So, some self disclosure here. I love to read blogs — lots of blogs. Mainly mommy-blogs, some food blogs, and friends and family. But mainly mommy-blogs. But sometimes, I get fabulous ideas, so it’s not such a confession to talk about. The latest one was an idea for a homemade play kitchen. I’ve been looking for a kitchen for Elle, but all I can find are big, plastic, and expensive. So, when I spied this little knockoff, I couldn’t help myself. But here is my last confession — I don’t have the patience for perfection, so it’s not an exact copy of the other kitchen, cause that looked too hard…

It first started with a trip to Ikea. The Rast table is only $15. While I was there I picked up a few sets of cabinet knobs and a set of pots/pans, and cooking utensils.

Once home, I set up the table, drew two circles (for stove burners to come), installed 4 knobs (2 for the stove, 2 for the sink) and called it good for the day. Ella was more than happy to play with this skeleton version for about a week. But Mama wanted to get it finished!

So, off to a few more stores to finish the project. I got some material at Jo-Ann for the curtain (the online kitchen put a wood back on, but I decided to hang curtains on both sides, so it could be more versatile). I opted against hanging a curtain rod, because I was afraid she would rip it down. So I drilled holes on either side, and bought some cute ribbon that matched the fabric, and hung the curtains through the ribbon on both sides. I got some black paint to finish off the burners, and put the great selection of Melissa and Doug wooden food (thanks Spencer!) in a basket under the stove.

So, the real part that was giving me trouble was the sink. The website had decided to use a jigsaw to cut out a circle, and lower a metal bowl into it. But we live in the city, and the only power tools we own are the aforementioned drill. And no one else we knew owned tools either. So this totally wasn’t a lazy decision, but I decided to go less traditional with a modern bowl sink. Which was especially convenient because it was on sale at Target. I glued that on the shelf, and added a lovely faucet made of PVC pipe. I have to admit, deciding on which pieces of PVC went together, were tall enough for the sink bowl, etc. was a bit of a challenge. But I didn’t want to ask some guy at the hardware store “can you help me make a pretend faucet?”

The last thing I did was add a couple more knobs on the side to hang her apron and a towel (she loves wiping counters and such). This is the apron I found her on Etsy from Bugabookids

And here is the final result:

Last weekend we took a bit of time off work and flew up to Portland to spend Easter with Unkie Wayne. He was very gracious to open his home to our boisterous bunch. We had a lot of fun, doing the same kinds of things we do here at home… farmer’s market, playgrounds, bookstores, restaurants, and cooking. We didn’t take a ton of photos, I guess we were having too much fun to remember to take out the camera. But here are a few fun shots.

We found this great old school playground that still had all the toys they usually rip out and replace with lead-free, nonlethal new equipment. But Ella loved playing on it as much as we did!

One on the merry-go-round. I forgot how fast these go!

A few on the tire swing:

One end of the teeter-totter:

Alex had some friends he’d met from a work conference who invited us to crash their egg hunt:

Alex’s other favorite site in Portland – Stumptown Coffee. He can’t get enough. But Elle and I decided to share a hot chocolate. This one came with whipped cream, which she enjoyed more than the drink:

Sunday night Wayne, Alex and I pitched in (Ella was asleep, thankfully) and made an amazing Easter dinner. We had a hazelnut crusted pork loin with apple chutney, asparagus, Emily Bates’ mac and cheese, and a green salad with radishes and bleu cheese with Wayne’s secret dressing. I also made a strawberry rhubarb crisp for dessert, not pictured (although it should have been…). It was fabulous. Best food we had the whole trip.

Wayne:

And for those of you keeping track of Ella’s hair styles, Monday night (after we got home) I sat her in her high chair, and one dinner and two Yo Gabba’s later, we had this:

These two shots below are from today, so day 4 of the hair, doing it’s own thing. Dressed to kill in the dress from Grandma Debbi for Easter. Also, wearing her new shoes (I love shopping in Portland, no sales tax, and TONS of amazing shops. Dangerous).

This was a super busy but fun weekend. We started off on Saturday morning with the Golden Gate Moms Group annual Easter egg hunt at the SF Zoo. When we got there, we saw TONS of people. I had no idea there were that many kids who lived in San Francisco! I wish we got a picture of the stroller parking, because it was at least three deep for an entire length of fencing. But it was fun. They had a bunch of stations, crafts, bouncy house, etc. We started out letting Ella color her Easter egg bag:

We then took her to the face painting station. I wasn’t sure how well she’d like it, or sit still at all – but she was great! She had a lovely pink/green butterfly to match her outfit.

Then it was time for the egg hunt. They had sections roped off by age. We headed to the 0-2 section and found this:

Wow. The “hunt” really lasted maybe 15 seconds. Ella found a container of bubbles on the ground, and was quite pleased.

We decided to skip the uber creepy bunny they had stationed for pictures. Instead we headed out to the Children’s Zoo where Ella fell in love with the goats.

And sheep:

Then she proceeded to make another child angry by getting on the tractor that he had mistakenly abandoned.

We didn’t have the heart to tell her that goat was on the menu for Sunday dinner! Oh well. We zipped around the rest of the zoo, then headed home for her afternoon nap. That evening we took Betsy (who was widowed by a snowboarding husband) and went for Dim Sum. Unfortunately the only highchair they had was “broken” or so they said. So, the food was fabulous – but the child wrangling a bit exhausting.

Sunday we headed to Golden Gate Fields in Berkeley for the First Annual Dachshund Derby. Milo was set for heat #2, and had his fetching blue ribbon designating him for box #3. We were hoping Milo’s dog walkers would be there to assist us, but they got tied up in traffic. So I took Milo to the starting box, and Alex/Ella stood at the finish line.

As soon as I put him in the box he jumped right out and tried to escape. As I tried to place him back in the box I was squished out by the man next to me, who was the girth of 3 men. I had to have the lady in charge help me move him so Milo could get in place! Finally they opened the gate… and Milo ran right around the starting box, back to me. At least 3 times… Alas, he did not win, or run the race, but made laps around the starting box. Style points, right? I was able to capture 1 picture of Milo, in race mode. Oh boy…

This is our post race picture.

They had the doggie heads from the now defunct Doggie Diner on display, so we grabbed a stranger and had them take our picture.

Alex’s grandfather, who recently passed, was a huge fan of the horse races. He actually used to raise and race horses in Utah. When Alex was working on “Trailer Park Blues” he visited the horse track a few times with Grandpa. So, in his honor, we placed one $4 bet on a horse called “Utahn.” And he won! We ended up with $5.20. Bonus.

Monday Alex and I took the day off work so we could clear out our storage unit and move all our junk into our garage. Which was a long time coming, but glad it’s done. And on Friday we are off to visit our good friend Wayne in Portland for the weekend! Always busy…