BL's Visit and Disneyland!

For my Birthday present I decided that what would make me happiest (and was actually attainable) would be to have my sister in law BL come visit me. So several months in advance my brother and I started scheming to make it possible. She basically had no choice in the matter! ;-) This required a lot from her - flying across the country alone...something she'd never done before. But I think it was totally worth it, wasn't it BL??



Unfortunately we had a lot of the "May Grey" going on so there weren't any fantastic California beach days, despite it being sunny at my house the whole week!

I drove her by the "Top Gun" house that's in Oceanside. Sadly it's all boarded up and I think it's supposed to be moved or knocked down. Who would want to get rid of that house?? I mean, it's nothing grand but it was still a part of a very famous movie.

Gardens at Stone Brewery for my Birthday lunch with S.

BL had never really had sushi before so for her last dinner out here with me we went to one of my favorite sushi places and got a couple rolls...yes, I know it was very bad for two pregnant women BUT I was super safe with what I ordered AND one of them is tempura. O:-) Most importantly, she really liked it!

Okay so I was trying to plan for us to go see a taping of "America's Got Talent" but unfortunately that fell through. So on the spur of the moment I decided that despite BL and I both being pregnant we should go to Disneyland. This year the Disney parks are having free admission on your birthday so I registered and got my "free" ticket and then went to ITT to pick up BL's ticket. Perfecto, two for the price of one basically! I figured, even if we can't go on the "big" rides, there are plenty of smaller rides and neither of us has ever been to DisneyLAND and if BL is able to make it out to Cali again, it'll be with my brother and the kiddos and Disneyland would be a completely different kind of experience for her (and for me, since I'd have a kiddo too!) So we went...and it was fantastic fun!!

Sleeping Beauty's castle is incredibly smaller than Cinderella's in DisneyWorld...I thought she should complain to Walt.

A note from Mickey thanking me for Celebrating with him, how sweet!

We totally lucked out and happened to enter the park just as Mickey was parading down Main Street USA! Of all the times going to DisneyWorld we used to try so hard to get a picture of him waving at us and here, it wasn't an issue at all!

We went on just about every "small" ride the park had. But there was one in particular I absolutely couldn't miss, not for all the swelling or braxton hicks contractions in the world!

It's a Small World!

It was far more extravagant than DisneyWorld's version (about one of the only things that was) and I loved every second of hearing that song over and over and over and over and over and over again!! :-)

I think as a whole it was a pretty relaxed week with BL. Other than DisneyLand, my shower and a party, we just hung out: went shopping, saw a movie and just caught up on a bunch of talking. Part of what I miss most about being so far away from my family is being able to just hang out. I'm glad BL made the trip out here and that my bro was able to work everything out with some of his awesome friends to help with the girls. It really made my Birthday "week" a fabulous one considering D is gone.

I can't wait until we're able to see eachother again since we'll both have new additions to our families!

Birthdays, Farewells & one more Shower!

I don't think I've ever blogged about this but when D and I moved into this neighborhood, we moved in the same weekend 3 other families moved in on the same street basically all right next to eachother. Instant friends since we were all relatively new. Add in meeting a few of the other surrounding neighbors and you've got, literally, a row of friends.

Anyhoo, we discovered that 3 of us had birthdays in row in May (19, 20, 21) so we knew this year we'd be doing something collectively. Sadly our multi-birthday celebration also acted as a Farewell to our neighbors S&M. :-(

The same neighbor who made my baby shower cake, made our Birthday/Farewell cake and did a beautiful job...see her other masterpieces here.

A bit fuzzy, but the three of us blowing out our candles.

Last year S and I went out to lunch and got pedicures on her birthday in celebration of both of our birthdays (since they're a day apart)...we decided it'd be fun to make it an "annual" event..har har har! This is us in the gardens at the fabulous Stone Brewery. It's a favorite brewer of our hubbies and not only can you take tours of the brewery, but they have a delicious restaurant we discovered is also open for lunch! (And for those of you curious, I'm 31 weeks in this picture.)

Before M could leave, we had to have a baby shower for her! She and S are expecting their second child in September and found out they're having a little girl this time! She couldn't have been happier and we all couldn't help having fun giving her pretty pink girly things despite the fact that she was packing up her house to move! ;-) We were all very sad to see S&M move out and can't wait to see pictures of their new arrival!

If you look closely you'll see that the cake (again done by A!), is a 3D Duck!!

Baby Shower!

The Cake!!

Beautifully done by my neighbor, A.

The Guests!

The gifts!

So many cute little boy clothes!

Lots of Puppy Dogs!

Smocked outfits!

Blankets and blankets and wait...there are even more blankets in there!

The Hostess

Thank you S for a great shower! I know there was a lot of effort, time and money put into making my day super special and I am so grateful!!

I was so happy BL was able to come out and be there with me!! :-)

Once we got everything back to the house, Boo and Luna were a bit un-nerved. Luna kept laying on all the clothes and obviously Boo was anxious to see if anything in the bags was for him! I can already tell that any toy with a squeaky sound will have to be "fought" over between Baby T and Boo! :-)

It was a great shower and I was so thankful for all who came and everyone from near and far who sent Baby T some wonderful and useful gifts! It felt wonderful to know so many people already love and care about him and he hasn't even arrived yet! I'm not quite done with the Thank You notes, but I'm working on them!

Happy 3rd Birthday Boo!

I shared my "Mommy to be Day" with Boo this year as it was his 3rd Birthday! It's hard to believe that he's already 3, probably due to the fact that he's just as energetic, mischievious and "puppy-like" as he's ever been...just bigger and a little smarter.

I tried to made the day as much fun as D would have: trip to the lake, trip to PetsMart, Birthday cake and a steak and rice dinner. He was quite the pampered pup with tons of Boo-only attention (Luna was left, sadly, at home).

Unfortunately I didn't catch any pictures at the lake. We met up with a friend and neighbor of mine who was having a picnic with her two boys. They threw a ball for Boo while they finished up lunch, then we relocated so Boo could get some water time in. As usual he loved it and wasn't ready to leave when I was!

Then we headed to PetsMart where he "picked out" his own presents. (He tried to pee on the package of stuffed animals you see in the picture below but I stopped him and attempted to pick up the raw hide out of it's basket.) So it being his birthday, I bought all of them for him.

Don't let the picture fool you, he actually took his time with the raw hide - about a week and a half. And Luna did get to share in some of it's broken off smaller parts. The stuffed animals...well they lasted longer than I thought they would. The first one died a week later. The only one left now is the big green one and last night he successfully ripped it in half. I've been having a great time picking up fluffy stuffing and catching the squeakers before he eats them.

Enjoying the Birthday cake I got for him. After I snapped this picture he walked over and ate about half of Luna's piece since she was eating "too slowly" for him.

Steak and brown rice dinner. Please note the toy in the picture. He really loved them and I thought he was being cute with them for a couple days. This was the first casualty though. :-)

Overal I think he had a good day of being as spoiled...ok, more spoiled as I could possibly make him. Hopefully next year his daddy can make it an even better day for him!

Happy Mommy to be Day!

My very first Mother's Day bouquet! Who's it from you (and I) wondered??

:-) Such a sweet boy already! He had a little help from his Grandpa T...