Time to Carve Pumpkins

With Halloween just around the corner and the boys dying with anticipation to carve their pumpkins, we decided we could hold out no longer. It was time to carve. We had ourselves a pumpkin carving get together with our new neighbors. The kids were thrilled and loved their "fire breathing" jack-o-lanterns.

All House and Very Little Play

This summer has been all about houses, buying and selling and everything that goes in between. After 5 1/2 months our short sale purchase finally came through meaning we had to whip it into full speed to get our current home ready to sell. After several weeks of constant work, painting, cleaning, organizing, and landscaping, the house went on the market. In 8 days we had 2 open houses and 3 brokers tours, and ended with 3 amazing offers. We couldn't be more happy.
After all that hard work we finally decided we deserved a little rest and relaxation. We took a last minute trip to Calistoga. Thanks to my friend Rachel, I knew exactly where to go, Calistoga Hot Springs. It was a short trip, 2 days one night but oh so worth it. It was what we all needed. Lots of water play, yummy food, and a Sugar Train (candy store in a vintage train car) brought fun end to our summer.

Gross Candies Trap

Some candies are just gross and yet I find myself buying them for my kids. I'm not sure why they gravitate to the gross stuff, but they just can't seem to resist. I like to indulge them every once in a while, so we end up with disgusting things like a hotdog gummy or some awful blue raspberry taffy that sure makes you blue. That much blue dye can't possibly be good for you.

More Summer Fun

The summer fun continues here.



Miles and Liam finished up their summer soccer. Miles was really into it from the beginning while Liam took some time to warm up to it and seemed to finally start playing as the summer soccer season ended. I'm going to have to look into the Fall soccer season now.

We took another trip to Tahoe,



Auntie Sandra joined us on this trip. It was nice having another adult with us to help manage the mob. We stayed in Squaw Valley Village and took several day trips from there. We went to Sand Harbor Beach, about an hour from where we were staying, well worth the drive, Water was amazingly clear and not exactly warm however, tolerable (by my standards that's pretty good). We were lucky that it was a gorgeous day too, low 80's. I most loved the fact that there was a snack bar nearby that was serving yummy soft freeze and shakes equivalent to Dairy Queen, Yummmm! Aidan was fascinated that we had to cross a state line to Nevada to go to this beach. He's now very ecstatic that he can say he's been to Nevada like his friend Parker.

We also enjoyed a little excursion to Truckee where we attended an art street festival and got to enjoy homemade chocolate stuffed marshmallows (yes there was lots of eating on this trip). As well as, spent some time at Tahoe City's beach and playground followed by another delicious meal at Evergreen, one of my favorite restaurants in Tahoe. I'm just glad Max didn't order the quail this time. I just have a hard time seeing that little bird on his plate without thinking "barbaric", just not my thing I guess.

We of course enjoyed lots of swimming at the lodge pool, miniature golf in the village and a scooter excursion on the nearby bike/walk trails adjacent to the Truckee river. Tahoe's definitely a fun place to take your kids with lots of outdoor activities. I'm sure we'll be doing it again in the future.

Since we've been back, we've spent time re-couping at home for a couple of days. Still unpacking and doing laundry, seeming never ending. The amount of laundry a family of 5 creates still is unfathomable to me. In between those chores, we've manage to play some games. Our new favorite right now is


Left Center Right card game. So easy that we can all enjoy, amazing as lately I've found it difficult to find games that my 4 yr olds can play/enjoy while keeping my soon to be 7 yr old entertained as well (no grumbling"this is for babies").



After some re energizing , we finally made it out and spent the day playing miniature golf at Golfland. Aidan's pal Parker joined us. You might be thinking, OMG 4 young kids in tow....however, what I've realized, it's actually much more pleasant to have a friend Aidan's age join us, it keeps him entertained and reduces the bickering amongst brothers. We ended the day with some play time in the arcade. It's amazing to see the effects those flashing lights have on the boys, they're mesmerized by it all. And although there were many failed attempts to win a plush angry bird with the claw ( I'm convinced it's impossible, the plush toy probably weighs more than the claw is able to hold) we still ended the day with lots of hoots and hollers "That was a fun day, Mom" what I'd like to call a success.

Still a bit of summer to go, I'm hoping we have more summertime adventures to update you on. Hoping you're all enjoying your summer too!

(more summer photos to come, been technically challenged with the mac and photos still all these photos are from my iphone, I know, don't roll your eyes)

Happy St. Paddy's Day!

It was a fun day here, this St Patrick's Day, and the day began with lots of laughs. We aren't Irish, despite the fact that I get asked often if we are (hmm, maybe names like, Aidan, Liam and Miles might give this impression) we decided to celebrate like we are. We wore our green today. I cooked my first corned beef brisket with cabbage. Unfortunately, the boys weren't wild about it. For some added fun, I treated the boys to mint chocolate ice cream cones, you know green ice cream on St. Patrick's day, right! The boys were thrilled. This just might have to be a new tradition for us. Hoping you all had a Happy St. Patrick's Day as well!

Fun Family Night With Grease and Froggy Boogie

It was a fun evening here. The boys had specifically requested cheeseburgers for dinner. So, Dad picked up burgers from Sparky's, something we hadn't had in awhile. If you're into burger joints, Sparky's is just the place. Although, Aidan made sure to remind us that this was a special greasy treat that we shouldn't always have. This made me happy to know that he is aware of what's a healthy meal versus a not so healthy meal. Despite the fact he refuses to eat all vegetables, at least he gets the concept of what he's suppose to be eating and hopefully sometime down the road he'll jump right into those veggies.




After our yummy and yes greasy meal of burgers, fries and onion rings, we jumped right into a new game, Froggy Boogie. This was a fun game of memory that we all enjoyed. We play lots of games and have lots of fun, but it's especially fun when the whole family plays...and this was a game the whole family enjoyed.

Happy Valentine's Day

This is coming to you late in the day, so here's to hoping you all had a wonderful Valentines day.

We here enjoyed our day. The boys were excited to hand out their Valentines. We made Valentines this year that included a pencil as cupids arrow. Aidan was pretty proud of them. Wish I could say they were all my idea, but they weren't. Truthfully I can't recall where I saw them, it may have been over at Make and Takes, or The Crafty Crow, as I love both of those crafty blog sites.





At home we enjoyed a nice dinner followed by some yummy cupcakes from one of our favorite cupcake bakeries. I made sure to get all their favorites, Aidan loves the coconut cupcake, Miles loves the raspberry vanilla, and of course Liam loves the fudge on fudge. We had fun and the boys were thrilled to show Mom and Dad all their valentines they received. All in all, a pretty good day.

Scrabble Master

Aidan, 6 yrs old, is getting pretty good at scrabble. I love scrabble, so I'm excited about having another scrabble player in the house since Daddy isn't much of a board game player. At this rate, I imagine Aidan's going to be a real challenge for me in just a few years.

Christmas Overview

Oh my, how the holidays have kept me busy, so much so, that I haven't had a chance to visit. I'm certain that all of you with young children must understand and feel my exhaustion, with school performances, class parties, holiday shopping, the constant entertaining, and lets not forget the 8+ birthday celebrations of friends and family, the "to do list" for Mom was never ending. I'll share with you an overview of my December including some of my favorite things.



Let's start with the advent calendar. The last time I spoke with you, I was in a race to make an advent calendar (geez! that was in Nov.). I did make that calendar and manage to fill it with goodies and notes with fun activities. I'm glad I pulled my act together and made it because this brought us together every evening after dinner for some holiday fun, something the boys really enjoyed.



I always look forward to getting a Christmas tree but this year's search for a tree was a bit stressful (yes I'll share the good and the bad with you). We bickered over which tree to get, finally settled on a tree when suddenly it began to rain on us. Dad was a trooper and strapped it on our van but the ride home was stressful to say the least. Our tree began to slip and slide as we made our way home on the freeway, I held my breath hoping we wouldn't lose it.


Despite the ill beginning to our Christmas tree adventure, we sure had fun decorating it.



I love pulling out all the Christmas treasures and this year, the boys made some really sweet ornaments that I'm sure to treasure for years to come.


This year I was in charge of the craft activity for Aidan's classroom holiday party. I wanted to include a lesson on "recycle, repurpose, reuse," so I chose this project. The class had fun with it and I really loved the end product but the prep work for a class of 19 students was a bit gruelling...note to self for next year, remember during December every second counts, choose much simpler project.



It's been our tradition to buy the boys an new ornament every year, you know so when they finally set up their own tree they'll be able to start with 18 ornaments of their own, that is assuming they move out at 18. Oh, and really mom, 18 year old boys just love setting up their own tree...so maybe not 18 but sometime later in life they'll have some of their own keepsakes (or their wives at will at least). This year in sticking with the "Repurpose" theme, we bought them these great upcycle ornaments made from old bike parts. I just love them!




We also decorated our yearly gingerbread house. This year I bought a kit that had the structure already assembled and all you had to do was decorate it. This was so much easier and we got to go directly to the fun part, I'll be doing this every year from now on.






We enjoyed some fun Christmas decorations including a new lamp that I filled with vintage baubles, some collage work I made for our bathroom wall and our Christmas card holder that was topped with a fun wreath Aidan made.



We enjoyed hosting several holiday dinners with friends, including Christmas Eve, having hot pot with good friends. Hot pot crab, mmm one of my favorite things of the season.


Christmas morning brought lots of surprises for the kids, including this letter from Santa. Yes, with all the fun we had Christmas Eve, we forgot to leave Santa cookies and milk. Santa was still good enough to leave lots of special treats. After a morning of opening presents we went to Auntie Sandra's house and had a fun filled day with family.


Oh and let's not forget, during all this holiday fun we also celebrated lots of birthdays including Daddy's big "40"

December was busy but good to all of us. We sure enjoyed our Christmas this 2010. Hope you all enjoyed your holidays as well.

Oh My! It's Catch Up Time Again, Halloween, Birthday's, Memphis

So sorry dear blog, life has been so busy. Lots of fun stuff including a trip to Memphis to visit my dear BFF, prepping for Aidan's school Halloween parade/party, and Miles and Liam's Birthday - Halloween party. I'll give you the quick cliff note version once again:




Starting with my trip to Memphis. My dear BFF, Karen, and I try to see each other at least once a year. So I made a trip to visit her, 4 days of girl time fun. We a great time catching up, mani/pedis, dinners out, and unfortunately with all the fun being had I kept forgetting to pull out the camera. Does that ever happen to you, so caught in the moment you forget about the camera? Ahh, next time.




Then it was Aidan's school party. I was amazed at the amount of parent involvement and all the really amazing costumes that you know parents knocked themselves out making for their kids. True Halloween spirit...but in the name of privacy I'll just share a photo of the treats I put together some Halloween worksheets, a pencil and a lollipop.



We had some pumpkin carving fun, up until the boys thought the pumpkins smelled icky and they ran off to let mom and dad finish the job.






We had Miles and Liam's Halloween themed birthday party which we celebrated indoors due to the wet weather. Despite the chaos of 18 kids and 15 adults in our small home we still had a great time. Games, chili & hot dogs and cake to be had by everyone. Aidan said "This was the best party ever!"







And of course, Halloween. We went with a group of friends, 6 boys total, to a nearby neighborhood that really does it up! Not only were there treats for the kids but adults too. One house was handing out Merlot to go, another had a projector with the world series game on for everyone to watch, and lots of fun and scary houses to enjoy. My astronauts and Sir Aidan Knight had a great time. Hope you all enjoyed your Halloween as well.

Dear Blog...let's catch up

Dear blog, it's been nearly a month since I've visited and posted about the going ons here in martian land and I've missed you. So, I thought now would be a good time to update you on all that's happened, it's been a busy time, mostly fun. So I thought I would give you a quick cliff note version with lots of photos to catch up:

Mid September, we went to Miranda and Elizabeth's fun birthday party.



For this party I made these cupcake shaped gift tags



When we returned from the birthday party, that evening we had a be-lated birthday celebration with grandma. Grandma stayed with us for a bit in Sept while grandpa was out of town. The boys really enjoyed having Grandma over.



We instituted a new reward system in the house in order to curb some not so fun behavior. I think it actually might be working. The kids are working hard to earn their prize, each wants a pillow pet. (yeah don't ask.)




We survived a heat wave with the help of many Popsicles.




We had friends over for dinner and I made my first attempt this Fall at some candy apples. They weren't the prettiest, but they sure were yummy.



We've made lots of Halloween crafts, including these fun bats.








We watched the Blue Angles perform while fishing and crabbing with friends on the pier.







We enjoyed a fun pumpkin patch picnic with friends that included pony rides, panning for gems and a train ride.





And we continue to enjoy Lego time as much as possible.

So, dear blog, your up to speed now on the most news worthy going ons here. I'll do my best to keep you posted. xoxo.