One hundred pennies

Yes, I know, I have not been blogging ... for a LONG time!

Summer is coming to an end and I am not sure if that is a good thing. Our mornings are about to start earlier and our days will end later. We are all sure to sleep well every night!

I am going to miss our summer days of playing around the house and not being in a rush to get any where. I am going to miss my constant chatter all day long with my soon to be Kindergartener . Although something tells me the chatter is not going to stop?!

I am reminded of a funny conversation with him last week. L has always loved Lottery tickets. The ones you scratch off to reveal if you won any money. I am pretty sure he gets this gene from my family as I am quite certain my Grandma played the lottery up until she passed and you can bet the rest of my family is still playing. L had won $2 from a scratcher and was waiting patiently for Daddy so he can cash it in. We went back and forth about how it was actually $1 profit rather then $2 even though, yes, she would in fact give him $2 for the ticket (but reminded and explained it orginally cost him $1 so he technically only won $1). After explaining this to his 5 1/2 year old mind he exclaimed, "I am still happy I won, a dollar is still a lot of money, right?". My response, "well, not really." He then very quickly and admantly responded, "WHAT??? A dollar is ONE HUNDRED pennies, ONE HUNDRED is A LOT!". A couple minutes later DH returned to take him to CVS to cash in his lottery ticket. After explaining to DH the conversation L and I just had DH said, "That's great. You gotta love a man who understands the value of a dollar!".

**My soon to be Kindergartener L pictured above on one of our "Summer 2011 Bucket List" activities .... a train ride down to San Juan Capistrano!**He said it was one of his favorite summer activities**

Happy (belated) Easter

Making this a new family tradition ... a family picture in the courtyard at our church after Easter Mass. This shot was done on purpose. I have always remember last year's picture: it has become my mental picture of our family last year. I wanted to see *one year forward*. I like what I see. Our lives are blessed.

Oh, note to self, don't have L wear the same shirt two years in a row. Especially if you plan on doing this every year. LOL!!!

Spring Fling in Full Bloom

Easter is upon us and we are in full bloom with celebrations. Last weekend, fun at the Irvine Regional Eggstavaganza with Grammy and Papa. Is it possible to be loved more then these kiddies?! I don't think so!

Then ended our weekend with our Annual Palm Sunday celebrations with Godparents and God-siblings complete with their very own Easter Egg hunt.

Spring is in the air, love is in bloom!

Alone Date Day with Mommy & Daddy

I truly enjoy my time at Treasured (Rick Warren's Saddleback Church's version of MOPS). I go once I week and always feel uplifted afterwards. It is there that I felt encouraged to periodically plan one on one fun time with each of our 3 kids. Yesterday we did just that with our Little Miss Middle, E. And what a treat for us ... enjoying Disneyland through 3 year old!!!

Pictureberry

Just seconds after this picture my (fairly) new Canon compact point and shoot camera took a hard fall on the cement. Lucky for me we have a National Canon Service Center located in the very same city we live in. I will not say this is by accident, I definitely think God knew this when Canon became our choice for Point and Shoot cameras (Nikon for the big guys!)! I have seen the inside of that service center 3 times more then I should in 5 years. But this time my sincere thanks goes out to them!!! It is under warranty and being repaired FREE of charge ... music to my (I mean DH's) ears!!!

I am sure you can gather from the above pic why the camera fell hard on the cement but just in case, let me explain ... while trying to capture my sweet 19 month old eating frozen yogurt on this GORGEOUS Southern California Spring day last week I quickly had to lunge to catch that pushed over falling frozen yogurt.

Final score: Yogurt: 1, Camera: 0 (or dare we say)

C: 1, Mommy: 0 (I have a feeling this is going to be a trend)

Raise your hands

More often then not (I am embarressed to say) the DVD is turned on in the car. I did make it a point a few months back to ONLY play educational DVD's (& it is working as all their spelling and reading skills have exploded) and any Disney type movies would only be reserved for long road trips (oh, if dead I would *surely* be rolling over in my grave at just the thought of this!). But Parenthood can certainly challenge you in many ways and make you "eat your words" because I can't recall a time before kids that I would ever say a DVD would or should be played just to take L to Pre-K! *sigh* But, safety first, right? Can you really drive with three whiney, screaming kids ... SAFELY?? I think NOT!

But yesterday, after a long, oh I mean, LOOONNNNGGGG day ... we all enjoyed each others company (IE: NO DVD) on our way to meet Daddy for our weekly Friday night dinner OUT. We played our "raise your hand" game. If you are not familiar with this game, it goes like this ... "Raise your hand if ... (insert what ever you want here).". That is it. Simple. And the kids LOVE it. The best part last night was that C actually is now really participating. At her 18 months of age she would raise a hand here or there and give that devilish smile we all adore. And when this one came ... "Raise your hand if you love your big brother.". She instantly threw up TWO hands in the air and gave a big smile and "yeahhhhh!". To which the big brother responded with a beaming smile and proud eyes, "Wow Mommy, I think two hand means she loves me double-y.". With a bigger smile, "right?". Yep, he is right, his littlest sister adores him ... okay more like AAAAA - D-O-R-E-S him. I love to see these life long relationships unfolding before my eyes *think*breath* take it in*, I will never forget these moments. Will they ever believe at this young of age I knew they would be forever connected? It is an amazing thing ... to create a FAMILY!

Animals in the bath

It has become quite routine around here on a school day. L goes to Pre-K at noon so we don't have too much time to do anything too exciting on those days and often times tend to entertain ourselves around the house (puzzles, coloring, play-doh, etc.) before eating an early lunch and dropping L off at school. Today I wanted to add in some old activities and get a little more variety in our before school routine. It was a thought I had just this morning so to the craft cupboard I went in search of what we already had and saw several bottles of shaving cream I had been neglecting. Let's just say I might have figured out why they have been neglected for the past year! I did not remember what a mess it was ... in fact, I am pretty sure it was not nearly as messy last time or I would have definitely remembered. At least mission accomplished: we included a unique activity we had not done for a long time and one we will likely not do for a long time but one they really enjoyed (until Mommy hit a realization that all of them would need to be changed and cleaned off before school drop off and got a little snappy during clean up).

**Well, after looking at those smiles we just might have to do this again but definitely in summer time when I can just wash them off with the garden hose!

*** oh, by the way, the title of the post "animals in the bath" doesn't mean MY animals ... I hid little plastic farm animals in all the shaving cream for them to find but I can see how some one could come to that conclusion *** wink wink ***

The little engine that could

I know I neglect this blog but I know I will never give up. If nothing more than a note here or there it is my life, it is my story, it is my memory that I want to keep alive ... it's of a wonderful life. I life full of busy mornings, busier days and even busier evenings. We are a family of five: one Mommy, one Daddy, one FIVE year old, one THREE year old and one EIGHTEEN MONTH old. We never give up and even with all our busy mornings, days and nights we still make time for our traditional Family Friday Night dinners. I am so happy that in only five years we have already created this wonderful tradition of Friday night dinner's OUT! Tonight we played "I spy" for the majority of dinner (they are getting good at this game, even though some times they need a hint here and there, Mommy can get pretty sneaky) and it couldn't have been filled with more laughter, more smiles, or more love. I love my little family. I love what my DH and I have created. I love that these are the memories we are creating for them.

**Pictured above: my three little monkey's in our hotel bed during our recent fabulous vacation to The Phoenician in Scottsdale, AZ ... another "tradition" as I have a pic of all 3 in bed at each of our hotel get-a-ways, I call it our obligatory hotel picture already!!! What do you think they are going to say when they are teenagers and I ask them to pose in their jammies in bed?! LOL! Well, what's tradition good for if it doesn't make your teenage kids *roll their eyes*?! We know they will cherish these as adults, right???

Valentine's Day 2011

So L declared to me the day before Valentine's Day that, "Valentine's Day is for Mommy's and Daddy's and sisters and all that kinda stuff." And I knew what he meant. He meant a lot of pink, red, fluffy, flowers and all that kinda stuff he thinks is girly but I was not suprised first thing yesterday morning when he ran into our room at 6:45am asking to go down stairs to see if there were any Valentine treats left by Cupid. There is only so much he can pretend to not like about girly things, really, who doesn't like candy and chocolates from some one you love ... and first thing in the morning?! :-) To his fortunate surprise he and his sisters were greeted by Valentine treats of candy, chocolates and stuffed love monkies!

After celebrating a nice romantic night with my fabulous DH on Friday night it was a special family love celebration yesterday that could not have been any better and included heart-shaped pizzas that they devoured (yes, even my picky eater L!). And topped off with chocolate dipped strawberries left over from the box I had delivered to DH at his work!

Hope everyone enjoyed their day as much as we did - even blessed with sunshine all day and play time with special friends. XXOO

Monkey see, Monkey swing

It is no surprise that one of E's nickname's is Monkey. She loves to climb, hang on the bars and swing all the time. Pictured above is my little E from this afternoon doing what she loves: swinging. And I have yet to figure out what too high is as she is always yelling, "higher Mommy higher!". I love her spirit and enthusiasm for life ... swinging in the waining sun, wind blowing her pony tail and a big cheesey grin! :-) These are the times you really cherish the 2-somethings - two more weeks and we enter the 3's!!!