Pink Tutu

Inspired by a pink tutu Ella recently got, we decided to do a quick photo shoot in the fields by our house! 

Click here to see more...LOTS MORE!

Big Day for Aaron

Wish him luck on his Captain's interview!

San Francisco Vacation

Spring Break is just about over...Ella's back at school tomorrow, Jacob has one more day.  We took a little mini trip to San Francisco for a few days and today (Sunday) we spent the afternoon outside enjoying the 90+ degree temperatures.  We did a lot on our San Francisco trip...here's some of the highlights:

Day 1

• Chinatown - had some of the best Chinese food ever, fun shops, saw how fortune cookies are made.  Jacob thought we were really in China!


• Pier 39 - Sea lions, merry-go-round--Ella LOVES the sea lions


• Fisherman's Wharf - dinner at a sourdough factory (bread bowls...mmmm), street performers

Day 2

• Lombard Street - fun walking up and down the STEEP streets of San Fran

• Ella had a picture drawn of her


• Playing on the beach near the Golden Gate


• Getting 'lost' on the other side of the Golden Gate, ending up in a one lane tunnel and on a beach with surfers 'on the other side of the world' in a situation much like the show LOST! 


• Exploratorium - Jacob wouldn't leave!


• Dinner @ PF Changs...unfortunately memorable for Lisa


• Swimming in the hotel

Day 3

• Ikea shopping


• 'Touring' Oakland


• Bead Show - Tax Write-Off!


• Jelly Belly Factory Tour

Click to see pictures from our vacation

Another day of exploring

We're in San Francisco

Chinatown to be exact!

Ella & Daddy video

Click here for a fun video (had to do something with all those pictures!)

Happy Easter 2009!

We had a beautiful day today!  My Mom, brother and the Nostrands joined us for brunch and an egg hunt.  The kids even got some swimming in! It was an absolute beautiful and fun day.  

Click Here for our Easter photos!

Saturday Spring Fun

Saturday morning we headed to City Hall for an Easter egg hunt for City employees.  Probably one of the harder Easter egg hunts I've witnessed!  The kids were lucky to come away with about 7-8 eggs each and that was with our help. They still had fun, it was held at the City Hall Sculpture Park which is always neat to walk through. 
(Click photo to make larger)

Saturday afternoon Jacob and I headed to Brayden's birthday party at Oasis Fun Center.  Unfortunately Jacob was feeling a little under the weather so we ended up leaving early.  He did get a round of mini-golf in before leaving,  though is bummed he didn't make it to the bumper cars. 

Saturday evening Aaron and I went out with my Mom to the 2nd Saturday Art Hop.  It is a really fun monthly event where you get to see local artists work displayed at locally operated business around town.  This month's theme was children's artwork and Alicia was hosting at one of the venues and her kids had artwork displayed.  We made sure to visit her first!  After spending a few hours indulging in the complimentary wine/cheese/desserts offered, seeing some fun art and meeting a lot of cool people-we went to dinner at Jeff's restaurant Vintage.  We enjoyed a delicious dinner and listened to some good music.  It was also a treat and rare occurence for Aaron and I to go anywhere with my Mom without the kids!

Just could not resist

Easter Egg Deco Time

Past Couple Weeks

Again I'm forgetting about this blog...geesh...considering this is where I write my life happenings which eventually gets printed out for me to refer to when I have Alzheimer's (how's that for a run-on sentence?), I'd better get at it.  Well let's see what's been happening?  The usual dance, souting, appts...in school news--Ella had Kindergarten round-up and got to meet all the Kindergarten teachers as well as check out the classrooms.  She was very excited about that!  Jacob had Open House which was fun and scary at the same time.  Scary because that means his 1st grade year is quickly coming to a close!  Here's a few pics from that...

 

Funny thing about this silhoutte...I immediately thought it looked like Aaron as a little boy.  I still don't see Jacob in it! 

 

Showing off his Flat Stanley project.  He sent it to Grandpa Ron in Pittsburgh.  So fun to see the adventures Flat Stanley had there!  Some of the highlights were visiting Fort Ligonier, the Sony Plant, Heinz Factory, Lenox Glass Factory, PA Fire Station, and a covered bridge. 

 

Hanging with his best buds.

Let's see what else....dinner club this month was a night out.  We hit Chevy's for dinner and then Johnny's for playing pool and a little dancing, finished the night out at Vintage. 

 

The next group of pictures were after we were all introduced to Lion Bars by Lisa (one of our 2 special guests to Dinner Club and Karen's sister).  Somehow we then all became spokespeople for Lion Bar and were filming a print ad campaign for them!

 

OK, I'll end this super long post with a picture of Jacob who recently lost his second tooth.  The tooth fairy brought him a dollar but he was upset because he was expecting $100.  Yeah, right. 

Pinewood Derby time!

The highlight of the year for the Cub Scouts is the Pinewood Derby event.  You purchase a kit (consists of a block of wood and some plastic wheels) and then construct it into a cool looking car and try to win the race.  Jacob and Aaron had a lot of fun making the car and went with the theme....wait for it....wait for it....Star Wars.  Of course!  Tonight was the big race and Jacob was in 2nd place in all of his races so unfortunately he didn't get to the finals but he did manage to get voted "most unique" car and won a big trophy!  He was so excited to race
and really, really wanted a trophy.  He kept saying he was so excited and afterwards kept saying he was "freaking out" that he won a big trophy.  To celebrate his win we went to McD's and to visit Aaron at the fire station.
 

Way to go Jacob!  We are so happy for you and proud of you!!

I'm Rob Thomas's Favorite...

Ahhhh.....long story short--I'm on Twitter, Rob Thomas is one of my Twitter friends, he likes to do this photo scavenger hunt thing, I've been giving him a hard time about it but today decided to play, sent him a picture of me in my Mrs. Joker costume, got a response from him (nice.) AND MOST IMPORTANT he put it in his favorites.  Yeah, he loves me. 
 

Bottom line...when I run off with a rock star I'll be sure to write!  I already ran it by Aaron, he's totally OK with it. 

Interview with a 5 and 6 year old

There's a fun little questionnaire going around Facebook I thought I'd share. I interviewed Ella (5 years old) and Jacob (6 years old) and here are their answers....

1. What is something mom always says to you?
(E) - Be nice to your brother.
(J) - To behave

2. What makes mom happy?
(E) - Giving her presents
(J) - Kissing her

3. What makes mom sad?
(E) - If I am mean to her.
(J) - Seafood

4. How does your mom make you laugh?
(E) - Being silly
(J) - Saying funny stuff

5. What was your mom like as a child?
(E) - She was just like me.
(J) - Just like me

6. How old is your mom?
(E) - 12 years old
(J) - 35

7. How tall is your mom?
(E) - 10 inches
(J) - 60 inches

8. What is her favorite thing to do?
(E) - Make some jewelry
(J) - Work

9. What does your mom do when you're not around?
(E) - Makes some jewelry and talk on the phone too.
(J) - Take Ella to fun places

10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for?
(E) - Bookclub
(J) - Singing

11. What is your mom really good at?
(E) - Making some jewelry
(J) - Work

12. What is your mom not very good at?
(E) - Doing some art, maybe clay.
(J) - Starting fires

13. What does your mom do for her job?
(E) - Makes some jewelry and gets some money.
(J) - Jewelry

14. What is your mom's favorite food?
(E) - Seafood
(J) - Seafood

15. What makes you proud of your mom?
(E) - Helping you make jewelry
(J) - Work

16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be?
(E) - Maybe a dog.
(J) - Godzilla

17. What do you and your mom do together?
(E) - Playing
(J) - Watch movies

18. How are you and your mom the same?
(E) - We both have polka dot dresses.
(J) - Nothing

19. How are you and your mom different?
(E) - Both of us have different hair.
(J) - We don't have the same hair.

20. How do you know your mom loves you?
(E) - Cause she gives me kisses when it gets dark.
(J) - Because I kiss her.

21. Where is your mom's favorite place to go?
(E) - Going to her Mom’s house.
(J) - Hawaii  

The main themes seafood and me working.  The seafood is interesting because I'm really not a huge fan.  And apparently I work too much with my jewelry!  I'll have to do this every couple years to see how the responses change as they get older.

It's been awhile!

Again, I keep forgetting I have this blog...oops!  The older the kids get, the busier it gets around here.  We've been doing a bit of house redecorating too and that's kept us busy with cleaning and researching/browsing the stores for future household purchases.  We've been in this house for 9 years now and I'm finally getting to the point where I'm loving just about every room and feel it reflects us and fits our needs....just took close to a decade years and gutting and remodeling just about every room of the house we watched being built! 

I wanted to share about a new blog I found through my recent fairly 'Twitter' obsession. 
It's a brand new blog that launched this week.  It's called Parenting Tips Daily and you can find it here. Today she is having the first giveaway (a cute children's book) and it's the first of what I would imagine be many giveaways.  Please go check it out!

Birthday Ski Trip

Saturday was my birthday (oh and the 2nd day of Ella's as she frequently told us) and we headed up to Mt. Shasta for the weekend.  My birthday wish came true...my whole family can now ride the chair-lifts and ski/snowboard down the mountain!  We had so much fun...the Nostrands joined us for the weekend also and in addition to skiing we hung out eating, drinking and swimming at our hotel.  Such a fun weekend! 

Click here for some photos!

Here's some videos....

And this last vid shows Jacob skiing off the main trail. It's his new favorite thing...not too sure how I feel about that. I'm thinking I don't like it.

Ella's Birthday

Friday was all about Ella!  She started the day with the "Birthday Bucket" of goodies....
 

She then had a full day of school where I'm sure she let everyone know it was her birthday all day long!  Afterwards I picked her up and we grabbed a smoothie and a cookie then headed to the beauty salon for some pampering. 

 



She ended up getting a pretty drastic cut...10 inches cut off!  She had enough to donate to Locks of Love which she was very happy about to have her hair eventually used for children's wigs. She loves her hair now...especially now that it doesn't tangle and she can brush it all by herself. 


After a quick powernap, we then met up with Grandma for Chinese and then Coldstone. 



Such a fun day!  Thank you for turning 5 Ella and letting me join in your celebration...you only turn 5 once!

Birthday trip to Mt Shasta

Ella's first time up the chair-lift!

My baby girl is 5 today!

Then:


Now:

Happy Birthday sweet Ella...I love you!!!