Logan's Candy Cane Tour

Thursday night last week we met up with Hannah's Brownie troop and their families, along with several other troops, to tour Logan's Candies.

The tour started outside ...

 And through the window they all watched the owner as he began to mold what would turn into hundreds of candy canes on that surface right in front of the window.  We watched the candy through the window as it cooked and boiled in a hot pot.  Then he laid it out on the surface and began to shape it.  He broke the candy mold into two pieces and then colored one of the pieces red.  

 We got to watch it begin to take shape as they added stripes to the candy.

 Then inside on the counter he started to work smaller pieces of the candy off and he passed them down the line to his wife and other employees.  Each of them had a job that helped the candy canes take their shape.

 They made little peppermints and we all got to taste them while they were still warm.  

Then each of the kids got to take a candy cane and shape it into anything they wanted while it was warm.

 It was a neat tour and the kids loved it!
A fun outing to kick off the holiday season.  

The next morning  before school...

 We were all so proud of Claire who received the Kids With Character Award at the morning assembly!

She's been watching Hannah receive awards at these assemblies for a couple years now, and she was so thrilled to be getting her own.  

Way to go Clairey!!!

Claire Bear Turned 6!

November 17th was Claire's 6th!
The weekend before her birthday, Grandma Hass was here visiting so she got to help us keep Claire's eyes closed while she waited for us to bring her biggest present out...

 Claire has had a major growth spurt recently and had really outgrown her old bike!  She loves Monster High for some reason even though the girls don't watch that show, but she got a Monster High bike and she seems thrilled with it.  Later that afternoon we took the girls to see Scrooge the Musical and we all loved it.

We gave her the bike on Sunday, because on her actual birthday the girls had school so we thought it would be more fun to give it to her when she could hop on and take it for a spin.

That night we decorated outside her bedroom and at the bottom of the stairs with balloons and a birthday sign.

 The girls love that we do this, but it might not be the best thing because they wake up so darn early and it makes for a looooong day.  Claire was up around 5am and wanted to celebrate.

 She had a birthday cinnamon roll for breakfast and then it was off to school.

 She had a good day at school and Mr. H and I picked her up with a bouquet of Frozen balloons.  

Later that afternoon she had a fun visit with Gamma and Noah, and since it was a school night, and she was getting an award the next day early at school, and we had plans that Thursday night and for Disney on Saturday, we just had an easy dinner of  In-N-Out which she loves and cookies for dessert.

Happy Sixth Claire!
We are Crazy bout you.

What I Wore Wednesday

I am on a blogging roll this week.
Today I am linking up with Lindsey at The Pleated Poppy for What I Wore Wednesday.  Sharing outfits from the week in an effort to make an effort and not just wear stretchy pants and hats.  ;)
None of my outfits were anything special, but I had fun wearing some Fall colors this week.

 yellow tee- Target, jeans- Vigoss Nordstrom, scarf earrings & necklace- Charming Charlie's, and flip flops- Havianas Nordstrom Rack.  Oh and I'm also wearing my new sunnies.  My aviators had been in bad shape so I saw these for a good price at Nordstrom and I got em.  They are Marc Jacobs.

 navy 3/4 sleeve top- Forever21, jeans- Vigoss (a different pair from the pic above... I'm not gonna tell you how many pairs of Vigoss jeans I have) leopard scarf- Nordie's BP, leopard flats- Lucky Brand also from Nordie's. Earrings are from Old Navy.

I was trying to get a pic of the back of my hair here.  I tried something new.  I teased the crown area, and then I seperated the back into three sections and twisted them into little buns and bobbi pinned them to stay.  Then I twisted back the pieces on each side, hair spray hair spray hair spray, and voila.  Outta my face all day.  

This was a Thursday.  Thursdays are good hat days for me because I worked late the night before and helped out early in Claire's classroom.  That's why I'm holding a giant mug of coffee to take with me out the door.  ;)  grey v neck tee- Old Navy, jeans- Gap, Chucks- Nordie's, yellow scarf- Etsy, hat- Target and bag- BP Nordie's.

The week warmed up again here in Cali and I had to bust out the self tanner and my shorts again.  Luckily this week is back to 70's and partly cloudy so I might get away with wearing boots a day or two.  white tee with leopard pocket- Windsor, shorts- American Eagle, flips- Havianas Nordstrom Rack, necklace- it's the Stella and Dot knock off for 1/3 of the price from the Accessory Concierge.  I have lusted after the Stella and Dot version for forever and I jumped at the chance to buy the knock off that looks almost identical to the orginal one.  


That's it for outfits from last week.
Don't forget to hop on over to The Pleated Poppy to see the other great link ups for some fun fashion inspiration!
Have a great week my friends. 

Fans, Lights, Rugs, & Paint... Oh My

When we first looked at our house, I didn't even notice that I would later want to be replacing practically every single light fixture in the whole place.  Holy cow does that add up quick.  So of course we are doing it as we can.  The first thing to go was the ceiling fan/light in the family room.  It was black and silver/chrome and looked like an airplane.  Sadly it worked really well and had a cool remote, but seriously, look at this thing...

 it had to go!

 Here's an up close and personal view of it.  And in the background that one above the kitchen table was the next to go...

Not only was it ugly, but it was not centered where it should be at all.

 So not my style.
This was back when we had no idea how to place the furniture in this room.
And back when it was driving me crazy that we had not figured out window treatments either.  
This room is connected to the kitchen and eating area and it is a huge room that felt so cold and uninviting to me before we had started to put our stamp on it and figure some things out.  

We got the new ceiling fan/light at Lowe's.
Since the room is so big, we went with a 60" fan.

 So much better.

Although I like the roth + allen light from Lowe's that we put above the table area, we have since learned that it is not bright enough for this space at all.  Luckily we have another fixture upstairs that needs to be changed and so we will put this one there eventually once we find another replacement for this spot that will be brighter.

 After a couple months I still wasn't happy with our tv on that big wall to the right of the fireplace, so one night Mr. H and I moved it all around and finally it started to come together better.  But as soon as we did that, all I could notice was how awful the paint looked throughout the whole house.  I knew I wanted the interior to be grey, but I had no idea how light or how dark or where to start.
Choosing a grey was super hard!!! Usually I know right what I like and I go for it.  But the greys that I thought I would like looked too purple in our house.  Or too blue.  Or too light or too cool.  

We finally chose the one we liked the best and painted the hallway with it and lived with it for a while before deciding that was it.

Luckily, the more we painted, the more we loved the color.  Even the girls have been helping.  It's been a family affair.  ;)

One morning the room looked like this as I left for work...

 and when I got home Mr. H had it all put back together again and the paint looked SO nice!

The paint that was on the walls before was a matte finish and it was starting to show every little scratch and every spot the girls have run their hands along it, etc.  It looks so much better now. (The bamboo shades have all been from Home Depot or Lowe's and the curtain rods and panels in this room were from JCPenney.

Of course you know how as soon as you do one thing to improve the room, it makes you notice how bad the next thing looks?

The rug was the next thing that had to go.  It wasn't quite big enough for this room, and we'd had it for years in our old house and it was time to be replaced.  

We wanted something shaggier and soft since the flooring everywhere else is hardwood and tile.

I have been looking everywhere for an 8x10 rug that I liked that wouldn't break the bank, but I was finding nothing.  Well, I found things I liked, but nothing I was willing to spend that much money on.

Until recently!  Sam's Club had a great deal on Drexel carpet rugs so we snatched one up and we love it!

 Oh and funny story, while we were moving things around to put the new rug down, Mr. H stepped on this...!!!!

IN MY HOUSE!!!!!  In the family room!!!!
Are you shivering with heebie jeebies yet?!?!  I am!
A couple days before we found it I sent Mr. H a pic of what looked like rat poop that I found on the INSIDE of the window sill when I was cleaning.  I text him the pic and said I sure hope this is not rat poop and that we have rats in our house!!!  He replied that it looked like lizard poop, and that we have so many lizards outside it might have gotten pushed through the window somehow.  Well, as it turns out, it was lizard poop!!! And that damn lizard had been living in our house!!! Under our couch!!! Probably sitting there right underneath us, slithering away while we watched Scandal the night before!!! O.  M.  G.  

Thank goodness I waited for Mr. H before I started to move things around and put down the new rug!  I would have flipped out and probably called 911 if I found this lizard and he was not home. (Shivers) Anyway, he caught it in a box lid, and I won't tell you what Abbey did to it in the backyard after that, but it won't be coming back.  

So after the lizard fiasco, here's how it turned out with the new rug down...

Claire's a fan. 

This space in the room has been stressing me out too because I didn't know what to put here, and don't like how this wine rack looks...

but I do love my new SWIM sign that I bought on Etsy.  I looked for one that said POOL all summer and never saw one I liked, and when I saw this one I had to have it.  And it gave me a vision for the space too.  Now I'm looking for a wider and shorter wine rack/buffet type piece to fill the space, and I've got ideas on how to style it and I'd like to find a fun mirror to go above it.  I'll let ya know when I find it.  The little end table in the pic I found on clearance at World Market and I loved the bit of red on it.  Sitting on it now is this book...

I'm reading my co-worker's signed copy of The Vincent Boys by Abbi Glines.  It's really good and I think it's so cool that the author signed the one I'm reading!! 

Anyway, 

back to the family room...

we got this cool back lighting for the tv at Ikea yesterday and it's plugged in to access through a switch.

This room is dark as the sun starts to go down, and this little bit of lighting really adds a lot.  We were excited about this find.  

Recently I also found an orange lamp at Marshall's along with this great pallet type tray that I knew would be perfect to hold the girls pencils and crayons on the homework station.

 Makes me giddy.
And this lil notebook just screamed my name...

Love my list note pad.
I've already got about 4 different lists going in it.  

That's all for now.
I am coming down with Claire's cold so I'm off to make some tea and watch Homeland with my honey.  
I'll be back tomorrow with a WIWW post.  
Ta Ta for now friends. 

Hannah is 8!

Last Friday November 7th was Hannah's 8th birthday.
Can't believe it.
She was so excited and on the countdown all week for her big day.
After she went to bed Mr. Hass helped me out with a little decor outside her bedroom door to surprise her when she woke up.

 She got up at 5:30, which wasn't really surprising, and she was opening her presents before 6am!  

 I was glad she seemed excited about the softball mitt and balls and bat, she's all signed up to start softball for the first time in the Spring.  I played softball from 8 or 9 years old through high school and I am really excited to teach her a little bit and to play catch at the park and practice hitting off a tee.  Should be fun.  

 She was very excited about the jewelry holder to hang on her wall and inside the striped bag was a hand stamped necklace that I ordered from a blog friend and Hannah absolutely loved it.  Kristy's etsy shop is called Sosobellatoo and she creates the cutest pieces!

 We had cinnamon rolls for breakfast and she got to make her first wish of the day before school.

Claire was in a mood and wouldn't pose with Hannah for a picture.  Probably because it's so hard to see your sister opening gifts and getting special treatment, and especially hard knowing your own birthday is just ten days away.  ;)
Mr. H had the day off from work because originally we thought we would take the girls to Disneyland on this day.  Plans changed, but it sure was nice to have him around all day.  
While we walked to school we were saying to Hannah that we couldn't believe she is eight. 
Mr. H asked Hannah "How old do you think I look?" 
and she said, "Hmmmmm, 54...?"
(Laughing Laughing Laughing)
Then he asks her "Well how old do you think Mom looks...?" 
and she said, "28"!
LOL.  
Thanks Hannah, I appreciate that.  ;)

 When we picked Hannah up from school Claire was holding a bouquet of balloons to give her.

After school Hannah had a visit from Grandma GG, and Grandma and Noah too.  She got to open more gifts and play with her new sidewalk chalk while we visited.

 Then it was time for Round 2.
We met up with my sister and Noah later for dinner at Farrell's Ice Cream Parlour.
We had not been before but heard that they make a big tadoo about birthdays and thought Hannah would enjoy that.

 The kids loved watching all there is to see while we ate dinner.
And after dinner they came out with Hannah's birthday dessert.
But she didn't get that for free!  She had to stand up with her sister and cousin and dance to a song and pretend that they were Oompa Loompas.  It was pretty funny.

 Then she made another wish!

 Claire was in a mood.  ;)
But really the poor girl wasn't feeling all that well.
I suspected she might be coming down with somthing and that night she was up coughing quite a bit.
Luckily it's just a cold, and I'm hoping she kicks it before her big day rolls around!

The girls REALLY wanted these ridiculous and overpriced hats.

Who can say no to the birthday girls??? 

I think she had a great day.

And we can't believe we've been at this parenting gig for eight years now!!!