Thanksgiving 2011- San Antonio

We had a wonderful week in San Antonio visiting my dad and step mom. Opa and Myrtle as my kids call them! We enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving Day with yummy food, LOTS of football (thank the lord the Cowboys won), a beautiful day, and many blessings to be thankful for. Here are some photos from the week!

Mi Tierra Mexican restaurant. This is how it looks 365 days a year. So much fun! A usual hang out for us. Great food, drinks, music, atmosphere, and Mexican bakery! Go HERE to check it out!

The day after Thanksgiving we spent the afternoon in Gruene (pronounced Green), TX. It is just north of New Braunfels and is a great little, picturesque town. Great antique shopping, food, and I noticed a rather cute honky tonk there too! Gruene is located right on the river, so in the summer I imagine that is a hot spot.

We had dinner at the Gristmill that over looks the river. Go HERE to see more. Very pretty place with great food!

The girls even enjoyed a little cookie decorating with Opa & Myrtle

One last shot before I leave you....my sweet pilgrim!

Thankful

Once again it is Thanksgiving and I am so thankful for so many things. It is almost too many to list. We are in San Antonio with my dad and step mom. So right off the bat I am thankful for family and the fact that I am not the one cooking the turkey this year! It sure does smell good and I did not have to get up at 6am to do it!

But in all seriousness, I am thankful for my family, my sweet, darling girls, my wonderful husband, the health of my family, the perfectly beautiful day today and the feast we are about to eat. I am so thankful for all of our friends, old and new. We are thankful for the beautiful place in Hermosa Beach that we now call home. We are truly blessed and are reminded every night when the gorgeous sunset melts into the Pacific and we are listening to the lullaby of the ocean waves. Even though there are people we miss and wish were here with us, I am thankful to have had them in my life and and thankful for the many memories. I am thankful for the wonderful country we live in and the life I was born into. I am so glad we have a holiday in which we spend the day reflecting on our blessings and not what we don't have. In addition to the meal, the football, the parades, etc....it is truly a wonderful day that everyone, every human being, can partake in and be a part of. Happy Thanksgiving!

La mia Italia: Vernazza & Monterosso

My mother-in-law told me this morning about how there had been horrible flooding and mudslides in Cinque Terre (specifically Vernazza and Monterosso). So I quickly went online and googled Vernazza flood 2011 and this is what I found:

VIDEO

Unbelievable. This actually happened on October 25th. I can't believe this is the first I had heard of it. This was a gorgeous spot in the beautiful Italian Riviera. We were there in 2007 and just loved it. We actually had stayed in Riomaggiore, but Vernazza was every one's favorite of the 5 hillside towns. Here is what it looked like on our trip.

Sarah being a pouty baby sitting water's edge.

You can go HERE (SAVE VERNAZZA) to help with the clean-up and rebuilding effort.

Halloween Recap 2011

We had a great first Halloween in Hermosa this year. My little angels were, well, actually and angel and an angelfish. We had some friends over for dinner and then went down to the walk streets for 'trick-or-treating'. It was quite the scene and I was very happy to see that the residents really do participate and make it fun for the kids. After 3 walk streets their buckets were full and they were ready to come home and survey the damage.








Leading up to the big day, Lauren had her harvest festival at her school, Sarah had a Halloween carnival at her school and she had a Pippi Longstocking Day on Halloween. We also did a little pumpkin shopping to pick out the perfect pumpkin to carve for the annual McDonald Family Pumpkin Carving Contest. We used Facetime to be a part of the action and it was quite fun!









We ended our Halloween week, with a broken arm for Sarah (scooter accident) and new glasses for Lauren!

Fun Times in Southern California

At the end of September we had the luxury of having a 4 day weekend. I am not sure if it was because it was a Jewish holiday, or just a couple of furlough days the school had to fit in, but we had a blast with our time off. On the Thursday, a friend of mine and I decided to take the girls to Disneyland. We surprised them, of course, because it is so much more fun that way! My friend and I have 7 year-olds that are BFF's and we have younger girls that are only about a year apart, so it is nice to get together and hang out. Moms are happy and girls are happy! I am very lucky to have made such a good friend and gotten to know this woman in my area and I am even more lucky that our kids love each other!

So here are some pics from that fun day! Disney was all decked out for Fall and Halloween, so extra fun for the kiddos!






On Friday, I decided to take Sarah and Lauren to the American Girl Place at The Grove in LA. This is a fall tradition for us. We love to go have a girls day having lunch in the bistro/cafe and then doing a little shopping. In addition, it gives me a chance to find out what is good for their Santa list this Christmas! Since Lauren's birthday was a couple of weeks from when we went, I let her pick out her first real American Girl Doll to replace her Bitty Baby. She picked the Kanani doll and loves her very much! What a wonderful day with my girls! I just love them!

Lauren's Tinkerbell/Peter Pan 4th Birthday Party

What a lovely little magical party Lauren had this weekend! I owe it all to the special guests that came to celebrate Lauren's birthday with her.


I usually go all out on these parties, but decided that since our beach house isn't quite spacious enough to host lots of little kids running around, to go easy this year. I booked the local park, got a bounce house, made some cupcakes from a box mix, and hired some spectacular entertainers to do all the hard work of entertaining the kiddos. Lauren really wanted a Tinkerbell theme, but because we know a few more boys out here than we did back home in TX, I turned it into a Peter Pan theme to accommodate. Here are the photos and few details.

The Details:
Location: Valley Park, Hermosa Beach
Entertainers: True Enchantment Entertainment
Bounce House: Planet Bouncy
Invitations, stickers, cupcake toppers: Katie Belle Paperie
Tutus/Fairy Wings: Designed 2B Sweet
Party Favors: Party City

Birthday Girl

Today my Lauren is 4! As I posted on Facebook, she is certainly made of sugar, but she is definitely more spice. Anyone who knows her knows that she is my wild child. She is not the quite perfect angel like her older sister, but rather an attention getting, independent, little devil! Well, not really a little devil. She is my Lauren. She has that look in her eye and you know she is up to no good and is not going to listen to a word you say, but she is sweet as honey. Momma...Momma...Momma, is what I hear all day long from her. The best is at night when I get an "I love you momma". "I want a hug and a kiss", she tells me. I love that she cuddles up next to me on the couch. It rather interferes with my right arm and its mobility to surf the net or check FB, but oh how it melts my heart that that is her favorite spot to sit in the living room. She is my chocolate milk drinking, cheese loving, sweet tooth little girl. Her only real fruit or veggie she eats is the occasional banana, apple slice or 2, the baby food sweet potatoes I don't know how she can eat, and the grapes that take her 10 minutes to eat for just one. She completely dissects it to get out any strange seeds or textures she has found. I can FINALLY say that she is sleeping through the night on a regular basis. Something about this saltwater, smog infused air that must be doing her some good. She no longer wakes up crying multiple times during the night and this is making mommy and daddy very happy. It also makes her very well rested and ready to take on her many activities. She does gymnastics and ballet/tap every week and faithfully attends all of Sarah's hip hop, soccer, ice skating, and Irish dance practices and cheers her on. "Now that I am 4 momma, I am going to take Irish dance, ice skating, and soccer too," she tells me! Oh my! We are already out between the hours of 3:30-6:30 5 days out of the week doing activities. Where my I ask are we going to fit all this in?? Not only does she want to try all these things, but she is my little American Idol in training. She sings and raps in the backseat of the car to all her little Justin Beiber and Shake It Up songs, and I will post (one I get it filmed) her rendition of "Watch Me" from Shake It Up. SOOO CUTE!

And somewhere in the midst of all this going on, she is my little religious child. This aspect of Lauren is one that I find very sweet, but very humorous, all at the same time. Although we do talk to our girls about God and Jesus and the Bible, they are not exposed to church every Sunday, Sunday school, and lots of religion talk. Lauren, however, going to her church pre-school amazes us and catches us off guard often with what she is learning. I was once asked out-of-the-blue at dinner one night if I was a good Samaritan? Which when I said yes, and asked her back if she was, she said, "No, I am a bad Samaritan!" Another time I mentioned to the girls that we would go to Barnes & Noble so Sarah could pick out a new chapter book, which Lauren's response was "and I can get a Bible!" She also recently drew me a picture on the Ipad of Jesus on the cross. She used to draw rainbows and smiley faces. She also sings countless songs that are the type you would learn at Vacation Bible School. She also likes to tell us about all the Bible stories she is learning. We are quite impressed and humored at the same time that she is our little theologian.

So there she is...my little Lauren...my little 4 year-old. My beautiful little child who can bring a smile to my face, melt my heart, and drive me a little bit crazy all at the same time. Tonight when I tucked her in bed, I turned on her Twilight turtle, wound up her music box, and got the sweetest hug and kiss from her. She was happy, content, and loving her star-filled room, with Beauty and the Beast playing on the music box, and dreaming of her party tomorrow. No words can describe how much I love this little child.

Recent cute words/phrases:
zizzors - scissors
"I got my bangs back" - when we got her bangs cut right before school started.

Photos: Many thanks to my friend Anna Stokes for capturing these adorable images of Lauren. GO HERE to see her website!