Birthday Boy!

In March my baby boy, turned 11 years old. He is now, according to him, smarter and cooler than me. Oh, and he is also embarrassed by my mere presence when he is within 200 feet of any school aged child….I think he’s bracing himself for the excellent possibility that I may do something weird. Unfortunately, I was on my third wave of back issues during his birthday so no big party. However the good news is that because my back was injured my mom came out to help and Landon got to spend his birthday with his Mema. 

Another Pinterest idea. Balloon avalanche. Worked perfectly and he loved it! 

Ok, I couldn't resist showing some baby pics of my boy...

Big Brother! 

Layla's St. Patricks Day Adventure

I’m not sure if Pinterest is to blame, or maybe its just lovely, energetic kindergarten teachers, but school for my kids is vastly different than I remember it. The week before St. Patrick’s Day, Layla had an assignment to make a leprechaun trap. Neither Jason nor I have ever really encouraged the kids to believe in the small man that wreaks minor havoc on your house/classroom on March 17^th, but a little suggestion was all it took and Layla ran with it. She took her assignment very seriously. Her daddy and her worked for hours to come up with the perfect trap…Landon even volunteered some yellow legos for the fake gold.

The trap...complete with gold at the end of the rainbow! 

 Green glitter everywhere. Apparently leprechauns leave a trail of green glitter wherever they go. 

And they make a huge mess!! Puzzle, glue sticks, blocks, and every toy on the ground. The intake of breath from every mom present was hilarious.

 The leprechaun left clues inside and outside the classroom for the kids. At the very end was a green hat full of gold reeses peanut butter cups, which according to Layla made cleaning up the massive mess totally worth it. 

October, November, December, Oh My!

This is my attempt of dusting off my long neglected blog, and updating on all things holiday. From the time school started, this year has been one giant blur. And now its mid January….how did that happen?!

Throughout the year, at lease once a month Layla asks us how much more time till its Halloween and she can go trick-or-treating. The good thing about this is that as the time nears I get to use it as leverage. Don’t eat your vegetables? Guess you wont be able to go trick-or treating…. Go clean your room so you can go trick or treating….. stop whining or I wont be taking you trick or treating! Yes, I know this is not the best parenting idea. But sometimes you do what you need to do to survive.

Jason carved the pumpkins this year. Way more impressive than my triangle eyed, lopsided smiley pumpkin of years past. Show off.

Western Night at the kid's school....how freaking adorable is Layla's teacher?! Its also a nice shot of her self cut bangs. 

Aurora (Sleeping Beauty) and Frankenstein. Layla's costume was easy. Her birthday is at the end of of September so we always talk her into wearing her new princess dress for Halloween. Done. Landon's costumes are getting progressively more involved. For this one I bought a toddler sized jacket and spray painted salvation army womens platform boots. Then of course makeup. Took more time, but the outcome was great....however, he wore it to school and left it in his classroom. So his trick or treating costume was the same baggy army uniform he's worn for the last three years. oh well. 

At school they do a costume parade. Everyone dresses up. Every single kid, teacher, staff member and even many of the parents dress up. Here is a pic of the office staff as the cast from the Wizard of OZ.

Trick or treating with a 5 and 10 year old can be difficult. Thankfully we have managed to find a balance that suits us and both our kids. This is how it goes....Layla hobbles along in her light up high heels while I take pictures and Landon complains that we are not going fast enough. Then, Layla kicks off her shoes and runs barefoot from house to house with her brother while Jason and I stay on the sidewalk and eat the fruit of their labors. 

Not a holiday related pic, but i'm including it because its adorable. Our neighbor's son turned a year old in November and they rented a bouncy house. Hours and hours of fun.

My lovely book club ladies invited me to see the final Breaking Dawn with them, so I pulled out my cheesy handmade (Eclipse themed) shirt for the occasion.

Layla's Thanksgiving celebration at school. They churned butter and ate rolls, corn, cookies and apple cider.

By the time December rolls around, I have way too much on my to do list. I blame Pinterest. I found a tutorial for this tree made of an old book....looked cool and the one at anthropologie was 50 bucks so I thought, "hey, I can do this for super cheap. I already have tons of old books!" Don't worry I didn't go hacking into my first edition Gone With the Wind, but I did have a mass produced Black Beauty from the 80's. End product is great. However, measuring and cutting took forever...assembly took even longer. Worth it? Now that its done I can look upon it fondly and not want to kill the stupid pinner that called it "easy." 

I also made a wreath from scratch. This was actually much easier than I had originally thought. Quick trip to Michaels for ribbon, etc and a stop by a christmas tree lot for free branches and I was all set. Since I have no outside work area I spread my beach blanket on the kitchen floor and got to work. FYI if you ever want to attempt this check out one of the many how to videos on youtube.

End product was great but i didnt wear gloves and my hands looked like this for 2 days.

 Santa came to our street! Redondo Beach Police organize this every year. 

I got lucky at Michael's on christmas eve and found the last gingerbread house kit in America....then I made Jay put it together with the kids. It was a prized thing in our home for a whole day until the dog knocked it off the table and ate it.

There are two neighborhoods close to us that decorate. Not just a few single houses, with a few lights, but whole freaggin neighborhoods. Were talking trains that wrap around small cities in the front yard, playing christmas movies on a screen on the garage door, kids selling cookies and coco every few houses, and lights draped from the trees making a canopy. gorgeous.

Santa's cookies!

Glitter wrapping paper...great in theory, but much much harder to put into practice.

Our Christmas morning tradition. Prettiest batch I have ever made. 

All the Rosa family on Christmas Eve! :) 

Guilty Pleasure Day Trip

Yeah, I went to Forks...and La Push. Yes I am that dorky twi-mom driving hours out of my way to go to a tiny map dot town because it inspired a ridiculous love story of a pseudo vampire and girl that makes Austen’s Fanny Price look like the lead character in The Hunger Games….yet somehow most everyone, me included, love the series. Damn you Stephenie Meyer. Thank God I have some very understanding family members who indulged my strange guilty pleasure and drove 3 hours with me from our friend’s cabin on Daebob Bay to the tiny tiny town of Forks. 

Place of Edward and Bella's first date. 

Food was really good....and yes, I had the mushroom ravioli 

Jason really was a good sport

Yep, best husband ever! 

Forks Hospital....although someone stole Carlisle's parking sign. Bummer. 

We went to the hospital, police station, the Cullen house, grocery store, visitor center, and souvenir store. It seems like a lot, but Forks is really small. Like blink and you'll miss it small. So while it seems like a lot, it didn't take long at all. 

First Beach. Of course we had to go to this one because its the one mentioned in the books. Although, I wish I would have planned better, worn sturdier shoes and gone to Second Beach. It is supposed to be incredible and you have to hike though a second growth forrest to get there. 

Jason read a few pages of 50 Shades of Grey

The drive back was long but the view was amazing....Lake Crescent is gorgeous! 

The Great Northwest

Just a little closer to getting caught up to real life. Jason and I try to get away without the kids for at least a few days a year. This year we stuck to that commitment and headed to the beautiful northwest for a whole week. We headed straight for the market, which probably wasn’t the best idea on a Friday afternoon because it was packed. Like Disneyland packed. It all worked out because I got my BBQ pork Hum Bow from Mee Sum Pastry, something which I have been craving since the last time I was in Seattle four years ago, and of course a delicious coffee. 

Jason riding the famous pig. If you look at this pic from far away his wide eyes, glasses and huge arched eyebrows make him look a bit like Harry Potter riding a broomstick. 

So, while we were all munching on fresh fish and local cuisine, Jason orders a meatloaf sandwich. I have no idea where he got it seeings how we were in a seafood market, but he walked away and came back 10 minutes later with his southern lunch. 

Death never looked so good. 

So pretty! 

I don't even remember what we were eating. It was fruit, with a strange shell and the texture of a raw scallop. Gross. But Trish seemed to like it. 

line for the first Starbucks was huge. Like wrap around the block, wait for an hour for a cup of coffee huge. So, this pic is of Landon and I in front of the first Starbucks in 2006. 

And another one of us in 2008. Poor Jason. He went to war and I went on vacations. 

The market at night. This was really cool.

Since the market was completely empty at 10pm I felt brave enough to get a picture with the pig. All smiles.....however, what you don't see is us screaming when we saw a huge rat three seconds after this pic was taken. 

Queen Anne neighborhood. Almost as adorable as Redondo Beach

Finally made it to our little vacation spot on Daebob Bay. I am a little more than tipsy in this pic as you can probably tell. 

One of my favorite beaches! Its all rock and you have to be careful of the oyster shells on bare feet, but there are beautiful views, and I have been going there since I was six so lots of memories. 

Pic of Layla in 2008 at the same beach. :) 

Heading back to Seattle via the Bremerton ferry. Me talking and everyone else trying to get away...haha

After we kissed my Dad and Trish goodbye, Jason and I did some sightseeing on our own. We took a boat up to Victoria, BC and spent the day exploring the city. Or at least that was the plan. The 6am boat ride was awful. So many people got seasick and I was dizzy and pissed off when we finally got to our destination. The picture above was taken several hours later when I had time to recover. 

Landon, Layla and Me visiting Victoria in 2008 with my dad

This is how we recovered. A little pathetic to nap under a tree on the Parliament lawn for an hour, but necessary. 

Fancy Jason

Such a cool hotel! I really wanted to have high tea there but it was super expensive. Jason's response, "Do they have a medium tea?" No biggie, we walked around and I ended up having a nice "low tea" of  green tea and a slice of banana bread. Overall, it was great spending some alone time with Jason! More to come of our day trip to Forks and La Push.....