't a lot of answers. A period marked by many questions and even grumbling on behalf of God's chosen. I can relate to that at certain times in my life, can't you? Even though it's easy to look at the story and wonder how the Israelites could have ever questioned the very one who made their freedom possible, I do the same thing. Grumble. Question.

Well, the number 40 has come up recently in the Sullivan family. Back at the end of 2010, David began to feel like the Lord was leading him to a place of focused prayer and complete dependence. He felt like there were areas in his life that needed more discipline (don't we all!?) and some major things that needed to be laid before the Lord regularly - such as direction for our family, education for our children, and direction for his career. He and our pastor, JR, decided to do a 40 day juice fast together - each for their own reasons - back in January/February.

40 days.

40.Forty.

That's a long time, let me tell you. Not 40 years, but still.

The Lord was so faithful during David's fast. It was a fruitful time for our family overall, but there were definite times of grumbling for me and definite times of overriding selfishness that crept up and just sadness. Sad we weren't sharing meals together. Sad I wasn't able to join or connect with him more through this journey, but my role was equally as important. I was support. I was

encouragement. I was helper. Believe me - I was not all of those things all of the time, but I prayed that the Spirit would give me the ability to support, encourage, help.

I am so proud of my husband. Of his desire to let go of earthly comforts and declare that the Lord is his daily bread. So grateful that the Lord sustained him and revealed areas in both of our lives that need to be released.

Here are some pics from our "break fast" party at the Vassars.

Even now, that 40 number comes up again in our lives as we move into the Lenten season. A season of repentance and redirection. A season marked by reflection and a reorientation closer to God. The question I have been asking myself lately and really praying through is what has gained mastery over my life and is taking up the space where the Lord desires to be fully occupied in its place. There are many areas and I won't share them all here, but one area that keeps coming to mind is my time in the evenings.

I don't know if you can relate, but I see the evenings as MY time. The kids are in bed (hopefully), the dinner has been made and cleaned up, the husband is either engaging in his activity of choice or we are engaging in conversation together. Those hours seem to always last long into the evening and I find that in the morning - after NOT a full night's rest - I am still exhausted. Then I start the cycle over again. I'm tired of being tired. Can I hear an "Amen"!?

In Paul Miller's "The Praying Life", he talks about how what we do in the evening shapes the morning. He refers to Genesis 1 and says, "If you want to pray in the morning, then plan your evening so you don't stay up too late. The evening and morning are connected."

So for Lent, I am making a focused effort to go to bed earlier. To not view the evenings as only my time, but rather as time that I can honor the Lord with by going to bed earlier (by 10pm for me!)and therefore being more alert in the mornings. Sigh. That's tough, but I'm praying the Lord would help me do it over these 40 days and hopefully establish a pattern going forward.

P.S. If this whole talk of the Lenten season is new for you or if you are interested in walking through 40 days of prayer, our church is sending out an email every day to those who subscribe here. It's never too late to join.

{strange}

* I have not blogged in three months. That's strange. I have many reasons but mostly it can be summed up by the simple fact that I have not found the necessary time to devote to it. There is much that has happened and an ever-increasing list of "to-do's" and "I need to's" hangs overhead most evenings. Never the less, I will do my best to journal it all eventually and I do love to blog, so don't give up on me. I find it so hard to believe that three months have already passed!

* This evening as I was about to leave the gym, I wandered into the locker room where I go to wash my hands and rid them of feeling ... icky, oh - and to collect my coat. There was a girl, who had just finished working out? and was trying on some lingerie (complete with a matching robe, of course). Is it me or is that really strange? It was even all ivory - like a bridal set? But, she did not have a wedding/engagement ring on at the time. I kept trying to think up a story as to how that would make sense, but it was just...strange.

* Dan (David's brother) and Ashley (my now sister-in-law, yay!) got married this past weekend in New York. It was joyous and beautiful in every way. We looked forward to this weekend with much anticipation and now... they are married and all of the family has come and gone. It's strange isn't it? That feeling of...it's over. Pics are coming. I promise.

* While in Victoria's Secret, hunting for some pretty little thing to give the above mentioned bride, I was astonished at the bridal collection. The new bridal design currently showcases white short nighties (if that. i wouldn't quite say gowns) that all include BLUE ribbons tied in bows (yikes) with the WORDS "Sexy Little Bride" written on them. Really? Do you have to say that? What happened to the concept of the pure and lovely bride? And blue? Bows? Strange to me that this is the offering of bridal lingerie.

* While shopping in my local health food store of choice today, I was approached by a gentlemen carrying a black laptop bag full of M.A.C makeup (my favorite) and offering it for sale at 50% off. Strange. Red lights go off. But I proceeded to engage him in discussion and found my inquiries to be sufficiently answered and my careful inspections satisfied. So...I bought some new eye shadow and lip gloss from M.A.C in my health store for half-off. Strange day.

* Totally random, but in our TJ Maxx in the City, the elevator has these as the options for the floor levels. Does anyone else think it's strange? Usually isn't it something like G - Ground Floor and L- Lower Level? Or even 1 - 1st floor and LL - Lower Level? Who was the genius that decided on Floor 0 and -1 ?! Anyone?!

* Kate had her weekly ballet class this afternoon. This week was a special week, as they allowed the parents to stay and watch a class and take pictures. Out of eight little girls, there were only three moms present and one dad, the rest nannies. I'm thankful David and I could be there. It's strange that more parents couldn't find the time to be there to watch their little girls.

* Even more strange was that at one point during the ballet class, all of the parents were seated on one side of the room and the girls on the other side. They were each called up individually to walk - on their tip toes in true ballerina form - to the other side of the room. Those who were waiting were supposed to be sitting in "criss-cross-applesauce" and quiet. Kate, however, was playing and talking with a little girl beside her for part of the waiting time. Then they proceeded to pretend "kiss" each other and giggle and then make funny faces at each other and then giggle. Hmm. That was strange. Let's just say we had a good long talk about who we "kiss" and why after the class. Strange. Odd, really.

* Wesley is 9 months old. He is awesome. He is a roller. Yep - not a crawler, a roller. Kind of strange to me some days. He has found much efficiency in rolling and so, there is no need to crawl...yet. He can make it clear to the other side of the room and manages quite accurately to reach whatever destination he so desires. As David says - it really makes perfect sense because round things well, they roll. Wesley James is round and 20+ lbs these days. And so, he rolls. We love him so much and for the record - strangely enough - I am in no hurry to see him much more mobile than he is in this current state. I think the rolling is rather adorable myself. Pics to come.