We walk the beach to feel the sun. Because even when it’s not there, it’s there–right beyond that horizon, light to someone else while we wait for it to return to our side.  Last night it’s there, in its fullest warmth, spotlighting so many tiny moments as the best parts of the story.

A small crab, barely visible under ripples of ever changing light, catches Lainey’s attention.

A crab, a crab! Come see! 

Nella runs and begins to scan the sand under the water until she sees the tiny crab. When she finds it, she edges closer, and two sisters watch it together. And then it happens–a moment, to me, more special than the fascinating shell slowly dragging in the sand beneath us. A little hand reaches out and rests gently on her sister’s back, transforming this act of wonder into a brilliant collective experience of love. I swear the sun gets brighter.

To see the world with someone else, to invite another viewpoint, to celebrate tiny beautiful creatures with sisters whom you love…I’m so thankful for that today.

To my beautiful friend and sock sister Elizabeth whose journey on earth ended this morning…what love you taught me. I swear the sun is brighter.

Find a shoulder to rest your hand on. Find a sister to share your wonder of the world.

Come see. Come see. These tiny beautiful creatures! Let’s watch and celebrate them together…until the sun sets for us and rises for another.

For anyone who’d like to share love for a woman who touched so many lives, you can make a donation to any baby’s adoption on Reece’s Rainbow. Elizabeth wanted to bring them all home.

A little Enjoying the Small Things for you this Tuesday.

Enjoying…

A Box House

Lainey and her friend made a box house this past weekend which kept them busy for at least four hours. They even tiled the “shower floor” with glue, rocks and sea glass.

Things didn’t go well when Dash and Nella decided to stop in for a visit.

My friend Andrea who knows all the good parenting magazine advice told me she read an article that gave great suggestions for avoiding sibling resentment. You’re not supposed to blame things on siblings. Like if we’re at the beach and Lainey’s having fun, according to Magazine Experts (no sarcasm there, nope), I shouldn’t say, “Time to leave the beach, your brother and sister are shot” even if that’s true.

I like to take this new advice to the moon now.

“Lainey, time to leave the beach. I have to tell you, your brother and sister fought hard for you to stay. I mean, Nella was holding my leg saying ‘No mom! We can’t leave! Lainey’s having too much fun.’ And see Dash crying? He’s crying because he loves you and is so sad that you have to pack up and go.”

So this one went something like, “Lainey, there was a mean badger who was trying to tear up your box, and Dash and Nella ran in to protect it. They’re guarding your house! It’s TRUE SIBLING LOVE!”

She doesn’t buy any of it, of course.

Dash’s Life Goal

…to one day figure out how to get this mobile down. I’m scared of how that will play out.

Morning Face.



Pool Game Strong

It’s that time of year.

Dash’s Second Life Goal

…to take this puppet down.

His secret weapon? The Ked kick. Lethal, I tell you.

Looking for Nella and finding her here.

Haircut

I cut Lainey’s hair at the end of our spring break, per her request. She looks like a different kid, and the new look hasn’t worn off yet. I love it. I stare at it when she steps out of the car at school drop-off, when I pick her up, when she climbs out of bed in the morning and when she props her arm up on the counter to rest her head while she eats her pancakes. “Ugggghhhh. Seriously, I just love your haircut. Have I told you that yet?” I say.

“Mom, stop saying you love my haircut. I know.” Eye roll, eye roll, eye roll.

Ice Cream Trucks

Our neighborhood hosted a block party this past weekend and generously provided food and entertainment for the kids–entertainment that included, much to my kids’ delight, an ice cream truck.

I didn’t recognize the ice cream truck when it pulled up because it was a sleek and modern van–all white and minimalist.

“Whoa, nice van,” Brett said.

“That? That is not an ice cream truck,” I pointed out.

“It’s 2015. We have iPhones. It’s an ice cream truck,” he answered.

“I will never accept that.”

I’ve decided I’m going to start creeping out at night to find the white ice cream vans of the world. I will paint them yellow and add big polka dots and striped awnings. I will Banksy that shit up right.

Also I let Dash wear his Easter romper early because he’s growing about an inch a night, and at that rate I figured we have about three weeks of wear for this thing. You’ll be seeing a lot of it.

Gardenia

The bush in our front lawn is full of it right now–white blooms overtaking every branch. They’re so fragrant, you can smell them the second you step outside. I snip and sneak them in the house but always find them minutes later wilting out on our lanai because someday–won’t name names here–moved them due to allergies. So we wear them in our hair while we play.

Egg Head Queens.

Found these cute little crown combs in Target’s party favor aisle. Clipped the comb off with wire snippers and, voila! Egg queens.

Easter Basket Toiletries

Helping the Easter bunny out with his basket stuffing duties this week and need an easy last minute idea? You can add some special magic kid shampoo, formulated in the Easter Bunny Borrow. Hop & Peep is all the rage in fairytale land. I just used travel toiletry bottles from Target, poured our favorite kid products in them and taped on a printed label I made. Passing it on if you’d like to use: Download the free Easter label printable here.

This post is sponsored by Blue Apron.

I saw a collegiate t-shirt the other day on a shopper at Whole Foods that at first glance said YALE but upon closer examination, I realized, said KALE. Oh, I get it. Ha ha, how Whole Foods of you. I see you with your health food magazine and your green shake and your punny, punny shirt. Truth is, we are late to the kale game, mostly because giant green leafy things intimidate me. We were doing really good with lettuce, and then everyone was all KALE! KALE! So we joined the club. I felt like a kitchen goddess the first time I made kale chips, and when I put some in a smoothie, you might as well have just given me my own food show. I got it: Kelle’s Kale Kitchen. And if you’re from the south, Kelle’s Kountry Kale Kitchen. Because spelling Country with a “K” is almost as funny as Kale for Yale. Kale goddess, I was.

So we’ve made kale chips and dropped some kale in smoothies. But chips and smoothies does not a kale goddess make.

You know what makes a kale goddess?

Creamed kale.

You know how I know?

Because my entire family ate it and loved it.

Our Blue Apron meal this month was one of my favorites so far–simple and easy to make but something I wouldn’t have thought of on my own. And so savory and delicious: Seared Flank Steaks with Roasted Potatoes & Creamed Kale. You know what gets me excited about food? Reading menu descriptions. And who gets the job of writing those anyway? Best. Job. Ever. Tied, of course, with naming paint and nail polish colors. If I wrote the menu description for this meal, I would definitely use fancy words like succulent and pan-seared and…wait for it…delicately crispy.

I’ve written about our Blue Apron love before and now have several friends hooked on it. We don’t use it every week, but it’s definitely a nice treat for us when we do–like getting a pedicure or renting a movie. Our family enjoys cooking together, and there’s something very special and invitational about a refrigerated box arriving on your doorstep with farm-fresh ingredients, just the right proportions of everything you could possibly, and easy-to-follow instructions for creative, delicious meals.

But the creamed kale? It was a family WOW moment.

The Blue Apron recipe called for wilting the kale (3- min) on medium heat in a little olive oil, water and salt and pepper and then removing it and finely chopping it. It’s then returned to the pan after the steak is cooked so that it soaks up the steak juices. Add Parmesan cheese, garlic and butter, and then fall over because it smells so good.

As for the potatoes, our menu description will include something like “trifecta of colors.” I haven’t settled on the exact wording, but look at these beauties! Red and yellow and purple–they look so pretty all cooked up on the plate.

We roasted the potatoes in olive oil and Old Bay Seasoning–a total Eureka combination discovery. From here on out–potatoes and Old Bay.

By making cooking easy, Blue Apron adds a huge fun factor to our meals. In other words, it’s not always fun to take three kids to the grocery store, already hungry, right before dinner to scrounge around for something that looks good. In fact, that is the definition of hell. We love Blue Apron nights and have never been disappointed by their meals

You can browse their recipes here. Next on our list–Spice Thai Chicken Soup (cannot get my mind off this since I read the recipe) and Tom-Yum Style Shrimp & Noodles.

The first 100 readers to sign up for Blue Apron will get two free meals on their first Blue Apron order. You can sign up here.

We’re thinking of taking this routine to the Kale Nationals.

Thank you Blue Apron for sponsoring this post, and thank you readers for checking out some of the brands we love that help support this blog.