#TBT Many Years of Halloween

Kiddos,

I was pulling together a little garland of photos of each of your costumes.

Erin at Sunny Side Up did this and it was so easy to do. (Check hers out here)

It was such an easy craft to replicate.  

Here is a little walk down memory lane for the three of you.

Above: 2011

 Below: 2007

 HTD the Penguin 2012

 Anna the Hippie 2012

2012

 2013

Webb Ranch 2007

 Carving Pumpkins 2009

Daddy- Winnie the Poor,

Taylor-the pumpkin 

2005

PUMPKINS! 2011

 Below 2010

2010

 2010

 Taylor the bee 2008

We can't wait to see what this year's halloween brings!

We have pumpkins.

We have spider webs.

We have costumes:)

Google Shopping will deliver candy.

xoxo

mom

A perfect weekend

Sweet kids,

We enjoyed a weekend with a bit of everything.  We celebrated a friend's birthday with a delicious dinner and great band on Friday night.

After getting to bed a little bit into Saturday morning, we were up and off to Volleyball.  By 11am we were on the road for a weekend in the central valley with friends who hosted us for a lovely weekend.

 

 On Sunday we had the most incredible lunch and wine tasting at Daou Vineyards.

The vineyards are stunning, the tasting room is beautiful, and the day was perfect.

These barrel chairs are the most comfortable things ever.

A cute family picture?  Almost.  So close, but not at all.

 Not better.

 The spot for our amazing lunch.

 This incredible spot and Daddy is looking at his stupid phone.

Darling, custom-made, menus for the kids.

 Caprese salad might be my favorite thing ever.

 I am not sure I have been more relaxed than I was at this moment.

An incredible glass of wine.

Barrel chair.

A little shade on a perfect day.

All in all, a pretty great weekend.

Coming home is the worst, especially when it means daddy is catching a flight, book reports are due, and we have a creature in the kitchen.

xoxo

mom

What you wore.....

Kiddos, 

I often wish I could see more snapshots of the kinds of outfits I wore growing up.  

Now, don't get me wrong, they were NOT cute.  

On the first day of third grade it was blazing hot 

and your Hubbie put me in a red corduroy skirt and a pink blouse.  

I might sweat to death just thinking about it.

I know there is one picture of me doing PE that day and my face is purple from the heat.

Anyway, we had a handful of family pictures done, yet, 

our outfit choices were our own for these occasions.

This will never EVER NEVER in your life happen.

When you are adults, you will not pick clothes for my family portrait.

I'll take care of that for you- you're welcome my little loves.

So, to prove my point, here is a quick look at some of my cute outfits:)

A FORMAL PICTURE WITH THIS HAIR!!!

 How about a formal picture with a freaking sweatshirt.

You girls have such a great sense of style.

Anna, you pulled this darling number together the other day!

Shirt 

Shoes (similar- leopard out of stock)

 Jeans- these are the greatest jean ever.  No button- easy to pull on.

 Anna, I just love the way these patterns work together. 

These same jeans paired with this cute top.

This love of fashion started early:)

None of my outfits were ever as cute as yours, and I am so so happy 

about that fact.  Also, while clothes don't really matter, in the grand scheme,

a cute outfit can certainly give you a little boost of confidence for a great day.

xoxo

mom

On My Mind

My sweet loves,

There are a few things weighing heavily on my mind (in no particular order).

1. Being home means I have more mental energy for all the little bumps in your roads.  A year ago, I would hear about the bumps, but they would disappear from my radar once the next fire popped up. There are VERY few fires right now, so these bumps often feel like mountains.

2. I have the kind of personality where I can take a small thing and make it huge in my mind.  I may obsess about REALLY silly things.  Volleyball coach doesn't show for practice- in my mind I have found two solutions.  1. Speak to all appropriate administration to set guidelines for who should coach teams.  2. Sign up to coach basketball to make sure we have more structure around that.  (Note- have not played basketball since 1995).  Dramatic- check. Keeping this under control is really difficult and often takes more energy than obsessing over silly things.  Sigh.

3. Even though I have more time than I know what to do with (theory), I can't get anything done.  My day goes by quickly, and I am wasting so much energy (see #1) that I can't seem to do the small stuff. (See #2)

4. Your  checklists are coming back with a vengeance friends.  Much like your mother, you girls seem to have completely forgotten there are a number of things we MUST do to get out of the freaking house.  I am tempted to just let it all crumble one day so you can each see the consequences, but am not at the point where I can let all hell break loose yet.  I  would get a good laugh to see you all running to the car with one, maybe 2 shoes on.  Maybe your lunch, probably not.  Definitely all homework on the dining room table, and snacks safely on the kitchen counter next to your uneaten breakfast.  Also, I am sure those stinky teeth would make friends and win people over ALL.DAY.LONG.  Oh, with bed head too.  I would say we are about T-Daddy and Hubbie leaving in November for this shit show.  Hudson, you would go to school in your footie jammies with both blankies having eaten only a bar of some sort- so not far from a normal day for you bud.
This is you about 10 minutes before we get the girls after school- a sweaty ball of blankie love.

5.  The picture of microsoft office you see below is the first of two that I purchased.  Unfortunately, I don't have a PC and therefore went mad trying to load this onto my Mac.  I'll take that computer genius award and polish it for the bookcase next to my housekeeping and parenting awards for 2014.  Ugh.  Thank goodness Daddy saved me and went and bought the version for a mac and it is loaded on my computer.

That is about as much joy and positivity as I can put together for one evening kids.

Here is to a better day tomorrow.

xoxo

mom