Key Lime Pie

The girls and I made our first Key Lime Pie tonight. My meringue looks great, which makes me very excited. We will try it tomorrow, make our friends be guinea pigs, and tell you how it turned out later.

Disneyland!

Although I had some reservations about going, we decided that we should take them while we had the money. We started driving on June 16 and spent the night in Los Banos (not the bathrooms). The next day we drove to Anaheim and cringed everytime we turned a corner. We hadn't told the girls where we were going and there were Disney signs and characters EVERYWHERE. After getting to our hotel and seeing several kids wearing Disney hats, we decided that we couldn't wait any longer. We went to our room, pulled out the camcorder and made our announcement. We had a great first day touring Disneyland until I lost my camera on "It's a Small World". Just one more reason to hate that ride. It's August now and still no sign of my camera (I think it might have fallen in the water). We went to California Adventure the next morning and were fortunate to be there with only a few other families in the bug ride area, which meant next to no wait time. The highlight of our trip was dinner that evening. We took the kids to Ariel's grotto as a pre-birthday dinner for Natalia. The food was so-so, but the looks on the girls' faces were priceless. They were greeted by Ariel and also got to see Cinderella, Snow White Belle and Aurora during the dinner. Natalia was the most animated of the whole week and couldn't stop petting Belle's dress when she came to our table. The final day, Natalia's birthday, was spent at Disneyland with Mark's 2nd cousins CeCe and Laura. We made some great memories!

Comings and Goings

Wow a whole month since I last posted. Life seems to be zipping by lately. We celebrated Isabella's 5th birthday by going to pizza at Roaring Rapids, her request. The following Saturday we had 4 friends and 3 siblings over to have a kid party. So much fun! It was a princess theme. We made our own crowns, rescued Snow white from the poisoned apple, tried to wake sleeping beauty with a kiss, and determined our royal character by finding the pea. Castle cake and presents and then off back to their respective royal kingdoms. The next day was mother's day and we were blessed to share it with some of the women in my family. While waiting for lunch my little family went down to the river and fed ducks/geese. Then we met my mother, grandmother and aunt, plus cousins, brother and girlfriend, at Marie Calendar's. Shortly after that, was mom and grandma's birthday. We celebrated by again going for pizza. Mark finally got to start on replacing the roof shingles, which he has been wanting to do since we moved in. Then off to Lincoln beach for some pseudo camping with Mark's family. It was roughing it in so much that we were sharing an RV with 2 other adults and 6 children. Then we hurried back home to finish the roof before any chance of rain. I'm tired just thinking about it.

Young Boy's New Invention

Alternate titles: Baby Shower, Squeaky Clean, 101 Uses For A Dishwasher, April Showers...

King of the Hill

Fast Break for the Ottoman...

Hello Nose. Meet Ottoman...

This is the Good Part...
Just a Little Further...
Almost There...

Look Mommy, I'm So Cool...

Got Down, Climbed Back Up, And...

Oops! Rolled Off the Other Side.

Nostalgia

Photos that take me back...or make me do a double take...

Christi and family friend Nathan circa 1984

Nick and Isabella 2008

Mike (my brother) circa 1984

Tobias November 2008

To The Tune of The William Tell Overture

Mommy is so wonderful,
Mommy is so wonderful,
Mommy is so wonderful,
Mooooommy is so wonderful!

Shortly after my last post, I called my Mom to bemoan my situation and my missing camera. She hadn't seen it, but asked if I had looked in several bizarre locations. Equally bizarre, if not more, is the fact that I had already checked all those places. As well as relocated my couch to clean out all of the kiddo klutter. I told her I would check the refrigerator one more time before I dove in our dumpsters (the next morning was trash pickup). Low and behold, my camera! I had set it in front between the freezer and refrigerator and I never put stuff there. I jumped, I shouted, I sang the song ~ my kids thought I was crazy. So I explained that I used to sing the song to my mom when I was little. They still thought I was crazy. Oh well, I didn't care. I was just happy to have my camera back.