Baseball Season

It has finally ended-34 games later (that's 17 per boy though a few were rained out). It was fun and the boys learned a lot. I am glad we did it, but also glad it's over. I already posted about it earlier, but these pictures were too great to pass up:

This is what made it fun for Nathan-his two best friends were on the team. Bradley left, Damien right.

 And here is the whole team:

Color My World

One of the things I will miss most about San Diego...

These are some of the moms from Jack's class at school who I have gotten to be really good friends with. I can't believe I know these amazing and beautiful ladies and I can't believe I am leaving them. 

This is Meha (top left) who is Indian but grew up in Kenya, Celestine (top right) who is Indian and has lived in the US for maybe like 8 years now, Ohmy (bottom right) who is from Thailand (and her husband is Dutch) and Cristy (bottom left)-oh sure, she's a white girl like me, but her husband is Chinese. I feel so boring amongst these ladies.

Not pictured and who could have been: Shilpah (Indian), Lilac (Israeli), and several other more casual friends from Italy, China, etc. And there's also our wonderful neighbors Tala and Damien from Iran.

Honestly these women have expanded my world both through friendship and sharing in motherhood during the kindergarten year but also in teaching me about their countries, in helping me see what a big and beautiful world we have and how neat it is for our cultures to come together. This has been an invaluable part of living in San Diego. And I am really going to miss it. Oh and Celestine's Indian cooking which she has shared with me several times. :)

Birthday Party Squared

It's birthday season in our house. Jack and Nathan the first week of June, Josh two weeks later and I wouldn't be surprised if this baby decides to make an appearance say June 30th just to keep our June hopping. (Though he would technically be preemie by a day at that point.)

Since we will be in Utah by the boys' birthdays, we had an early party here. And since I feel bad that we are leaving and since they only have parties every other year, we sort of went all out. I have to say, it was really convenient that we did them on back to back days (Jack's was Friday night, Nathan's Saturday night) and that we did the exact same thing twice. So while I went to a lot of work, it was work for two parties, not just one.

And, I maybe went a little over the top. But I had fun doing it. We had a Lego theme (because Jack is smart and knowing that he wanted to get a lot of Legos for his bday figured if he themed his party that way, people would bring him legos. He was right.)

Here are the invite:

 Inside the favor bags:

This is Lego shaped candy:

There were a few other simple things inside the favor bags which looked like this: 

(can you tell that that is supposed to be a Lego guy head?) 

 Lego themed juice boxes:

Lego pinata:

I made some Lego banners and hung them around the room along with red, green, yellow and blue streamers and balloons:

 The table had the same color scheme (and notice my cool fork holder):

 

And the crowing glory...the CAKE: (Me and Josh spent a LONG time rolling out all the little balls to put on the Legos:

For the party we actually kept it pretty simple. A game of pin the missing piece on the Lego brick, a pinata, a treasure hunt, pizza, cake and then we just had Lego coloring pages and Legos out for the kids to play with and they ran around in the back yard. Oh, and a rousing game of "Lego, Lego, Brick" (aka duck, duck, goose):

I didn't take too many pics during the party because I was enjoying the party. But here are the happy birthday boys:

I spent all day Friday decorating the house and getting things set up and when they got home from school their reactions made every bit of it worth while... "oh wow! Look at this! This is going to be SO fun!" "This is amazing!!" etc.

Summer Fun Kit

This post is 100% tooting my own motherhood horn, but I am just so excited about these that I couldn't resist.

Last year I made my boys a "Summer Fun Kit" that they received on the last day of school stocked with supplies to keep us happily entertained during the summer. It was a hit, so I decided to make it a tradition.

This year there is added incentive to make it fun and special. On June 1 we will pick the boys up from school and drive out of town...for good. I am heart broken just thinking about it but thinking about them being so sad leaving their friends breaks my heart even more. So, I want to do anything I can to ease their sadness.

On their chairs when they get in the car they are going to find the following:

 And on the inside:

That includes:
Flip Flops
Sidewalk Chalk
Bubbles
Summer Adventure Books (which in truth is my excuse to get them to write in a daily journal)
Coloring Book
Markers
Drawing Pad
Large Jawbreaker
Water Bottle
Goggles
Bubble Wand

and the best part, the Summer Fun Coupon Book that includes a coupon for each week of the summer...things like a cookie ice cream sandwich at Smart Cookie, a cupcake at The Sweet Tooth Fairy or shake and fries at The Purple Turtle. Each week they get to pick one. We had a blast doing this last summer.

So there you go. I told you I was doing nothing but tooting my own horn. But I am pretty excited about these.

The Girlies in My Life

I guess because I have no girls in my life, the Lord decided to bless me with a weekly girl's night out in the form of Young Women's at church. For the last 13 months I have been serving as the YW President and before that for a year and a half as the Miamaid Advisor and 1st Counselor.

Sadly, they didn't seem to think I could continue this calling with a weekly or biweekly commute from Utah, so this past Sunday they released me. This was my favorite calling yet. More work than I had imagined, but also sweeter rewards than I knew. And here are those sweet rewards:

Beautiful, bubbly Ashley who happened to run into the wall the day before this picture,

hence the scar on the lip:

 Sweet Hannah who plays "the finger game" over the pew in church with Dallen and the amazingly talented Cindy:

 Stalwart Crystal who can always be counted on for anything:

 The gorgeous sisters: Denise and Vanessa (or Vaneshka as I like to call her):

 Wild and crazy Erica. Isn't this picture amazing?

 Cuties Melissa and Amelia who looked at me crazy when I wanted to take their picture until I told them I always wanted to remember them and then they happily posed:

 And my dear Natalie. Positive, happy, fun and one of my boys' favorite people (ahem, and one of mine too):

This is Saint Susan. After working with her in YW for the last 2 years I have decided at add Saint to her name officially because she is in every way a saint. Truly, she would do anything for anyone. I adore her. I wish I was more like her.

This is only a handful of my girlies and leaders-so many of them weren't there Sunday!! I will have to try to get more pictures. I took some at my house last week during our activity but they didn't turn out very good. And the leaders I have worked with have been amazing and wonderful. How am I supposed to leave these people? Really, while it is a relief to be released in some ways, it is more sad than anything.

So, to say goodbye to each girl and leader, I made them a necklace with their name and birthstone. I had a blast making them and they really seemed to love them!! New hobby!

Sigh. I feel like this was just part one of many goodbyes to many things I love. I hate moving away.

Happiness is...

The Father and Sons Campout when you are a mom of nothing but boys. Oh what will I do with myself for the next 20 or so hours? I have a few ideas... :)

Help Me Out

OK, I guess I am getting desperate in order to be posting this on my blog. This is not a big deal, but it keeps rolling around in my mind with no solution, so I thought I would enlist some help. PLEASE respond to this. Don't leave me hanging.

As you know, I am about to be a home owner AND about to have a new baby. I want to decorate the nursery a little since I can. So, I started with a concept, but I haven't gotten very far. Here is what I have:

I have those 4 little guys-I haven't framed them yet (those pics are from Etsy). I wanted to theme the nursery around them, specifically the turtle because I am in love with him. But that is as far as I have gotten.

I thought I might applique them out of fabric on a blanket for the crib and then just get a matching crib sheet. But I don't know what colors to use. Pastels, bright? What colors? I have no flair for this sort of thing. I copy ideas well but I don't come up with them.

What else could I do in the nursery? I want to keep it pretty low cost since we are spending tons on the house and other things.

Please give me your creative ideas.