one more

Happy Halloween to everyone.

Halloween

We carved pumpkins. I just can't get enough of this little pumpkin. He is just too sweet.
























Everyone got into the Halloween
spirit this year...event the dog!







Tonight for dinner we had the "Creepy Cafe". On the menu-Mummy fingers, freaky fruit, sunken skulls (baked apples), oozing slime (baked brie) and some other goodies. Noah was too cute. He wrote out menus and was the waiter.




















Even dad was a good sport and dressed up for Trick or Treating.

Let the parties begin!

 

The friday before Halloween To do list
1. get everyone in costume
2. load car for first party
3. Halloween parade. Man I love that our school still does this!!
4. Noah's party-I had 3 wafflemakers going making hot pumpkin waffles with chicken apple sausage and fruit.
5. head back home to finish ghost merringues.
6. pack up car with ghost cookies and pumpkin muffins.
7. don't forget treats for the teachers.
8. back to school for Zach's party.
9. head over to Joey's party.
10.jump for joy that there is no homework tonight and let the kids watch a movie.
11.carve pumpkins.
12.enjoy every minute of the day with the boys.

Scrappin'

I was so happy to get some scrappin' and some girl time in this weekend. I took Rebecca's class at the Oasis with Annie and Debbie.

 

 

 

 

Tonight I'm having more girl time at the Women's Conference. I'm so grateful for friends :)

Reflections 2010!!

I am so excited that we are planning Reflections 2010. It is just so much fun to plan and I feel so blessed to be doing it with Karen. She's such a great friend! Last year was great and I know this year will be a blast. Here's some info if anyone is interested in it :)






Registration Now Opened


We've officially secured the dates! Reflections 2010 will be on April 30th - May 2, 2010 with registration beginning on Thursday, April 29, 2010
The Highlights

Here's the full scoop... During your 3 day extravaganza you will be treated to:
• 3 full days of classes
• 7 amazing designers
• 3 hour long, technique packed classes
• Breakfast provided - Friday
• Lunch provided - Friday, Saturday and Sunday
• Make 'n' Takes
• Isle Carnival
• A special event on Saturday night
• Getting Ready Crop Thursday night
• Crop rooms open until midnight on Thursday, Friday
and Saturday

Plus lots and lots of surprises along the way!

OMG- I am going to be placing a big order! Check out this cool site
SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO CUTE!!!!!

Busy Weekend

The weekend was busy. Pretty much every day is pretty busy in our household but I got even less sleep than normal this weekend so I am tired. Poor Noah and Zach had to play soccer yesterday in the HOT, hot sun. Man was it a HOT day. Last night we went to a Halloween party. I wish I had pictures because the decorations rocked! Now I am organised and ready ahead of time for Halloween. Whoo hoo. I love being prepared.

I made some devils food cupcakes from my new Magnolia Bakery cookbook and then made up my favorite simple appetizer. Just take salami, smear cream cheese on it and stick some chopped pepperoncinis in the middle and roll them up. YUM! I could eat 100 of them. Speaking of wanting to eat a lot. I watched Alex's Day off on Foodnetwork today and man it was a heart attack waiting to happen but man oh man did everything look yummy. I loved how excited she was about food. It was just inspiring.

Thank goodness it was a little cooler today. Joey had a baseball game and then right from there we ran to a soccer game for his school that he was playing in. Then tonight he was alter server at mass. The poor guys was beat. I think he fell asleep by 8.

As much as I am happy that there is no more dog hair in my house it feels kind of lonely without Anabell here. We are all missing her.

Here are a few pics from before the party yesterday. We were driving to the party and Zach was saying I was driving the batmobile. Joey was so funny. He's all, "yeah, Michael Jackson rose from the dead to sit shotgun and the clone trooper and batman are here to protect Snow White". Now that I write it it's not all the funny, but last night it was :)

 

 

 

 

Right Now...

Right now...

* I am sitting listening to a snoring dog. The boys are dog sitting the sweetest mini golden. She is the sweetest dog ever. We randomly hear "thump,thump,thump" when she wags her tail on the wood floors. She seriously looks like she is smiling all the time. The boys are so RESPONSIBLE with her. They take her on long walks, snuggle with her, hide her pills in her wet food, praise her for eating it and feed her her kibble. Besides my allergies and washing the floor everyday I love having her here.

* I am basking in good mom thoughts. Tonight we took the boys to Disneyland. They were super excited. Then we came up with the plan to ride 2 rides and run to ESPN zone to watch the Angel game. We were all bursting with excitement...and then the parking lot was closed because it was so busy at Downtown Disney. Dave and I weren't up for dealing with the crowds so we told them we were going to change plans and go to dinner somewhere else. They didn't make a fuss AT ALL! They were super flexible and we ended up going to a new sports bar kind of place for dinner and to watch the game. I couldn't believe how FLEXIBLE they were. It was awesome. I was so proud of them.

* I am looking for fun Halloween recipes. We are going to a party tomorrow night. I'm going to make some cupcakes but want to bring a fun nonsweet dish too.

* I am watching tv but wish I was motivated to go to the grocery store instead.
* I am really in the mood to scrapbook all the time. Hopefully when the boys go back to school next week I can make time for it. I signed up to take a class at Oasis. I'm super excited about it. Annie is going with me. Yeah!

Hayward, Berkley, and San Fran

The next day we spent hanging out with Rick and Trish and the doggies. We took a long hike down an incredible trail. Dave and his brother did some male bonding over itunes, computers and shopping. Trish and I cooked and in the evening we went to Berkley for some really good pizza. I had read about Zachary's in Bon Appetit so I was excited to go. After the kids went to bed we ended the night with hours in the jacuzzi. It doesn't get more relaxing than that!

On Saturday Trish and I went to the Farmers Market. Did I say how much I love hanging out with Trish? While we were gone Dave made the boys pumpkin pancakes. We got back, got ready and hopped on BART to go to the city to see the Blue Angels.

After that we went to the Hard Rock for lunch. My boys are obsessed with the Beatles so this blew their mind. Lots of Beatle memorablia. More walking and then we headed to my favorite place on earth....The Ferry Building. Oh, to have unlimited funds. I would eat so well!

Before we headed back to BART we HAD to take a trolley ride. It was sooo much fun. You get to see everything! The kids loved being able to hang off the side.

This is what me happy. I love seeing the boys hanging out, hugging their dad while walking.

Road Trip

The boys are off on Fall Break so we took a little road trip. We headed up North to visit Dave's brother and sister in law. We took the 101 up so we could enjoy the view. My kids are just the best travelers. They love to going on new adventures. It was supposed to just be me and the boys and the hubby was going to fly to San Francisco for business and meet us there. But he is such a good guy that he flew home to drive with us. He had the laptop with him and took a nice long conference call on the way (where we all had to be quiet-that was tough!) but it totally worked and he got to play for a while too. We had lunch in Oxnard and then stopped to see the mission in San Luis Obisbo. I love this picture of Noah at the Mission.

Why look, there tends to be a ghost in a lot of our pictures lately! It's the ghost of Zach!

We were walking in the cute downtown area to go to Apple Farm and we were afraid that we couldn't keep our car parked at the mission so I continuted to walk with Zach and Joey and hubby and Noah went to move the car. Well, it was pretty far so we just kept walking. We got there and Dave and Noah weren't there. I had no cell, no money, nothing! We waited almost an hour before they got there. They got turned around. What a horrible feeling! I kept thinking something happened and was worried about them but also totally worried about us! Who was going to drive out and get us? What were we going to do with no money. I am so carrying something with me whenever I walk.

Reunited!

Nothing Better Than Friends!

I really feel so blessed to have the friends I do. Debbie and I have been friends since we were 15. We met at the Little Pickle. It was a sandwich shop we both worked out. We were friends all through high school, even though we went to different schools. In college we became room mates and we have remained friends for 26 years now! It is such a joy to watch her little girl grow up. It is so wonderful to see how much our kids adore each other too. Here's Noah playing peek a boo with Sophia.
Debbie is Zach's Godmother. Well, actually one of two Godmothers (long story). He loves her so much.

Not only did my old friend, Deb come to Disney today but we also met my newer friend, Karen. Putting on Reflections with her has been such a wonderful experience. Not only have we worked well together but we've become such good friends. She and her husband are so warm and welcoming. My whole family is in love with them.

How could you not love someone who grabs your son's hand and skips and dances with him?

Still Celebrating!

So, all of Joey's dreams have come true. He has wanted an ipod touch from the day it was first released. We told him, "No way, Jose" but he has been diligent and he saved all his birthday money. But that wasn't enough so he got the great idea to sell Noah his ipod nano for $2o and his DS to Zach for $20 and then mom and dad chipped in the rest for his birthday present. Now we have one happy, techno family.

Today was his real birthday so we headed to the happiest place on earth. Mom and Dad like it there too :)

My best friend, Debbie brought her little sweetie to meet us. It was her first time at Disneyland but I think she was more excited about my boys than Disney and my boys felt the same. They never let her go. (They love her so much! Joey and Zach got buzzes today.)

Our happy family :)

Birthday Party

After soccer and baseball we came right home to celebrate Joey's birthday! My fingers were crossed that the weather would be good. It was suposed to be a lot cooler today but luckily it wasn't because Joey wanted a pool party. His whole baseball team and a bunch of his other friends came so we ended up with 20 boys in the pool. And believe it or not it was really relaxing. They all got along the whole time and it was really fun.
I made red velvet cupcakes and the yummiest frosting. The recipes were from the Magnolia Cookbook. For the frosting you had to make a custard and then mix it into creamed butter and sugar. It was seriously delicous. MMM!

The birthday boy. How did he grow up so fast??





















Having a pool party in October is very economical. I got the water blasters and rafts for 75% off. Whoo hoo. I love a bargin!

soccer boys

Our Saturday's are filled with soccer. I love to see how far Noah and Zach have come. Today we started with pictures and then on to the first game while Joey went to baseball practice.











Noah is so fast and graceful. He just glides when he runs. I love how he was right in the action.

















Zach was so hot. Look at that sweat dripping down his face! He does much better on night games because the heat just wears him out.























This is what they call a Lyons sandwich :)

favorite things

Today I am lovin':
1. working out. I love my gym. When you walk they sell candles so it always smells wonderful.
2. not having to rush this morning.
3. hanging out with my boys.
4. walking over to our pool for some splashing before dinner.
5. making a healthy dinner. the boys helped and I just loved the menu on my placemat and the reserved note on my chair.

6. the cool air as I watched soccer practice.
7. Starbuck's venti iced coffee with sugar free vanilla and low fat milk.
8.