Hero in a half-shell...turtle power

Today Caden went vintage. He spent the day at Nonie's and she pulled out some vintage Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. He had so much fun playing with them and thought it was HILARIOUS when I was singing the song.
I have to give a big THANK YOU to Grammy for making us dinner. It was wonderful. It was so much fun to come home after a LONG day and play with the kiddos instead of having to cook dinner.
Here is a photo of the cutest Ninja Turtle I know.

8 or 9?

Oh Pluto you have become a source of much frustration to a little 4 year old boy. Caden is very much into obsessed with the Solar System. He has a few books he reads at nap time and one we read every night. Since the obsession he now has a lunch box, back pack, puzzle, model, and yes an alarm clock. The poor child is so funny he gets so frustrated that some books list Pluto as a planet and others say it is dwarf planet and some don't mention it at all. Really, NASA and publishers we need to come to some agreement - you are killing the poor child. It is kind of cute he now corrects me when I read the old books and tells me it is a dwarf planet. He also knows one of the moons is called Charon, but he likes to call it Aunt Sharon - Adorable!!!
He continues to AMAZE me and surprise me. I love that he wants to grow up to be an astronaut  (funny - I had the same dream going up thanks to my Sally Ride report) and Buzz Lightyear.
I love you Buddy, I hope you get the chance to go to the moon one day!

Happy 85th

Yesterday we celebrated GG's birthday with some Hawaiian style. My Grandma has so many special memories of Hawaii. She was stationed there, met and married my Grandpa there. She had one of her babies there and ended up being stationed there again.

It was so much fun planning the big surprise celebration. My family LOVES surprise parties and during the planning Chris kept telling me to NEVER throw one for him. I think that is really just asking for one right?!?!

Back to the party- it was a beautiful night with lovely weather. It was super special that we were able to get my Grandma's siblings to fly out for the special event. Aunt Charlene and my cousin Ann flew out from Virginia and my Great Uncle George flew out from the family farm. It was a pretty big deal that we were able to get him to leave the farm. ;-)

What a  fun evening celebrating  a really special person in my life. I am so blessed to live so close to her. I love my Tuesday evening "dinner date" with her and I LOVE that my kids get to know their GG.

Happy 85th Birthday Grandma!!!





One of the funniest and sweetest moments of the night. Watching my Dad and brother learn to hula. It was pretty cute.



And then she stole the show. She was soooo excited to go up and learn to dance. It was PRECIOUS!

My Saturday morning creation. I will be posting a tutorial over at Teaspoons and Twine.

A Brighton Day!!!

The adjustment to going back to work full time is getting better. My heart still aches to leave my kiddos every day. But I have to say I am LOVING working with my Kinder team. They have welcomed me and made me feel so loved. As a welcome gift they got me a fancy BRIGHTON LANYARD- I know how exciting!!!! I went home and told my husband for my birthday I will be needing some charms. His reply " What's Brighton?" Clearly we don't go to Walnut Creek enough or hang out with the Barrons enough.
Thanks Kinder team for the warm welcome.

Happy First Birthday Wesley

Today we celebrated Wesley's first birthday. It is hard to believe our little buddy is ONE!!! His mommy planned an AMAZING rainbow party. She loves throwing parties as much as i do.
It seems like yesterday I was anxiously awaiting for updates from Aunt Katie for Wesley's arrival. He sure made his Mommy work and made us wait to meet him.
We have loved watching him grow. The twins love playing with him. Caden thinks it is funny to be crazy and make him laugh and Emmeline loves kissing on him. Jackson hasn't changed much from when he first met him, he loves poking and investigating him - poor Wesley.
Happy First Birthday Wesley! We love you!!!

Mrs. Santa Claus

I did it, I made it through my first week in kindergarten. I had forgotten how little and cute they can be. It is going to be a long year with some of the kiddos, but it will be exciting at the end to see the growth.
The past couple days in class I kept hearing the kids saying Santa Claus. I thought it was rather odd that the kids were talking about him in August and then I heard it again paired with Mrs. It turns out Mrs. Santopadre is tricky for kindergarteners and they weren't talking about Santa they were calling me. I guess my name this year is Mrs. Santa Claus. The news of my new name spread like wildfire on campus and I am now known as Mrs. Santa Claus by everyone. I am sure it is the first of many things I will hear this school year that will make me chuckle.

Curve balls

The past few weeks have proven to be some of the hardest of my life. I feel like I am getting pretty good at hitting the curve ball and I have had quite a lot thrown at me lately. I am feeling better now that we have some game plans put in place. This week we should know more and be able to figure out some plans for my Dad.
 I have to say I am so thankful and grateful to all of my friends and family who have helped me get through these past couple weeks. I  am feeling better about going back to work full time. My team at work is AMAZING and have been so helpful. The kids have been so great about Mommy going back to work. Emmeline is excited about packing her lunchbox and can not wait to find out where she is going in the morning. The boys are still not as excited, but love when they find out they get to go to Grandma's, Nonie's, or on extra special days Aunt Tiffi's.
It is hard at times to understand all these curve balls that are getting thrown at me all at once, but I have to believe there is a reason and I will be stronger for it.

That's a wrap

We Wrapped up a great summer with movie night under the stars. We invited some friends over to watch The Lorax. The kids were hooked and so good watching the movie. We had some yummy drinks aNd snacks. I made some delish caramel popcorn. I can't wait to post the recipe on Teaspoons and Twine.

That Boy Can Eat

It amazes me how night and day Caden and Jackson are. We wish Caden would eat a quarter of what Jackson does. Jackson definitely enjoys eating and enjoys eating just about everything. I haven't found much of anything he doesn't enjoy. We discovered he LOVES ranch dressing. He has already discovered the yummy combination of fries and ranch. He couldn't get enough in his mouth or on his hair. Incase you were wondering ranch dressing doesn't make for great hair gel.

Ten inches lighter

I have to start this post with saying I have the MOST AMAZING husband ever. During his birthday week he surprised me with a day at the beauty shop. He spend weeks with a special, sneaky friend orchestrating the whole thing. I had the works high lights and low lights and TEN inches taken off. I was so excited for the big cut and for color (it had been over a year).
Over a year ago a good friend was dealing with the fight of her life and now another dear friend is going through the same thing. It is an awful and helpless feeling knowing what your friends are having to deal with. And just last week a friend shaved her head because it is falling out. I wish I could do more than, pray, and walk in relays. Today I was able to cut off A LOT of hair and mail it so someone would get a beautiful new wig.

When it rains, it pours

It has been a draining couple of weeks. I think I have emotionally hit my limit. Today I packed up my classroom to move to kindergarten. I have kind of come full circle. I am going back to the grade I started at. I am so excited to work with the fabulous Kinder team, but I am so heartbroken to leave my kids. To say that I am sad that my job share fell threw this year is an understatement- more like devastated. So with one week until school starts I am now scrambling to get everything in order for me to go back full time.

Night at the ballpark

The boys took to the ballpark to finish our summer bucket list.
I was a little nervous sending them off alone. I packed snacks, water, sweatshirts, and a blanket hoping they would be used. Watching the game from home, it was a good thing I did. They had rain, thunder, and lightning - what a wacky August night.
I was eager to hear all about how Caden did. I imagined in my head that he would be so tired that Daddy would have to carry him to the car and he would fall asleep on the ride home. To my surprise in walked a wide eyed little guy at 11:15 pm!!!! He was so excited and soooo cute. He told me all about the pizza, popcorn, cookies, french fries, and lemonade he had and then told me all about the fireworks. Dad took some precious photos of the night.
As soon as his head hit the pillow he was out. What a fun night at the ballpark.

T Minus 13 Days and Counting...

All the drama that comes with back to school time is starting to unfold. It is hard to believe that we are less than two weeks away from the start of school and I have so much to do. I hate that feeling when there is so much to do and you don't know where to start. Here's to unpacking, organizing, decorating, and planning fir a new school year.

Did I mention we launched our new blog?
Be sure to go visit Teaspoonsandtwine.com

We're Moving...

well Mommiesbyday that is. We revamped our cooking, craft, and project blog. It has a new look and a new name! We are so excited to launch Teaspoons and Twine.
Stop by and visit us at
www.teaspoonsandtwine.com
***notice you don't have to type blogspot anymore! ***