the most wonderful day of the year: christmas 2012

i almost titled this post christmas 2012 but then i remembered finn
calling it "the most wonderful day of the year" just a few days ago.

like the boys do EVERY christmas morning,
they were awake and in our bedroom at the crack of dawn {6:30am}
finn came singing and dancing "it's christmas" and begging us to wake up.
c washed his face, i grabbed my camera and we were in the living room a
few minutes later watching these little guys in their striped pjs.
{they really do remind me of fruitstripe gum}

scout found this note on one of his packages

he read it outloud and didn't bat an eye about not getting that
light saber. he was thrilled to get that special toy - an rc buggy.
he spent the day racing it all over the house and backyard.

finn spent a chunk of the afternoon flying his new rc helicopter.
he pointed out was for ages 14 and up and said in all seriousness
"santa must know i'm very intelligent". {i love his confidence} hehe
he's had several crashes, but he's learning.

we spent the day lounging around the home,
calling loved ones and watching the boys play with their new toys.
we also spent the day eating way too many goodies we received
from kind neighbors and coworkers.

i can't help but think of something auntie jen said as she
watched the boys' excitement as they tracked santa's whereabouts
before she left to the airport on christmas eve.  she saw their overwhelming
excitement and said wouldn't it be great to be 5 and 8 again at christmas?

i smiled because i know exactly what she mean,
and thought that as a parent, i sorta get to be a kid in a sense.
through the boys, i get to experience the magic and wonder of childhood
christmases all over again. that's one of the special things about parenthood.
watching them on christmas morning always gives warm fuzzies.

i hope your day was the most wonderful day of the year too!

{next year we hope to pose in front of a completed fireplace}

and to all a goodnight: christmas eve 2012

it's christmas eve.

the boys have been so excited all week they could hardly contain themselves.
they tried extra hard to be good which meant doing their best not to fight,
and giving mom and dad an usual amount of hugs, kisses and "i love yous".
they also tidied their playroom after just one request {very rare},

so it would be clean and ready to accept new toys on christmas day. 

unlike the past 7 christmases, we don't have aunt jen with us.
it will be a little sad and strange, but she was due for a christmas with
our parents in florida.  i dropped her off at the airport earlier this evening
and will be meeting up with her and the family for my sister leslie's wedding
a few days after christmas - 12/30.

we continued the tradition of giving the boys new pjs.
this year they aren't christmasy at all, but i couldn't resist them.
they are striped and the colors remind me of fruit stripe gum.
after pjs, we piled onto the couch to watch rudolph the red nose reindeer 

afterward i put the boys to bed, i finished some last minute wrapping, 

and sat in our very quiet living room and snapped this with my phone:

just one month ago, this room was a mess.
there was no ceiling, electrical wires were hanging from the ceiling,
and all the floors were concrete.
it's come a long way in a short time.

even though it will be several months and even years before this {old} home
is truly complete, it's ok because our family now has a place to call home.

a place we can grow in as a family and make memories for years to come.
my heart is happy as my christmas wish came true.
i hope one of your wishes do too. *wink*

and borrowing from the last line in the classic 'twas the night before christmas
happy christmas to all, and to all a goodnight. 

~ i almost forgot. there was no mention of sleeping in our bed tonight. *cheer*

the boys must have forgotten as they were too busy tracking santa's whereabouts here
the brainchild of this software is brilliant. where was this when i was a kid? 

christmas wreaths

since we are still trying to get our home together,

and only barely got a christmas tree up before the big day, 

the outside of our home didn't get any attention at all.

it was a little disappointing to us all, but it was impossible
with everything going on.  the little guys seem to understand. 

{we promised next year we would have exterior lights on the house}

i've seen all kinds of pretty wreaths popping up in stores,

on blogs and in magazines, so i thought i'd share a few of the
more interesting ones i found: 

via

via

via

via

next christmas i hope to have not only lights on the exterior of our home, 

but some type of  wreath on our front door.

this year, i'm enjoying the 4 lovely wreaths on our next door neighbors 
front doors and garage doors.  have i mentioned these folks yet?  

they may be the sweetest neighbors we've ever had {and we've had some great ones}. 

they came over to welcome us with big hugs and christmas presents for the entire family.
they even asked if they could give us a key to their home since they travel a bit.
{this was really the 2nd time we had met them}

when they left i said to c, i bet they are mormon.

he said why do you think that and i said i just had a feeling.  
i pointed out they were wholesome, spoke about their children and grandchildren
were trusting and just seemed like good people. 

sure enough, our plumber, whom we've known for years,
was over and mentioned he does their plumbing too. 
i asked him if they were mormon and he confirmed it.
they are!  {c said you called it...yes i did}

of all people we could get living next door to us,

we got this lovely retired mormon couple who reminds me of my parents.

we feel pretty darn lucky. 

~ the boys reminded me christmas is 2 days away today.

YES, they are counting.  c and i feel like it snuck up on us this year,

but we managed to sit down together a few nights ago and thanks to amazon, 

we finished all our shopping in under an hour. 

i finally feel ready for christmas. i hope you are too.
xo

the boys' christmas eve plan

i overheard this conversation this past weekend:

scout:  i don't think i believe in santa.
finn:    why?
scout:  no one has ever seen the REAL one.
finn:     no one has ever seen god, but people believe in him.
scout:  well i don't.
{if i had dog ears they'd have been standing straight up. i was completely tuned in}
finn:     well i believe in santa about 95%.  i only doubt about 5%. {he's learning percentages in school}
i have a plan though that will tell me if santa is real or if it's mom and dad.
let's sleep WITH mom and dad on christmas eve and if  they get out bed for a while,
then we will know it's them.  if they stay in bed then there really is a santa.
scout:   ok, sounds like a good plan.

OMG was my first thought but neither have come to us 'officially' yet with their plan.
good thing as i will need a little time to think on this one.

this idea is SO finn!
seriously, i don't think i'd ever think of that as a kid.
i was the kid who snuck out of my room to peek but santa had already been there.

i'll report back on what goes down christmas eve.

in the meantime, i thought i'd share this photo of my two questioning kiddos.
it was taken by the talented kelly at bubba-loo photography a few weeks ago
scoutie is still trying to master smiling naturally...it doesn't come easy for this 5 year old.
{notice the puffer vests?}



scout {5} and finn {8}

finn's wish list, 2012

knowing christmas was just around the corner,
mr. finn finally sat down over the weekend and completed his letter to santa.
when he came to the blank to fill in an example of how he had been naughty,
he asked scout what he had done to him recently.

scout's list was long. he responded finn had been mean to him,
kicked him, punched him, called him names, and maybe even more.

i asked finn if it were true and he responded "probably".
{have i mentioned my firstborn couldn't lie if he tried}.
finn has never been typical....on anything.

then he turned to his little brother and said he was sorry and really loved him.
scout responded i love you too finn.
and that was that.

so here is finn oliver's letter to santa and his wish list this year:

so that's a wrap.
the boys' letters and wish lists were mailed to santa on saturday.
they know not to expect everything on their list.

when he completed his wish list,
he said he forgot to put legos on it.
{he still loves to build}

~ i hope you had a wonderful and productive weekend!
we got alot accomplished and squeezed in some fun
{we attended a new neighbor's holiday party and sat around
the television sunday evening watching this christmas movie}.

fashion friday: puffer vests

i'm ♥ing puffer vests for boys!
my obsession actually started last winter
when i found this one at target for scout.

this year, target has new styles and more colors and i picked up another
for scoutie and one for his sweet nephew who just celebrated his 2nd birthday.
they are super cute and perfect for mild winters.

because target only has puffer vests in the little boy's department,
i had to do a little digging to find one for finn that wasn't ridiculously priced.
i found one at kohls for $15 - such a deal!

someday i'm gonna learn to post images in a collage,
but until that time, bear with me.
i haven't even updated the look of my blog since i started it.
{it's hard enough to find time to post}  someday...

anywho, i'm so happy it's the weekend!
it's been a CRAZY week {probably the busiest i've had all year},
and with the holidays and the new house {jobsite}, i'm exhausted.

i had a little downtime last night attending our company's holiday party.
my 3 joined me for some great food from phil's, a local restaurant known for its bbq.
on any given day of the week there is a line that wraps around the building.
not i know why.  SO delicious!!

we all ate too much and listened to my company's informal band play.
they call themselves the X band since we are exp.  ok, so no creativity points
but they were pretty good.  everyone got a kick out of finn running to find me
when they started playing leaving on a jet plane.
he knows what songs his mom likes. so sweet.

well i must skedaddle.  i have a zillion errands to run this afternoon -
a cooktop to buy, 2 sinks to return, presents to buy, outfits to pick
out for our family's photo shoot tomorrow, and we need to trim our tree!
i promised the boys we'd do it tonight.  if there were just more hours in a day....

enjoy your weekend folks.

christmas wishes

despite MY not being even remotely ready for christmas,
the boys are expecting santa to visit and have been working
on their wish lists.

i don't have finn's letter yet,
but i wanted to post scoutie's tonight so i wouldn't forget.
i found a template online from these talented ladies,
printed a few and brought them home.

the boys were THRILLED to create their 'wish lists',
but the letter to santa was a little tougher to write.
i mean who wants to write about the time they were naughty?

when scout came to the line that read "i have been very
{fill in the blank}, he looked up with his big blue eyes and
asked christopher and i if he had been very good.
we responded that he had. he smiled and went back to writing.
a minute later he asked how to spell "whined". *laugh*

the boys are into all things star wars right now
as c and i finally let them watch the original trilogy.
{we haven't moved to the newer star wars films and
won't for quite some time}

it works out wonderfully because the boys can fully
enjoy all the games, toys and books associated with
the first, and when they eventually tire of it, they will probably
be ready for the clone wars. {it's all about pacing}

finn created his wish list but didn't write his letter to santa
yet so i'll wait to post until i get them both.
finn was worried that we weren't going to have a good christmas
since the house is in disarray and we didn't have a tree up.
we finally got a tree tonight, and plan on decorating it friday night!

~ scout really wants a light saber and c really doesn't want
him to have one. he likens them to toy guns and prefers the boys
not have toy weapons of any kind. {though they make them out of
anything they find - pieces of pvc pipe, sticks, you name it}

i understand his thinking and i know many parents who feel the same,
but a light saber is different than a gun to me and it's at the very top
of our 5 year old's wish list.  c and i have some discussing to do
between now and the big day.

on the first day of christmas

my true love gave to me.
ONE new {old} home...

i spent the first day of december digging and pulling aside boxes
that held our family's essentials: toiletries, clothes, towels and linens.
it was pure CHAOS!

we moved into a house that was really weeks away from being
ready to hold it's new family comfortably, but we had no choice.
{just too expensive to simultaneously carry another month of rent and a new mortgage}.

the only room that didn't have concrete floors was the kitchen,
and that room didn't {and still doesn't} have a sink or stove top.
the microwave has been getting lots of use and soup is dinner most nights.

since the new flooring wasn't down, and our stuff had to go into the house,
we had the movers put almost the entire contents of our home in the boys'
future play/bedroom. the pix below is only about 1/4 of what went in the room.

we did have our bed carried into into the master bedroom and the
boys' beds set up in the future library, so despite all the dust and boxes,
at least we had our comfy beds to sleep in.

people ask, how are the boys holding up?
i chuckle and respond, the boys? they think it's one GIANT adventure!
they don't care at all we are living out of boxes and can't find anything.
it's much harder on c and i {especially since we like to be organized}
finn and scout remind us that this is what making memories is all about.

~ we have one story we all laugh about now.
c removed the front doorknob since it had seen better days, and we haven't
picked a new one up, so we literally have a HOLE in the door where the knob should go.
we lock the deadlock at night and stick a hand towel in the hole to keep the cold air out.
so classy isn't it? *laugh*

nite nite.

thanksgiving 2012

i hope you had a wonderful day surrounded by people you love and lots of yummy food!

since we are smack dab in the middle of trying to get our new {old} home ready for
move in (6 days away), our thanksgiving was less traditional than most years.

c and 2 of his crew members were working all day,
and i thought it would be a nice gesture to bring food over to everyone since they'd
be famished working so hard and i needed someone to help us eat a 10 lb turkey.
my sister was given this turkey by her boss and she passed along to me so
it woudn't go to waste. {she celebrated the day with a breakfast brunch}.

the morning of, c was at the jobsite by 7am and i was at our neighborhood vons
picking up sides and a few pies.  i got a pumpkin pie {c's favorite} and an apple pie
and vanilla ice cream in case they wanted their pie a la mode. {like me}

c brought the kid's picnic table over in the stationwagon so i'd have a place
to set the food since i wasn't ready to give up our dining room table yet.
we still need it for a week.

i brought over camping/beach chairs and a few chaise lounges so we all sat
outside by the pool for our thanksgiving meal.  yes, our new home has a
kidney shaped pool which was a big selling point for us. the boys will live in it
in the summer months.

our thanksgiving day spread wasn't fancy, but it was yummy and the kid table functioned fine.

it was a beautiful day - about 75 degrees!
c tried to convince the boys to jump in the pool so he could send a photo
to grandpa and grandma g who live in minnesota.
grandpa tells us it's cold there already.  yikes!

the boys didn't go in - no matter how many times they were dared.
the pool temperature was too cold even for them
{we hope to get a solar heater before summer.}

here's finn enjoying a drumstick.
scout won't eat turkey so finn ate enough for both of them.

i wish i would have asked the contractors to snap a photo of the family but they were busy
eating and all i had was my iphone which is how i snapped these.

every year we go around and say what we are thankful for, but since we were
spending it with people we didn't know well, we decided to forgo it at that time
and later shared.


below is just a tiny list of what the boys and i are thankful for this year:

christopher: friends and family who support me unconditionally {and pumpkin pie}

angela: good health, my boys, dear friends, the arts (music, books and theater),
and being able to enjoy our first thanksgiving at our new home.

finn: our new home, family and school so i can get an education.
{i'm not joking this exactly what my child said}

scout: my family, our new house and dessert!


~ i was REALLY nervous about cooking the turkey.
i hadn't cooked a turkey in years and i wanted this one to be edible.
i called my mom and she recommended using a reynolds oven bag for a
guaranteed moist turkey.  now, i swear by the reynolds bag method.
the turkey was perfect - so juicy it almost fell of the bone!

i've been so busy i haven't had time to post.  the house is SERIOUSLY a full time job.
mostly because we are doing alot of the work ourselves and only hiring out when we need to.
i wish i could just take 2 week off but i can't and christopher has already taken about 2 weeks
off so we hit it hard this past weekend.  it's coming along...slooowly but surely.

sing out

i came across this poster in this etsy shoppe yesterday.
i just love love love it!  why?

because this song inspires my children.
it's from a song called sing out by cat stevens.
it is their school's theme song, and finn has been singing
it since kindergarten.  now scout is learning it.

the entire student body gets together every 2 or 3 months in
an big area and they call this meeting 'the gathering'.
they hear special announcements and they sing this song.
they LOVE this song. {you can barely hear the music}

it's a song about empowerment, being independent and
loving yourself.  i can't think of a better song for young kids.
i love the original by cat stevens, but i love this folky version
i found on youtube even more.

i've been pulling it up almost nightly and singing it with the boys,
{scoutie almost has it memorized now}.

if you have a minute, pull it up and listen.
you'll know why it's such a special song to us
and why explorer chose it as their school song.

at the jobsite

while c and i spend our weekends scraping layers of linoleum off floors
and popcorn from ceilings off our new {old} home,
the boys have had to entertain themselves alot.

we brought their bikes to the jobsite and gave them
boundaries and let them explore the neighborhood.
because finn is older and has always been a great
rule-follower, we've given him a pretty long leash these days.
{he's earned it...and keeps scout close and safe}

when the boys aren't riding their bikes,
they are running around in the backyard and playing in
their HQ {headquarters} which is currently a tree base on the hill,
but will someday be a clubhouse their dad will make for them.

first thing first, we've got to finish house projects.

even with these diversions, they have been getting a bit
tired of hanging out at the jobsite, so this past sunday,
their auntie jen took them to see wreck-it-ralph and
then to sea world for a few hours.

they rode the water roller coaster, journey to atlantis and
played in SNOW.  apparently sea world of san diego
is making snow and kids in the park get to sled down a small hill.
that's certainly something they don't do every day in socal.

jen shared these sweet photos with me during the day:

jen literally had the boys from 10am to almost 10pm -
a very very long day. we are so grateful for her help.
she went above and beyond.

not having little people asking for food, our phones or if we
could go home allowed c and i to get alot accomplished -
so much that we didn't have to push back the ikea kitchen
installers again. the kitchen was installed today...most of it.

there's still so much to do, we had to push our
move-in date to friday, november 30th.
we hope by the time we move in, we will no longer
be referring to our new home as "the jobsite".

{i see why so many move to cookie cutter homes in the burbs.
it's so easy compared to fixers. fixers take so much work and patience...
not as easy as it was in our little diamond street cottage when we had a
smaller home to fix up and one kiddo}. whew!!

i can hear the bells

the knot

for those who miss the bells reference, it's from the musical hairspray,
and seems appropriate as both leslie i share of love of music and musicals.

you read correctly.
my sister leslie is getting married in 6 weeks!
i have no idea what type of cake she is wanting or how she is decorating but these
little wooden toppers that can be customized to look like the bride and groom are very
popular and adorable.

anyway,  i was just getting used to her being engaged,
when she shared that she and her fiance rob decided they wanted to
start the new year as husband and wife.

it's a happy happy time, and also a little bit nutty.
c and i are up to our eyeballs with house demo/renovation work
{move in is monday, 11/26}. it may not have floors or a kitchen
but it will have our furniture.

i digress.  i will be jumping on a plane to orlando just after christmas
to celebrate with rob and leslie and the rest of the family.
unfortunately, due to the airline ticket prices skyrocketing during the holidays,
i'll be going solo...without my three.  sure wish they could join me because
the rest of the family will be there.

i will however be home to ring in the new year.
{that was very important to me...this year more than ever}

our journey

this past sunday c and i had an anniversary - 22 years!
when i've been still, i've been reflecting on our  journey together -
on all the things we've done together before children
and what our life is like now as parents to two sweet boys.

our journey over the years has taken us to so many places,
and the ride hasn't always been smooth, but it's been an adventure
and one i wouldn't trade for anything. i love the life we've created together.

ok, enough sappy stuff.

so how did we spend our anniversary day?
we spent the day scraping popcorn from ceilings and demo-ing various
things in the new {old} home.  it was all very romantic.

we decided to celebrate this past tuesday night.
we got a sitter and had a nice dinner at jai.
from there, we walked to the ljpl and saw a musical.
it was called yoshimi battles the pink robots - and was a collaboration
between the director and the lead singer from the band, the flaming lips.
the entire musical is music from the same titled album.

it was wonderful!!  i haven't seen anything quite like that show.
the lighting and set design had me eyes bugging out of my head,
and the music was pretty cool too. i'm now a fan of the flaming lips.
{two ladies in my bookclub will be happy to hear it - they are HUGE fans}.

~ tonight jen and finn went to see it.  they got a sweet deal and a free ticket
{using a gift card}.  i was SO excited for them to see it,
and look forward to hearing their feedback.  jen discovered the flaming lips
during her college days and should enjoy the music.  finn will enjoy the uber
cool ROBOTS in it.  that kid still has robot fever... it hasn't faded since his 5th bday.

bootcamp challenge 2012

with the trip to az and the demo/renovation work at the new house,
i had forgotten all about the bootcamp challenge c and i ran last month
until he shared this photo of me yesterday.

a professional photog was at the race and snapped this.
it sums up what us racers have to endure...marines yelling at the
top of their lungs. i guess it motivates some, but c and i find it
kind of amusing. {we're sure they are hoarse the next day}

red and super sweaty after our run! 

the highlight for the boys was sitting in the humvee
{not watching their parents climb walls and go through fox holes}
where's the love?

~ the results: c and i both placed 9th in our age division.
c's time was excellent but mine was, um not so great
compared to previous years.  my 9th place is a little misleading.

my girlfriend cece however, placed 2nd in her age division
{36-39 years old). she's a serious competitor!

a new {old} home

it's official, the gerber family are homeowners once again!

with the tougher requirements to own a home these days,
i wanted to be sure everything was finalized before i posted.
now i can officially share our very exciting news.

a little about the home: it's built mid-century {early 1960s}
and it's in east pacific beach, a community we love.
we are no longer within walking distance to the beach anymore,
but it's only an 8 minute drive away by car and a bike can still get
us there but gears are needed {or preferred} since there's a very large
hill one must get over.  i need to get gears for all of our beach cruisers.

it's taken over a year and a half to find a home that we could agree on.
c wanted to live west of interstate 5 which narrowed our search tremendously.
i wanted a home with at 1,800 sf and with a minimum of 3 bedrooms and 2 baths
for a family with growing boys. 

this home meets both our requirements
but
like so many homes in san diego's older neighborhoods, it's a fixer.

while i was away on my business trip,
escrow closed and c picked up the keys to our new home.
he began demo work began immediately.
i stopped by the house the evening i flew and found the home like this:

removing a wall between dining and living room to open it up

i admit, i had a little anxiety.
although dated, the home had been move in ready when he got the key.
my experience with job sites is pretty minimal,
so seeing past all the debris, hanging wires and torn out
ceilings was a little difficult for me.

c on the otherhand, didn't bat an eye.
and reassured me all would be fine,
that this was normal and part of the process.

the next day, the debris was cleared away and the kitchen
completely removed and it looked so much better.
i can actually picture the spaces now and moving around in them.

there are still hundreds of things on the list,
but we are on our way, taking one project at a time,
and with luck, hope to be moved in by thanksgiving.
{even if it's a jobsite}

we can't be more excited about this home!
it's been a long time coming.

laugh out loud

once in a blue moon,
the timing is perfect and i'll have my camera out of the
camera bag, the battery charged and close by.

a few weeks ago was once of these times.

scoutie was laughing hysterically over something finn was saying,
and i grabbed my camera and captured the moment.

nothing makes me happier than hearing my boys laughing.
i sure love this silly boy.

a new president

i'm back home after a very long 4  days in phoenix, az.

i was attending the HC design conference with a slew of my colleagues.

i had a wonderful time and learned alot, but it was exhausting.
my days started at 7am and i'd roll into my hotel room at 11pm every night.

i was all ready to come home the evening of the election, but the sd airport
was fogged in. our pilot circled the airport for a while {hoping the fog would clear},
and when it didn't turned the plane around and went back to phoenix.
i stayed another night. *sigh*

since i spent the majority of tuesday pm in the air, looking for a hotel and
re-booking my flight home, i missed watching the election,
except for the glance or two i got of the tv at the airport.

i woke up wednesday morning to find a complimentary usa today at my door
and barack obama on the cover smiling from ear to ear.  it made me smile too.

the boys followed the race from home and before they went to bed,
finn and scoutie gave me the update over the phone and also shared they
got to 'pretend' vote at school that day.

scoutie told me he voted for obama because we were an obama family. *grin*
yesterday when i came home and was going through his past week's schoolwork,
he showed me this:

he was so proud of it.
i tucked it away with a copy of yesterday's paper and put in his keepsake bin.
before we went to bed, finn said "mom, if malia was a few years older,
she could have voted for her dad."

he was referring to president obama's daughter.
finn was in kindergarten when she and her younger sister, sasha,
moved into the white house. the girls were 6 and 9 then.
he seemed very interested in the young residents then and even
told me the day their family got a puppy. the girls are 11 and 14 now,
and when malia's father finishes his 2nd term as president,
she'll be of voting age but won't be able to vote for her dad since
his time will be over.

i dug up a photo of the obama family celebrating 4 years ago.
look how young sasha was. poor girl looks frightened.

and here they are yesterday, all smiles and so much more grown up.






i'm an optimist and am excited about the next four years.
{in 2016, my hope is to see a strong woman candidate on the ballot}.

halloween 2012

i can't believe halloween has come and gone!

i feel like we just put up the cobwebs and tombstones
and it's time to take down?  geez.

this year i didn't have a chance to be remotely creative with
costumes since the boys insisted on being star wars characters.
i don't sew at all, so i picked up generic store bought costumes.

since i love dressing at halloween,
i bought a princess leia costume and borrowed a pair of tall white knee
boots from a girlfriend who wore the same costume a few years ago.

here we are before we went out for the evening.

glow-in-the-dark pjs from cousin isaac

after trick or treating around one block,
scout and his friend logan were done for the evening.
scout join christopher and handed out candy.
{he loved this and was very good letting each
trick or treater know they could take 4 pieces}

finn, on the otherhand was determined to go to visit every home
in our complex, so auntie jen and i followed after him for another hour.
{my go go-like boots were not the best walking shoes}

the boys have enough candy to last until next halloween.
i hope you had lots of spooky fun!

~ i'm off to phoenix tomorrow to attend a conference for a few days.
i'm excited to hang out with my colleagues from across the
country and to see my girlfriend connie who is driving up
from tucson one evening.

halloween countdown

it's almost that time...

google

i thought i'd post a pretty photo of a pumpkin patch since i didn't 

make it to a real one this year. {i actually feel a teensy guilty about it}

i had every intention of taking the boys, but the evenings and weekends have 

been so packed with soccer, piano, playdates, parties, and school events,

we just didn't make it. on top of the day to day stuff, we are in the process of 

closing on a new {older} home that requires lots of work.  in the evenings, 

c and i have been up late discussing new flooring and designing a kitchen design.
more to come on. 

being big halloween lovers, we are all looking forward to tomorrow night!

i'll have crockpot chili ready to eat when we all get home from work/school,

and auntie jen and my neighbor/girlfriend will be over with her 2 kids so we can

all go trick or treating.  the boys can hardly wait to wear their star wars costumes.

i'll post pictures to come in a day or two.

~ i just got home from dinner with my book clubs girls.

we all had such a wonderful evening with lots of food and conversation.
i leave our get togethers feeling reflective, recharged and grateful to have been
invited to join them.  november's genre is 'memoirs' and the girls overwhelmingly
voted on this book.  it looks fascinating and i'm so looking forward to starting it.

goodnite.

birthday bowling

two weekends ago, the whole family was up early and out the door
before 9am on our way to the kearny mesa bowl to meet auntie jen.

we had celebrated her birthday with a dinner, but the boys said we had to do
something fun too because dinner doesn't quality. bowling however did.
auntie jen agreed to let us take her.

the adults bowled in one lane and finn and scout in their own.
they had bumpers set up and were given the device to sit the ball on
and it helps young children steer the ball in the right direction.
with the helps of these two things, the boys beat us ALL
in our first game. they broke 100 and well...we didn't.

auntie jen and finn {8)

during our second game, jen got a score of 125 i believe - beat us all!
{i forgot to snap a photo of her score}. next time.

as for scoutabout, he tried using a combination of jedi mind power
and heavy leaning to will his ball in the direction he wanted it to go.

a little more leaning might just help

it worked! {scout, 5 yrs}

we all enjoyed the morning and agreed we should get there more often.
and please forgive the quality of the photos.
i didn't have my fancy schmancy camera/lens.
i took these with my iphone.

~ since scoutie is on my mind, i have to share some
pretty cool news c and i learned this past friday during our
bi-annual parent/teacher conference.  his teacher, ms. lim |
said she tested him and he reads at a 3rd grade level!
{the test included reading comprehension as well}.

she told me she has to bring in special books to her classroom just for scoutie
so he stays challenged. we all want his passion for reading to continue and
hopes this helps.  us too. we want his love of reading to last a lifetime.

i can't get to the library fast enough anymore so c downloaded the whole
39 clues series for him and he reads on my kindle every chance he gets.
{someday when i get it back, i hope to resume reading gone with the wind}