Spring Break Beach Fun!

Today was day 3 of Mary & Laura's spring break vacation visit. It was a warm one today, so we went to the beach. The temperature was probably 80 but the water was more like 62. That didn't stop L & M from getting right in without any hesitation. David and Rose got wet up to their waists, Joey and I could only stand getting our feet wet for about 5 seconds. It was fairly crowded, a far cry from January when we had the beach to ourselves. I just LOVE San Diego in winter when we have the place to ourselves. The kids all had a great time.

Mary & Laura, my twin nieces, age 9 1/2

Rose, David & Joey...could Joey be any skinnier or whiter? Laura looked at him with his shirt off and said, he's whiter than me, and he lives in California!

Sand Castle Fun

Laura & Joey having fun

The girls having no trouble with the cold water

Holy Fish Batman!

Well, we finally broke down and got some pets.... disposable fish. Please meet Princess (the black fish) and Obie (the orange & white fish). We got them last Wednesday while perusing the fine goods at Wal-Mart. Can you believe they still let me shop there? (See "I'm White Trash" post) Anyway, we have managed to keep them alive for 5 days now. WooHOO!

A Sweet Story

On Rosie's birthday, I put Joey down for a nap. I could hear him on the monitor jabbering away then I heard him start to sing. "Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday Dear Rosie, Happy Birthday to you!" It was one of the sweetest things I have ever heard. Just when I think I know how much I love my kids, they do something that makes my heart feel like it's swelling, almost painful. And that's my short, sweet story.

The Cousins are Here!

Hurray! It's spring break! 2 of my nieces, Mary and Laura Heffernan, are here to have fun with the cousins and spend some time in the sunshine. (It was snowing when they left the house to come here yesterday from Seattle.) We are so happy they came to visit. It will be a great week!

Joey, Laura, Rose and Mary ready for bed

Madeline, Mary and Joey cuddly-cuddly

David, Owen and Laura

Happy 5th Birthday Rosie!

Well, Rose is officially a big girl! She turned 5 on March 19th. We celebrated the occassion with a party at the house. Originally Rose was thinking about Pump it Up, the indoor bouncy place for her party. We thought we would have too many friends to invite for that and decided to have it at the house instead. I have come to realize that we are incapable of throwing small parties. Andy was helpful by taking Rose to get her invitations. (She picked out Hannah Montana, her current love) Then he offered to write them and send them out. Well, he blew through 4 packs before we had even invited the neighborhood kids or any of her school friends. We tried to keep the class invitees to just the girls, so the party wouldn't be TOO large. A few packs of invites later, we had 41 kids (ok, 3 were mine) here at the house, plus parents. We had a bouncy in the front yard, a guitar shaped pinata, food, cake, the works..... A great time was had by all!

Rose with Mrs. Martin at school

Kids L-R: Madeline, Lexie, Tracy, Halle, Haleigh, Chloe, Rose, Olivia, Owen, Abbie & Tyler

Happy Birthday Rosie!

In Trash We Trust

This week EDCO held Family Day. It's a chance to go down to the yard and see where Andy / Daddy works, eat, bounce, check out trash trucks, eat some more...cotton candy, snow cones, goodie bags, face painting.....and just loads of fun and games. It's pretty cool to be able to say your Dad works for the trash company!

Andy and the kids in front of the working mini trash truck.

David, Joey and Rose eating snow cones and showing off their matching Spiderman tattoos.

Rose & David in the boxing ring. You can see the giant boxing glove in front of Rose. She tried to put them on, but they were as big as she was.

Family Weekend

Last weekend my brother Greg, his wife Echo and son Sean came for a visit. Brother Dave happened to be in town on business and extended his trip for the weekend. We had a great family visit, and with sister Karen a half mile away, 4 out of 5 kids were all together for a few days. Highlights of the weekend included steak night at our house, enchilada and bounce house night at the Bittners, Filippi's pizza night back at our house, opening day for Owen's T-ball season, Madeline losing her second tooth and plenty of fun crammed in between. We also celebrated Sean's 22nd birthday a week early, plus had 2 other birthday parties to attend. Somehow I didn't manage to take a single picture with everyone... and didn't even get any of Greg, Mom or Dave. Pictured here is Echo, Sean and Andy. A good time was had by all. We missed you Dale!





Sean turns 22 on Sunday, March 8th.
A good reason to have cake!







Unfortunately, the night at the Bittners turned ugly when
nephew Owen and friend Tyler decided to fist fight. It didn't help that we all wagered on the outcome.








Rose and her crew from school at Laci's 5th birthday party. (L-R Kendall, Laci, Rose, Haleigh and Halle.) Rose and David giving the pinata the what-for.






Joey waiting in the beer line at friend Tate's 1st birthday party. I know, I was pleasantly surprised they had a keg there too!


















Madeline and her toothless grin. This was about 2 weeks ago after her 1st lost tooth. And FYI, the Tooth Fairy pays $2 per tooth these days.

Happy Birthday Bob!!

So today is one of my best friends, Bob Johnson's, 46th birthday! We were neighbors when we both lived in Hillcrest back in the 80's and 90's. We met because we were both working at Cal Stores and he was transferred to my store as manager. I guess I was the assistant at the time. I remember a few days before I met him I was driving around the corner from my house on the way to work and saw some guy driving a blue Honda civic wearing the same kelly green polo shirt (that was our fantastic uniform) and wondering who it could be. Back then I thought it was the worst job I ever had, but now realize it was one of the best. So many of my closest friends are all old Cal Stores employees.

Happy Birthday Bob! Seems like it was not that long ago, but really more like forever ago that you walked into Cal Stores wearing your super short shorts! HOT! I love you!

Evolution of Dance

Ok, I ripped this off from my nephew, Sean. He asked if I had seen it and sent me the link. It's similar to the first dance wedding video from a few weeks back, but definately worth watching if you have a little time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2D_TBqaslzs

This BLOG Sux.... so my husband sez

Ok, it's true, this BLOG does indeed suck. It's hard to come up with good stuff every day, or every few days! I challenge YOU, Andy Stitzer, to give it a try!

But here is something that never sucks... adorable kittens sleeping! Take THAT Andy!