Happy #2 to my #3!!

My sweet bug-a-boo baby is 2! She's a delight and pure joy! We are lucky to have her kind, thoughtful spirit in our family! We learn so much for her big heart. Happy Birthday to you!

After our many celebrations, I opted to NOT make a cake! I was worn out and I was suffering from a bad head cold. So, my awesome hubby went out on Saturday night at 10:45 and picked up a Cold Stone Ice Cream cake!! I usually love to make all the cakes, but I just didn't have any energy left to ever do that. Thank goodness for option B!

My sister and her cute family!

Bumpa and  the birthday girl grand daughter

Mommy & daddy with sweet #3

St. Patty's!

In between two of my kid's birthdays, falls St. Patty's day!! So why not have three parties in one week, I say??? This year, the leprechauns came and left a treasure/scavenger hunt, and the one who can read, had just as much fun as the ones who can't! (reading makes life just that much more exciting, like reading the clues the leprechauns left behind!)

Gold coins were left at the end of the hunt!

I think there was some lucky things going on in this house!

We even had green french toast!

And later that day, we had green choc chip oatmeal pecan cookies!

Happy St. Patty's day!!

Sake's alive he's 5!!!

This year, we are doing birthday parties for the kids a little different. We decided to venture outside of our home and have the mess somewhere else! (So much better to come home to a clean house afterwards!) Maddox picked a Laser Tag party, and it was soooo FUN! We piled most of the boys in two cars and headed 35 minutes across town to Laser Quest.

The only girl invited was cousin A. We just love her! :) And Big sis B got to have a girlfriend to hang out with!

The anticipation was too much! It was just a great fun time EVEN waiting for the first game to begin!

I would do it differently next time and get a sitter to keep an eye on baby #3, she was very active the entire time!

We got a "Star Wars" cake, per Maddox's request. It had a "laser tag" feel to it!

Then Sunday, we had a family party for him. It was so nice to see how special we think he is! I love letting my kids know, especially around their birthdays, just how lucky we are to have them in our family!

The spread was breakfast for dinner! We had whole wheat banana pancakes, french toast, hashbrowns, eggs, sausage! It was yummy and one of our family's favorite meals!

For dessert, I made 4 different kinds of cupcakes....oreo & chocolate, chocolate & cadbury egg cupcakes, chocolate mint cupcakes and chocolate potato chip cupcakes! They were a HIT!! I got the idea from one of my favorite baking blogs! You should try them, too...with a secret ingredient of mayonaise in the batter!

I also dipped chocolate strawberries and topped them with our favorite crushed candy bars...reeses peanut butter cups, butterfingers, & snickers. (the snickers were a bit carmel-ly and were tougher to top the starwberries with). But were eaten up in no time!

The weather was absolutely beautiful and we opted for an outdoor/indoor seating arrangements.

To my sweet  year old, I love you so much! I am so blessed to have you in our family. You are kind, loving, happy, smart, funny, and all boy!!!

Valentines

It has been a fantastic February so far. We've been celebrating February 14th the whole month! Starting off with a trip to San Francisco, just Mark & I...we needed the getaway to recharge our love and remember what it was like to be just the two of us. Let me tell ya, it was WONDERFUL! Don't get me wrong, I love being a mom, but it is nice to go back to the basics with the hubby and rekindle all the reasons why we fell for each other in the first place!

The high light was just being together and not worrying about anyone else. We truly had a great trip, it was just the right amount of time to be away from my kids, and to be honest I kept thinking how much fun they would have riding the trolley cars, going to china town and riding the Bart. However, staying down in Fisherman's Wharf was perfect, we were able to walk to the pier at night while smelling the salty air, we even managed to enjoy an Art Gallery with some peace and quiet!

We had a big group date planned the weekend before V-day, going to an Italian Cuisine with 20 people was FUN! Afterwards, a few of us went to a movie, but the kicker was....Our friend has connections with RedRock Casinos Regal Movie Theaters, and he was able to reserve a VIP Booth (which is above the normal theater seats, behind glass) The VIP part; luxurious leather recliners, comped movie tickets, comped concession stand food (AKA: Free candy, soda, water, popcorn!!!) The movie, The Vow, was a great love story, perfect for this holiday weekend.

Oh no, I'm not done. (Although I thought I was after such a great weekend!) Mark came home on Feb 14th not with chocolate, or Roses, jewelry (although I wouldn't complain if he did!) or a sappy love card. Nope. None of that.

He came home with a sweet Kindle Fire. I love it. And was totally surprised!

I must say, I love Valentine's Day just for that element. Surprise. Love. Gifts. Chocolate. Love Notes. Roses. Hugs. Kisses. Need I say more?

Valentine's Day with the kids was FUN! We did homemade Valentine's this year (thanks to Pinterest!)

We put on the cards, "You put the color in my world!" I cut out a bunch of hearts on gussied up V-day cardstock and attached the heart crayons via glue dots!

The kids were decked out in their red clothes and Mark fixed pink pancakes and pink scrambled eggs for breakfast! It was a magical day to say the least!

 Another fun thing I found on pinterest: Free printables! I printed this off and put it in a white frame. I love that we can read this every day! (no pun intended!)