pretty darn lucky

At this point, I'm relying on the insane amount of pictures I take on a weekly basis to remind me of how behind I am on my mama blogging duties! I'm still working on one great big Kindergarten update; at this point it'll include events and images from the entire year. And I think I've unofficially decided, nearly three months into her second year, that I'm no longer doing the monthly updates for Daphne. I think I kept up with monthly blog posts for Elias until his second birthday and that second batch was hard then - it feels virtually impossible now. So I'll do my best to update this blog moving forward based on holidays, events, and other notable (or at least heavily photographed) shenanigans.

For St. Patrick's Day a couple of years ago we managed a photobooth session complete with festive props. This year we focused our alcohol-free energies on food, with a special edition of "breakfast for dinner" - corned beef hash with green pancakes (green because of several cups of spinach used in the batter, spinach that you could hardly taste).

Both kids dug it, especially the green pancakes...the corned beef hash a little less so.

For dessert (as if those pancakes weren't enough), I made avocado pie. I've made it before and it was just as yummy this time. It basically tastes like a very mild key lime pie (which is weird considering you use several lemons, not limes).

Daphne was a fan. Actually, she's definitely the more adventurous eater at the moment while Elias is going through a bit of a picky phase. Case in point: Neal made arroz con pollo last night with the dutch oven he bought me for our anniversary (we celebrated nine years earlier this month - ceramic!) and Elias eventually had a few bites while Daphne devoured an entire bowl!

And in other news, shared here because it's green, a picture of our lovely little succulent out front that surprisingly (to us, anyway) blossomed earlier this year! We've been tackling a lot of projects around the house lately, mostly finishing up what we started when I was pregnant with Daphne. As anyone who owns a home (or anyone who is at liberty to "home improve" a rental space) knows, the list of projects seems endless. I know I'll never feel done but I'd like to feel caught up on things we've started in the nearly four years we've lived in this house. Four years is also the longest I've ever lived in one physical location, so I think my itchy feet with no move on the horizon is translating into this crazy nesting phase.

About a month ago, I tinkered in Elias's room a bit more (you can read about the initial make-over here) and you can read all about it on my craftier blog. And this week, about a year and a half after painting several swatches, I'm painting the bathrooms (we're going with Sherwin Williams' "Svelte Sage" in both the main bathroom and 1/2 bath in our room which, ironically, is not one of the three swatches we've lived with for the past 18 months! It's the color between the two brighter greens, added a few weeks ago).

Up next, the kitchen, which currently sports the same institutional green that's in the bathrooms. The kitchen make-over will also - hopefully, eventually - include a built-in play kitchen for Daphne.

Stay tuned. Although, at the rate I've been getting around to finishing projects, I wouldn't exactly hold my breath if I were you!