our Saturday...

okay, so kaia's "real" birthday was on saturday so our busy day started as soon as the girls woke up (which was VERY early, as usual)....and, yes, i still had the flu pretty bad. :(
leia helped her open the gifts from us. she was very helpful...


then, she had her last soccer game (here's kaia and fiona...her friend, ari's little sis)
then, we went to lunch (at chipotle, of course :), and yogurt...yum!
then, we went out to dinner and came back home (to papa & nema's) house to have some cake...
leia takes her cake eating very seriously! :)
here's leia and "bubba"...
oh...can't you just see how bad i felt from this pic? nice.

happy birthday my sweetheart...i can't believe you're 5. let's make this next year go a little slower, okay baby. :)

p.s.~gone are the days where you can just be sick when you feel sick, huh?

end of the season

i'm finally back...i've had the flu ALL weekend (not fun!)
anyways, soccer season is officially over, so kaia and her team had their end of the season pizza party on friday...here she is with her trophee.
good job baby!

every week...

i take leia to the library on thursday's for storytime. she loves it. i love it too, it's one of the only chances i get one-on-one with her (and it's free! :). so, last week, the newspaper was there taking pictures and we made the "cut" in 2 of 'em (well, kinda...in the bottom one you can see my back and you can barely see leia's head right in front of the book the librarian's reading)...
these aren't the greatest pics, but it's kinda neat...
can't wait 'til next week my little lei-lei! :)

family night #11: Night OUT!!!

last night we just had a night out with papa, nema, kim, john & caleb...hey that counts as family night, right!? :)
i asked the waitress to take a picture for us and this is what we got...not exactly centered, but i got a laugh out of it :).
it was a fun night and you can never go wrong with the food at PF Chang's.

pretty toes & musical shows

since it's kaia's birthday week, i wanted to take her out & have a mama-daughter day together...so, we started out getting pedicures together...
she liked it how her chair "shook" (as she said) :)
as you can see, she chose rainbow toes! ...nice choice baby!
then we went to Panera to get soup (we had a little "unexpected guest" sit next to us...more on that later...long story!)
then, we went to see "High School Musical 3"...she was so excited to see it (to be honest...i've been wanting to see it too :). but, i think it was kinda long for her...she really liked the parts where they sang and danced, but she seemed a little bored toward the end. at one time, she said, "i wish this movie went like this, "once upon a time...the end". i wasn't bored at all, in fact, during some of the duets (especially between zach and vanessa) i almost teared up a little. is that weird?
anyways...i had a great day with you, my love. ;)

a new record...

well, today was the 5k run and wouldn't you know, i woke up with a very sore throat and feeling like a have a slight fever (actually i started feeling a little sick last night after kaia's party)...but, anyways, the run must go on, right? :) i wasn't so sure that i was gonna be able to run the whole thing (about 3.1 miles), because i'm only up to 2.2 miles on the ol' treadmill 3 times a week. but, with all the people running with you and the beautiful park with a lake, we ran through, it went by really fast. it also helped that it was a nice cool morning. so, here's the summary...i ran the whole thing (i didn't have to stop to walk any of it like i thought i might have to do...especially with the unexpected hill about 1/2 way through). when they called off my time at a mile i was at 8 min. & 20 sec., and 2 miles, i was at 17 min. & 45 sec., and at the end (3.1 mi.)...i ended at 28 min. & 25 sec. i wasn't one of the first 100 women to finish, so i didn't get a medal (i would have had to run it in 25:33 or faster to get a medal...almost 3 minutes too slow), so, not too far behind (i finished 194 out of 590 women and 23rd in my age category...i don't know how many were my age). anyways, it felt good when i looked back when i was almost at the finish line & there were a lot more people behind me than in front of me.
this (above) is right before it began...
this was afterwards...
and, i just had to put this pic up because i have the cutest nephew ever! :)

a full house!

well, we survived kaia's birthday party without any serious injuries...one bloody lip and kaia's leg got hurt, but what can you expect when you have 20+ kids in a bounce house all together. :) we all had a fun, wild, chaotic, crazy and ditzy (me) time. i am SO not an organized hostess...we are more of what you'd call a "help yourself to anything you want" kinda house, so it was kinda crazy but we had fun. let's see, i think we counted about 60 people that came to our almost 1,900 sq. ft. house and like i said above....it was definitely a full house. :)
here's the birthday girl...we had a "Super Hero Princess B-Day Party" and as you can see, kaia got one more wear out of her wonder woman outfit!
just a wild and crazy time...
my (almost...next saturday) 5 year old!
leia wasn't feeling good...she caught the cold (that derek & i now have), first :(
however, she did muster up enough strength to give the pinata 1 good swing!
poor kids, since we had so many guests it broke open before even 1/2 of them got to hit it!
kids everywhere! :)
awwwwww...
once again, the family pic...

me and my girls...happy birthday kaia, we love you so much!

poor dad...

this is what i saw when i woke up today...oh, the days of having our bed to ourselves is a thing of the past!

kaia's class b-day party...

today was kaia's pre-k class birthday party (1 of the 3 celebrations she'll have this month ;). in her class, when it's someone's birthday, that kid gets to be the "special helper"...so that was kaia today.
leia was there right next to kaia helping her celebrate...it wouldn't be complete without lil' sis...
happy (early) birthday baby girl...i can't believe you're almost 5!!!
here's the whole gang...
kaia picked out a special "accessory" to wear today (hey, anything goes when you're the birthday girl, right?!)
then, little miss special helper assisted her awesome treacher, mrs. sherman go over the calendar (she calls kaia, her "calendar girl :).
we'll see most of her class again tomorrow for kaia's Birthday party!!!

family night #10: "roll it up!"

tonight we had a family night where we did a lot of rolling (of some sort or another).
first, we started with these little cheese-and-turkey-sandwich-roll kinda things...
then, we made homemade cinnamon rolls...the girls helped A LOT!






they turned out pretty good...
then, leia thought she'd dip hers in the icing...oops! :)
then, the girls played with some good 'ol fashioned play-dough (yes, they rolled it)...
and last but not least...we all helped kaia decorate this little messenger bag that my mom (a.k.a "Texas grandma") sent kaia for her birthday. we rolled on the iron-on's...it was SO fun! it came out great!
p.s.~can you tell i was really trying to find a way to make the last craft work into the theme for the night :)?

whew!

i'm glad we voted last week...as i was on my way to the grocery store this morning, i drove past the place we voted at and the line of cars was all the way down the street (at 10:00 a.m.)...and, yes, i just so happened to have my camera :). i woulda' waited in line today if i had to...but i'm sure glad i didn't have to!

sweater weather!

it's finally starting to feel a little more winter-y (a brisk high 60*'S :)
...i wore my Uggs for the first time of the year last night and it felt SO nice!

Halloween '08: