ohhhh mexico

oh mexico,
it sounds so simple i just got to go.
the sun's so hot, i forgot to go home
guess i'll have to go now...
-mexico, james taylor 

oh how i love james taylor
a florida surfer boy introduced me to him when i was in my lates teens,
and i've been a fan ever since.

his song, mexico is a song off one of his cds that i play in my car alot.
it makes me smile and think of past vacations in mexico and all the fun we had.
if my hubby had his way, we'd vacation there all the time.
heck, if c had an opportunity, we'd all be living in mexico.
(and i'd be completely ok with it)

often when we are all heading out the door to go somewhere,
finn and/or scout will ask where are we going,
and christopher will say let's go to MEXICO.
finn and scout will echo 'Mexico - yay'.

a few days ago, c announced costa azul was having a promotion
and he really wanted the family to go back this fall or winter to vacation. 
finn responded "i love costa azul...i'm so comfortable there".
maybe just maybe a trip to mexico is in our future this year.

here's a picture that is on our fridge right now.
finn and christopher worked on this together for one of finn's class projects.
in the style of todd par, students were asked to draw and color a picture that
represents what their family likes to do together.  finn said he likes to go on vacations.

here we are horseback riding in mexico.


artists: christopher and finn, 2011



a forgotten film

a few months ago, my sis asked if the boys had seen the movie annie yet.
"no, not yet but they'd love it" was my response. 
i couldn't believe i had forgotten all about this film,
and that i hadn't introduced it to finn and scout yet.

when i was a kid, i watched the 1982 version of annie over and over on VHS.

i memorized every song and even some of the musical numbers with my bff, robin.

our favorite dance was it's a hard knock life.
it was so much fun. the orphan girls were such amazing dancers and gymnasts.
my friend could even do the the backflips (mimicking the orphans on their beds).

after jen mentioned the movie, i picked up the dvd at target that very weekend,
and we had a 'family movie night', with our staple movie munchies: popcorn and licorice.
it was a fun night for all of us, and the two small people in the house were mesmerized by it. 
i wish i would have photographed their faces as they watched...priceless!

carol burnett's performance is nothing short of brilliant!
i found her both scary and a little kooky as a kid,
but now i just find her amazingly talented - i'm in awe.
she brought so much to that movie.

i hear disney made a version of annie in 1999 and though i haven't seen it,
i've heard it was a flop and pales in comparison to the original film.
unless the boys learn of it and ask to see it,
we'll continue to enjoy the movie their momma grew up with,
the one we all know and love.

*****************************

weekend update:
despite my friday am starting out really rough,
with a little patience and communication,
i was able to move past the incident and enjoy the weekend.
(i won't go into details, but i was livid with c over something)

the boys and i enjoyed our 2nd outdoor concert in point loma on friday night,
and on sunday, greg and heidi were able to squeeze in a breakfast with us (and my sis jen).
it was wonderful to catch up with them,  just wish we had more time together.
there's never enough time...

playing in point loma

well the weekend is almost here peeps  - do i hear a yippee!

it's been a really good week for this momma.
i had no major deadlines at work...a little calm between the storm.
it was mostly catch up after the last 3 weeks of craziness. 

at home, i've been spending quality time with the little guys after work,
c picked up the classic battleship game and the boys are obsessed.

i managed to squeeze in two workouts at the ymca, and last night i met
up with my book club group.

i came home and told c, of all the dinners we've had, this one was the best yet.
they are always good, but last night was exceptional!
maybe it was because of the book we read, which we found fascinating.
it brought up so many ethical questions...we talked and talked.

oh and the food at the melting pot certainly added to the experience.
it was my first time ever eating at a real fondue restaurant and WOW!
(so much for my workouts)

before i forget, i wanted to make sure i posted on the other fun family activity.
we gathered lawn chairs and snacks and headed to a park just up the street to
attend point loma's annual summer concerts. 

the concerts go for 5 weeks and last weekend was the first one of the series.
we saw the band Help. they are a beatles tribute band which made the evening fun for all. 
finn and scoutie know a few beatle songs so they danced and sang along to a couple.

and just when finn announced "none of my friends are here", we run into the lancaster family.
the boys spent the next 2 hours runing around with elizabeth and other neighborhood kids.

the family enjoyed it so much, we're going tomorrow night to see Cash'd Out (music of johny cash).
we're looking forward to it! 

and a few other exciting bits of news:

- my father-in-law turned 65 on tuesday!

the big celebration will take place in MN next month with all his kids.

- my mother-in-law, barby, graduated from college with her degree in Health Information Technology last month.  she already has a job interview lined up at a prestigious health facility in arizona. 

i'm so excited for her!

together time

for the past several years, one question gets asked by the boys every morning.

the question?  is it a family day or a school day?
(and since summer began 'school day' is replaced with 'renae day' (our summer sitter)

this weekend i committed to making sure our family days were well spent.
i've been feeling distracted, pulled in many directions and i really just needed to
relax, re-energize, re-focus and make my three front and center.

so when c's college buddy justin emailed me last week offering
tickets to the padres vs. giants (baseball) game on friday night i accepted immediately.
we hadn't been to a game this season and i knew it would do us all some good.

the little guys in the home were more excited about our mode of transportation.
because of parking and crowds, we always park at the old town transit center
and take the trolley downtown to the stadium. the boys love this!

we enjoyed watching the padres win and catching up with justin and his family.
we also enjoyed the gigantic bag of kettle corn that c bought for us all to share.
i didn't bring my camera but i did get a few with my cell phone.

i wish i would have gotten a picture of finn with his fingers in his ears.
everytime the crowd roared, his fingers went into his ears. *grin*

we had another family outing over the past weekend,
and my hope is to post about it later in the week.

i better get going -  a full work day tomorrow and then
dinner with my book club girls to discuss this book
i'm looking forward to it.

also, my s-i-l heidi and her hubby are coming in tomorrow night for a few days.
we won't be seeing alot of them as they are here to attend comic-con,
a HUGE event that literally transforms downtown san diego for a few days.

scout's silly monster party

scoutie's 4th birthday celebration was held under two big shade trees at mission bay park last weekend.
our preference would have been to hold it in our very own backyard,
but since we are in between homes right now, this wide-open grassy park was our best option.

i really tried not to go overboard this birthday with details this year (c might disagree).
i focused on (1) fun party project - making silly monster t-shirts!
after purchasing a cute #4 monster tee from this etsy shoppe for the birthday boy,
i thought it would be fun to try to make a simpler version for the birthday guests.

i purchased a dozen hanes tees, colored felt and fabric glue from michaels,
then drew and cut out the shapes taken from the same book that inspired scoutie's invitations.
it wasn't difficult to do, but it did take me few hours over two weekends.

i'm SO glad i spent the time making these, because they were a hit!!
the kiddos proudly chose a shirt when they arrived at the party and all
of them actually put it on and wore it for the entire party.
this made for extra cute pictures.

it was a fun-filled morning with guests lingering until their younger ones needed
afternoon naps (including the b-day boy). as soon as scoutie walked in the front door
he said "that was the best party EVER but i'm exhausted and need to take a rest".

i smiled to myself thinking mission accomplished
party highlights: a monster bean bag toss game that christopher created,
hoppity ball races down a hill, whacking the monster pinata,
dancing to the monster mash and the one-eyed-one-horn flying purple people eater song,
and unveiling the cute green monster cake that christopher made.

a few fun photos of scoutie's special day ...

~ the kids liked looking at the green monster cake,

but preferred cupcakes over the dyed green coconut shavings covering it.

also, i'm embarrased to admit this, i forgot the loglighter to light the candle antennas on the cake!

sweet scoutie couldn't even blow out candles at the park (he was very sad about this),

regardless, we all sang 'happy birthday' to him but the candle blowing and wish making was

postponed for a home celebration the next evening. 

birthday boys

today i have two birthday boys in the house,
a FABULOUS 4 year old and 41 year old!

scout benjamin gerber turned 4 on july 6th,
and today, july 10th is actually his daddy's birthday too.
(my mom and oldest sis also share this birthday with christopher - pretty cool)

because scoutie's birthday party took up most of the day,
it was agreed we would celebrate c's birthday next weekend.
(i should mention he did get a little fun in today - he and finn
had a sunset surf session in ocean beach). finn rode tandem.

for now, in keeping with my blog tradition,
scoutie's birthday post is where i list at least 4 things
i want to remember about my little guy at this age.
here goes:

1. huge obsession with puzzles and boardgames
he spends hours doing both....especially puzzles because he can do these on his own.
it's not unusual for him to put together 6 or 7 puzzles and take them apart 2 or 3x within a day.
(you can guess what he got for his birthday)

2. he loves his big brother finn
at home, they are together alot. scoutie has a friend named finnigan in his preschool class,
but whenever he is referring to his brother, it's always "my finn".
he couldn't be more clear to us. *wink*

3. he loves singing, especially in the car
his song list is quite diverse - ranging from preschool songs, glee showtunes, to james taylor.
he makes requests alot and if there is a song he's especially fond of, he asks me to drive around
the block a few times so he can listen to the entire song before we get home.

4. he is a natural athlete
whether it's dribbling a soccer ball, whacking a ball with a bat or riding his bike,
this little boy has some skills.  when i go for my 5 mile run on the bay, he joins me on his bike.
of course, i run way behind him now. his training wheels came off when he was just 3 yrs and 2 months
(and they probably could have come off a good month before...momma just wasn't ready). *grin*

and i added a few extras because it's just too darn difficult to describe scoutie in just 4 lines.

5. he's crazy about corn on the cob
in our home, the birthday guest of honor gets to request whatever meal they want.
can you guess what this corn boys asked for? *grin* 

6. almost daily he tells his daddy and i how much he loves us
i'm not sure there's anything sweeter than coming home in the evenings and hearing these words.
his favorite lines for measuring his love for us are "i love you to the moon and back, to pluto and back,
to infinity, or all the way up to outer space and back."

7. he calls himself an artist
you can often find scout sitting at the kitchen table or in his invention room writing, coloring or drawing.
for a while his favorite thing to write was his name - he'd write it dozens of times on a piece of paper. 
his new thing is writing the alphabet a-z over and over (he only gets a few letter backwards).
ask him what he wants to be when he grows up and he will respond "an artist, but i'm one now too". *grin*

4th of July 2011

i am so far behind on my posts. 

first, i wanted to share some highlights of our roadtrip to utah.

as c warned, we were up and on the road at 3:30am the sat. morning before the 4th.
we had the car packed the night before so all we had to do was crawl to the car.
i slept until it got light and spent the most of the trip reading this book.
c did all the driving (bless him), and got us into brianhead, utah around 11am.

as the boys say O.M.G!! {spelling out each letter}
brianhead is just as gorgeous in the summer as it is in the winter. 
the boys and i had only seen it covered with snow so this was
a real treat for us!  the weather was perfect - sunny and about 80 degrees.

we spent a few days at the cabin hiking, caving, eating/drinking, playing board games
soaking in the jacuzzi, and the kids enjoying the treehouse that grandpa shay built.
a few photos highlights:

utah gerbers in the cave

the view was amazing!!

we headed back down off the mountain the morning of the 4th so we could

see trev and shannon's new home in st. george. it's lovely and it has a pool.

the kids swam for hours.

me and my boys before fireworks
(scoutie didn't nap - too much excitement)

exhausted kiddos watching the fireworks from parking garage in st. george
(scoutie didn't make it to the grand finale)

seeing how well the cousins play together and just talking into the night with
trev and shannon reminded me how lucky we are to have them within driving
distance to us.  we really enjoy our time together with this sweet family!

looking ahead

what a day!

i managed to squeeze in a full day of work, a hair appointment and a pedi
before we take off to utah.  i was about 3 weeks overdue for both so i'm
feeling much better now. funny how that works isn't it.

i've got the boys and my bags packed,
and am getting ready to call it a night,
especially since c wants to hit the road at 4am.

before i do, i wanted to share a picture of the darling monster
that inspired the look of scoutie's upcoming 4th birthday party.




















isn't he the cutest?!

i picked up this little board book for $1 at target about 2 years ago
and it became a quick favorite of scouties.

once the silly monster birthday theme was chosen,
it made perfect sense to use for the birthday invitation.
christopher basically recreated it for me (in the computer)
and i packaged it up in cute red envelopes and sent them off 2 weeks ago.

scoutie can hardly wait for his big day.
he keeps asking us "how many more days till my birthday"
just a few more days we tell him
(his actual birthday is 7/6 but party day will be 7/10)

good night.
xo

road trip ahead

it's been on of those weeks.

you know, the kind that you just wish you could fast forward past.

my coworker has been in d.c. this week at a conference and my workload is nuts.
at home it seems just as crazy - a huge 'to do' list which includes load of laundy,
scoutie's 4th birthday to plan, photos to edit from my girlfriend's visit last weekend,
and a hair appointment to squeeze in sometime today. (i'm in desperate need of highlights)

the only thing keeping me sane - i have a roadtrip to look forward to!
the boys and i heading to utah for the holiday weekend to visit trevor and his sweet family.
we are all so excited! (finn and scoutie started packing at 6:30am this am).

oh how i love roadtrips.

while the boys are watching movies in the backseat, this momma
plans on doing some birthday planning and getting in lots of reading.
i started reading the immortal life of henrietta lacks a few weeks ago
for my book club and am loving it!  it's non-fiction and truly fascinating. 

by the time i arrive, i should have it finished.
i can hardly wait to discuss it with my s-i-l shannon.
she read it with her book club a few months ago.

have a fantastic friday!