My 36th Birthday

I HAD A FUN BIRTHDAY THAT LASTED 4 DAYS...

MARCH 18 - DAY OF MY BIRTHDAYStarted the day having lunch with my Mother-in-law & my friend Susan at Creekside Grill downtown. I had an avocado and crab wrap. Thank you Mom for lunch!!

That night Scott took us all out to dinner to Fuso Italian Restaurant downtown. I had the eggplant parmesan. The food here is way too rich and heavy for my taste. Thank you Scott for dinner!!

We ended the night with cake and some presents.

MARCH 19 - THE AFTER PARTY
Marlina organized a night out with my friends. We went to Mikuni Sushi Restaurant and ate outside in their heated patio. I liked the Marilyn Monrolls the best. It was in a cute shopping center. So after dinner we browsed The Gap and then had ice cream in the outdoor patio at Ben and Jerry's. Thanks Marlina!!

MARCH 20 - THE 3RD DAY
We went out to dinner with our Uncle Doug who was visiting out of town. We ate at Claim Jumpers in Concord because my father-in-law and Uncle were in San Jose that day watching the NCAA basketball tournament. I had a red velvet mini cake.
MARCH 22 - FINALE
Laurie gave me a spa pedicure at her house. Then she sent me over to Paris to have my toe nails painted. I chose a zebra design. Thanks Laurie!!

Happy St. Patricks Day!!

The girls had their very first home project where they each had to make a Leprechaun trap. All the kids in their class were so creative. However, the teacher put out all the traps the night before St. Patrick's Day and the Leprechaun escaped all the traps! He was nice enough to leave each of them a gold chocolate coin. He had left green little footsteps throughout the class and turned over the chairs and tossed all the crayons and markers all over the place. Leprechauns are not only clever but they make huge messes!Here's a close up of Carissa's trap. As the Leprechaun reaches the end of the path for the pot of gold, his foot gets caught in the loop of the thread and he ends up hanging upside down, for on the other side of the thread is a heavy weight.

Here's a close up of Maia's trap. As the Leprechaun reaches the end of the path for the pot of gold, he falls through a camouflaged trap door.

Birthday Breakfast - March 9

Scott took the day off of work to give the girls an extra special day on their birthday since Mommy was away. He made them breakfast in bed (all their favorites) for their birthday : bacon, sausage, (bacon & sausage shaped like a "6"), strawberries with chocolate syrup, and chocolate milk.

Their class had a fundraiser at Round Table that night. So Scott took the girls for a pizza birthday dinner.

Happy 6th Birthday Carissa & Maia!!

Birthday Party Invitation. Looks just like a concert ticket, huh? Ordered them online.

We had a Rock Star Birthday themed party for them. We celebrated it on March 6 because I was going to be away for 4 days for a photography conference in Vegas. Their birthday is actually on March 9th. In the past I let them invite one friend each. This was the first year I allowed them to invite 3 friends each (they chose girls from their Kindergarten class). We had a hair, nail, and glamour skin stations for the girls to rotate around to before they performed on the stage that Scott made. We had disco lights, a real microphone with amplifier speaker, guitars, tambourine, and a drum.
It was a very fun and successful party (which means: no crying).

I made this poster on photo shop to display on an easel for the party.
I also made 8x10 copies to the give to each of the girls.

Their Best Friend, Hailey was the star of the show. She played the guitar, sang, and danced her heart out with some really awesome moves. Hailey, Maia, and Carissa all have matching outfits from Justice purchased special just for the party.

We had Candace come and do a Rock Star show for them with her guitar! The girls loved her!
This cake was custom made by their Kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Shannon Feins. It's a chocolate cake with Oreo filling. It looked amazing and tasted sooo good! She even personally delivered the cake and brought the girls presents. She's such an awesome teacher.These are all the presents they received! Can you believe how many Barbies they got?

Mommy & Me Day - March 4

I took Carissa out for a special night with just her and I. I like to give them individual attention to let them know that I love them. I try to do it once a month. I took Maia out last time to Borders for a hot chocolate (they have the best...and she loves hot chocolate). I took Carissa out last night to Fenton's and got the Leprechaun sundae with french fries. It's huge! Of course we took 90% of it home. Then I took her to her favorite store: Sanrio (Hello Kitty store). We had a fun night together.

Carissa Pulls Out Her Own Tooth! - Feb. 21

During Sunday dinner we started talking about how loose her tooth was. She had already lost one tooth a couple of months ago, but this one for some reason didn't want to come out. It had been extremely loose for the past month. She ate an apple at dinner but it was still intact. Then she started playing with it and pulled it out herself! I was so surprised. She thought it was so funny! The tooth fairy came that night and gave her a dollar with pink sparkly hearts painted all over it. She loved it! Carissa has lost 2 teeth now and Maia hasn't lost any. These pictures are a reenactment of what happened.

CA Academy of Sciences - Feb. 17

Front of Museum

Living Roof

Riley Family on Living Roof
Carissa looking into the grand aquarium tank

The girls were off of school for a week, so I took them to this museum in SF because the 3rd Wed of each month is free. It's a very expensive museum: adults $25, teens $20, kids $15. It's a nice museum, but defiantly not worth $25. I was disappointed that there wasn't any interactive activities/displays for kids, dinosaurs, or gems/rocks. I did like the living roof and the 4 story rainforest (beware it's super humid in the rainforest sphere). If you ever go on free day, you must be ok with crowds and get there no later than 9am (parking is bad and the line to get in is long). It was fun seeing the Riley family there.

http://www.calacademy.org/

Last Day in Gymnastics - Jan. 16

I took this photo on their last day of Gymnastics. They were in the Rockets class at Ariels. They liked gymnastics but wanted to try something different: Ballet.

Award Ceremony - January 25

Vacaville has a photo contest each year and I entered it. There were about 300 photo entries. I won 3rd place. I was pretty thrilled. I was presented with an award by the Mayor at the VV City Council of Chambers meeting last week. Here is the photo with the Mayor and the photo I had entered. The Visitors Bureau will be using the photo on their website (www.visitvacaville.com) and on brochures. I just looked at the website and it's not posted yet.