About Me

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Ripon, CA, United States
I am a stay at home mom who loves crafts, scrapbooking, baking, surfing the web, and chasing my kids around. I just realized the house is NEVER going to be clean again. I have an amazing husband who is patient, loving and who cooks and cleans. We've been married for over ten years now. This is our life.

Wednesday, November 07, 2012

Pumpkin Patch


We finally made it to the Pumpkin Patch on AJ's birthday.  That is what he wanted to do that day.  That followed by lunch at Pizza Plus!  OK!  I'll take it!

Riding the train.  Nate got kinda nervous.

The silly signs.


Can anybody see me? -Nate

AJ was just about done with pictures at this point.

Smile, you're in jail!  If only...for a day.  Just kidding.

Mining for precious stones.  Pop Pop would be impressed with us I'm sure.

AJ found some!!

Looking for some more.

The boys loved to climb and play on the huge tires.

We almost left without picking out pumpkins.  We were so tired, and HOT and hungry for pizza.

AJ looking for the perfect pumpkin.

We found it.  Everyone help dad pick it up.

Nate! Nate! Where are you going?

Apparently, Nate changed his mind and wanted THAT one!  So we got both!

Here's our jack o lanterns!

AJ wanted a robot pumpkin, which Taro drew and cut out.  Of course.  Isn't it awesome??!!It's a father and his robot son according to AJ and the designer.

I, on the other hand, opted for an easy design.






Thursday, November 01, 2012

A Year in the Making

AJ's 4th Birthday Party
My son has been talking about having a pirate birthday party since before his 3rd birthday.  I'm NOT kidding.  I was shopping for his truck party LAST year at Target and we saw some pirate swords in the party section.  I told him it was too bad he wasn't having a pirate party because we could get some swords for all his friends.  He told me right then that his next party was going to be a pirate party.  I thought he would forget all about it, but he did not.  Instead, he talked about it all year long. So here's the party that he's been waiting for all year.




A closer look at some of the fun stuff.

Ocean Water (Blueberry jello) cups with Orange Pirate Ship slices.  I made tiny black flags from cardstock and placed a sticker on the front.  I glued those to a toothpick and stuck it in the orange.  In the background, I used a glass trifle bowl to fill with goldfish.

Chocolate Pirate Ship cupcakes.  I found the pattern for the sails and the cupcake wrappers online for free.

Taro MADE this treasure chest!  It was awesome.  The kids carried it all over the back yard.

 Grape Swords.


Pirate's Booty in a homemade crate.  Tootsie Rolls to go with our red, black and white theme.  I also cut down large red and white popcorn boxes I had to make for little snack sized chips boxes.
 
 Lemonade Cups with Pirate Stickers

The unfortunate cake mishap.  Okay, more like disaster!  It WAS a really cute pirate ship with a tootsie roll "wooden" railing.  I had chocolate Whoppers ready for the cannonballs and some huge white sails to put on top.  I made it the night before and when I woke up I found it like this!  EEEK!.  I had to send my husband to the store to find something else. Note to self:  Use cake supports next time when trying to make a fancy, shaped cake.


It was a beautiful morning, so the kids played outside.


Walking the Plank.




Birthday boy didn't want to get in the picture!

Arr!  Matey!

Goodie bags that say "Aye! Hands off me loot!"  I filled them with Hershey's Gold nugget bars and chocolate gold coins.

The birthday boy in his pirate's outfit that my mom made for him.  So cute!


I've already been told that next year's party will have a Knight theme with shields and swords.  Oh, dear.  I may have started something here!