Mother's Day

Late Mother's Day post. Stayed home yesterday to take care of baby girl who was home sick with the stomach flu. Bless her heart. I hate to see her sick but love the days I can take care of and dote all over her.

Mother's Day was great! J went to Irvine to be with his mom so Sister, Mom, the kids and I headed to Sage Brush Cantina for brunch. I can't believe it had been 10 years ago since the last Mother's Day we were there. It was a nice brunch.

Baby girl is so tall and my mom is a little shorty.
Love this boy so much!
My mom's pride and joy

Me and mom

After eating, Daughter, Buddy and I were trying to decide what to do the rest of the day. Daughter was kind of in the mood for a movie but the only two that were suitable for the whole family were Speed Racer and Iron Man. Buddy and I had already seen them which are both very good and we didn't mind seeing either one of them again. We couldn't all decide on a movie so Daughter had the great idea of going to Fire Fly. It's a fun little place where you can paint your own pottery. Great idea!

Both picked out what they wanted to paint. Daughter picked out a perfect pasta bowl to paint for me(I've been wanting one for so long but could never find one in the colors I liked)

and Buddy picked out at claw, talon type thing. It's a boy thing I guess....

They worked so hard on their pieces.

And the final products before they are glazed and go into the kiln...

Buddy's claw thingy

And sweet Daughter's plate for me.

We were there for a couple hours and will be able to pick up the pieces on Sunday. I can't wait. They always look so different when they have been all glazed and fired.


After our painting expedition we went home to BBQ.


It was such an awesome day. I loved spending time with my babies. I'm such a lucky mom.
Why are we all three looking at different things???

Prom 2008

Saturday was a big day for Daughter - Taking the SAT (Boo) - Going to the Prom (Yay!)

Her day was jammed packed. It started off early, a quick breakfast and then she was off to take her SATs. After the test she had just enough time for a quick bite before her hair and makeup appointments. Most of the girls got dressed at the house where the limo was picking them up. 30 kids all went together. So the limo had to be huge... and it was!!!

All the parents gathered to take pictures. It was quite the scene. Very sweet though, we all love our kids!

Daughter and her best friend Chels wearing their Fashion District dresses. : )

Daughter and her date - they have known each other since they were in preschool. Just friends.

Some of the girls

Some of the guys

Almost time to leave. There were so many kids!
Getting ready to some how get 30 kids in the limo....

I like this picture because you can see Daughter's hair and back of her dress. So pretty!!!

Some how they all managed to squeeze in.

They headed off to dinner in Malibu at Gladstone's which was great they said. The dance was - "eh" But they all had a great time!!!

Crowds, Dresses, and Dessert

Sunday was the big shopping day downtown in the Fashion District. I was all set with my maps, lists and recommendations. We zipped down the 101 to the 110 with no traffic and quickly found a parking lot.

Our first stop was Trendy Too, I had been told they had the biggest selection. They did - a lot of dresses. Sadly, the girls would not let me take pictures - I got a lot of eye rolling and "mommmmmm".

Let me preface the rest of this post with the fact that my daughter is some what claustrophobic. She does not do well in areas with a lot of people (and dresses).

She gets overwhelmed very easily (her room is proof of this....). We started looking at all the dresses and trying to decide on a style, color, etc. We didn't have too much luck here so we tried our luck at another store. Our next stop was Cinderella.

This store was PACKED full of girls waiting to try on dresses. Both girls' faces lit up though when we walked in this store. All the hard work had been done - all you had to do was pick out one of the dresses on the wall and try it on. Ahhhh.... the only trick was they could try on only 3 dresses. At first I didn't understand the reasoning but after spending time in the cramped store, I liked that policy. Get 'em in and get 'em out!

Chels found her dress here, very pretty, very elegant and it was at a good price. Ash had found one but I could tell that it wasn't what she really wanted so I talked her into looking at a couple more stores.

Our next stop was Nobell. This store was bigger and not even as crowded as the first two. A much better environment for my little claustrophobic baby. She looked through the racks until she found the perfect dress she had been looking for. Frosty blue with just a few rhinestones on the straps. Very pretty, very elegant, very Ash. And it was on sale... very me.

We headed down Santee Alley to look for jewelry and shoes. Here is where I learned that Chels' mom, my dear friend Bet is also claustrophobic. We always joke that Ash could be her daughter and Chels could be mine. Chels and I could have shopped down there all day! I was loving it.

It took Ash and Bet just a few stores and they were done.

That was fine, we had accomplished what we had come down for.

Being that it was also the first of the playoff games for the Lakers we decided to leave the area before the traffic go too bad.

We had a lovely lunch at Cheescake Factory and ended it off with a scrumptous piece of Key Lime Pie to share.

YUM!

**Update - I already have the green light to take pictures the night of the prom. The kids are meeting at a friend's house for all the parents to take pictures before jumping in the limo and going to dinner.** Mark my word - there will be pictures. ; )

A Shopping We Will Go

Daughter has her Prom next month so it's all about finding the perfect dress right now. She asked me to take her and her best friend Chels to the Fashion District to shop for prom dresses this weekend.

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I've shopped downtown years ago but not for dresses, namely prom dresses. When I'm entering uncharted territories I like to be organized, have a plan, a map, names, numbers, etc. I research the crap out things. I know I drive people crazy but I like to be in the know. I like to have answers and know what to sort of expect. So far, I've got maps, list of recommended stores, and helpful hints I found on the wonderful web.

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The girls are quite excited to go - I hope we have luck finding what they have in mind.

Ready for their 7th grade dance.
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If anyone has any helpful hints, store recs - please let me know. : )

Can you say tired?

I can and I am! This weekend was so incredibly busy but a great one!

Friday

After work I rushed over to the O-Sabi Restaurant where Ash was going to have her birthday dinner with about 17 of her friends. I wanted to be sure the menu was all set up with the owner. It's not cool to have your mom go with you to the party. So I went early to go everything and make sure it was all situated.

After getting everything set for baby girl's party I had an appointment to get my hair cut shorter. I had just had it cut last month but was too chicken to go for the cut I really wanted.

But after seeing this hair cut more and more and loving it more and more I knew I had to do it. I even stalked a lady in Toys R Us just to ask her about her hair and if she loves her cut. She did love it and said it was so easy to style and manage. ding, ding, ding.... just my style! So I called and made another appointment to take it shorter. Next appointment I'll lighten it up even more but for now, I'm so happy I did it!!! I'm definitely no Jenny McCarthy but still am liking. (It's hard to take a good picture of yourself)

Saturday

Opening day for Buddy's baseball. I love baseball season so much. The weather is great, longer days, spending hours at the baseball field. So happy it's finally here! The baseball team had pictures at 10:00am and then their first game at 5:00pm (with the threat of pm rain showers...)

J had team picture duty while I was off to pick up Daughter and her friend from LAX. They had spent the last couple days with her friend's family up in San Francisco. They had a wonderful time! Shopping and sight seeing. They bought sweatshirts from Ed Hardy. They are just too hip. I had no clue who the heck Ed Hardy was. Mom is so not cool.Once I picked them up we were off to lunch and then the Vanilla Bake Shop. Ventura County lacks any type of cupcakery - it's a complete shame. Our plan was to grab a quick bite and then pick up the "babies" I had pre-ordered. We found a CPK near Vanilla Bake Shop so we decided that would be our best bet. Parking SUCKS in Santa Monica!

Ash ordered the featured Penne pasta with a basil pine nut pesto cream sauce, sun-dried tomatoes and Parmesan cheese. With chicken, shrimp or chicken & shrimp (so yummy)

Chels ordered the Chicken Tequila Fettuccine. Spinach fettuccine with chicken, red, green and yellow peppers, red onions and fresh cilantro in a tequila-lime and jalapeño cream sauce. Equally yummy!
After lunch we were off to pick up the cupcakes. The girls had never been in a place that specialized in cupcakes - neither had I for that matter. We were in awe especially after I had just read an article about Vanilla Bake Shop in The Nest magazine. The girls were quite impressed. They wanted to try the Icebox Dessert Shots . Ash had the Triple Berry Short Cake and Chels had the Meyer Lemon Tarts. They both oohed and awed over how yummy they were. As we were walking out the door we eyed the "babies" in the case especially the Key Lime (Yellow Butter Cake, Key Lime filling, Creamy Vanilla Frosting, Graham Cracker Crust Crumbles) I had been pretty good not to taste any of the Dessert Shots but that Key Lime was crying out to me. We turned around and ordered three to go. Can I just tell you I was in love with that little cupcake? Seriously, the best ever! We joked for the remainder of the trip home about how good the babies were to eat and other sick jokes about taking shots and eating babies. Of course were referring to the dessert shots and baby cupcakes.

We made it home just in time for me to put something warm on and make it to Buddy's game before the first pitch. It was quite chilly out side - I was so happy to have my Angel jacket and my Angel blanket. The wind started to pick up a bit during the game and we got colder and colder. I'm a big baby when it comes to being cold. I don't like it. It hurts me. The clouds got darker and the threat of rain became more then just a threat. We cheered on our boys and the rain started to fall and as it got colder and colder. Buddy was up and laid down the most perfect bunt ever. No one saw it coming (especially me). It was awesome. That started the rally that eventually led to our win.

It was great! Angels record 1 - 0.

Sunday

I spent most of the day at home doing boring things such as laundry, cleaning and clipping coupons. Most of the day I had chicken in the crock pot with salsa for yummy chicken tacos we had for dinner. Buddy never got out of his pajamas - oh to be 8 again. I made it to the grocery store and saved $78 with my coupons. Came home and started dinners for this week. I know it's going to be a busy week and I like having home cooked meals. I made spaghetti for tonight and will be having taco soup probably on Wednesday.

By the time 9:00 rolled around I was exhausted. I was literally asleep as soon as I hit the pillow!

Have a great week!!!

My Girl

I was so happy to be able to recount the days leading up to and the day of Ashley's birth. What a wonderful memory.

I have a ton of pictures of me and her taken over the years but as she gets older it's a bit tougher to snap them. Here are a few of us. I am blessed to be a mother of a wonderful daughter.

At her 9th Grade GraduationIn Hawaii Ventura Beach
Puerto Vallarta

She was my Maid of Honor
I love my girl