A Little Late

I don't know how this slipped by me.  This is my sweet girl who was so excited that we weren't making the typical valentine card you can find in any store.  She went with me to Michael's and picked out the colors she wanted to use and then we came home and made pretty butterfly tags and dipped marshmallows.  It was a good time and she was so excited to get to school and hand out her homemade valentine treats.

Happy late Valentines Day :)

Aaarrrggghhhh

A couple of weekends ago I took my little pirates to the Pirate Dinner Adventure.  Kendall has been begging to go every single time we pass the place, so we finally broke down and took them.  We really had a great time.  We went with my mom so we got in some Grandma time as well!!!  And of course Grandma had to have her little pirates in he right pirate gear.

So as you can see, Cass is giving us her best pirate "aaarrrggghhh", Kendall is contemplating if she wants to do what her sister is doing and Hayley is 2 seconds from ripping off that hat, she hated that thing.  Kendall didn't care for it very much either so my mom and I decided to be cool.

Pretty soon it was time for the pre-show to start.  That is when this walked out.

He is the captain of the show.  My mom and I looked at one another and I believe the words "well, heelllloooooo captain" were uttered, followed by this picture which was followed by him acknowledging said pervy statement and a wink may or may not have been in the mix as well.  I think all of that was followed by one seriously red faced mama, yeah, my poor kids had to deal with their mom acting like a total dork.  The pre-show was fun, they had a lot of audience involvement and then we got to go sit down and eat and watch the show.  I didn't get any pictures inside, it is super dark and my kids were going nuts and I was trying to balance Hayley one my lap and actually watch the show and eat. All in all it was a great night, tons of fun!!!!

Family and Friends

I love my Aunt.  She is a wonderful woman and we have a great time together.  From time to time she will come down and rent a cottage at the beach about 1/2 mile from our house and she brings her friends.  Her friends are a riot!!!  I love being able to hang out with this group of people.  They are always warm and welcoming and you can always walk away with your belly hurting from all of the laughter.  It never fails that there will be a moment when we are all in the same room and there are at least 3 different discussions going on and I can look around the room and just feel blessed.  This is life!!!

One of my Uncles is in this picture but there was supposed to be another on.  Why is here not there you ask?  Well, it turns out that he is train cursed.  And by that I mean that any time he steps foot on a train, it kills someone, lol.  It has happened once before I guess but that night, he was supposed to be taking the train down, after getting off work early and showing up around 7.  Well, the train he was on hit a person on a horse, thus killing the person and horse.  So, his eta was pushed back to 9 or so.  Around 9 or so my Aunt got another text.  After the train finally was able to go again, it hit another person!!!  Seriously 2 people and a horse were all killed.  So, he arrived sometime around 11pm.  Let me be the first to say, I don't think riding on a train interests me much anymore!!!!

Growing Up

Ever since our oldest was about 4 years old, when we would be out shopping and pass by a Claire's store, we would ask if she wanted to get her ears pierced.  She said yes, until we explained that it would mean a needle in her ears.  I know some parents don't tell their kids ti will hurt but I didn't want to lie to her and then have her be mad at me.  So, it has always been a no.  We have done the same thing for our second little one.  And we have always had the same reaction, NO!!!  So, we eventually stopped asking.  Well, 2 weeks ago I was at the mall with my two younger girls just walking around and we happened to pass by a Claire's store.  Next thing I hear is "mom, can I get my ears pierced today", I stopped.  "Are you sure?  You do realize they will put needles in your ears"  Which was followed by an "I know, I am a big girl, it will be fine".  So, we went into the store and started browsing the piercing area.  "Are you sure you still want to do this?"  "Yes, I want to!!!"  So, I put her in the chair they have and we waited for the lady to finish up with her customer.  She was very excited to be sitting in the chair.

Once the lady came over with the forms, I told my girl that she couldn't back out once I signed everything and she let me know that she was ready.  However, there was only one girl working and I knew that they needed to have both ears done at the same time.  There was no way that once she felt the first one that she would let her do the second one.  So, she called to a girl who was working in the Claire's kiosk in the mall and she came down to help out.  And with that, my little girl seemed to grow up a little bit before my eyes.

And the thing is, I expected a fit.  I expected crying and sobbing and plenty of "ow's" but it didn't happen.  She almost sat there in a state of shock and with one single tear falling down her cheek, she whispered "ow".  It was then that my momma heart turned to mush and I felt horrible.  How could I let her do this?!  how could I willingly let her get hurt?  I picked her up out of the chair and hugged her tight.  I told her how brave she was and how pretty her ears looked.  That didn't seem to work, so I asked her if she needed something else from the store.  I know, I am a huge sucker because of course she said yes.  So, with new earrings, a pink fluffy pen and a new Dora diary, we left the store.

She has done pretty well with them.  She did take them out once, she swore she didn't do it and that they just flew out of her ears, haha.  But, they quickly went back in and we cleaned them really good.  We have just a little over 4 weeks and then we will be able to go and get her a new pair, she is hoping they have Beiber earrings, lol.

Little Friends

I love having friends.  I love being able to have that time where we can just sit and chat and talk about life and cry and be able to support one another.  What I love even more is seeing my kids start to make friends.  Being in the military, it is sometimes hard for kids to have good friends because it seems that by the time they actually start to make good relationships, one or the other moves away.  And even though they remain friends, it gets hard to keep in contact.  So I love being able to have friends here for my kids.  And I love that their friends love the younger siblings as well.  A couple of weeks ago we went with some friends to Dave and Busters for lunch and some play time.  Hayley absolutely loves their oldest daughter and she loves her right back and it is so sweet to see when I am sitting right across the table.

We had such a fun time.  I think that sometimes I cringe at the thought of taking my kids to Dave and Busters because I know they like to just run around and I have to keep reminding them to stay by me and not fight on what game we will play, but it was actually not as bad this time and I had some fun too!!!!  Towards the end of our time, after the girls turned in their tokens, we found this ride.  I think ti was called the typhoon or cyclone and the girls didn't actually ride it but they still sat down and watched the screen.  I had seen some people on it before them and there are giant wind tunnels on each side of the seats that blow the heck out of you and I am sure they wouldn't have liked that.  But it was funny to see their faces just watching the screen.

I think Hayley was wondering why I put her down on this thing but she had to get in the picture too.  I like to call Hayley my little old lady.  She is careful, she doesn't get too wild and if other kids are playing more on the rough side, she will come sit next to me and give me the look like "those crazy kids", lol.  We get along really well!!!!

Dinner

We have an incredible restaurant down here.  It is a on a street that leads straight to the pier at the beach and sits between other restaurants and beach shops and the trees are filled with twinkle lights.  I feel so blessed living only 5 minutes from this street and sometimes pretend that I live in one of the super cool apartments that sit above the shops so that when street festivals are happening that I can just throw some clothes on and head downstairs to be part of it all.  I like to pretend this when I am pulling into my parking space, I gaze up at the light shining out onto the street and hear the laughter of twenty somethings inside having the time of their lives.  It is then that I turn off my SUV and proceed to unbuckle small kiddos so that we can go have some dinner.  My single twenty something living in a cool pad on a cool street bubble officially popped.  But, it is ok.  Because there is something that those twenty somethings don't have.  They don't have three incredible little girls who join me for dinner and draw cute little stick people on their place mats.  and they definitely don't have the moment when my older girl says she wants to take a picture by the fire (which was convenient since our table was nestled right up to it, I didn't even have to get out of my seat to take the picture) with her younger sister and when the picture was about to be taken, she does this......

I love when my girls love on each other!!  Especially when it is not prompted by me yelling "why don't you actually look like you love your sister!"  So, to those twenty somethings I say, yes, I may be envious of your sweet non-responsibility lives but I have one pretty sweet life too.  Now excuse me while I go wipe the snotty nose of my youngest, she has a bit of a nose issue this morning, try not to be envious.

Oh, and by the way, if you ever are in southern California near the beach and see the restaurant Beachfire, I highly recommend that you go in, request a seat by the fireplace and definitely order the calamari, it is to die for!!!!!!!

Baby Shower Fun

Last weekend I had the pleasure of throwing a baby shower for my friend and fellow leader Amanda.  For over a month I schemed and lied and sat through a dinner where her sweet daughter wondered why no one would want to throw a shower for her mom and new sister.  Ugh, I wanted to scream, "I care!  I promise that you will have a great shower and feel loved!!!!!"  Needless to say, when the preggo mama went to the potty, I told her daughter who was sworn to secrecy.  Her husband dropped her off that morning, she thought she was going to a Girl Scout meeting, but she had so much more fun in store.  We started by eating, what would a baby shower be without food?!!  Following the food, we played a couple of traditional baby shower games, the "smell the chocolate in the diaper" game which was a ton of fun to watch.

We also had some cake, made by me, yes, I just promoted my self but this is my blog so I can do whatever the heck I want to do.  Here is the link to the baby shower cake or you can even just check out the whole site here.  All in all, it was a wonderful day and I was so happy to see her happy.

Now, if that sweet girl would just hurry up and get here so I can hold her and snuggle her, the world would be alright :)