Mother's Day

What a sweet, beautiful day! The girls had a good night's sleep... my husband came home, and we spent the day as a family! This morning I asked the girls to pose for a picture for me for Mother's Day. I thought it turned out pretty sweet! After church and a wonderful nap, we met up with Daniel's family and walked over to Gyu Kaku for dinner. It's a Japanese restaraunt, where you are served all raw food and you grill it yourself. The girls were both clingy and crabby until they "discovered" each other. Then they happily entertained each other, and we happily ate!





Dessert consisted of s'mores... how awesome is that? At least, the girls thought so! Daniel's cousin's also enjoyed their first ever s'mores, which was fun to watch!

The Family Shot
Honestly, it was a very special day. Not neccessarily because of all the special touches... I just couldn't stop thanking God for blessing me! Truly, motherhood is so special. My heart is overflowing as I ponder all that God has done for us! And, I feel a special attachment to my little Yehbie growing inside me. I keep thinking of the moms who have lost babies, or who could not have babies, or the kids who don't have moms. Allison and I said some special prayers for them tonight, and I am just so proud that she seemed to understand, and prayed for God to touch them... that was the best gift of all!

Cars Birthday Party

My friend Kelly throws THE most AMAZING birthday parties! This is the 4th one we've been to, and each time I am blown away. She needs to be a party planner. Seriously. So, do you want to see what I mean? Check out her son's 5th Cars birthday party:

Upon arrival, there are Cars and tracks everywhere to keep the kids busy. There is a Cars Motel (tent) and tables with Cars stickers and puzzles. Once all the kids arrive, the real creativity begins. Each kid was able to pick out a car to drive! (I just loved little Mator!)


Before the kids could drive their cars, however, they had to give them a tune-up, fill the tires with air, fill the car with gas, and give it a car wash.... how fun is that!?!?!? (Don't mind Natalie's face.... she was caught off-guard by the camera!)

Next, it was off to the front yard for some car racing and red light, green light!

(My poor girls always came in last.... they didn't seem to mind, though!)
Next, the kids got stickers to decorate their own race cars, and then we raced their balloon cars. This was the only idea mommy was not so fond of, because she almost passed out blowing 2 balloons over and over! :)

And, after the pizza came the cake. Just look at Lightning McQueen! Great, awesome, super duper job, Kelly!


Natalie agrees!

Mom's Day Preview

Look what I came home to after MOPS today! My sweet husband will be home for Mother's Day, but I guess this was just a little preview since I'm "single mommy" for the 3 days before. In addition to the beautiful flowers, there was a box of chocolates! I guess I'm just a girly girl, because it melted my heart! As if it's not a blessing enough to have two sweet girls, I have an incredible husband who honored me... I am blessed!

On another note, we had a super fun time at the swim party with the MOPS ladies this evening. What a great way to end a hot day! My girls swam for almost 2 hours, and are now in bed.... I think they're going to sleep well! (As am I! Good night!)

Sweet

Sweet girl...
Sweet pose...
Sweet little smile...
Sweet piggy tails...
Sweet tooth...
TOO sweet!
I don't know if you can tell by the picture, but Natalie's snack of frosted mini-wheats were de-frosted. When served chocolate chip granola bars, all the chocolate chips are picked out... Lucky Charms, all the marshmallows picked out... you get the picture! Of course, she has no problem telling me to take "whole bites, Mama!" when I eat a granola bar or Lucky Charms!
Sweet face....
What am I going to do with you?

Free, Free, Free!

Ok, so this post is for my local friends. (Thanks to Mylene for all your frugal tips!)

1. Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf is offering a free 12 oz. iced coffee from 4 - 8pm on Thursday, May 7. (That's tomorrow!)
2. Chick-Fil-A is offering a free breakfast for the entire month of May! (How do they do that?)
3. KFC has a coupon for a free meal... this may be for all the country... Check out
   http://www.unthinkfc.com/

Hope these are helpful... and tasty!

Mystery Plant

Several weeks back, I was doing some weeding and noticed a curious little plant in our front yard.  It was tiny, really, and I assumed it was a weed and started to pull it.  For some reason, I stopped... I was curious to see exactly what it was, as I didn't recognize this "weed!"  Apparently, the same thing happened with Daniel.  

As of yesterday, we have a bunch of blossoms and I have a suspicion I know what it might be.  We're both guessing that some Halloween pumpkin seeds somehow planted themselves there, because this looks a lot like a pumpkin plant.  At least, a squash of some sort...

What do you think?

Joyful, Joyful!

Almost every night after dinner, we go outside to throw Triscuit the ball and get our last little bit of energy out. Allison often invites me to sit on the porch and "watch the sun rearranging its glow." (It's from a book :)) Tonight I had the girls give their rendition of what they call the "Beethoven song." (Joyful, Joyful we Adore Thee) Normally, Natalie sings as well, but tonight she was being a little silly... I think it adds character! Of course, I am very biased, but I think it's pretty adorable!

Build-A-Bear Birthday

Today our sweet neighbors had their 3rd and 5th birthday parties. It was Allison and Natalie's first time to Build-A-Bear, so they were pretty excited! Ironically, I don't think any of the kids actually chose bears! Allison, of course, chose Hello Kitty, and Natalie a kitty as well. Afterward, we headed to Chick-Fil-A, which was again a huge hit with my girls! They ate and ate and played and played. These are actually the first friends that the girls have really bonded with, and can play with without mommy around.... aaaahhhh.... Thank you, sweet friends, for a WONDERFUL day!

Jump, Jump, Jump!

Today our MOPS group was blessed to have Jana Alayra give her testimony and a brief concert for the kids. It was so powerful! Our table leader brought us each a pack of tissue... and we used it! It was also fun to watch all the kids get so excited and dance along with her. I am now a huge fan. Here is a very brief video of what she's like. If you ever get a chance to hear her testimony, don't miss it!

Lesson Learned

So, can you guess where this picture was taken? Yup... the new Toy Story ride at Disneyland. (Daniel and my favorite!)

The day started out...
Rough! We had just pulled into the parking lot, when Allison kept saying her seat was uncomfortable and she wanted out of the car. We should have known.... the next thing we knew, she threw-up all over! Poor girl. And, bad mommy; I didn't bring any extra clothes! Luckily, she felt 100% better after that, and I had an extra shirt wandering in the back of the car. (I won't tell you how much it cost us to get her princess underwear and a new princess skirt, but let me just say I learned my lesson!)
The rest of our time at Disney turned out...
Awesome! It was the least crowded we'd ever seen it! That meant we were able to go on several rides, and even tried out some new ones! And, the weather was a perfect 70.
The end of our day was...
A bit disappointing. We returned to our car where we had placed all of our thrown-up clothes and objects in a bag on top of the car so that our car wouldn't smell as bad when returning... and, the bag was gone! Who would take such a thing? Again, lesson learned!

Glow Golf

For "preschool" today, we did our first ever mini-golf. Ontario mills has a really fun place called "glow golf," which was good for this cold morning! It was also nice because we had the entire place to ourselves! Allison picked up on the concept pretty well, and actually played... for the most part! Natalie, on the other hand, is still a little young! She had fun, though I think I will wait another 6 - 8 months before taking her, again.

Homemade Bathtub Paints

Oh, so much fun. This is a recipe I have wanted to do for a long time! So simple... and, yet I kept forgetting to buy clear liquid dish soap from the grocery store or Target. Well, I finally remembered and the girls were nice and filthy and ready for a long bath! So, this is what I found:

Pro's:

• easy to make
• worked very well
• the girls had a blast!
• clean-up caused there to be a ton of bubbles...(What kid doesn't like bubbles?)
  

Con's:

• clean-up caused there to be a ton of bubbles...(What mom wants to cleanup all those bubbles?)
• I'm not sure this is one I want to do all that often, just because I wonder how "healthy" for their skin it is to sit in all that dish soap... not sure?

Conclusion: Pro's outweigh the cons, and we will definitely do this again... someday!

Here's the recipe for you to try:

1/3 cup clear liquid dish soap
1 Tbsp. corn starch
food coloring.

Whole Wheat Pizza

My friend, Melissa, blogged a while back about how she lost 10 lbs. eating pizza... Ok, so that's not exactly how it went! But, she did inspire me to try a whole wheat pizza crust rather than my normal white flour recipe. Not only was it fun to branch out, but I thought it was delicious! And, what makes your house smell better? (Perhaps brownies for dessert, but let's not go there!)

I always love pizza because I know it's a meal my girls will eat without a fuss. Unfortunately, Natalie did notice the difference and only ate half a piece, but Allison loved it and gobbled it down! Natalie has just been super picky the last few months, anyway.

So, you're wondering how to make it yourself? Or, how to lose those 10 lbs? Check it out here. Thanks for the inspiration, Melissa!

Birthday Celebration

First of all, thanks so much for all the sweet comments on Daniel's office. It was a fun "project." Really, you can't go wrong with Ikea. On another note, we had a fun family day celebrating Daniel's birthday. My sweet guy actually worked around the house a bit, while I took an afternoon nap. Then we headed to Upland for the Lemon Festival!

The highlight was the elephant ride, which Daniel had never even done before. It cost even less than the pony ride, though nothing about the festival is cheap!

The girls also got to ride the equivalent of the Dumbo ride, which they loved.

And, then there was the petting zoo... not Natalie's favorite! Poor thing kept getting her sweater eaten by a deer. I was yelling for Daniel to put the camera away and pick her up, because she had the sad quivering lip. But, in hindsight I am glad we have the video. Check it out:

Happy Birthday, Daniel!

It's my Sweetheart's birthday, today! We have a running joke that he always returns the gifts that I give him. Well, not this year! I finally did it... I finally not only got him something he likes, but I surprised him. He had no clue about his "office." He had been mentioning off and on for some time how nice it would be to have an office. Of course, our 3 bedroom home doesn't have an extra room, but we do have a lot of space. So, I began to ponder. And, this is what I came up with....

First, I had the girls work on a sign for him. The idea was to have them cut out letters from a magazine spelling "Papa's office" and glue them onto a piece of paper. Apparently, they are a bit too young for this concept, but they did have fun cutting and gluing a special picture for Papa!

And, now for the "office..."
Here it is:

Technically, it's in the family room, but as you can see it's right next to the kitchen, directly across from my "computer / office." It's also right next to his filing drawer, (the bottome left white drawer), which is perfect. Do you like his "mail holder?" It's actually an Ikea pot lid rack, but it works great for mail, too! Allison has already written Papa several letters, and put them in there.

Here it is with Daniel's laptop on it. I had to run an errand, and was so happy to come home and see it already in use!

Details...