The Adventures of Super-Mom

10 in 10 for 2012

2012-01-12T21:00:00.002-07:00

I start off every New Year with my 10 in 10 list. 4 years ago I was inspired by the movie The Bucket List to make a list of things I hoped to do, see, accomplish in my life time. The whole idea behind 10 in 10 is that a bucket list can seem a little overwhelming. Especially as you get older and realize you are STILL not crossing anything off it. So the 10 in 10 was a way for me to narrow down my list. I choose 10-20 of the things I think I can REASONABLY accomplish in the next 10 years and then see how many I can cross off.

Just making the list makes you motivated to cross the stuff off. Almost like once you touch the pen to paper or type the letters on the keypad, these tasks, trips, and goals don't seem just like an idea anymore. They seem like a calling. They take on a life of their own. At least for me. So I've actually been crossing more than one off a year and hope to keep doing so. Especially since my bucket list is pretty long. :)

PS: the list changes every year as I cross things off and as I am inspired to add new things to it. :) Here are my newest 10 in 10 for 2012 followed by the items I have crossed off my bucket list in the last couple years...

1. Learn to sew (2012?)
2. A tropical vacation (2012?)
3. Volunteer in my community (2012?)
4. Try rollerblading for the first time (2012?)
5. Swan boat ride and duck tour in Boston (2012?)
6. Picnic/horse and carriage ride in Central Park
7. Take my girls to Fenway Park
8. Sky Dive
9. Work on a house for Habitat for Humanity
10. Snorkeling in Australia
11. Go back to Hawaii
12. Visit Chicago
13. Visit Seattle
14. Go to Atlantis in the Bahamas...
15. Ride a tandem bike with my hubby
16. Take a Hot Air Balloon Ride
17. Go ice skating again
18. Renew my vows in Italy
19. Take some cooking classes
20. Go to Europe

Crossed off the list:
Have another Baby (2008)
Become a Brunette (2009)
Complete a Triathlon (2009)
Start a side-Business from home (2009)
Renew my Wedding Vows (2009)
Get really into fitness (2009/2010)
Go Skiing for the FIRST time (2010)
Get on the Bone Marrow Donor Registry (2010)
Become a runner (2010)
Run a Half Marathon (2010)
Take a photography workshop (2010)
Donate my hair to patients with cancer (2010)
Take my children to Disney (2011)
Take my kids to Polar Express (2011)
Buy a bike (2011)

Happy 30th Birthday to Me ;)

2011-12-28T19:58:00.000-07:00

I had a great birthday this year! Which is fitting since it was such a big one :) First, some of my best girl friends came over with their kiddos to spend the morning with me and have coffee. It was so nice to catch up, since we hadn't seen each other much in the last couple weeks due to the Holidays. The kids played great (for the most part) and we hung out till after 1pm!

Afterwards I had some errands to run, and when we got home Daddy had a surprise waiting for us :)

The girls had never seen a balloon that big and they were thrilled. I told them not to hold it or they would float away and they believed me ha ha! He also had these beautiful flowers waiting for me :)

And this yummy Oreo Cookie Cake :) (more for the girls sake then mine)

My babies were so excited to sing me Happy Birthday and all three of us got a turn to blow out the candles.

Our babysitter was there to snap this picture before Daddy and I snuck out the door :)

Daddy and I headed off to Cantina Laredo at San Tan Mall for some appetizers.

Then we headed to FROST (my new addiction)

MMMMmmmm... Sea Salt Caramel (amazing)

Here was my FREE gelato for my birthday! How cute with 4 cookies to look like candles :) (PHONE PIC SUCKS)

Next we were off to the movies to see New Years Eve! It was so cute. We both really liked it. Made me laugh, made me cry. I loved it!

The next night I went out with some girlfriends and we decided to hit a karaoke night at a restaurant. I had not been to Karaoke in years and thought it was something different compared to what we usually do :) It wasn't a big turnout but it never is with a Christmas time birthday. Oh well. We had a great time anyway!

We did some singing and got two scared to death karaoke rookies to get up and sign.

And boy did they! :) (check out the fist pumps)

And can we talk about this girl for a minute? She is such a good friend to me. She showed up with a gift, cupcakes, Happy Birthday crowns for everyone to wear and just the best attitude ever!

She is so good to me and even brought me her daughter's tiara and forced me to wear it for most of the night! :) I just love her. Thanks to EVERY one of you beautiful ladies who came out to help me celebrate!! You guys are awesome! And now let's talk about my karaoke experience shall we?? ah-hemm...

First I get up to sing one of my favorite songs Lucky, by Jason Mraz. The KJ asks me if I want to sing it as a duet (Colby Collait style). I say sure, but shortly realize that I always sing it alone and couldn't remember what was the boy part and the girl part. So of course I start singing over the wrong parts. But whatever. It was because I need to get glasses and couldn't see the screen from so far away so I also couldn't see the blue and pink that distinguished the two parts. Oh and did I mention when I got up to sing this (shaking like a leaf) I had to follow my friend Sarah who sang a song from the Broadway hit show Chicago. This song was theatrical, belted out, and reminded me of Mother Knows Best from Tangled. And she killed it. And I had to follow her???... awesome :/

Then for my second song I chose Telephone from Lady Gaga which was fun until I ran out of breath cause I thought I could sign and dance. Nope. Now I know why they lip sing in concerts. ha ha.

My last song was 'Criminal' by Fiona Apple. It was actually my best, and I am pretty sure I killed it. BUT, I had to go after this girl Amanda that joined us later. I asked before she went up if she was any good, since I knew I was going after her. She says "I like to sing". Well she gets up and sings 'Someone Like You' by Adele. Not only does she sing the CRAP out of this song but she completely changes parts of it. Adds her own melody to it, changes notes. So much so that I liked her version better than Adele's. $%^& balls. While I am listening to her cringing over the fact that I have to sing after her, a friend tells me from across the table that she auditioned for American Idol. Yeah you know, that girl that "like(s) to sing". FML. Anyway, long story short, having to follow Adele, gave me the courage to step up my game and the end result was my best performance of the night. Maybe that is the secret to Karaoke? To just belt it out, be brave, no that it is ok to crack your voice or miss a note, cause hey professional singers do too don't they? Isn't that why they have to record the same versus and chorus over and over and over in the studio till they get the perfect one. Well she may have gone home with the Karaoke Crown that night, but thanks to Trish's daughter Summer, I had a REAL one for my birthday. Take that Adele!!!

Anyway, can't wait to go out again to Karaoke. I am going to start practicing and upping my game ASAP, ha ha ha!!! ;)

25 Days of Christmas- Christmas DAY! We made it!!

2011-12-25T19:37:00.001-07:00

Well the big day is finally here!!! It seemed to come fast and furious. But that's what happens when you are so busy with this countdown. Must have been busy since I fell a week behind in my blog post and never managed to catch up! :) We decided this year for the first year to have everything that came from Santa NOT wrapped. This idea came from my friend Jackie, who told me she does with her kids. And I liked it. The kids were able to see some presents right away and got so excited!! In fact they were hula hooping when we came out in the morning! LOL

These were the rest of the items Santa got them :)

Of course Mamarazzi has about 1700 photos from Christmas morning, but these are my favorites!

This was the chaos after! :)

Good thing Daddy and I donated at least half our kids toys to local families in need this Christmas, cause this chaos didn't stay long. We actually had places to put this stuff when they were done tearing through it all. So Daddy hopped in the kitchen to cook round 2 of breakfast while I cleaned up a bit.

The girls both settled in with the Leapsters and their new games :)

Later (after Ella asking again and again for hours) it was time for stockings.

Ella had been saying for weeks that the MOST important thing she wanted from Santa was a photo of him. She didn't care if it was under the tree or in her stocking, as long as he left her one. It was really quite cute. :) So of course after she was done opening her stocking, her face fell and she said, "Santa didn't leave me a photo??" She was so sad. So I told her, "Ella, Mommy and Santa are FACEBOOK friends, so maybe he put a picture there?" Daddy jumped in and took her to go look.

Here they are heading to Mommy's page...

And there it was on my wall!! And this was her reaction...

Here was the photo of Santa in OUR living room!

Ryen got a kick out of it too!!

This made Ella's Christmas for her!! I was so happy for her. :) Our last order of business was to give the dogs their stockings and their presents.

Mandy sticks her head in the stocking every year and we get a big kick out of it. :)

By the end of the day my kids were like tweakers from being overstimulated and overwhelmed by all the new toys and the fun they had. They passed out cold :) Merry Christmas to you all and I hope your Christmas was just as good as ours.

xoxoxoxo

25 Days of Christmas- A quiet Family Christmas Eve

2011-12-24T23:12:00.001-07:00

This was the first year we decided to have a quiet Christmas Eve with just the four of us. No friends over, we declined a party invitation and decided to just spend quality time together. We had been running around the last few weeks and had just gone to a party the night before. We did keep busy though and it was a GREAT day!

We had SO much to do to get ready for Santa to come. Here were all of our preparations! First we painted Santa's magic skeleton key. If you have never heard of this, it is a cute way to answer a major problem for some Arizona families, which is how does Santa come into our house if we have no chimney :/ So each year we get a gold key (Ace Hardware) and let the kids decorate it with paint and glitter. Then we tie a ribbon and a cute note and hang it on the front door with a ribbon. Ella painted one side of it...

Then Ryen decorated the other side of it...

Then the kids and I hopped in the car to go on a TOP SECRET mission to surprise Daddy with one more present (that he of course dropped on me LAST MINUTE). We had to go to three different stores to find it. And we stopped at the Pet store to get the dogs some toys/gifts and some dog food. Which of course meant the kids had to play with animals there. All told we were gone like 4 hours but I was AMAZED they kept our secret and didn't tell Daddy. PS side note... any secret Daddy asks them to keep from me, they immediately find me and tell me. It is hilarious! When we got home we decorated cookies for Santa and Mrs. Claus (cause the girls felt bad that Santa gets all the cookies.)

Our finished products. The chocolate frosted were for The Claus'. The white frosted were Ella and Ryen's treat!

>

And of course we had a plate of food for the Reindeer! :)

Speaking of Reindeer. We had to head outside to sprinkle our Reindeer dust on the front lawn. In case you don't know, it glistens at night when the moon light hits it and it helps the Reindeer see our house from way up high and tells them where to land! ;)

My girls really love this tradition.

Next it was off to GRIMALDI'S for some yummy gourmet pizza for dinner. I had my free Large pizza coupon so we used it and ordered two. We had some leftovers to take home too which was the best! So good! When we got home from dinner, Daddy had a tradition of his own with the girls he needed to get to... which was helping track Santa's progress around the other side of the World where it was already Christmas Day. He loves doing this with them every year and the girls just LOVE to see where Santa has been.

The girls learned Santa was in Portugal at the moment :) They LOVED seeing the "News footage" of cameras in Paris that captured Santa flying over the city. To track Santa with your children visit Norad! It is awesome that they do this every year! Try hitting PIN IT under this blog post to add it to Pinterest since you have to wait till Next December for that site to be up and running again :) Here is a snapshot of the video footage.

Yet another of our Christmas Eve traditions is to give the kids each a brand new pair of jammies to wear. They look so cute...

And they put their boots and coats on so we could take them to Natal Circle in Tempe to see the Holiday Lights. Natal Circle is a very cool street that has been putting on an extravagant Christmas lights display every year. It is nestled in a neighborhood and attracts THOUSANDS of visitors every year from Thanksgiving till New Years Eve. The houses are all decorated and THEMED. It is truly a pretty remarkable tradition, and there is a short but cute article here detailing how it got started and how new homeowners to the neighborhood are filled in upon moving in. ha ha.

Ella snapped a photo of me all bundled and ready!

Some people drive through, but I think that is lame since it is literally a street of only 15 houses. So we walked through and we took the doggies with us!! And what else is great about this neighborhood is EVERY night from TG to NYE the owners of the houses sit in their driveways with firepits and greet everyone walking by. Every night. Can you believe that?

The kids really loved the Christmas lights and the entire walk through experience.

We had a great time.

I didn't know till we got there that they had big collection bins on each side of the street for canned foods to go to the United Food Bank which is a local charity that I support all the time. Next year I know to bring some goods with us. How wonderful and generous of these families to do this EVERY NIGHT for over 30 days for the community but to also have figured out a way do some more good in the community. Here are some of our favorite photos from Natal Circle :)

To view all the photos we took of Natal Circle I invite you view the slideshow below.

When we got home the girls got ready for bed. I gave them these adorable glow sticks from the Dollar store. One was a Christmas Stocking and the other Frosty. They loved them and slept with them in their beds that night.

We also settled in for bedtime with another Christmas Eve tradition. Twas The Night Before Christmas.

Of course like all the other parents out there we were busy doing last minute wrapping and prepping for all the toys. Jimmy was little to no help. We decided to wrap while we watched Elf for the first time ever and let's just say he has trouble multi-tasking.

After the toys were all under the tree, with the help of my camera and a great website called Capture The Magic I was able to transform a photo of our tree from this...

TO THIS!!!

My girls were speechless when they saw it the next day! You will Ella's reaction in our blog post about Christmas Day! :) Even though it was just us, it was one of my favorite Christmas Eve's ever.

25 Days of Christmas- Kim & Gerry's Christmas Party

2011-12-23T23:00:00.000-07:00

Our dear friends Kim and Gerry invited us to a Christmas party at their home. Kim's Dad and Step-Mom and her Brother were in town visiting so it was a great opportunity to have them meet many of their friends.

I wish I took more photos to be honest. I snapped a few of some Holiday decor when I first got there.

But honestly they put the food out and between making sure Ella, Ryen and myself had something to eat and getting to know so many of Kim and Gerry's friends (who were all so welcoming and inviting), I just decided to put down the camera and be IN the moment which is just as important as documenting the moment! I did manage to snap photos of the desserts I brought before they were ALL gone. Barely had time! ;) I brought Reindeer cake pops and candy cane cake balls.

We just went to a dinner party recently where almost no one introduced themselves to my husband and I. I had to go around and say hello and introduce myself to every person there. So it was so refreshing to have people coming up to us and introducing themselves to us at this party, and asking us how do we know Kim and Gerry, and where are we from etc. I was super stoked to get to meet Anita (Kim's Step-Mom) cause she and I have been interacting on Facebook for so long, and have gotten so comfortable I literally thought I already knew her. LOL.

The food was AMAZING!! There was a salad with mescalin greens,apples,dried cherries,walnuts and pomegranate vinaigrette as a starter. Turkey Rouladen stuffed with wild rice and cranberries or Standing Prime Rib Roast as an entree and Smashed carrots and potatoes laced with sweet butter and fresh Green Beans with mushrooms as the sides. Not to mention rolls. If you are ever in need of a local caterer, I recommend their catering company. Heidi's Catering.

Then I gave the kids some sticker activities to do on the walls for some fun. These were a big hit.

We also had a little chubby baby named Henry that took a real liking to me and my girls. I wanted him under my tree on Christmas morning. So did Ella and Ryen!! :)

Ryen enjoyed some time in front of the fire for a bit.

Then the girls sat and colored while Mommy had coffee and an amazing Pecan pie (which I just found out today thanks to my friend Sue, that I pronounce it wrong. I say PEE-CAN and apparently it is PEH-KAHN) <-- Who knew?? LOL. I did manage to get a photo snapped of me and Jimmy before we left though. :)

I snapped a few more outside before it was time to go :)

Thanks for having us over Kim and Gerry and for letting us meet your family and friends. You are truly blessed and so are we to have you both in our lives. xo

25 Days of Christmas- Frosty & Annual MNO with Neighbor Friends

2011-12-22T21:20:00.000-07:00

Today was day 1 of Ella's Winter Break!! Yay!! She doesn't go back to school till January 9th so we have a long time to have some fun! We plan on taking Ella to all her favorite places that she doesn't normally go to often cause she is in school all day. We decided to take the girls to Peter Piper Pizza for lunch and playtime. The girls had a blast, Ella hit a jackpot on one of the games and we had tons of tickets to get some great prizes. Later that night the girls settled in to watch a movie with Daddy so I could ready for my Mom's Night Out.

Tonight's movie was Frosty! It is one of my favorites and I was sad to miss it but glad they got to snuggle up with Daddy for it.

The neighborhood girls and I went to dinner for our annual gift exchange. This year we did it Yankee swap style instead of pulling names. (PS I love the half naked Abercrombie model as eye candy)

Here are the girls :)

Opening gifts!

Stealing gifts!! ;)

We had a great time at dinner

and a great group of ladies...

Then it was off to the Piano Bar where the drinks were flowing pretty fast and strong - yikes! And unfortunately there is a distinct difference between sober Jill's face and drunk Jill's face if you compare below with the pics above. lol

Merry Christmas Everyone! See you next year. (only if a certain someone promises not to be 90 minutes LATE for dinner next time. ahh hemm) ;)

25 Days of Christmas- Gingerbread Tree

2011-12-21T20:00:00.000-07:00

For the past two years the girls and I have made a Gingerbread house as one of our many Holiday traditions. This year I decided we would decorate a Gingerbread tree that I saw in a store. Seemed super cute and different. (also I thought it might be easier since those dang gingerbread houses and roofs can be hard to stand up in those stupid trays sometimes.)

We got our kit ready!

Rachel, Ella's good friend from next door, was over playing, so we decided to have her help! They were very excited!

First we went to work making the icing for the green leaves and the snow.

Next I put each kid to work on assembling the tree. Layer by layer they took turns spreading icing and stacking stars.

This is what we ended up with :)

Since they worked so hard they each got a reward ;)

While they ate their reward I started frosting with the white icing until... VOILA!

Next it was time to decorate the tree with candy.

As you can see by the candy in their mouths and hands, they were very eager for this part... hmmm wonder why!?

After a little bit, our friend had to leave so my girls finished it up together.

They did a great job! In the end this is what we ended up with

And these are the smiles and memories we can add to the Christmas 2011 Countdown! :)

25 Days of Christmas- Ryen's school Christmas pageant

2011-12-20T22:49:00.000-07:00

Every year Ryen's school does a Christmas Pageant. And every year the number of people who attend seems to triple. Last year was standing room only in the school's play area. This year they moved it to The Grove Church in Chandler. And it was STILL standing room only.

Ryen talked all this week about her pageant. She went to practices at school, she knew the songs. She acted excited. I on the other hand, was very worried about a kid with a 6:30pm bedtime being awake enough for a 7:00pm pageant. Ryen was more than hesitant when we got there, and I was worried she was not going to be in the pageant at all. I encouraged her to try since she practiced so hard. When she went on stage her teacher gave her a pep talk.

I even snuck down to the front row hoping she would feel safe and comfortable if she saw me smiling and giving her thumbs up just feet from her. But no... it made her sadder. Just look at these pics (insert sound of Mommy's heart breaking)

But I was so proud of her. She stayed and played her part (which was a Christmas Tree by the way) in the play

But she couldn't wait for the "family" that bought her (the cutest Christmas Tree ever!) and took her home (aka <-- stage left) ha ha!

She came and sat with me and Ella after that and we did not make her get back on stage for the rest. I was so proud of her for what she did accomplish. So she sat in my lap and sang the songs her classmates were singing. And she sang them quietly but proudly from the backrow of the church. Sigh. I just love her.

She was however very happy to get a present from her teacher at the end of the pageant.

And Ella was MORE than happy to help her open it.

I sort of think these plays/pageants are too difficult for this age of kids and I would prefer if they had risers and sat all the kids at different levels and just let them sing Christmas Carols, with maybe a couple Christmas poems/stories read by a couple of the Pre-K/Kindergarteners. Either way it is so cute and I appreciate all the effort they put into it every year. Maybe next year Ryen will be more into it, ha ha!

25 Days of Christmas- World Holidays and GS Christmas Party

2011-12-19T19:39:00.000-07:00

On Monday I volunteered at Ella's school to help the Kindergarteners do Holidays Around the World. Each classroom was teaching the way a different country celebrates Christmas, and there was an activity to do in each class. I loved helping the kids with their projects.

And I love seeing my baby girl. So excited she only has two more days of school and then she is mine for all of Holiday break!!

When Ella got home from school we had our last Girl Scout meeting of 2011 and we decided to turn it into a small Christmas party. We invited the parents and siblings to join us for pizza and desserts and I had it at my house. After a little bit of playing the girls decided they wanted to put on a fashion show. So they all put different costumes and dresses on from our dress up trunk.

Ella opened the show

Even the baby got into it, ha ha!

Here are the models after the show! LOL

Next we headed outside to decorate cookies.

The babies had fun even though they couldn't make cookies, ha ha!

Then we headed inside for a little ceremony and the girls recited the Girl Scout promise and law complete with like some honor scouts hand signal. (don't know where that came from lol)

Group hug!

Each of the girls was presented with their smock and their petals and troop numbers that they have earned.

Ella was very proud.

We have a great group of Moms and a great group of girls, and I look forward to a great year next year!

25 Days of Christmas- "Elf-ing" the neighbors :)

2011-12-18T22:33:00.000-07:00

This year we decided to make Snowman Soup using free printables from Paper and Pigtails Party. We bought some mason jars, filled them up with hot cocoa mix, marshmallows and a bunch of mini chocolate chips. Then we used the printables to put cute little labels and a poem on the side of the jar.

Ella colored and decorated the envelopes of all the neighbors Christmas cards too.

Then after showers we hopped in the car wet hair, jammies and all!

First house... here we go!!

The girls loved going door to door to the neighbors.

We switched off who would ring bells, who would hand the card and who would hand the snowman soup jars! LOL

We love surprising our friends with some Christmas goodies :)

And technically I am cheating a little, but we didn't finish every neighbor we wanted to Elf so we had to finish Tuesday night after her ballet class :)

It was just as much fun this time too :)

We hope our friends enjoyed the Christmas Card and Snowman Soup this year! :)

Merry Christmas!

25 Days of Christmas- Nutcracker Mother Daughter Tradition

2011-12-17T20:07:00.015-07:00

Tonight I took my girls to see the Nutcracker. The 12th annual Ahwatukee performance by the Kimberly Lewis school of dance.

This was an annual tradition for me and Ella. But now that Ryen is three she was able to join us and from now on it can be a tradition with BOTH my babies! yay!! We get all dressed up and make it a date night.

They were so excited when the show started! :)

Showtime!!

Intermission break with friends

Second half!!

After the Nutcracker they do a cute dance performance set to The Grinch. It is a cute mix of hip hop, jazz, ballet etc. And this year it was much more tasteful then last year I am happy to report :)

After the show they invite the kids up on stage

and they got to see Santa.

Next we went around and got photos taken with all the stars!!

Then Ella went to get some autographs while I Ryen and I got in line for Santa again :)

Ryen LOVED the snow falling from the ceiling. She kept trying to catch it.

After I took my dates out for dinner at The California Pizza Kitchen.

And then we went to our FAVORITE Gelato place called Frost. :)

I had such a great night with my babies and I can't wait till next year!!

25 Days of Christmas- Polar Express

2011-12-16T21:45:00.024-07:00

We picked Ella up early from school on Friday and told her ONLY that we were heading up North so her and Ryen could see snow. Ryen has never seen it and Ella was 15 mos the last time time she saw it (see below)

I was excited for them to see the snow, never mind The Polar Express. That was like icing on the cake!! So we started driving and 40 minutes into our 3 hr ride the kids were already asking "are we almost there" ugh!! We turned on a movie for them and told them to settle in and look for snow on the ground and then they would know we were almost there. They were excited for the challenge

Finally we saw the mountains and the snow! Ryen was asleep but Ella kept singing "We are almost there, almost there, there is snow everywhere!!"

As we entered Williams, AZ the girls saw a Train and immediately asked what the train was for. Daddy said, what do you think? Polar Express they screamed!!! This was their reaction...

While I checked us into our hotel Daddy and the kids had a snowball fight.

Then we changed the kids into their jammies and bathrobes and headed out to dinner. We got some great pics in front of the train first!

We had a while before we had to board out train so we had a fun and leisurely dinner.

ALL ABOARD!!

Cookies and hot chocolate time!

Then the girls created a game to play while we rode to the North Pole.

Pretty soon we were at the North Pole and the girls got to see the lights of the North Pole village. Then Santa came on board to see all the kids.

They were so excited when they saw Santa come on board

And he gave them each their own jingle bells!!

The girls LOVED their bells and kept ringing it right next to mine and Daddy's ears to ask if we could hear it. Of course we can hear it cause WE BELIEVE!!! ;)

Ella sang carols and kept an eye out for Rudolph on his training runs.

Ryen and Daddy played.

Both girls played with eachother

and with the servers on the train!

Then we got our ticket punched!!

Hugs for Mommy and Daddy to say thank you!

Then they gave each of us these souvenir collectible tickets!!

Time to switch lenses and head outside for some Winter pics in the snow!

Everything was decorated so fun!

The girls loved playing in the snow!

I loved being in the snow with my babies!

But we got cold FAST!! It was only 25 degrees! That is cold for these thin blooded Arizona babies. So we headed inside to meet Mrs. Claus!

She was so nice

Then we sat and colored pictures for Santa.

Ryen was super excited to put it in Santa's mailbox. Daddy loved helping her!

Awww my love...

Next we watched the train table for a bit.

Then headed outside for more fun and we bumped into Mrs. Claus again!! She insisted on taking another pic with the girls. (she even yelled WAIT FOR ME which the girls thought was hilarious!)

Once again we got cold and had to run inside to warm up for a few minutes.

But it wasn't long before they were back outside in the snow again! They couldn't stay away.

Finally we had a horse and carriage ride to end the night and gallop through town to look at the Christmas lights

We had an amazing trip and the girls had so much fun! Unfortunately we had only 24 hours cause we had to hurry home to Phoenix to see The Nutcracker.

25 Days of Christmas- Easiest Post Yet

2011-12-15T22:42:00.000-07:00

Thursday morning I woke up with a case of food poisoning. So there was no way in heck I was going to attempt any Christmas activities. The only thing I was attempting all day was to not throw up.

As bad as I wanted to stay in bed all day, I had a meeting at Ella's school, then a doctors appt I could not miss, and lunch with my hubby. (he ate, I sulked). Then it was home for a 5 hour power nap. Yes! That did my body good.

All was not lost however. Ella did some Christmas activities at school and so did Ryen. So at least THEY got in on some Christmas fun without the help of Momma. I just don't have any photos to prove it. ha ha. And Daddy took them to Tumbleweed Park to play after school so they would not disturb sleeping beauty (aka- Me). Even more of a special treat for them.

Merry Christmas. Glad I rested up cause NOTHING was getting in my way of the REAL Polar Express the next day. Yup... that's right. Blog post coming tomorrow. Stay tuned!! :)

xo

25 Days of Christmas- Fridge Magnets and Videos from Santa

2011-12-14T20:18:00.000-07:00

Yesterday the kids got to play with some fridge magnet puzzles while I made dinner. There was a Frosty and a Santa.

The girls loved putting the puzzle together over and over and then switched so they could each get a turn with the other puzzle. And the best part is they get to play with these over and over. :)

After dinner they gathered in front of the computer to get their videos from Santa!! This is a tradition they look forward to SO much! They were so excited.

We watched Ryen's first.

Santa knew all about Ryen and the fun year she had. He mentioned her vacation to Boston and her special birthday party.

Then he gave her the best news. She was on The Nice List :)

After, Ella kissed her sister's cheek and rubbed her back and said I am so proud of you for being on the Nice List. How precious is that????

Then we watched Ella's.

Santa knew all about Ella starting Kindergarten and her trip to Disneyland!

She found out she was on the Nice List too and from the look on her face I think she knew it was touch and go. ha ha.

Santa gave them a few final reminders to be good and in customized ways (Ryen needs to stop throwing silly tantrums and Ella needs to always listen to her teacher)

Then we waved goodbye to Santa till next year!

Daddy got one too. But he was on the naughty list (just cause I was curious to see what the video said if someone was on the naughty list. He was my guinea pig! ha ha.)

If you want to make your kids a FREE customized video from Santa that will make them SO excited click here. Thank you Portable North Pole and thank you Santa!! :)

25 Days of Christmas- Christmas Trees & Frosty The Snowman

2011-12-13T20:12:00.001-07:00

Today was a pretty laid back day as far as Christmas activities go. Ryen and I headed to Ella's school to visit the Holiday Shop and buy Ella some cute gifts from her sister. It was really cute for Ryen, although hard for her to remember that we were not shopping for her, ha ha. Here is some cute stuff she picked out for her sissy.

Later when the kids were both together we made Christmas trees on the wall using re-stickable vinyl.

These came out so cute. And the girls loved making them. And the best part is they were only $1 each at the Dollar Store! Gotta love it.

And the girls love that they can take change their tree over and over since these decals are re-stickable. :) PS (Ryen's on left and Ella's on right)

After our Christmas Trees I got my babies all snuggled on the couch with their blankets and snacks while I got a movie ready for them... SORRY FOR THE HORRIBLE PIC QUALITY. MY LENSES ARE ALL IN THE SHOP AND I WAS USING MY PHONE :(

Our Christmas tradition is Frosty's Winter Wonderland

He is so cute!

And of course I had to snuggle up with them!

We love this movie, especially when Frosty gets married.

25 Days of Christmas- Bass Pro Shops Santa's Wonderland

2011-12-12T19:06:00.000-07:00

Last night we met some friends at Bass Pro Shops in Mesa. Bass Pro Shops across the country create a great free event for families each Christmas called Santa's Wonderland.

They had the store decorated real cute.

The kids played some games and with some toys.

They were really excited

It was so much more special to be with friends.

Here are my kids with Santa

The reindeer were a big hit. Ella LOVES reindeer :)

Next the kids had a play snowball fight with round white nerf balls. It was so cute.

Ella sat and wrote a letter to Santa of what she wants for Christmas and then put it in his mailbox. It was so cute, all she asked for was a photo of Santa and his Reindeer.

Then we headed over to the carousel

Photo-op!!!

Mommy and her girls

Next it was time for a craft. The kids sat and made these cute little jingle snowman ornaments.

We had such a great time and it was even better to be able to spend it with friends.

25 Days of Christmas- The Polar Express

2011-12-11T20:14:00.000-07:00

On Sunday we were so wiped out from our busy weekend that I literally did not want to leave the house. The girls and I stayed in Jammies ALL morning! I decided it was a great day to try to watch The Polar Express!!

None of us had ever seen it before. I had tried a few times last year to get the kids to watch it. But whether it was because it is kind of dark or they did not like the animation they never wanted to watch it for more than like 20 minutes before they would get bored. I was excited to see it for the first time too. So we made hot chocolates and curled up on the couch to watch it together.

We also had some candy canes :)

The girls were super excited when I told them that there is a polar express train right here in Arizona that takes people right to the North Pole to meet Santa!

They were so into it this time!!

Ryen was a little scared at times as this can be a freaky and scary train ride at times in the movie. But all that vanished when they saw the North Pole.

And they got SO excited over the Christmas Tree!

But Santa's humungous bag and Santa himself brought a silence to the room...

They loved the jingle bell part of the movie and how you have to believe in Santa to hear it and so did I. :)

What an adorable movie and beautiful animation towards the end.

Later we had some red and green M&Ms.

I also promised the girls that I would paint their nails with Christmas colors.

So we painted Ella's red and silver alternating sparkles and Ryen's all red with sparkle overlay. They love how they turned out.

And then Ella begged me to paint mine the same way. So I did :)

25 Days of Christmas- Girl Scout Ornaments and Swimming with Santa???

2011-12-10T12:46:00.001-07:00

This morning the girls and I got up early to head to Fountain Hills. Our Girl Scout troop was going to stand outside of Ace Hardware and pass out free handmade ornaments to shoppers and wish them Merry Christmas. The girls were so excited and so proud of their ornaments. We set up a little table with a Christmas tree and all our ornaments.

The girls did great considering that we stood there for a few hours passing them all out. We took some bathroom breaks and popcorn breaks but for the most part they were working it. It was a great exercise to teach them social skills, get them comfortable talking to people, overcome shyness etc. And they got a lot of compliments on their ornaments.

Afterwards we headed across the street to this beautiful city park to have a picnic and play a bit. The kids were all pretty tired after this and Mommy was super short on sleep from last night's ugly sweater Christmas party. The wind started to pick up which made it feel extra chilly, so we headed home.

We weren't home long before we headed out to a Holiday Event at Aqua Tots called "Swimming with Santa". I was so excited for this and talked about it ALL week. I told all my friends and was super excited for my girls who LOVE swimming to be able to swim with him. We can go see him at the mall or anywhere, but how many chances do you get to SWIM with him? Umm.... NONE! It started at 2 and we got there right when it started. I asked what time Santa gets in the water and they told me 2:30pm. So I decided to fore-go all the activities outside and save those for after Santa. These included cookie decorating, ornament crafts, face painting and balloon animals. So in the water my fishies went.

Didn't take long before they were back in the groove again.

Mommy even hopped in to swim with them for awhile!

Swimming with Santa really became swimming for 90 minutes WAITING for Santa. I was SO frustrated cause if I knew it was gonna be delayed an hour, I would have had my kids make an ornament, decorate a cookie etc FIRST. Then they come in and say it is FINALLY time for Santa. But they want all the kids to get out and dry off if they want to see Santa. I am like what??? I thought Santa was getting in the water. "Yes but not till every kid gets to meet him and take a picture with him" UGH! Remember I was told Santa would be IN THE WATER at 2:30pm. Thankfully they love to swim so much they didn't notice we had waited 90 minutes. But I DID.

So we dried off to meet "Santa". Yeah... ummmm.... Santa was a 5 foot tall GIRL who works at Aqua Tots and had painted toe nails sticking out of her scuba foot fins. She had a pillow shoved up her Santa outfit and tied with a tight belt. And she tried real hard to disguise her female voice. Ella was like, Mommy that was not Santa, it was a girl and she had painted toe nails. I told her Santa was busy somewhere else today and Aqua Tots hired someone to PLAY Santa. She was disappointed but said she understood Santa can't be everywhere at once. Pheww! Thanks a lot Aqua Tots for the awkward moment. I realize not every Santa can be good but make a better effort or don't at all. There should never be a Santa that looks like this... LOL!

Afterwards Santa STILL did not get back in the pool, she went out a back door instead. So me and the kids changed out of our bathing suits and went outside for the face painter.

The face painter was awesome and did a great job. After we hit up the balloon animal lady. She was really good also!

Even though I was annoyed with the experience and it was NOT what I wanted to give my kids, what was important was THEY didn't know any different and they had a blast! And I really do appreciate that Aqua Tots holds these free Spring, Fall and Holiday events in the community, and we for sure will be back to them again. :)

(oh and we didn't leave till 4pm. The event was from 2-5. And "Santa" was standing in the back alley with a couple co -workers, STILL not in the pool when we left.) That's just awesome :/

MNI Ugly Sweater Ornament Exchange

2011-12-09T23:01:00.002-07:00

Last night was our annual Christmas. For the first time this year we decided to meet at someone's house. Our friend Susan offered to have us all over. Since we were not going to be out in public, we decided to have it catered by Bucca De Beppo. Yum! We had some salad, apps, pizzas, and an assortment of pastas, chicken, sausage and meatballs.

Pamela helped me pick up all the food and bring it to Susan's. We love us some Pamela time, cause we don't get to see her often. :)

Next we settled in for our Ornament exchange.

Let the games begin!!

There were so many of us this year that we had such a big assortment. We did it Yankee swap style and decided the person who wore the ugliest sweater would pick first. The winner was... SUSAN!

We had a great Yankee swap! There was TONS of stealing. Poor Erin and Krystal couldn't open ANYTHING without it getting stolen! ha ha. But hey, at least they got to keep picking.

Here is everyone with their ornaments after it was over!!

Then the NDMs got together for some photo fun....

Next it was game time. We played Catch Phrase and then Apples to Apples.

It was so much fun. I blew way past my goal of staying till about 9:30 and left at 12:15am. I had an early girl scout event at 7:30am the next morning. Whoops! ;)

25 Days of Christmas- Random Christmas Fun

2011-12-09T19:33:00.000-07:00

Today thankfully was a somewhat uneventful Christmas Day for activities for the kids. Which worked out well for me since I had so much to do today for my own Christmas activities.

First in the morning I went to Circle K to get some donuts and coffee and I hit the JACKPOT when I came across these Candy Cane shaped and decorated donuts. They were a big hit when I got home. :)

Next I volunteered at Ella's school to set up the Holiday Shop. This is a cute little fundraiser for the PTO that enables the kids to come and Christmas shop for their siblings, parents and friends. Everything is super affordable and priced low enough for the kids to be able to get some cute stuff. Everything had to be unpacked, set up and price tagged. Ella is going to have a blast shopping in it next week. While I don't have any photos of that I did go have lunch with Ella and her friends Ryan and Isie. I just LoVe hanging with these girls... (spoiler... AWFUL phone pic quality here. hmmph)

And seriously how much fun do these two have? Check out this video below. This is the funniest thing I have seen in a while and it reminds me of being on the playground and playing down down baby down by the roller coaster and all the crap we played back then... ha ha ha

After school we had a birthday party for our friend Izzy at the park. And they had the biggest Christmas tree pinata! It was awesome and the kids had a great time whacking at it blind folded.

After all this, I had to get ready for one of my annual MNO Christmas parties. But this year we decided to do a catered Mom's Night IN and have an Ugly Christmas Sweater party. Since I am sure I will have TONS of pics from this night. I am going to make a separate post about this party :)

25 Days of Christmas- Christmas Fun at the Mall

2011-12-08T21:34:00.016-07:00

So I fell behind on this blog in documenting our DAILY Christmas countdown of activities. So I am playing catch up now! First on the 8th we had a special Mommy/Daughters date night where I took the girls to the outdoor mall to see it decorated for Christmas. They really do a great job here and the girls love this mall.

Look at how cute they are:

Immediately we ran into this new light display that is set to music and plays every hour on the hour. Sweet!!

Next we went to Build-A-Bear with the intent of celebrating Rudolph and Clarice Carilli's FIRST Birthdays, by purchasing them an accessory. However, the girls decided they wanted to get new animals instead and they just happen to have some birthday money from Auntie Lori AND a smokin' deal at B-A-B. So we did it!!

Ryen chose a Happy Feet Penguin with a light up bow tie and Ella chose a Bunny Rabbit!

Manning the fluffernator (that's what I call it)

Hug tests!

My favorite part... making wishes on their animals' new hearts :)

Bath time!

Birth Certificates!!

When we were done we headed outside and saw the light show was starting again. AND it is even more beautiful when it's fully dark!

Here is a short video of the girls dancing with Clara and Brittany.

After we headed into the Puppy store so the girls could say hello to the animals.

Stopping to pose with their new babies :)

Next we headed over to Frost for some GELATO :) It was amazingly DELISH and FRESH with imported ingredients. Made fresh on site. And the best part is 85% less calories and fat than ice cream :)

All in all we had a GREAT night and some new friends to take home.

25 Days of Christmas- Making Paper Stockings

2011-12-07T19:42:00.004-07:00

Today was a crazy hectic day. So boy I was excited to have an easy low key Christmas activity. Today's Day 7 Christmas countdown consisted of a homework project of Ella's which was to make and decorate a paper stocking.

First we covered our paper stocking with Hot Pink Felt to give it the feel of a stocking but with a bright fun color. Then we added her name with glue and different colored glitter. We also overlayed a silver glittery Christmas ribbon over the white part of the stocking to glam it up a little. She didn't want to do cotton balls or glitter, she chose that instead.

Next she had to write a note to Santa and tell him what she would like to find in her stocking.

Here is the finished product although something tells me she will ask me to hot glue a candy cane or something to it...

Next we took the girls outside to surprise them with our newest addition to our Holiday Family, Frosty :)

Ella was very excited to have a new friend to join Polar Bear :)

Lastly we headed inside to watch a new Christmas Special we had not seen before ;)

See you tomorrow! :)

25 Days of Christmas- Christmas Magic with Mommy

2011-12-06T22:28:00.005-07:00

Tonight our Christmas countdown was one I was looking forward to all week long. I read books to my girls every time I put them to bed, but tonight we decided to make a comfy area in front of the Christmas Tree instead.

We turned off the TV a little earlier than normal and settled in with three Christmas books I got at the library.

We snuggled up with mint hot chocolates, peppermint candies and our warm blankets.

Helping the girls open their mints.

Story Time

They loved the peppermints and the stories...

I loved cuddling with them and the ambiance of the Christmas tree added a little bit more "Christmas Magic"to our story time ;)

And PS: here is an update on our daily Santa beard. Look how cute he is looking. His beard is "growing" in nicely huh? ha ha.

See you tomorrow :)

25 Days of Christmas- Making Ornaments with the Girl Scouts

2011-12-05T19:18:00.006-07:00

Today is Day 5 of our 25 Days to Christmas Countdown. Our Advent Calendar had us doing a Christmas activity with our Daisy Girl Scout Troop! Our Girl Scout troop decided to hand make ornaments and pass them out for free to Christmas shoppers this month. My friend Trish and I made all the ornaments using a home made recipe. Flour, Salt, Water, and oil is all you need!

While Trish made us and the kids a yummy taco dinner, I got started on mixing our first batch in my Kitchen Aid.

When it came out it looked like any other dough. Just didn't taste good :)

Next we rolled it out and she and I started cutting out shapes.

We cut and baked about 200 of them!

Trish spray painted them all to get them ready.

She did an AWESOME job! Here the ornaments are ready for the girls to decorate at our meeting today.

They got busy right away and even let little siblings help since we had to do so many :)

And they came out cute...

Just look how many they cranked out!

They were very proud and can't wait to give them out this weekend!

We have a lot to give out as you can see :) Poor Trish has to hot glue ribbon on all of them. Maybe I can get her to drop some off here once they're dry and I can hot glue some too.

25 Days of Christmas- Oh Christmas Tree

2011-12-04T10:01:00.000-07:00

A couple years ago we decided to put Christmas Trees in our girls rooms. So we got two small pre-lit 3 ft trees. We thought each year it would be great to add one ornament to their tree, and to let them pick it out. Yesterday was day 4 of our advent calendar so we took them to Target to pick their ornaments out. Here are their trees and a summary of their ornaments...

First we bought one for when they turned One (their initials)

So far Ella has picked the following in addition:

Ryen has only had one more ornament to pick. That was last year when she turned 2.

This year the girls picked out the following.

Ella picked a Guitar (cause she loves Hannah Montana) and Ryen picked a Lollipop (cause she loves lollipops and also cause it reminds her of her 3rd Candyland birthday party)

The girls love hanging them themselves...

There is something peaceful and a little magical about falling asleep to the soft glow of your own Christmas tree in your room. I know my girls cherish these and I hope they have this tradition with their own littles someday!

The finished product till next year :)

25 Days of Christmas- Meeting the Grinch

2011-12-03T23:01:00.001-07:00

Tonight was our annual family tradition of The City of Chandler Christmas Tree Lighting and Parade. Last year the girls were old enough to stay for the parade. They LOVED it. So Jimmy and I were really looking forward to this year. Unfortunately however, today was brutally cold (for Arizona) and it was windy and sprinkling. We knew we would not enjoy the night so we decided to look for an alternative parade to attend this year, and the girls are already going to see Santa at Bass Pro shops later this month. That being said, we cancelled our plans. Much to my disappointment. This is the first time in 5 years we have not attended. However, our advent activities continued anyway (always have a back up plan)...

Last night my friend Nina told me about a local used bookstore that was offering a meet and greet and FREE photos with THE GRINCH! What?? We have met Santa many times and even Frosty once, but never The Grinch! I was so excited. We decided to surprise the girls at the bookstore. :)

Here they are having a story time reading of The Grinch before their turn to meet him.

I was excited to see that he was a happy Grinch and not a mean Grinch cause I didn't want the girls to be scared!

He was so huge!

The girls gave him hugs and high fives...

Then we took our photos. One with a NICE face :)

And then an adorable one with their best GRINCH face >:(

Afterwards they were each given a free game and some cookies that they gobbled up while enjoying the rest of story time.

Thank you Changing Hands Bookstore! My girls LOVED meeting The Grinch and the story time, and we hope you do it again next year :) See you soon!

25 Days of Christmas- Santa Cotton Beard

2011-12-02T01:00:00.002-07:00

So day two of our Christmas countdown had us referring to our advent calendar.

Today's activity was to make our Santa Beard project! This was found on Pinterest too. Reason #7,856 why I am obsessed with Pinterest!!

This project was super easy! I was directed to a graphic and poem that Alison used over at Oopsey Daisy. She used (2) 12x12 pieces of scrapbook paper and used another piece of scrapbook paper to conceal where the 2 papers met. (you could also use ribbon to conceal this as a cute alternative.) I decided to use one piece of scrap book paper that I trimmed down and I liked the look of the poem just centered hanging off the end. Either way works fine. (The Santa image I used, I am not allowed to share, so I created my own Santa head and poem that you can download here if you wish to do the same project!!)

This is such a cute idea! Except after the fact I realized that both girls would want to put a cotton ball on, and there would be 50 on there by the time Christmas came. So YES, I am now cutting cotton balls in half so each girl can still glue something on everyday!

Should hold up well, as long as I can get kids to not play with it too much and rip the cotton balls off. But what a cute daily reminder of who is coming soon...

25 Days of Christmas- North Pole Breakfast

2011-12-01T22:00:00.003-07:00

Today we started our Christmas Countdown! We did this last year and it was a big hit. So many people emailed me, texted me, and messaged me on facebook last year and commented how much they loved it and encouraged me to keep up with it when I fell behind on my blog posts about it. So I have decided it is worth doing again this year. And this year, I have about a dozen friends who are going to start this tradition with their kids also and take their advent calendars to the next level. I am so glad I inspired so many to get on board and I can't wait to see the fun they have with it, and see their pics! So with that said, on to Day 1...

Today our Elf on the Shelf returned. This year thanks to a great idea I saw on Pinterest (here) we decided to do a North Pole Breakfast when our Elf came to visit us. This will be a new tradition for us every year. It was a great way to introduce them and the kids LOVED it.

We had our Elf and our book on the table.

In our house, our Elf is a new Elf every year and each year my kids revel in the fun of choosing a gender and name. They love that the 1st year our Elf was a boy named Owen and the 2nd year our Elf was a girl named Katie. This year...It's A Girl!!! ha ha. Ryen had the honor of naming her since Ella named our Elf the last two years. Her name is DAWN.

We had some Christmas dishes on the table holding our Holiday breakfast.

There was another awesome idea I found on Better Homes and Garden and decided to put my own take on it. Snowman donut milk! I got some powdered munchkins from Dunkin Donuts and poked them through a red straw. Then had them resting on top of the milk. I then decorated the milk with a scarf. The kids really liked them!

They each also got a small Christmas activity book as well as their customized cards from Santa telling them they are on the nice list and letting them know what they need to do to stay there (TinyPrints.com) .

Of course they were excited to get this card from Santa!

These cards are the most darling thing I have ever seen!

We had such a great morning with our elf and I can't wait to see the mischief Dawn gets into this year!

And actually Ella had a half day today and we were supposed to go to the zoo, but it was rainy and cold (which rarely happens here in AZ). So we went to play with friends and I had this idea of trying to use their handprints to form a Christmas tree. Then I had them use their finger tips to gently dab some different colored ornaments on the tree.

I think they came out pretty cute and the kids LOVED them! And did I mention my Bestie Trish whipped out her LAMINATOR for them. How cool is that? So today we actually had TWO Christmas activities thanks to the weather! Yay! :) See you tomorrow...

AZ Balloon Festival

2011-11-20T21:06:00.011-07:00

Today we took the girls to the Inaugural AZ Balloon Classic.

My girls love Hot Air Balloons so this was something I knew they were going to love. We arrived at 7am just as the National Anthem was beginning and we were able to see the balloons start inflating.

The kids were so excited!

Then before we knew it they were starting to take off.

One by one

Before we knew it the sky was full of them

And my children's eyes were filled with wonder and awe (they look SO alike here!)

There is just something about hot air balloons that brings out the kid in everyone and is magical (except my husband who was asking me if there is some hot air balloon cult following that he is not aware of, lol!) It was a great family day!

We bumped into our friend Alexa who was VERY excited as you can see :)

Ella was too! :)

We warmed up by the heat of this balloon that we were standing only feet from

And we watched this balloon take off right over our head. Literally!

Then Paulina called and told us one balloon was letting people get in for photo ops. We ran over and got in line and this was this was a big highlight for my girls!

Next we were off to find donuts and coffee, but where are they? Right over there pointed the monster, (hee hee)

Yummy donuts!!!

Next it was bounce house time!!

It was an amazing fun filled morning and I can't wait to go back next year.

Lighting the Night and Lighting up Faces!

2011-11-19T11:45:00.016-07:00

The past two weekends the girls and I participated in two charity walks. The first was the annual Light The Night Walk benefiting the Lymphoma and Luekemia society. This was in memory of precious Baby Violette, and in honor of little Brady Wein who has been battling AML since infancy (but has been in remission since January, woo hoo!!)

Here is Brady. So cute, I just want to steal him ;)

The girls loved the light up balloons (what kid wouldn't??)

Peek-A-Boo

We watched the musicians perform and danced a bit :)

We got their faces painted!! (worst face painting ever- but free teenage volunteers so you can't complain, lol) They are supposed to be a butterfly on the left and a dog on the right...

Next we headed over to the bounce houses.

It was nice to have some time to play and do fun stuff before the walk started. Made it more fun for the girls then just showing up and walking. But soon it was time to get ready to go, so we hit the LONG bathroom lines and the girls were hugging and loving on each other while we waited. And I was lucky enough to find someone to take a photo of me and the girls :)

Excited and READY to start :)

Afterwards the kids played with Brady's favorite thing on Earth... a Ball!! LOL

then they were super excited when the fireworks began!!

It was a really great fireworks show and a real great night.

The girls are already asking about next year.

This past weekend we participated in the Hope Walk for Huntington's Disease. HD is a very scary and non-curable disease that is completely devastating to those who have it. A positive diagnosis is often viewed by most as a horrible death sentence. So those with HD can only do one thing and that is hope... hope they don't get the gene from their family members and HOPE there is a cure soon.

They love these walks!

The cool thing was, Ella's Daisy Girl Scout Troop decided to walk together as a troop for this event.

We all wore our tie dyed shirts and beaded necklaces.

The troop made the beaded "Hope" necklaces to pass out to people at the walk. Our goal was as often as possible, to choose people who looked like they could use some hope, or a smile, or something to brighten their day. And we definitely LIT up some faces with those necklaces.

We got some cool face painting done.

But nobody was as cool as our fellow girl scout sister, Bailey!

We had a dance party while we waited for all the kids to get their face painted...

Ryen was shy around her "boyfriend" Leo.

Her and Leo then took turns taking pics of each other with Trish's camera in the wagon while waiting for the walk to start. Too cute!!

But not bad huh? And check out this flirt!!!

And we're OFF!

Afterwards we let the kids play at the playground and gave them all lollipops for being so good and for passing out all the necklaces, even though some of them wanted to keep them :)

We had a great time and it was even more fun being with our Girl Scout troop. :) And I had fun with my bestie :)

We are ALL Super-Moms

2011-11-12T09:52:00.008-07:00

I recently received the sweetest message from my friend Amanda. She and I were really close once, and then parted ways for a while. We have recently reunited. So this message from her was unexpected versus one of my best friends that I talk to every day. I am not sure what made her write it to me, but the fact that she took the time to write something so beautiful to me, literally made me cry. Here it is...

"Jill, you are truly an amazing mother. The girls are so lucky to have a mother like you. You blow me away daily with the effort you put into everything for your girls. I hope you have an amazing day!"

The reason I am sharing this is not to brag. It is because this type of reaching out to fellow Moms and letting them know they are doing a good job seems to be almost non existent today among my generation. And I am not sure why. Seems everywhere I turn I am seeing Moms judging other Mothers, whispering about them, looking them up and down. Talking about them behind their backs. Wondering what their motives are for doing what they do. Who are they trying to impress? What are they trying to prove? Why do they have to try to outdo everyone?

I have said in previous posts that the supermom title in my blog was there to remind me everyday to try to live up to that monicker. To never stop wanting to be better for my kids. But recently I have realized, I HAVE lived up to that monicker. Because guess what? WE ALL HAVE! We are ALL Super-Moms in our own ways. And it is time we start treating each other with more respect, compassion, understanding, and love. It is truly interesting to take an inventory of the friends and women you have in your life. And ask yourself some tough questions. Such as, is this person the type to reciprocate my friendship or does it seem one sided? Does this person speak positively about other friends? Other Moms? Other people? Does this person treat me how I would want to be treated? Is this person capable of telling another Mother she is doing a good job, or she has great kids?

There are women out there who are literally not capable of celebrating the other women in their lives. These women are very cheap with their compliments but don't mind taking a sarcastic jab and disguising it as a joke. Whether they are joking about you wearing heels to the park or being an over achiever. They are very quick with their barbs but not so quick to tell you ONE thing they actually admire about you. They can't bring themselves to compliment your outfit, your photo, your child's accomplishment or your own. They may not even realize they are doing it. Maybe it is subconscious. Then I have friends that literally tell other women everyday how beautiful they are. They remind them they are amazing. They tell them how important they are to them. They thank them for being in their lives. They compliment complete strangers on their clothes or hair. They are the first ones to hit the like button on a photo you post that is important to you, or a facebook status about your kids. It is this empowerment of other women and this boosting and lifting them up that they thrive on. Who does not want to hear they are a good mother? They are doing a good job? They chose a snazzy outfit? They are having a good hair day? They are good at something?

And speaking of being good at something... you can be bitter and jealous that your friends are so talented at certain things. Or you can learn from them. I am surrounded by talented photographers, crafters, bakers, decorators, singers, shoppers, dressers, mothers, sewers, advocates, teachers, fitness gurus, party planners, etc. And I SOAK THEM UP LIKE SPONGES. I want to learn as much as I can from them and maybe just maybe they will teach me something new that adds value to my life. They will challenge me and help me grow or help me add a skill I might not have otherwise learned. Why squander this? Embrace it... don't HATE it.

At the end of the day, whether you are a birth mother or adoptive mother, a breast feeder or formula feeder, a working mom or stay at home mom; Cloth diapering or disposable, you are Amazing! Whether you had your kids scrapbooks ready to go before their first birthday or whether they are already in elementary and the scrapbook is getting dusty, you are a Super-Mom. Whether you are a Betty Crocker or Julia Child in the kitchen or whether take out is your savior, you are a Great Mom! Whether your house always looks like it is tidy and clean or whether you have toys and laundry piles around you are Wonderful! Whether you are PTO President, Soccer Coach, in the stands of every football game or whether you are lucky to make it to the school for parent teacher conferences, you are Enough!! Whether you vacuum and mop religiously, have a cleaning lady keeping your house spotless or whether you run around the house hoping the wind behind you will blow the dust bunnies away long enough to buy you an extra day or two before you get to it, you are Fantastic! Whether you are back in your skinny jeans after 4 kids or still struggling to lose the baby weight from your first, you are BEAUTIFUL! Whether your house looks like something out of a Pottery Barn catalog during the Holidays or whether you are lucky to find any decorations at all in your garage, you are Awesome! Whether you wear the trendiest clothes, hairstyles and make-up and rock heels at the playground, or whether you wear ponytails and gym clothes like they are your uniform you are Perfect! Whether you have the happiest marriage on the block or one that is hanging on by a thread, you are Spectacular! Whether you are behind the camera or in front of it you are a Rockstar! Whether you are blogging, uploading, printing or sharing or you have pics on your camera from over a year ago, you are Present! You are doing the best you can with what you have. You love your children and take care of them, nurture them, protect them, feed them, bathe them, clothe them, hug them and kiss them. THAT is what makes you a Super-Mom. Nothing else. Nothing more. The rest is just noise.

So go compliment a Mom today, or a friend. Go tell her she is fantastic. Tell her she is beautiful. Don't assume she is hearing this at home, or that she only does what she does cause she is looking for compliments. Don't be bitter and hold them back. The next time you want to judge a Mom in the grocery store or anywhere, give her a sympathetic look instead. We have all been there. And you never know what is going on in their lives. The Mom that looks like she has it ALL together could be the one barely holding on and could be the one that needs a hug or compliment more than anyone else.

We are ALL AMAZING. xo

Canobie Lake Park

2011-11-10T21:13:00.024-07:00

I have not been to Canobie Lake park since I was in high school. Me, and 3 friends from high school all drove up there for an adventure. I have the photos to prove it and my friend Katie has the tattoo souvenir that she got at Tattoos By Benny on the way home, LOL. This time however I went back as a Mommy and brought my two littles. So I assure you there were no trips to the tattoo parlor on the way home :)

Look how cute my girls' hair looked thanks to Auntie Lori

Look how sweet this is. Ryen asked Justin to walk with her, and he took her by the hand and walked her through the parking lot. sigh. Cousins are the best. :)

Hello MJ. I still ADORE you!

Can you tell!?

Nana came with us to the park and so did my WAY TOO GROWN UP Goddaughter Kristina. I held her at her baptism and now she has boobs. Seriously?? Where the heck does the time go. LOL Sorry Kristina! ;)

Our first stop was the Water Park. This was a water play area on steroids. You could not climb up anywhere or walk anywhere without getting sprayed in the face or have a bucket of water dumped on you. Needless to say my two weren't crazy about it as a result.

The biggest disappointment though was that the water slides had an age requirement and not a height requirement. So kids who were shorter than Ella were running up the stairs and heading down the slide cause they were 6 but Ella was turned away for being 4. That annoyed her cause she is so tall she has not been turned away from a water slide in a long time. So she got bored fast and since Ryen hated the spray and got yelled at by an employee every time she tried to sit or lay down in the water pools, we decided to call it quits and enjoy the rest of the park.

We started by taking a break for lunch:

Afterwards we headed over to the Michael Jackson show :) Which the kids loved. And it was SO good by the way. This guy is incredible! (And I just found out he is coming to Phoenix around my birthday next month for a show at Talking Sticks Resort!)

After the show we split up for a bit cause my kids could not go on a lot of the rides the bigger kids went on. We started at the bumper cars!

We went on the big cars too:

My favorite pics of the day are my cuddles I got while waiting in line :)

Next we hit the carousel.

Rollercoaster time!

Over the rainbow in the hot air balloons with Nana!

Taking a rest from all the fun!

We bumped into a special friend on the way to the giant water coaster that kicks up a ridiculous splash that soaks everybody standing on the bridge.

The kids LOVED it! It was a great and fun way to cool off on a hot day!

We all did! :)

I was so surprised when Livvie, Justin and Ella all said they wanted to go on it. There was NO adult willing to go get drenched with them, and they were like... "we got this". And check out the badasses sitting in the front row.

Ryen was getting very tired and had enough of being wet. Lucky for her she had so many to love on her while the big kids rode the ride. And lucky for them she was in a VERY cuddly and kissy mood. :) She can wrap you around her finger and melt your heart QUICK!

Photo ops :)

Ice Cream time!

I wanna be Big!! :)

Mommy says NO WAY... NOT YET! ha ha

Bubble fun!

Swings!!!

Mini Elevator drop ride

My girls weren't sure about it at first, ha ha!

But they loved it!

Our last adventure was the Timber Splash water log coaster.

Ryen was super excited!

We all had fun and didn't get too wet on this one.

We were lucky enough to get the kids changed into their jammies and into the car before a huge downpour! One of the worst I have seen in a while and it was so hard to drive home, cause Massachusetts highways dont have the reflectors in between lanes they only have the white painted stripes that you can barely see on those dark highways in the rain. it was a nail biter the whole way home, but we made it home safe.

We had such a great day it was one of my favorite days of our trip to Boston!!

Ella's 5th Birthday Night Owl Pajama Party

2011-11-05T17:00:00.000-07:00

Ella has been wanting to have a sleepover for her 5th birthday forever. She is the youngest of all her friends in the neighborhood and some of her friends had one for theirs. She was so excited. But she also wanted a few other friends to join in the fun. So we compromised on a Pajama Party where most of the girls would be picked up to go home and only the neighborhood girls who wanted to, would sleep over.

So her theme was a Night Owl Pajama Party!

Her colors were Pink, Turquoise, Orange and Green :) We found some cute owl stuff at Oriental Trading Company which became the theme for our party. We matched the invite, colors, and decor to match.

We converted the dining room floor into one giant bed with pillows, blankets and sheets where the girls could lounge and eat their dinner and treats.

The girls loved it and were lounging immediately and begging to sleep there.

Dinner was pizza and assorted chips with rolled up silverware and napkins secured with a candy bracelet for each girl.

We also had a milk bar complete with white, chocolate or strawberry milk, served out of these mason jars that were converted into glasses with lids and straws to match the party decor. The kids LOVED them!

Here they are having dinner.

After dinner we made an owl craft where the girls decorated purple felt owls. (purple is Ella's favorite color)

We applied tattoos and glow necklaces

We played with light up balloons

Next the girls were given owl goodie bags with their own plush owl and an adoption certificate.

We had a very nervous looking pinata and an eager group of girls ready to bash the $h!t out of it. ha ha!

And boy did they!!! LOL

We had a dessert/treats table that was one of the highlights of the party.

The table featured marshmallow pops, owl cupcakes, an owl cake with feathers, birdcages held owl and owl "egg" cake pops, buckets with owl food (colorful tootsies), smarties (to make you wise like an owl), lollipops and airhead candies.

Owl Cake

The girls sang happy birthday to Ella and then we ate lots of treats and cake :)

After cake it was time for presents

Then we headed outside again for our last surprise!

SPARKLERS!!

After our friends who weren't staying over went home, those who were staying, settled in their blankets and pillows to have popcorn and to watch Ramona and Beezus (Ella's choice). All of them were asleep by 11:15 and all slept until 7:15!! I got lucky! LOL. In the morning it was breakfast with friends of rainbow confetti pancakes and fruit!

She had a wonderful birthday and a fabulous party! She still talks about it and I am so glad to be able to give her such a great time with her friends.

Happy FIFTH Birthday to Our Beautiful Ella Belle

2011-11-02T00:01:00.001-07:00

My Darling Ella,
I can not believe another year has passed so fast. It has been 5 years since you made me a Mommy. Well actually almost 6, cause I felt like a Mommy from the minute I saw the plus sign. I talked to you, sang to you, rubbed you in my belly, and protected you in every way. I LOVED every second of being pregnant. I loved every kick. I loved EVERYTHING about it. But I knew I was going to love being pregnant before I even conceived you. I had waited my whole life to be a Mom. I had already moved to a new State and left my entire family behind, so I could be ready to give you the kind of life I wanted you to have. I threw my college degree aside and my career aspirations and embarked on a journey of Mother, Teacher, Nurturer, Nurse, Chauffeur, Cook, Cleaning Lady, Baby Whisperer, Playmate, Storyteller, Disciplinarian, and Friend amongst other things.

I wish I could say that these last 5 years have been so blissful. They haven't always. While I have enjoyed them and they have gone fast they have also been the most trying of my life, the most trying on my patience and the most trying on my marriage. ;) There have been times when things were blissful and there have been times when things have been so awful I didn't know how we were going to make it through. But we did, didn't we baby? Even though we have had a roller coaster the amount of love I have for you is not measurable. Even better, the love you have for me makes me feel unworthy. It is so amazing being your Mom and I think you were given to me because someone knew you would be hard work and high maintenance and only an over achiever, type A personality who LOVES a challenge would be able to raise you. Ha ha.

I am so in awe of you and so unbelievably proud of the progress you have made. I have a new found level of love for you now that you have started Kindergarten. I am not sure what happened. Not sure if it is that I appreciate you so much more now than I have so much less of you. Or if I am just so proud of how mature you have become. Or if it is that I am so happy that I believed in you, even when others didn't, and knew that you would figure things out and would adjust to the dynamics of your new school, new routine, new rules, new classmates, teacher etc. But you seem so much more grown up and so OLD since starting Kindergarten. And your very funny lately. Your stories, your demeanor, your jokes. You make me laugh a lot.

So here are some words about you as you turn 5. Your smile literally breaks my heart a teeny tiny bit every time I see it cause it is just radiant! Your dimples are beyond adorable. You get a twinkle in your eye when you smile that lights up your whole face. You are such a girly girl and you love to wear lipstick and makeup and dresses. You love animals, you love PEOPLE. All people. You love your friends with a passion (sometimes too much). You love swimming, riding bikes, being outdoors. You love Spongebob and dance class. You love coloring and drawing and reading. You love candy and cake frosting. You love Sprite and going out to eat. You are sensitive and can get your feelings hurt so easily. You are gullible enough to still believe that Mommy is magic (like when I do something you think is amazing, or when I kiss your booboos and they no longer hurt, or when I use my special powers to banish all monsters from your room.) I wish you would believe that forever but I know you wont.

I have protected you from bumps and bruises and major injuries like no other. You have never had to go to the emergency room since the day you were released from the NICU (not even cause you were sick) and I intend to keep it that way as long as possible. I don't ever want to have to see you in a hospital again. You almost made a trip at Disneyland when you cut your forehead, but we managed to avoid it. :) I have shielded you from scary movies (even movies like Wizard of Oz that I think might be too scary for you) I have shielded you from movies like Shrek even, cause I think they are not appropriate, ha ha! Daddy says I keep you in a bubble, and he is right to a point. But I like it that way. :)

I have also sheltered you from some of life's hard lessons, as I am not really ready for you to learn them. You know very little about death, or violence, or suffering. You know very little about fighting, hatred, wars, or anything cynical in the World. I don't want you to. There will a time when you will learn these things and a piece of your innocence will be lost forever. So I would prefer to keep you from them for as long as I can. And thankfully we are very blessed and fortunate and in a position to be able to shelter you a little longer. You have a wonder and amazement of the world and the places, people, and creatures in it.

You need to learn to appreciate your sister more, which I hope will come in time. You are so good to your friends, but not so much to your sister. Not sure if it is because she always hounds you, interrupts you, or messes with your stuff. But one day you will appreciate and love her for the best friend that she will be one day to you. So I am patient and do a lot of refereeing. And when you are being sweet and loving to her, my heart melts.

I am so blessed to have you, that you chose me to be your Mother, and that you have taught me so much on this journey. You have forced me to learn patience, you have taught me how to love. You have taught me how to let go a little, to breathe deep and to trust in the love I have for you. And you have taught me that I must be doing something right. Cause the way you look at me, and the way you talk about me, and the notes you leave all over the house for me that profess how much you love me tell me so everyday. The way three letters M.O.M. often end up on of your school papers with a heart now and then... the way your teacher tells me you brag about me to her, and you run in from lunch and show her the notes or jokes I leave in your lunch box... And the way you ask me every night lately if I will sit with you and rub your arm till you fall asleep, makes me feel more loved and appreciated then a card or a thank you ever could.

Here are your birthday ABCs as you turn 5 my precious girl. I wish you the most AMAZING year of your life.

A: artistic
B: bossy
C: creative
D: diva
E: eager
F: fun
G: gabby
H: happy
I: innocent
J: jokester
K: kind
L: lively
M: musical
N: naive
O: observant
P: particular
Q: quizzical
R: radiant
S: sassy
T: tester
U: unique
V: vivacious
W: whiny
X: xtraodinary (cheating)
Y: youthful
Z: zany

Love you to Saturn's rings and back ;)

Mommy

Spooktacular Halloween Party!

2011-10-27T19:40:00.000-07:00

Every year one of our playgroups meets for a Halloween party for the kiddos. Usually low key and potluck style. This year I decided to have it at my house. We still did it potluck style, but I wanted the kids to really be excited this year, now that they are older and really into Halloween. So I found some FREE party printables on the internet and printed them out at home, cut them out and voila. A little pizazz for the kiddos. I also found some spooky fun ideas to make our food table a little more SPOOKTACULAR ;)~ Here are the photos. Enjoy!!

Our Food Table :)

Our craft time outside

Some take home goodies!

Ryen's 3rd Candyland Birthday Party

2011-10-07T22:32:00.017-07:00

For Ryen's 3rd Birthday I really wanted to have a Candyland birthday theme for her. She loves the game, is always walking around with the little gingerbread pieces (and losing them) and she loves candy. It was a no brainer. As I was in the throws of planning a party at my house and my mind was coming up with all sorts of ideas for banners, wreaths, candles, decor, etc, she throws me a curve ball and says she wants to have it at one of her favorite places... Peter Piper Pizza.

Because we are taking the kids to Disney next week for Ella's 5th Birthday I was on a budget for this party, and had to keep the guest list small. So we had to cap it off at 15 kids. Some of our friends didn't get to celebrate with us, and that makes me sad. So how do you have a cute party at Peter Piper Pizza where Momma can still have lots of cute touches and decor and wow her baby so that it brings her so much joy? Oh there are ways, believe me :) Enjoy the photos!

Invites/Matching printables were double sided in every color of the rainbow and covered in spray glitter.

Table decor included colored paper placemats, colorful playdough party favors, colorful hugs juice boxes with straws, candyland game cards scattered around, colorful pails filled with different candies from the game and large giant swirl lollipops. We also had little lollipop and peppermint candy soaps found in a dollar bin at Michaels that were perfect for the tables also.

Gift table:

The dessert table featured a candyland board, a cake decorated to match, cake pops and large spiral pop decorations :)

The Birthday Girl wore a Candyland game board dress :)

My beautiful girls:

So many friends came to celebrate our baby girl :)

The kids had a blast playing lots of games after lunch

Time for Cake and cake pops!

My pretty girls!

Presents!!

Thank you to EVERYONE who celebrated with us and made our baby girl's day so special! Love you xo