We are all about bittersweet paprika at La Casa de Camarillo. It makes nearly everything we cook, taste better. Because we use it so frequently, and because none of the local gourmet grocery stores in Portland carry the bittersweet variety (they only carry Hot or Sweet) I decided to buy the BIG can of El Rey Bittersweet Paprika from The Spanish Table in Seattle.

Not terribly expensive for what it cost, actually and worth every penny and more!

Possible future career paths for the girls? Both of these are on a particular route to work in the morning and literally, one block away from each other on the same street.

Coincidental? Sign from the future???

 

Decoupaged coat hangers for the closet!

My aunt was over last night and upon seeing my octopus ring, mentioned this pie she'd recently seen online:

Isn't he the coolest thing, EVER???  It's a blueberry pie. The image came from here.

I'm totally going to have to make a pie now and see what I can come up with.

This one, is a little menacing. Could be the blueberry eyes. I might make a little bit happier octopus for my pie.

When I picked Bean up from preschool last night, the closing teacher, Becca, said that she wanted to share with me Beans day at school that day.

I'll admit, for a moment, I froze and thought, "Oh no...What did she do?!" That's my standard first reaction, thanks to Lulu.

But it was actually GOOD news. 

Becca continued on that they had put all the kids in her classrooms names on tags for some other reason in class that day, and Bean had sight read all their names and knew whose tag belonged to whom.

According to Beans daytime teacher, Brooke, this was huge, as they've never done flash cards of her classmates names with her or worked on anything like that. Additionally, Bean used the stencils they have in class to make puzzles out of them to take apart and put back together again.

The teachers were very impressed by both behaviors today and wanted to make sure that Becca shared these developments with me when I picked Bean up from school.

I told Becca, that while I'd love to give the credit to Eddie and I for any smarts she was showing in school, I had to give the majority of the credit to the prenatal vitamins with fish oil that I took daily while pregnant with each of the girls

Fish oil + pregnancy = baby brain food! 

Black Canary!!!

It was super hero week this week at day camp. Campers were encouraged to create their own superhero identities, and then, make actual costumes.

I asked Lulu to strike a "superhero" pose and this is what she gave me:

I know, for a character named 'Black Canary' she sure is colorful. That's Lulu for you, always a study in contridiction! Her shoes do coordinate rather nicely, don't you think? And maybe that's part of her DISGUISE...You would never suspect such a normally attired girl to have such a colorful alter ego!

More "superhero poses"...

This is Black Canary getting ready to take off in flight (do you feel the intensity???)

 Oh, there she gooooooes!

And here she comes back.

 Of course, even superhero's have the occasional costume adjustment from time to time!

I follow a blog called Idiosyncratic Fashionistas. Two women best friends "of a certain age" with great style and zest for life. I love to check up on Jean and Valerie and see their latest exploits combined with their fabulous sense of fashion! I can only hope to look half as good as they do when I'm their age...

Today I was getting caught up on their adventures at the Amy Downs Hat Sale and they had posted a picture they'd taken of a fellow guest with an incredible vintage skirt:

 

 

Oooohhhhh, but it gets BETTER! Check out this little detail:

 

 

 

I know, ADORABLE!!!

 

I love, love, LOVE this skirt. Maybe I will be fortunate in the future to score one myself, somehow!

 

You can check out more of their post here.