If you’re a good detective, you probably picked up on the clues in the title up there and the above photo and figured out that Erin (who normally lives in Oregon, where we visited her and Rocco last fall) is in California. She’s working in Pasadena this summer, doing an internship involving figuring out how to send satellites into orbit, or something that sounds totally unrelated to her field of expertise which is geology. You’d have to ask Erin to explain it better.

Even though Pasadena is a two-hour drive from where we live, and even though Erin and Rocco (who’s flying down this weekend) are coming to our house for the 4th of July weekend, we drove up there just to have dinner one day last week. I don’t want Erin to be that close to me all summer and end up only seeing her twice! I’m going to take advantage of it as much as I can, traffic be damned. So I dragged Troy and Annalie up there with me. I even roped Brenda and Bug into coming with us, because I was excited for two of my best friends to finally meet each other. Too bad they couldn’t stand each other.

Just kidding!!! Everyone got along great, which was no surprise to me. Erin and Brenda are both very likeable, and they’re both friends with me, so they must have at least a few things in common.

We picked Erin up at her work and drove downtown for pizza. We ate and talked and laughed, and after dinner we let the kids run around for a few minutes by this funky fountain that had what looked like a bug totem pole in the middle of it.

The shortest route to the minivan from the restaurant was right through the courtyard of City Hall. Pasadena has an impressive city hall, I must say. There’s a huge fountain in the courtyard and the building glowed in the late-evening sun. We happened across a wedding rehearsal as we walked through, which was rather comical because we kept trying to get the kids to quiet down and they just kept asking louder and louder, “But WHY do I hafta be quiet? WHY can’t I run?”

We took Erin back to the college dorm she’s living in for the summer, and I had to laugh because it smelled exactly like every college dorm I’ve ever been in, like fabric softener and pizza and communal living. Seeing the Christmas lights Erin had strung up around her room made me smile too, because Erin and I always had those up in the dorm rooms we shared as college freshmen many years ago.

Erin made Bug and Annalie’s night by letting them climb up on her loft bed for a few minutes. Then we had to go, because it was getting late and Troy had to go to work the next day. We didn’t want him to turn into a pumpkin on the two-hour drive home (which was actually a three-hour drive thanks to the lovely SoCal traffic). We said our farewells, got everyone buckled into the minivan, and headed home. As we drove off, Brenda said, “I like her! She’s fun.” I had to agree.

See you again soon, Erin!

I have a lot of cousins in Omaha. My cousins in Omaha have a lot of kids. Therefore, Annalie has a lot of cousins in Omaha! Yeah, most of them are second cousins or first cousins once-removed, but we just call ‘em cousins. Most people don’t even know the difference between a second cousin and a first cousin twice-removed anyway. (I do. I will bore you to death with the explanation if you want.)

Annalie is blessed with quite a few cousins close to her in age. Not only cousins close to her in age…but several girl cousins close to her in age! That’s not something I ever had. I used to be jealous of my friend Kara because her cousin Kelly was only a few months older than she was, and they were really close friends as well as relatives.

Don’t get me wrong, I loved my boy cousins too. And I’ve always been close to my cousin Tressa, even though she’s eight years older than I am. I’ve often described her as the closest thing I have to a big sister, because that’s what she is. She’s even one of Annalie’s godparents.

It’s just fun for Annalie to have girl cousins close to her in age. I hope she manages to stay close to them as they all grow up, and that they stay good friends. I’m doing my part by making sure she gets to spend time with as many cousins as possible whenever we go to Omaha.

Note that one of Annalie’s girl cousins close to her in age, Madison, isn’t pictured because while we were in Omaha her mom, my cousin Amanda, gave birth to Madison’s little sister Makenzie a few weeks prematurely. So they were busy and we didn’t get the chance to visit them this time, but next time we’ll get to see them AND meet our newest cousin. And hey, did I mention that my brother and his fiancee are expecting a baby GIRL in November? Bring on the pink!

As I mentioned the other day, Lindsey saw the beach girl plate that Brenda and I collaborated on and asked if we could do a beach boy plate. We could, and did, and now it’s in my Etsy shop.

I started painting this mug almost a month ago, just for something to do while I was supervising Annalie painting her pink kitty (of which I still have not taken any photos). Brenda’s mom has this IKEA lampshade and I’ve been eyeing it for a while. This mug doesn’t really look much like the lampshade but I did use it for inspiration.

When I took the half-painted mug back to the studio to finish it, I had planned to add a few more flowers and leaves. But Brenda said she thought it looked finished already. I trust Brenda’s eye, so I looked at the mug again and reconsidered. I decided to just outline the flowers and add some whimsical stems. I’m glad that’s all I did because I love it this way. I think I might just keep this one for myself.

Speaking of knowing when to stop painting, do you guys remember that tree love mug/pencil holder that I made for Kerri a while back? Here, let me refresh your memory.

I don’t hate it, but…it’s definitely not my best work. I should have left more white space around the trees and I don’t like the dotty pine tree on one side (you can see that side on the Etsy listing), which quite honestly was the result of me trying to fix a mistake. I knew as soon as I picked up the finished piece from the studio that I wanted to try again. It took me a couple of months, but I finally did.

I’m much, MUCH happier with take 2 of the tree love pencil holder. I’ll let Kerri decide which of the two she wants, and maybe I’ll eventually put the other one in my shop.

While I was finishing up the funky flower mug and take 2 of the tree love pencil holder, Annalie was painting something for Troy. We happened to be painting on Father’s Day, and Annalie took it upon herself to choose a piece she thought Troy would like and paint it specifically for him, which I thought was quite sweet. And I’m impressed with the finished product too! It actually has a sort of pattern to it, which is a fairly new skill for Annalie.

She signed her name on the back and drew the sun, a flower, and the moon. She actually painted all of this, by the way. In the past she’s drawn with a pencil and I’ve painted over that, but this was all Annalie’s handiwork. I love that she’s getting better and better at painting, and look hopefully forward to the day when she’s old enough for us to go spend an afternoon painting together without her getting bored and demanding to go walk a puppy.

Annalie also painted a little heart for Troy, which we made into a magnet after it was fired. I don’t have any photos of it, but I have a funny story related to it. Annalie painted one side blue and scratched her name and drawings of herself and Troy into it with a toothpick. The other side she painted red and then added pink dots all over that side. She asked me what I thought, and I said I loved it. She replied in this world-weary tone of voice, “Of course you love it, it’s polka dots.” She might as well have rolled her eyes and added, “DUH.” Kid has my number. I sort of love that about her.

I’ve been thinking about a recipe I read a few days ago in Catherine Newman’s cooking blog for Donut Cake. Catherine says her family’s name for this classic cake came about because the combination of nutmeg and vanilla really tastes like donuts. Hilariously, she adds that they also renamed it Donut cake “so that Homer Simpson might stumble on it via Google.”

Catherine says in the post that she likes her cakes plain, or maybe with a little fresh fruit and whipped cream, but I kept thinking about this cake covered in a thick white glaze and sprinkles, like my favorite cake doughnuts. Tonight while I was writing this post it kept coming to mind. Finally I told Troy was going downstairs to make a quick Donut Cake, at which Troy let out a very Homer-Simpsonesque “Woohoo!”

The cake was quite easy to make. When it was done and cooling on a rack I stirred together 3 c. powdered sugar, 1/2 tsp. vanilla, and equal parts lemon juice and water added a teaspoon at a time till it was the right consistency. I took the cake out of the pan and spooned the glaze over the still-warm cake so that it dripped just a little over the sides. I added some sprinkles before the glaze had a chance to set.

A slice of this cake and a glass of milk made an excellent bedtime snack. I bet it makes a good breakfast too…I’ll let you know tomorrow!