The Birthday Continues

We made my birthday a full weekend affair and finished off the festivities at my mom's house on Sunday.  She made my favorite meal and I was in heaven!

 With the time change we were able to eat outside and enjoy the great weather!

 The table was set with my favorite flowers, too - callolilies.

 Trying to get our kids to smile is impossible!

 Sporting the birthday crown while showing off some delicious Fiesta Chicken Kiev!

 Lexi hamming it up by the arbor.

 She sure has fun playing with her daddy!

 We played a fierce game of badminton until the sun set.

 Then it was present time!  I made out like a bandit.

Top it off with Jen's homemade orange Bundt cake and that makes for one awesome birthday!

Thanks, everyone, for spoiling me rotten!

Sea World with the Wrights

Last Saturday we went to Sea World for the day with the Wrights and had a wonderful time, as always.  (So glad they're doing their free teacher pass for the whole year again!)

 Cruising in style with their sunglasses!

 We've arrived!  After a ton of traffic, we were so glad we finally made it.

 My cute girls with the turtles.

 Paul and Jayann loved the turtles, too.

 The whole family.

 Paul and Jayann opted for the "soak zone" all day, while we wisely sat a bit higher for each show.  This was the first of their many soakings!

 Penguin chicks!

 Libby found the perfect Ariel spot.  She climbed on the rock and started singing - it was adorable!

 Last stop of the night was the starfish.

What a great day!  And, yes, we still support Sea World, despite all the craziness out there!

My Birthday

Gotta love it when your birthday lands on a Friday! ;)  All sorts of fun is bound to happen!

First, my mom and Jen brought the girls to school for lunch and treated me to El Pollo Loco.  I always love when my girls come to visit...and so do my students!

 That night we went to Downtown Disney (I know, even without passes we can't stay away!) for dinner at the Rainforest Café.  The aquariums there are awesome!

 While we waited for our table (for almost an hour and a half), we hit up the Lego store...

 and Libby showed Aunt Jayann all around Build-A-Bear where she picked out a pair of shoes and a light-up wand for MinnieBear.

 Meanwhile, Uncle Paul scored himself a new best friend.  The enticings of a slurpee are hard to pass up! :)

 Yikes!  Definitely NOT meant to be a redhead!

 Libby sporting her frog hat that came with her kid's meal.

 The whole gang: the Stewarts (minus Jason, but add Ryan), the Fosters, the Wrights, and us.  So fun!

 One Foster girl shy of the whole set!  We missed you, Amy!

 The girls and I checking out the elephants that move and go crazy during the thunderstorm.

 And the gorillas, too.  Hard to see, but he's back there.

 

  Finishing off the night with a volcano of pure delight!  Good thing I had 13 people to share it with!

That is one tired little girl.  But I have to say, that kind of cuddling doesn't come around every day, so I was thrilled to get some extra special birthday loving in from my Lexi!

All in all, it was a GREAT birthday!  33 is shaping up to be pretty great indeed!

Girls' Night Out

The night before my birthday, several of my friends and I got together to celebrate.  We had a fun girls' night out at Cheesecake Factory without a kid in sight! ;)

Thanks for celebrating my special day with me!

Sunday Morning Walk

Since church is so late, we do our fun walks and activities in the mornings now.  Last Sunday was a beautiful day, so we went on one of our favorite walks at Badlands Park.

 The girls had fun climbing on the fence...

 and the rocks.

 Libby showing off the view.   I love that you can see the marine layer just to the north of us.  Glad our beaches were perfect for the day!

 Best buddies in their favorite colors: pink and green.  Once Lexi was dressed, Libby picked out her outfit to match.

 This is how Libby shows love to her sister.  Nice choke hold!

 The color of the water was unbelievable! 

What a great way to start the day!

Libby's School Art

Here are a few samples of the artwork Libby has brought from home school recently.

 They had a whole unit on the solar system and outer space, so this was Libby's rocket ship. 

For Valentine's Day she made this cute little heart shaped mouse with a little message inside. 

Libby sure does love school and can't wait for Tuesday and Thursday to roll around each week.

Gala Date Night

Almost 5 years ago I coordinated and taught a German Exchange Student program over the summer for a company called IEE.  We haven't really heard much from them since, but randomly got an invitation in the mail for a Gala event up in Pasadena.  Since our gala frequenting is pretty much nil, we figured we couldn't pass it up.  It turned out to be an AWESOME date night!

 I was super excited to get to wear my Chinese dress that almost never gets worn!

It was at the Athenaeum at Caltech University in Pasadena and was quite the ritzy affair.

 It was the ultimate buffet:  prime rib, sushi and sashimi, crab legs, chicken, baked-potato bar, etc.  They had it all!

 Including oysters.  I had my first oyster of my life and...don't really have too much to say about it.  It basically just tasted like sea water.  I'm not gonna be frequenting oyster bars now, but it wasn't awful.

The building was beautiful and it was an honor to be there.  We had imagined it was going to be a rah-rah to get us to sign up again, but it wasn't like that at all.  It was a true celebration and thank you for our service and the lives we'd touched.  What a cool thing to be a part of!  I am so glad that I was able to be a part of the program and will always treasure the memories made that summer.

(And, the best part for our girls was that they got to spend the night at their cousins' house on a school night!!!  Whoa!)