This weekend we didn't explore California, instead we stayed home in our most comfortable clothing and watched General Conference, or at least we tried to. It was easy to do on Saturday, the video streamed beautifully and the girls were relatively well behaved. But during the Sunday afternoon session, after listening to bits and pieces of the "remixed" Saturday morning session, we gave up! We could not get the broadcast from anywhere! I don't know why our internet connection stinks so bad, but we'll definitely catch up later. The Saturday sessions were awesome so I'm sure Sunday's were just as wonderful. What we caught between sketchy internet and grumpy girls was great! General Conference is twice a year and deserves some family traditions like homemade cinnamon buns. So if you ever get the craving for cinnamon buns, please, do stop by for the Sunday morning of general conference. I also made homemade oreos. It was a cream cheese frosting kind of weekend! Anyways, if you missed the Saturday sessions, you have to listen to Elder Anderson's talk for sure. It made me think of one of our (tired new-mother) neighbors telling me in the elevator that I'm so lucky to be done (because I have my token two children). I still don't know what to make of that comment! 

In other more wordly news, I ordered a pair of snake skin jeggings. Eek! We'll see if I can pull them off. I also painted my fingernails last week for the first time in a long time. Next up a long overdue hair cut. Haha. I'm going to be unrecognizable! 

Oh and Holly has her very first day of Joyschool tomorrow. I think she's going to love it! It's just once a week and all the moms take turns teaching and helping. It's going to be so much fun! My first lesson will be later this month and on the color orange.

I think these are the first completely matching dresses I've made for the girls! I did add a pocket to Holly's dress (she's currently obsessed with pockets) and the ruffle at the bottom of Greta's dress is actually visible, unlike Holly's (my measurements were obviously off). I love this fabric. It's a beautiful, soft corduroy. It was given to me by my mother-in-law who bought it in Europe and I've had it for 1 or 2 years. Originally, I was going to make a jacket for Holly out of it, but I didn't and I'm glad I didn't because I like these dresses better! And I had just enough fabric! I love the pattern that I used, I'm sure you'll see lots more of it. For the rest of the year, all I plan on making for the girls (in terms of clothing) are their Christmas dresses, Halloween costumes and a fall-weight dress for Holly. I plan on sewing for myself otherwise and I can't wait! 

Many thank-yous to Catherine (AKA Nana) for the fabric!

The crib is kind of a problem. Holly likes to bond with Greta in it past bedtime keeping her and Greta awake waaaay too late! Holly brings toys so Greta is satisfied. And in the mornings it's fine. They play nicely together. At nighttime it's an issue. A couple nights last week, Holly slept in Greta's crib with her. Greta was too exhausted to care! It could be worse. They could not like each other.

This no-knead bread so so delicious and so so easy to make! The outside is nice and crunchy and the inside has a texture similar to italian bread. I love it! We ate ours with hummus on the beach. Anyone can make it. You loosely mix it up, let it sit for 12-24 hours, shape it, let it rise for 2 hours and then bake. See? Easy! Now go make some!

Friday afternoon, Conor took work off early (he worked some late nights last week) and we headed to Seacliff beach for the rest of the day. I packed a yummy picnic lunch with lots of homemade goodies and off we went. The weather was gorgeous! Perfect for playing in the water with your favourite two-year old! I love that Holly is finally willing to enter to the ocean, albeit with some nervousness. It's so much fun. When Holly was done, I stayed out in the water to play some more. I felt like I was 12-years old and not just because I have no curves. Ah, it was so fun! When the cooler weather began setting in, we went for a walk on the pier up to the USS Palo Alto, one of only three cement ships built during WW1. I know, why didn't they build more? A ton of birds now call the ship home and the stench and flies were a little much for us! We continue our walk down the path parallel to the beach. It was a lovely day. I really like Seacliff Beach. There's no hill to walk up or down at all - that's a big plus when you're hauling two little ones! But there were a lot of flies. I'm sure we'll go again and when we do, we'll distance ourselves from the pier because I think the flies come mostly from the birds. The waves were really great, nice and small and it was a great spot for playing in the water. Overall though, Sunset beach still stands as our favourite.