i love instafridays.  love them.  you know why?  because they are why i started blogging in the first place.  i began six years ago, blogging about my kids and our adventures, and my crafts and our house.  and that’s what friday posts look like to me.  they are all the happy moments that i want to remember, but know i’ll forget otherwise.

and while i’m on the subject, i also love instagram.  i think its the happiest form of social media out there.  i am not big on facebook.  i hang out on my business page a bit everyday, but i almost never check my personal page.  when i do, i feel like its filled with junk.  there is definitely beauty in the junk, but its just not a happy place for me.  but instagram?  its so pretty!  i love all the people i follow and i love keeping up with them in real time.  and maybe its just my feed, but i feel like most of the people i follow share the beauty in each of their days, and not all the ugly.  my feed feels like an inspiring, happy place!  now, i know thats not reality for anyone’s world.  we all have ugly in our days.  but seeing the beauty in everyone’s days is so uplifting.  i do appreciate when people share the days that are hard and the messes that are huge and the problems that are overwhelming.  there is still beauty in that.  but when i have a few minutes to check in on insta-g, i like those few minutes to be filled with mostly happy.

ok, on to my week!  i’m linking up again with jeannett. if you want to follow me on instagram, i’m thepleatedpoppy.

here we are all on our way to a civil war picnic!  our school celebrates with history days a few times each year, and we ended this year with a good one!

this was at the end of the party, after playing, running around, eating and lots of dancing.

we even had a caller and a trio playing fun music for us!

we allowed the kids to roam free until it was time to eat, as long as they stayed with a buddy.

gracie wore my old pageant dress and lily wore a dress i think my mother-in-law made, and we made a hoop skirt for her using a hula hoop!

amidst the crazy messes all around my house, its nice to find something pretty that makes me smile :)

we started our saturday at the beach to watch kids from our school playing volleyball.

then we went to a 6 year old birthday party at a skate park.  this was the cutest boy at the party ;)

most of our hydrangeas are in full bloom, but a few are coming late to the game.  one thing i love about living on the central coast is that with our mild weather, our hydrangeas will often bloom at least twice!

there are some days where i just don’t have it in me to cook dinner.  thankfully, we have an awesome mexican restaurant just 3 blocks down the street from us, with crazy yummy strawberry margaritas.  they’re like adult icees!

i enjoy my hydrangeas in my yard so much that i often forget i can cut them and enjoy them inside!  the blue one, second from the right, was bigger than my head!

i’ve been on a creative kick lately (finally, sheesh!).  of course, this could possibly be the WORST time of the year to do something creative.  with school just ending we have had a ton of extra things to do, emails to read, parties to attend, gifts to buy… but yet, i still give into those creative urges.  i’ve got BIG plans for summer, people.  big plans.

i’ve been eyeing this rug at target for quite awhile, rubbing my hands against it every time i walk by.  i finally decided to go for it, and love it!

the kids love it too!  as soon as they got home and saw it, the tore off their shoes to dig their toes in (its really deep)!

a new rug always leads to a new pillow, right?  if you give a mouse a cookie…

we picked up our yearbook and to my surprise, my painting i did was on the cover!

some days just call for double braids.  if you tell me i’m too old for them, i don’t care ;)

i’m loving my rainbow shelves!

at the stables where grace does her horse back riding lessons, there’s a couple of miniature ponies that had a baby.  the mama is buttercup and the baby’s name is cupcake – how cute!  i thought cupcake looked like a little lamb.

with our “common sense” diet, the easiest fix is to simply replace any carb-y side with more veggies.  thankfully, no one in my house complains about that!

we have a busy weekend filled with summer plans!  visit me on instagram and you’ll be the first to see what we’re up to!

i’m linking up my weekly phone pics with jeannett again! i’m thepleatedpoppy on instagram if you want to follow along!

aren’t hydrangeas the prettiest flowers in all the world?!  we have tons of them in our yard and they are my favorite!  we turn ours different shades by tossing our coffee grounds in their soil.  i know there are other methods, but this is the laziest one i could find!

while sean and the kids were planting our very-late-to-be-planted veggie garden, i worked on a little 3-tiered succulent planter with a bunch of succulents i had around in random pots.  i need to fill it in a bit more, but i love it so far!

sean and i were able to sneak away for a date night on my birthday.  once the kids were down our niece and nephew who live locally came over to stay with the kids and we went out!  we did a full on real date too!  not just our usual coffee shop and bookstore date, but started with dinner, then dessert, then coffee, then a movie!  because our town basically shuts down after 9 (other than the bars), the streets were empty, so we played in the middle of them for a few pics!  i love my husband dearly.  he’s my favorite.

we had such a fun time with our nephew and i was sad to tears to have to give him back.  i think i would keep him for good if i could.

i have been hoarding this fabric for so long, and finally had the perfect project to use it on – a new market tote!  lily tells me this is her favorite bag – sweet girl :)

sean and i are back on the “common sense” diet plan, so this has been my breakfast on the days i’m tired of eggs.  i do sneak in a bit of granola in there, which is actually pretty unhealthy, but it makes everything else that much better.  so common sense tells me to do it ;)

another new bag debuted this week – the city tote!  i have had these bags made and sitting in my space for months because i couldn’t decide on a handle for them.  i finally made up my mind and love them!  and it cracked me up when i was photographing them that i was wearing an outfit that perfectly matched them!  this color is currently sold out (more are waiting for their handles) but i have another really cute version!

my business gave me this new desk chair for my birthday!  i have been sitting on a wobbly chair that has completely come unscrewed more times than i can count, so i decided to treat myself to something safer and prettier!  i got it from target.com with a discount and free shipping!

i listed another batch of bunting yesterday and as of late last night, i still had 2 sets left!

2 exciting thing for lu yesterday: she got to dance at farmer’s market, and her tooth came out at dinner!  she needs some new ones in soon, otherwise we’ll need to order her some dentures – the girl needs her teeth!

i hope you have a fabulous weekend!  we have our school’s final history day today – a civil war picnic!  we’ll all be decked out in full costumes (1 of which i still have to make – yikes!).  and then i’m hoping for some creative time to myself on saturday, and then we celebrate seanie’s birthday on sunday.  he’s turning 30-old!  i can say that because he said i was now oldy-five!