Back to Blogging

So, If I have anybody left who still checks to see if I am blogging, I am back! I decided to take the summer off. I have not been busy every single second and could have found the time to blog, but just didn't feel like it. I was having such a great time just enjoying life. Something about sitting down at the computer almost every night to journal my day, sort of felt like homework to me! However, I started this blog to be a memory book of sorts for our family and my kids to have one day. SO I find that I NEED to get back to blogging.

So what did we do all summer?? As for our family, we didn't do the vacation thing this year. Instead, Charlie's family came out to visit us for the 4th of July week. We had a wonderful time visiting, eating, playing games, going to the beach, sight-seeing, etc...Here are some pics from the week.

Lobster Dinner rooftop

The McDonald Family in Palos Verdes

4th of July

Sarah was busy doing camps and Irish dance competitions. Sarah started her camps with a dance (all-in-one) camp. It was basically hip-hop, jazz, yoga, musical theater, cheerleading, and music everyday. She then did a couple of weeks of beach camp, an Irish dance camp, and soccer camp. Amidst all that, she continued to do her art classes, ice skating classes, and upped her Irish dance classes to 2 days a week. She also competed in 3 competitions this summer and did well in all of them. So a lazy summer she did not have, but a fun one for sure.

Sarah's 1st Feis

2nd Feis medals

Soccer Camp

Her team (U.S.A.) won the mock tournament

Lauren continued to do gymnastics and asked me weekly when she would start ballet up again. She is excited for next week! She spent most of her days at the summer camp at her daycare, however, we did pull her out some to do some fun activities. She had some play dates with friends, we went to the Aquarium of the Pacific and the Natural History Museum.

Ready for Pirate Fest at the Aquarium

Natural History Museum

Charlie has been a busy, busy worker bee. He has worked 2 bike races (Tour of France and Tour of Colorado) and has been hard at work prepping for his new gig as the producer of the weekly college football game on FX. This is the FOX network's 1st year of doing college football and Charlie was picked to be the producer. It is sort of a big deal and a big promotion for him. It has been a lot of hard work, but it has taken him all over the country for press and media days, he has had some fancy dinners out (which is the part I am jealous of), and has been on the phone or computer about 99% of the summer. A restful summer at the beach he did not have, but he loves what he does.

I have been busy carting kids around to play dates, camps and competitions, as you can imagine. On July 22nd, I became the primary care giver extraordinaire to our dog Peaches. She decided to jump off our tall bed and dislocated her hip and had to have emergency surgery to keep it back in place. I do love my sweet old dog to death, but a good patient she is not. She is supposed to rest and recuperate and she has done everything in her power to be nothing put active and disobedient. We are in the last 2 weeks of this healing period where I have to carry her up and down the stairs (we live in a 3 story house) and I am not allowed to let her jump on anything. (Mind you her favorite place to be is on the couch). I will be so glad when she is back to "normal".... And somewhere between being mom and dog nurse, I have been working at my new business of being a Stella & Dot Stylist. I LOVE this job and have had great success my first 3 months in business. Every month has been better than the one before. If you are not familiar with this product, you need to go check it out and fall in love with it like I did!

www.stelladot.com/tamaramcdonald

Poor Peaches

So there is our summer, busy, but fun! The fall looks to be even busier and even more fun. I love that we decided to move to Hermosa Beach. I think it is suiting us well.

I will be back to blogging more frequently now, in fact, I will post tomorrow about 1st Day of School and next week about our girls weekend to San Diego for Labor Day.

Why I love July

One might think I love July because of my birthday or just simply because it is the summer, but the reason I love it is because of the 4th of July. What is not to love...warm weather, red-white-blue, fireworks, hot dogs, blueberry pie, watermelon, swimming, baseball, and lemonade. I have always loved this holiday..well, I actually love all the holidays...but I LOVE this one. This years was pretty picture perfect in my book. First off....Charlie was home. This can be rare in July. With the Tour de France, baseball, NASCAR, and a whole host of other random sporting events that happen this time of year, he 9 out of 10 times, is not home. It was a huge treat to have him this year. So on Saturday we took our kids to Southlake to see the fireworks and partake in the festivities a little bit. It had rained earlier that day, so it was actually very pleasant outside. We ate dinner at the Cheesecake Factory..always a crowd pleaser, and walked around the Town Square a little. We got the girls ice cream and then we parked our chairs in prime viewing position for the fireworks. Luckily there was a little 3 year-old girl sitting next to us who was very sweet and kept the girls very entertained while we waited for it to get dark. The girls had glow necklaces, so that was a treat.





Then the fireworks began....an oh, boy did they ever. Lauren about had a heart attack and was scared to death for the whole 20 minutes. You could not have pried her off of Charlie's shoulder if you tried. Poor thing was terrified. Sarah on the other hand loved it. As did I! I got to practice taking shots with my new camera and had a blast. I think the photos turned out decently well for my first try so I was pleased!
What do you think?



The next day, on the 4th, we hosted our family and close family friends over for swimming and a cookout. The girls loved having their friends over to play with them. I was so glad all of our family could come. I wish my older brother and my dad and step mom lived closer so they could have attended. We had Charlie's parents, his aunt, uncle, and cousin, his brother and sister-in-law, and her mom, my brother and sister-in-law, and her parents and grandmother, and then our friends who live the next neighborhood over that have 2 girls Sarah and Lauren's age. They had a blast swimming. The little ones played in the baby pool and the older girls swam in the big pool. Sarah really needs to learn to swim...we almost had a catastrophe b/c she lost her kick board in the middle of the pool. I have never been more frantic. All is well, though.









We had sooo much food. We grilled hot dogs, hamburgers, chicken kabobs, beans, salads, deviled eggs, appetizers, cookies, brownies, and blueberry cobbler. Out of all that, the cobbler was the only thing I got around to snapping a photo of. It is hard to play host and photographer at the same time! Go HERE to get the recipe for the cobbler.

It was a great afternoon/evening and a wonderful weekend. It was back to reality today as Charlie jetted off to work and we started a new week. Hope you all had a wonderful 4th of July weekend!

Weekend in San Antonio

We started off the weekend by catching some local fireworks on Friday night! It was a great display!


The next day we headed down to S.A. to see my Dad, Myrtle, Taylor and Randi. We had a great trip down (no big tantrums in the car, by Lauren. Actually got a little bit of a nap!) We headed down to the riverwalk that evening. Yes, it was about 105 degrees, but we suffered through with a little mexican food and margaritas from Casa Rio and then a nice little river tour. We hadn't done that in a hundred years, so it was fun to take the girls on it! We brushed up on our S.A. river facts, so it was a success!



The next day, we took Sarah to Sea World. A big thank you to "Opa" and Myrtle for watching Lauren. She would have been miserable in the sweltering heat out there. Sarah had a blast! Her favorite part was getting splashed by the Shamu's (there were 3 of them) and I must admit that was my favorite part, too! Took me back to my childhood when we came to the park. That was always the highlight! That night we had a nice little birthday dinner for your's truly! My dad cooked steaks and Myrtle made these fantastic pies. It was a nice little trip and I am glad we got to visit with everyone! Sarah and Lauren had a blast with Opa and staying in a hotel was a highlight for them. Hope everyone had a great 4th of July!

Happy 4th of July weekend!

We are off to good ol' San Antone for the weekend to visit my family! Sarah is looking forward to going to Sea World and taking a little road trip. Lauren has not a clue, but I know she will enjoy seeing her Opa and having a new place to explore! I will post pictures when we get back! I hope everyone enjoys the 4th and all the traditions that come with it. This year we will be having the celebratory "tamales and margaritas" so if you are reading this, have a hot dog and blueberry pie for me! We hope you and yours have a great (and safe) holiday weekend! Happy Birthday USA!


Love these cupcakes from Martha Stewart!














This was our attempt (Sarah and I) last year for the 4th of July. Very Yummy!