Passing the time in Irivne while my kitchen is in ruins

We're currently having our kitchen remodeled (hopefully we're almost done but we all know how that goes in the remodeling world). They started the process while I was still up in Napa. I think I should have stayed up there because when I got home, the house was a complete disaster! Unfortunately, the demo company forgot to tape off the kitchen before gutting the kitchen and dust went everywhere. I even found it way down the hall in Ty's room! Anyway, we quickly realized that it was no environment for children so we packed up and headed to Grandma's! And one of the first things we did was invest in a kiddie pool. The kids love it. Doesn't Ty look like a little man here?!

While up in Irvine, we enjoyed many things and saw lots of friends. Here's Ty's first ride on the merry go round. As you can see, he's obviously not a fan. Since this was his first time, I didn't think he'd even know what to expect, yet as I walked onto the ride, before we even got to the horse, he locked a death grip onto my shirt. When I put him up on the horse, it just got worse (as you can see from the photo). Poor little man, it was a long 45 seconds.

But here he is after it stopped. I think he knew he was getting off. Since this experience, I have put him on a little toy rocking horse at a friend's house, and a zebra at a park and both times he's dug in with the grip and hates it. I don't know, maybe he has a past history with horses that I'm not aware of. Too bad I was just thinking about getting Tatum's old rocking horse out for him.

Here's someone that still loves the merry go round, and loves to strike a pose, as you can see. :)

Some other fun things we did to pass the days were kite flying (absolutely love this. Who doesn't smile when running with a kite?)...

tire swinging (Tatum's new love)...

picking flowers out of Grandma's garden...

(another one of those poses)...

and hanging with Grandma. Always love doing that.

We finally got over to Nadine's new house to enjoy some kiddie pool swimming...

sand box digging (which made me realize how much we need a sandbox since Ty loved it)...

and yogurt Popsicles! Tatum loves hanging with her girlfriend's Mattie and Sylvie!

And Ty enjoyed his first Popsicle. Yum!

We hung out with Isaac, Leanne, James and Shannon at a park for dinner one night. So much fun and such wonderful weather.

The day before Father's Day, we had lunch at Silverado, the senior living center where Uncle Tom lives. It was a rodeo theme as you can see and Uncle Tom was the sheriff! :)

Then on Father's Day we surprised Daddy with delicious blueberry pancakes and banana chocolate chip pancakes, yummy! He got some fancy presents too.

So we got creative this year and decided to try to be crafty. So even though we didn't stitch our items, we put a lot of work into them. First off, we tie died three golf club covers and ironed on the appropriate club numbers. Then we made Daddy a tie die Tshirt that has each kids initials on the sleeves...

and #1 Daddy on the back. He wore it all day, even to the Spectrum for shopping! I wanted to put their hand prints on the shirt but we put them on his home made Father's Day card instead. Regarding the tie die, we had so much fun with it, that we tie died a onesie for Ty and a shirt for Tatum. So easy and fun!

Before heading back to San Diego, we got to visit with my childhood friend Colleen and her two sons at her mom's house in Seal Beach. Here is Cameron, Tatum and Ty enjoying some reading.

And here we all are, including Bryce, enjoying some make believe baking. :)

We were able to catch the first Tustin concert in the park on Wednesday. A great Irish band called the Fenians played and Tatum took most of the pictures. :)

Here's my mom and good friends Jane and Barbara as we drink up some wine with our picnic dinner. :) We are now home after three weeks and the kitchen is coming along. Hopefully in a few weeks I can post some pics oc the completed project and the chaos will have ended. :)

Girls Weekend at the Spa

So once a year (which I would like to add should definitely be bumped up to twice a year, at least!) I get together with some of my favorite people (Shauna, Jenny and Leanne) for a girls weekend. We've only done this two years now but both have involved a spa and I think it will be a reoccurring tradition. We saved a bit of money this year since we stayed at the wonderful establishment known as Suites a la Shauna. :) She just moved down to San Diego in May into a two bedroom apartment, which she has decorated amazingly of course. :) (she has quite a knack for that) After our first afternoon of shopping, eating and movies, we started our next day off with a stop at Starbucks and straight to the spa. Here we are enjoying the quiet pool. Those of us with children greatly appreciated the quite, the time to actually lay out, as well as the right to say no to getting into the pool. I had really forgotten the days of sunbathing. (If you can call it that when you're wearing SPF 45 or whatever it was that we had on)

Jenny and I enjoying the most comfortable lounge chairs we've ever experienced!

We all had treatments done while at the Rancho Bernardo Inn spa, which by the way was an amazing place. How cozy do we look in these robes?! Looking at this photo makes me want to go back immediately.

And the jacuzzi, so wonderful.

It was so wonderful, here's another photo to enjoy. :)

Instead of running after children, we were able to put on sun hats and enjoy some fruity cocktails. More please!

Look at how beautiful the grounds are. A really great spa, we all highly recommend it. And did I mention that we should do this twice a year? Make that quarterly. :)

That evening, we decided to stay in, so Leanne and Shauna prepared quite a gourmet meal of Pulled Pork Enchiladas from the Cooking with All Things Trader Joe's, an awesome cookbook that I will be buying ASAP. Thanks chefs!

Here's to a fabulous weekend with some of my most cherished people. Love you!

Ahhhhhh, Napa!

My mom will be turning 70 in less than a month, so we thought it would be fitting to celebrate such a monumental occasion (a bit early) in Napa. This was my first trip to Napa, and what a great one we had. After checking into our B&B (not one I would recommend by the way) we rushed off to our first wine tasting at Del Dotto. Wonderful red wine, and a great tour of the caves.

Before heading off for our first full day of wine tasting, we enjoyed a delicious breakfast brought to our room. The B&B wasn't anything to rave about but the food was awesome!

And the scenery was beautiful. I realized while I was up there that if I could choose a theme to decorate my backyard after, it would be Napa. The flowers were amazing...

and the art!

Of course, my backyard will never look quite like this. Breathtaking.

If only my house could look like this! :)

Or I'd even be happy with this. :)

We enjoyed 7 wineries that day. Thank goodness we were sharing tastings! I think Cakebread was one of my favorites, but we also loved Rubicon, Charles Krug and St. Suprey.

So much to look at and we actually learned quite a bit about wine and how it's made.

It was a wonderful weekend away from children and a great bonding time with my mom. Since there are over 300 wineries up there, I think we'll definitely have to go back. :)

Memorial Week

I'm so embarrassed that I'm finally getting Ty's 9 mo. photo up and he's a week away from 10 months. I'm also embarrassed that I took this well into his 9th month. But hey, at least I got the photo and look at what a butter ball he is!

And look at this goofy girl! She loves her skates and also loves teaching Daddy and I to skate as well. She actually loves teaching anything to anyone, she's a natural teacher. :)

Last Monday we met Ellie and Mandy at a park near La Jolla. Lots of fun. We always enjoy seeing those two.

And then on Wednesday, we met Erica and Jack down at a park near Mission Bay. And here's one of Jack's first swinging experiences! He looks like such a natural!

Ty doesn't love the swing but he does love the camera and will smile anytime it's pointed at him.

Here are Ty and Tatum making friends at the park. It was so cute to see Ty sit down there with the girls and play with sand toys, just like one of the big kids. He's growing up too fast!

And then Memorial Weekend arrived. Leanne came down to visit us and her and I started the weekend off with some martinis and the new Sex and the City movie. We had a blast and the movie is so hilarious! Our favorite part is the nanny. :) Anyway, Saturday we went over to Shauna's new place to enjoy her resort style pool with all the Beastons. Ty got in the Jacuzzi and the pool for the first time and didn't care for either one. But at least I got a pic of him in his cute swim trunks! :)

Tatum, on the other hand, LOVED the pool and enjoyed playing ball and splashing about with Tony.

That night we enjoyed a BBQ at our house with lots of friends and the Beastons but I didn't take one picture, typical. But the next day we had a neighborhood block party which was a blast. Here's Lee with the kids as we head off...

and here's Ty with his BFF Colin. The two are only 18 days apart and get along so well already!

High five dude!

And this was our first time eating without a seat which he did pretty well. I think the dog helped distract him from crawling off.

Here's Tatum enjoying a swing...

and there are lots of neighborhood girls that LOVE to hold the baby. I don't think I was there 5 minutes before someone asked to take him, it was great! And as you can see, Ty loves it too!

Here's Ty and Colin doing a little flirting...

and some more girl time.

Enjoying the Taco Man and all the other delicious items people brought to share. What an awesome gathering! This neighborhood just gets better and better!

Just some more friendly neighbors, we're so lucky. All in all, we had a wonderful Memorial Weekend and loved having Lee visit us. Thanks Lee, come again soon! And bring Isaac!