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!

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.