birthday catch up

we had quite a few birthdays in april & may.

paully wally celebrated his big day with a morning song and waffle cake. we had a sitter come over in the evening and we had a relaxing birthday dinner sans kids.

next up were some cousin b-days.

little w turned 3! she had a fairy party and looked like a little angel floating around. the boys wanted in on the fairy action too. the were running around shooting each other and jumping off big things with their fairy wings in tact.

this big guy turned 5 with a high 5 themed party!

the mustaches were a big hit.

next up my big guy turned 5!! he had all the boys from his preschool class join us for lunch at the new chuck e cheese's by our house. all the boys had fun with the super hero theme. they were in token-ticket-video game heaven.

and later that night we had our family over to celebrate the newly 5 year old and yours truly. With our birthdays being only one day apart, it's a busy month around here...

my sis made us a delicious chocolate cake and we blew out the candles together.

R was super pumped about the "quad" his father bought him. it was a big lego, transformer & of course his all time favorite... darth vader gift-themed year.

the next day was my actual birthday and my mister really spoiled me with his company and my favorite activities all day. we woke up and drove out to gilbert for my free liberty market birthday breakfast. it was the last day of preschool for R, so we had a little party at the park. then we had a sitter come over at 4 and hit the town. paul took me to last chance and even came in with me!! this is a big deal because he hates that place and usually waits in the car. we found lots of goodies and then headed over to a cool downtown pizza place with our friends. it was a perfect evening. i'm now a fitbit owner... let's compete :)

we continued the celebration with a friends party. these little cuties surprised me with a yummo dinner, chocolate cake, banners & anthro presents. i guess they know the way straight to my heart :)

and was spoiled once again by my "sisters" with a birthday dinner complete with gifts of ball jars, homemade rose sugar scrub, candles & the most amazing red velvet chocolate chip cookies. 

despite the rising number, I really look forward to my birthday each year ;)

bathing suits and cookies

i'm super pumped about my recent last chance finds. it gives me probably an unhealthy amount of joy to come home and look up my savings.

i stumbled upon these beauties...

 $114 badgley mischka shirred maillot... i found for $9.97

 $120 laundry one piece... i found for $9.97

and since i totally have the same body type as these models i said heck ya! let's do this.

and then i found my fave free people beach cocoon $68 for..... $7.97

i mean really, my heart may have skipped a beat.

and speaking of swimsuit bodies....

can someone please make these cookies for me??? who knew there was such thing as chocolate chip cookie day and of course it's close to my birthday.

it's cosmic.

i mean what more could i want for my birthday other than these cookies and to stock up on some candy crush lives and kingdom keys????

lent to easter recap

this really spoke to me this year.

 i always give up sweets, biting my nails, beer and add things like: slow to anger, donate... yada yada yada.

i'm not sure why, but i started off lent this year not feeling very motivated.

i did give up beer and biting my nails and did do 40 bags in 40 days,

but i found myself eating lots of sweets and drinking lots of margaritas.

not quite what i was going for.

so i kicked it up a notch.

no sugar, breads, alcohol (well maybe a little wine, but no more margaritas)

i felt better.

more of a struggle.

i think it's good to strive to be better and it should be hard.

the kids did really well on their lenten promises as well.

R gave up burping and little S gave up brussels sprouts. hmmm....

big S gave up sweets and L gave up instagram.

D gave up biting her nails and something else i can't remember.

Paul's motto was slow to anger.

which R gave us daily reminders.

we really enjoyed Mass holy thursday.

we attended a stations of the cross for kids friday morning on good friday.

i somehow thought P had the day off and i had planned to get out of dodge for the day

(paully wally had been out of town all week)

but that was not the case. he did have to work and i mentally checked out.

i was about to loose my marbles. but my lovely womens' group, through texting, inspired me

to turn myself and negative thinking around.

i pulled myself together and put together some craft stations for the kids.

we were gonna have a prayerful time if they liked it or not.

they actually loved it.

we prayed the sorrowful mysteries from this book.

it's a local artist from our parish and the paintings are so beautiful.

then we had 4 crafting stations.

1. the coloring and collage station

2. the embossing a metal cross station 

(found on pinterest)

3. a religious book reading station

4. we also had a letter writing station. 

each person in our family had an envelope and each person was to write one letter for each envelope.

we read the messages aloud on easter.

the kids loved doing this.

they loved reading the letters they received and even more so enjoyed hearing the letters they had written.

5. even the baby had a station.

(stickers and crayons)

R got a little carried away with the crown of thorns snack.

baby was not supposed to have one of these.

we hung our finished art on the wall.

the kids seemed calmed.

as soon as Paul got home my mama came and picked me up.

then i was calm.

and we finally made it to EASTER!!!

my mom came over early in the morning for a quick brunch

(mimosa)

and we headed to church.

3 of the girls sang in the children's choir and sounded beautiful.

the traditional after church easter pictures.

 my kids with their noni.

baby J would only participate if he could stand where he wanted. little stinker.

the whole family.

after church we headed over to brunch with my dad and step mom and sister.

it was delicious.

after brunch we headed back to our house for easter dinner and family egg hunt.

L and i had done a ton of food prepping saturday.

i made my grandma's homemade macaroni and cheese.

L made the traditional bunny cake and she also made an oreo icebox cake.

i made two batches of this chocolate sauce and it really is easy and amazing.

it's from lilluna.com

i love everything on that site.

a friend snapped these pics of my kids at the neighborhood egg hunt.

it's so fun seeing someone else's view.

anticipation from the egg toss...

sb 15

not sure how we already passed spring break and are already almost to summer...

but alas it's true.

time truly flies by.

we decided to explore some local activities this spring break.

i packed the kids and a cousin into the old burb

and drove down to the biosphere II

biosphere I is the earth... in case you didn't know that.

i did. 

jk, i had no idea and felt a little embarrassed after i asked.

anywho, it was pretty cool. the kids all enjoyed it.

and the drive there was pretty too.

not much along the way though... postponing lunch until we got closer wasn't the best idea i've ever had.

we cleaned that car of every last chip, bar & nut we could find.

our next adventure was tonto natural bridge near pine, az

it was the perfect length of hike for the family.

and so so beautiful.

we even found a little waterfall... not the kind of thing one usually stumbles upon in arizona.

i highly recommend this trip for families with all ages.

next up was pi day.

3.14.15

i took a couple girls and a cousin to a show at the herberger theater.

a friend was in a contest. they had singing, dancing and acting portions of the contest. our friend was a singer.

it was very exciting.

and of course we had to find a cute little pie place afterwards.

they had a special.

all slices of pie were 

$3.14

we ordered one of each.

our fav was the blueberry crumble.

they had a mounted police training unit graduation in our neighborhood.

i cried a little when the horses processed out with the flag to the national anthem and

my cute boy had his little hand over his heart.

it was so sweet.

here they got to participate as an unruly crowd. they demonstrated how they would control and back up the crowds.

this little hot tamale is the owner of the gym where my mom and i sweat our booties off.

well that's the goal anyway.

usually we just die laughing.

anywho... she participated in a 

BODY BUILDING CONTEST!

it was amazing. we witnessed her transformation and saw the determination and commitment it took.

we were so proud.

i cried a little when she came out in her little bikini.

amazing.

not to mention she is a mother of 

FIVE!!!!!

and nursing a baby.

my baby bro had a promotion ceremony.

i cried.

we had vehicle day at preschool.

i didn't cry that day.

the boys love it so much.

we visited the science museum... R's favorite part was sliding through the digestive tract. complete with surround sound gurgling and fart noises.

he was in heaven.

he came barrelling through in hysterics every time.

i tried to sleep in a few times.

but that didn't happen.

another spring break crossed off the calendar. it was nice to stay close to home and have a week of cleared schedules. we also loved having picnics at the parks with friends. and also one of my FAVORITE parts was seeing cinderella in the theaters with the family. it was SUCH a good movie. i am so happy with the way the movie was portrayed. it was beautiful and good. i can't wait to see it again!

now to plan out that summer....