Pink Skygirls Soccer

Soccer began today! Just when you thought we couldn't add another activity to our already growing list, here we are. Sarah was very excited to start again. She took the spring off, not by choice, so she was glad to get back at it. It helped too that there was a girl from her class on her team and that the uniforms were pink. Not sure how the group came to the decision of the name The Skygirls, but it is cute! Us moms think it has something to do with all the pink sunsets we have had lately. Hermosa Beach is truly a beautiful place to live.



So today was their first game. Although they played good and hard, they still got beat by the Teal Dragons 3-0. Sarah started out as goalie and gave up 2 goals, but she saved a lot more. When it was her turn on offense, she almost scored 2 herself, but just no luck today. The main thing is she had fun and it was a great day for soccer. Looking forward to a great season!



Oh yea...the girls also started dance this week. Hip Hop for Sarah and Ballet/Tap for Lauren.



Since I didn't post about their recitals this summer here are some photos from that. They both did awesome and put on great shows.

So if you are keeping score:
Lauren: gymnastics & ballet/tap
Sarah: Art, Hip Hop, Soccer, ice skating, and Irish Dance (3 times a week)
Did I mention I am trying to get her on a Brownie troop, too?? Thursday is our only open day, so if they don't meet on Thursday, we are out!

Labor Day Weekend on Coronado Island

This past weekend Sarah had a Feis (Irish Dance Competition) in San Diego. Since it is such a beautiful city and the drive could take anywhere from 3-4 hours, I decided we should go down the day before and make a little girls weekend out of it. Just me and my 2 girls!


Lucky for us, the hotel where the competition was being held had sold out, so I used that to justify getting to stay at one of the best hotels in country, Hotel del Coronado. I had visited this hotel in the past, but had never actually stayed. It did not disappoint. The girls loved it so much we already are trying to figure out when we should go back. Out hotel room was probably our least favorite part, but it was still nice. We did not reserve an ocean view room, but we did have a small view of the bay from the back side of the hotel. This turned out to be good because we got to see fireworks later that night.

The views from our room

The first thing we did was shop and do a little scavenger hunt they had set up for the girls. They got to go on the hunt for stickers at different locations around the hotel. Once they got all of them, then they got a prize out of the treasure chest at the kids club. We then went to the beach and it was quite nice. The sand was soft and the beach very flat. It was an easy walk out to the waves. (Here in Hermosa it can feel like quite the trek most times) The water was too freezing for my liking, but it didn't seem to bother the girls. After the beach we went up to the pool and I let Sarah swim for a little bit. Lauren lounged poolside like the little princess she is.

My favorite little shop

After that we went back to the room and got ready for dinner. We had a nice dinner at the hotel restaurant Sheerwater. (This is 1 of about 4-5 restaurants at the hotel) When that was done we headed back out to the beach for some sunset pictures. Thankfully the girls amused me and let me take about 200 pictures of them. It usually takes that many for me to really get some good shots. Then it was ice cream and off to bed.




The next morning we enjoyed the breakfast buffet at the hotel. It was amazing. Then we headed down the road to the competition. Sarah did great as usual. This time she placed 1st in the Hornpipe, 2nd in the St. Patrick's Day dance, 3rd in the Light Jig, and 4th in the Reel and Single Jig. She had a lot of fun and we all did the whole weekend. It went by too fast!

1st Day of 2nd Grade

One of my all time favorite writers is James Barrie. He was the author of Peter Pan. If you ever go searching through his writings and his quotes, you will find he wrote a lot about growing up, having hope in the unknown, relishing being young, and about childhood dreams in general. One of my favorite ones I found from the movie Finding Neverland, was this one:

"Young boys (or girls) should never be sent to bed, for when they wake up they are a day older."

Now whether or not Mr. Barrie himself actually uttered these words or it was a line written in the script for Johnny Depp to read (he played Barrie in the movie), is beside the point. It has great meaning for me and on days such as yesterday when you take your baby to school and you realize she in the 2nd grade, you sort of wonder, where the time has gone.

Sarah and her BFF

I am so grateful I have a child that loves school. I am sure there will come a day when she does not, but for now she is absolutely giddy with excitement. Even when we found out she only knew 3 boys in her hew class and no girls, she wasn't phased a bit. She is a very social girl and has never had a problem making new friends. She loves being around all her friends, she loves learning new things, she loves wearing new school clothes, and she seems to like her new teacher. As a mom, it makes me happy knowing that when I drop her off everyday, the place she spends the majority of her childhood, is a happy place for her.



She said yesterday, "Mom before you know it, I will be in the 3rd grade" and I responded with, "Before I know it you will be going off to college!" Sort of makes me not want to put her to bed tonight and just hold her close and try to keep her from growing up.

Mr. Barrie knew a thing or 2 about children and life and about how as humans it is a struggle to deal with the fact that things change and will never be the same. I feel I can relate to so much of what James Barrie wrote about and cared about. I encourage you to watch Peter Pan again (and this time, not through the eyes of a child.) I also encourage you to watch this movie:


Not only is Johnny Depp amazing as ever, but it is such a touching, beautiful movie. One of my favorites of all time!

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.

Stella and Dot: I'm a Stylist Now!

I first heard about Stella and Dot in August of last year. A friend had invited me to a trunk show, and although I could not attend, I looked at everything online and just loved it! During this time we were planning our out of state move and in the back of my mind I thought I might like to try this once we got settled. In May I hosted a trunk show for a stylist I met out here and it was a great success. My party grossed over $1000, which meant I got tons of free jewelry for hosting the party (about $430 worth, along with 4- 1/2 priced items), so I was hooked! It is now June, we just closed on our house in CA, we are settled, and I am ready to take on a new opportunity. That is how I look at this.

An opportunity to get lots of great jewelry to wear.
An opportunity to do something that makes me happy and gives me an outlet from being just mom.
An opportunity to meet lots of new people and reconnect with my friends I had out here from before.
An opportunity to make a little money to spend on my cute kids.
An opportunity to run that business I have always wanted to, but was too afraid to take the leap!

I am in the beginning phases of my business. I am looking to book trunk shows for anyone interested in getting FREE jewelry and I will have my launch party once the new Fall line comes out later this summer!

To me the jewelry and the company is so much more than any at-home party product I have seen before. (Being from TX, I have been to my fair share of at-home parties. It is what we do.) This stuff is so cute, so versatile, so well made, and so much fun! If you aren't familiar with Stella & Dot, please check out my button to the side. It is a link to my website. You can buy jewelry at any time. You are not bound to just attending a show. I know a lot of you that read do not live near me anymore, so just know you can still support me and enjoy the jewelry at anytime! I know you will love it as much as I do!

Here are some photos from my 1st trunk show that I hosted in May
Cinco de Mayo!!