movie in the park

If it can be {legally} done in a park, we did it this summer.



Well except just going to the park to play. 


That's old school.


Aside from the concerts in the park which we faithfully attended each week, we saw a movie in the park too (in La Mesa...cause we're fancy).




We wore our jammies so we could plop right into bed afterwards:


 







 We set out our summertime quilt which has accompanied us to all of our outdoor fun this summer.  But of course that wasn't "blanket enough" for Mariah, she had to bring her own as well...













I love love LOVE the girls' Pottery Barn chairs. 

I love them. 

I love how cute they are.

I love the fabric.

I love how compact they are.

I love the little carrying bags they come with.

I love saying they're from Pottery Barn. 



They were worth every penny.











If they had them in adult sizes (or even bigger child sizes that I could squeeze into), you can bet me and Jesse would have matching ones.  But as it is, we had to borrow old yellow ones from Nana.  :(  Not so cute.

The "big" screen:

10 minutes later:

 

 

I only really saw the second half of the movie, because for the first half I was playing with my best friend (under 4 feet tall):



 








Man, he's cute. 


I love him. 

Him and those Pottery Barn chairs.















He makes me happy.











But then he had to leave, cause babies have earlier curfews or whatever.  :(


So the girls and I all cuddled up on that summertime quilt to watch the movie.  I wasn't looking forward to this movie, but I really enjoyed it...it was super cute.




A really huge bug crawled on Mariah, it was hilarious.

 Fun night!!

crafts & crazy cats

The girls and I spent some time making fun stuff this past weekend.










I made felt cupcakes:











And the girls worked on sewing American Girl felt pencil toppers that I got them:











You can see from these faces...it's hard work:













But the results made us happy:













And through it all, since we had taken over Missy's favorite place to nap (the kitchen table-gross), she crawled into the next best place.









My work-in-progress basket.  She looked a little squished, but apparently she liked it.








Looking at her all twisted and contorted like that reminded me of how I feel most nights when there's 3 kids in the bed with me.


But just like her, I make do.  At least I don't have my face crushed up against a wire basket, like she did.  I shouldn't complain.

banquet

I so look forward to the Drill Team awards banquet every year. 

Partly because it's fun to be around friends,

partly because it's so sweet to watch the girls reminisce about the year behind them,

and mostly because it's held at Souplantation.


 And I love Souplantation.  :)


Two years we made dvds as a gift for each of Arissa's team mates, one year I made Sherry that knitted Drill Team doll, but this year I was not "with it" enough to plan ahead for anything at all.

Two days before the banquet, I decided to take photos of Arissa with each of the girls and then I figured we'd just stick them in some little frames.  But little frames weren't cheap to come by at the time, with one day's notice, so I got out my trusty die-cutter and made little doo-dads myself.






I used the pictures I had taken of Arissa with each girl, then she wrote a little note to each of them.  Tied it off with some drill team colored ribbon et voila.








The banquet was so much fun (and the food was so good!).








Arissa got to celebrate her mom-away-from-home. 








And somebody thought I was special too!







Even Jesse!

build a bear

My contributions to this year's 4th of July bbq were minimal.



:(  


I felt a little bad.

I did throw some fabric together and make this banner:

And I threw together some super simple ingredients to make cherry cobbler, which Arissa had the genius idea to add blueberries to so that when served with ice cream, it's red white and blue.

Just like the centerpiece flowers:

 Here's a super awesome thing that comes from procrastinating....



ALL the 4th of July stuff I bought was 1/2 off, because I waited till the 3rd of July to buy it!




3 pretty, tulle skirts like this one:














 And this dress, from Macy's:



 










Jesse and I didn't buy new clothes, but we ended up being all red/white&blue ourselves:








 We bbq'd, spent time with family, tried to stay in the shade.








Mariah tried to squish my Nana.














 








stars and stripes:










I now know why my Grandma cringes now whenever I corner her and try and get a picture. Being on the other side of the lens is not that fun.



Mallory was a real paparazzi with her cousin's camera so I had to try and suck in my stomach and angle my head correctly whenever she snuck up on me:
















Mariah wins the award for 'Most Pit-Stops at the Buffet While Riding Your Bike in Circles', I'd say.























The girls and half of their Kamenski cousins whom they adore:



















Any of the 4 cousins come around, and my girls are all over them, wanting to play, wanting to talk, wanting to ask more questions than anyone should ever have to endure. They look forward to any get together where they will be there!



We played cards.

 











M&M mostly tried to distract their cousins & keep them from winning...











Fun fun fun.

Then we said bye to Nana, and she brought in her flag (and I tricked her into looking at the camera so I could get a picture....ha ha Nana).

 
 






 

Arissa Turns 11, Part Two, the Party

Arissa wanted a 50's theme for her birthday party.

Well, it would be more accurate to say she wanted a "sock hop" theme. 

Because we started planning a party around what we considered "50's music", only to find that all those songs are actually from the 60's.  :)

Either way, there were poodle skirts and "oldies" on the jukebox (ipod) and it was a fun party.

I made more laminated bingo cards:

We had classic American fare for lunch, burgers and root beer floats:








My cool retro straws, I love them so much:









Jesse let us borrow some of his records for a record-toss.  I told the girls to relax and have fun with the records, but just don't drop them or scratch them or else Jesse will make you pay with your life cause those are vintage.  :) 










There was a hula hoop contest!  That was fun.  Gabby was a real star:








The pretty retro-looking cake that Arissa and I designed:











And oh my goodness, my little friend was there!  Looking all sweet and trying to distract me from throwing the party.

I mean LOOK at that face and bald little head.








Arissa snatched him for a bit:








Then Nana got ahold of him somehow and it was all over for me. 

Babies love her. 

He was done with me.  :(










"At the end of the day" (Jesse hates that phrase) it was a great party and a fun time.  Then we rushed out of there to go to Mormon night with the Padres.  Which also happened to be towel night!  Woot woot!