Labor Day Getaway!

It was so hot here around Labor Day so we decided to take an last minute mini-vacation for one night. We stayed at a gorgeous hotel in La Jolla and packed in tons of fun in 24 hours. It felt like we were gone for days and days. We all loved our one night getaway and look forward to taking more mini-trips like that in the future!

Our last minute trip included: Pat & Oscars for lunch, lots of IKEA shopping, a nap at the hotel (for Ben), a long hot uninterrupted shower (for me) and lots of jumping on the beds (for the boys of course), dinner in Old Town, a late night Shamu show with fireworks, early morning swimming and breakfast by the pool, and we ended the trip with a stop at the SeaLife Aquarium at Legoland. So much fun packed into 24 hours, but still surprisingly relaxing. It was JUST what we all needed.


The boys thought it was so cool that we were arriving at Sea World past their bedtime when most of the people were leaving. The Shamu show started at 9:30... that's super late for these guys!


Happy Jake watching the fireworks!


Both boys are super into Shamu these days... Jake even wants to dress up as Shamu for Halloween.


We picked up free kid tickets for the aquarium while eating lunch at Pat & Oscars the day before so we decided to check it out! I'll give you a full detailed review if you're ever interested in going for the 1st time :)


The first thing inside the aquarium is this tree slide built into an aquarium!


The end of a fabulous little Labor Day getaway! I think was so much fun that I think we'll make it an annual tradition.

Dirty boys!

The boys went out to play in the backyard today. When they came in, like normal it was straight upstairs to the bathtub because they get SO dirty SO quickly. On their way up the stairs I said, "How did you get so dirty?" and Jake said, "Mommy, we are dirty, dirty boys like Harry the Dirty Dog!" (That's a bedtime story they love for me to read to them). Then when I was washing their hair, they had SO much sand in their hair that it felt like sandpaper so I said, "Can you guys try not to get so much sand in your hair when you're outside?" Sam looked at me really seriously and said, "But Mommy, how would we make sand angels then?"

Ohhhh, life with little boys is so fun and funny... and with another boy coming soon I can only imagine the funny things he will be saying with these two characters for older brothers. Yay for little boys! And the occasional pedicure/shoppping break for their mama :)

It's Football Time!

My husband grew up back east though and is a BIG Redskins fan. Since we don't get to see too many Redskins games on TV out here on the west coast, he was so excited that their season opener was on TV out here that we decided to host a Redskins party last night with some good friends to kick off football season. I seriously can't believe I did all that work for a football game that the Chargers weren't even playing in... just joking, I love the guy and I love hosting parties, so it was all worth it. Plus the Redskins beat the Cowboys... ahhh, icing on the cake!


I made this banner and the other printables from paperandcake.com. This is the 2nd time I've used one of their printable parties and I LOVE them!


I loved being able to edit the text with the printables.


We used my husband's football pictures from when he was a kid as part of the decorations!




We had two galvanized drink tubs... one for the adult drinks and one for the kid drinks.


The touchdown tea from the Rookie tub was a big hit!


One of my favorite party details was the green astroturf runner! These little labels marked all the food for the RED Skin potato bar.


For dessert I made chocolate rice krispy footballs


and Red Velvet cupcakes (since it was a RED Skins party after all!)

It was a great night with wonderful friends and I wish the Redskins a great season... almost as good of a season as I hope the Chargers have. Go Bolts! And Redskins :)

Ooh La La!

For the past year or so my life has been a whirlwind... a fun whirlwind, but a whirlwind nonetheless. I'm so grateful to have some time to breathe, catch up on things I've had to put on the back burner, and spend more time with my boys. Way back in March I hosted a French Bistro themed Bunco night for our Bunco group. It was a really fun night... and I'm finally getting a chance to post a few pictures!