i love my neighbors

so... i love all my neighbors. in our cul-de-dac of 8 houses alone we have 31 kids. my favorites, though are sisters katia and chickie (her name is actually nadia, but i didn't know that at first, so now she's chickie to me). their 6 brothers are pretty great, too. everytime we open our garage door or are outside, they flock to us to help with whatever we're working on. well... in one of those instances, chickie came and hung out with me while i did a craft project and we got onto the subject of birthdays. we found out our birthdays are only 10 days apart. flash forward to sept.20th (my birthday)...

the doorbell rings. wierd. shouldn't be. but is. we weren't expecting anyone and people don't usually just pop in. anyway... it was sweet katia and chickie wiht a homemade (from scratch) birthday cake for me! complete with "28" made of blueberries!! i totally MELTED!! wouldn't you?









so for 9 days i went back and forth about what to do for them. finally, i decided on making their family of 10 a platter of sweet treats. peanut butter balls, chocolate chip and nobake cookies and rice krispy treats. this pic is NOT the gigantic platter i sent over today for chickie's birthday, just some of the leftover goodies for my boys. i totally spaced taking a pic of the beautiful platter-full.

boomer gets a haricut...

for real this time!! all summer this poor little man has been sweaty-headed, and here we are a full week into fall, and decide it's time to give the kid a break! we went back and forth whether to cut it short and then if so, who should do it. i have always been the designated dahlstrom clipper cutter. but i don't trust myself with the scissors ever since i cut jaxon's ear during his very first haircut as a baby! boomer has the most beautiful hair, but it constantly needs to be tamed. we'll get it wet and comb it out before we leave, but as soon as it hits the carseat, FRIZZ! anyway... back to the point... finally i decided i will be brave and try to give him a cute cut with the clippers AND the scissors. so he can have it short in the back and still long enough on top for mama to run her fingers through. plus, he has been working on those sun-bleached little surfer highlights all summer long, and i couldn't bear to snip those! turns out he was a big boy under all that hair! when did that happen?!


before...















after...

I've taken over!

So, you probably noticed that our blog page is actually updated!! Well, that's because I've taken over! I finally decided that I've been a voyeur for a bit too long. Now is time to give back. I love reading random bits and pieces of other blogger's lives, even if we've never met! I am more than qualified to rant randomly so, maybe someone will be interested in reading about us. Be forewarned, though. I will not take the time to capitalize where "necessary". Patience is not really my best virtue, and I try to use it all where it really counts!