Category: Kiddos

The End of October

It’s been a crazy few weeks. What with the girls having their extracurricular activities and having to leave work at 4 p.m. almost everyday for them, and having to get costumes ready, bills, groceries and work, work, work–I feel like there really aren’t enough hours in the day. Best believe there’s been no time for working out or hobbies 🙁 .

But as tired and busy as I’ve  been (and oftentimes: overwhelmed) I’m glad that work events, activities with the kids and life in general have gone pretty smoothly.

Sally invited us to her and her friends’ Halloween party. We get invited every year, but for  some reason or another, haven’t made it. 

After paying bills and running  errands on a Saturday, the girls and I went to a thrift shop that I  used to frequent a lot about 10 years  ago. 

I had to figure out a costume for THAT evening because only I would buy my costume in September and try it on 3 weeks later only to find that it was completely see-through (and I could have done with losing about 10 pounds! That thing was skin tight!) The family is going with a Star Wars theme for Mia’s birthday this year, so no Princess Leia for me. Instead, I was going to figure out how to be an Ewok! Wicket, to be exact.

Emily unearthed this plastic turkey that we had an exact copy of  when I was little. Mom also  had a Santa and Rudolph! Of course it came home with us (not like I need more junk 😆 !)

Just as I was about to give up on finding something, I couldn’t believe my luck! Not only did I find the perfect  teddy bear to behead for his ears, but I also found some burnt orange fabric and brown plush fabric to match the ears! We got home and I  got to work while I made dinner. 

I realized I DID NOT know how to sew a skirt, especially since the fabric really was some type of plush upholstery, but I tried my best and put something together within an hour. I’m happy to say everyone knew exactly who I was!

Darth Vader and Wicket the Ewok
Sally and me 🙂

Jorge and I are both a bit socially awkward when we don’t know people, so we didn’t think we’d stick around long but we ended up staying a good 1.5 hours! (Ooh, party animals!)

We had our Wine Classic event that was “The Great Gatsby” themed so I had to figure out how to run all these errands at work AND find myself a 1920’s looking dress! So of course I would run to thrift shops during lunch to find pieces to make this outfit possible. I ended up finding a black lace dress with beige liner and a kid’s-size flapper dress I wanted to cut the fringe off of. When I finally got around to working on the dress…the fringe wasn’t enough! So I conceded to the fact that I’d have to actually purchase some downtown. Meh.

So I found the fringe on one of our craft-shopping trips, and I found my shoes and headwear later downtown as well. I was literally working on my dress, hand-sewing the fringe during my lunch hour that same day!

I rushed around finishing things at work and rushed off to Quinta Mazatlan to help Gerry. I was posted at the silent auction room like I am every year 🙂 . Where all the yummy desserts are!

I’m proud of myself for maintaining control of myself throughout the event, but now that I’m looking at the photos, I’m having major regrets about not tasting everything 🙁 !!

Anyway, my outfit worked out (the fringe never unraveled!) and I managed to throw my hair into an up-do that sort of made sense. (It actually worked out much better during my trial-run at home!):

My plummage and fringe!
My plummage and fringe!
The view outside

It was an awesome event, Gerry always outdoes herself! Clean-up was crazy but seemingly fast and Gerry, Ryan and I ended up having our actual dinner at 1am at Whataburger, hehe.

Briana, Dina and the kids had arrived while I was working the previous day. We got up and got ready to have Mia’s 7th birthday party, Star Wars themed! Briana goes all out! It was a crazy whirlwind of going to Walmart, getting tables and chairs, attempting to help Briana with snacks (my Jello brain was good, the white chocolate I bought for our pretzel mummies was so bad! Stick with the good stuff, even if it’s more expensive. Then we had to get ourselves and all the kids ready, but the end-result was awesome! Jorge, Briana and the kids even did the Imperial March as the big open 😆 !

Grpup Pic!

It’s a good thing I got a group photo!! The boys lasted all but 15 minutes in their costumes!

My mom-in-law!
Me with my sis-in-law!
The birthday girl, Mia, who wasn’t in the mood for photos, ’cause, hello, MOONJUMP!
My 2 little ladies, Rey and Captain Phasma. Rey didn’t want her accessories most of the time!
There they are!
Chewy!
Star Wars Bingo!
Happy birthday to Mia!
My BFF and me!

It was so fun! Glad Sally and the kiddos got to make it, too! I never got around to trimming the “hood” of my costume (it was supposed to be v-shaped at the front *sigh*), but all-in-all, it was a blast and the kids were chocolate-wasted and strewn all over the place. Love those family gatherings!

Pumpkin Patch 2016

The kids were off for Columbus Day  (random). I was going to get the entire day off to spend with them but my boss was leaving on a trip out of town and lots needed to be done at work. So I went in half a day.

I returned some pants at JC Penney, then got home and piled the kiddos in the truck to go to the pumpkin patch. Mom went, too, and we met Mary there since she was picming up the boys. Gotta love those kiddos; they were good sports and humored me and the 100 photos I took. The best ones:

Didn’t work with the big boys!

Amazingly, they still had tons of energy so I took them to the park to run it off.

And then I relaxed with the kiddos, played Uno with Emmos and tortured myself by making these amazing hasselback potatoes (took forever!).

Makes me wish I had more days off more often 🙁 !!

First Day of School, 2016

It’s been a while since I last updated (don’t  I always begin my posts like that??). I have several posts started but not completed and I can’t promise myself I’ll ever finish them, but it’s important that I document today. 

Emily entered 2nd grade, Alaethia entered 4th, Jaylen entered 9th grade early college (a Freshman!!) And Eenan entered 12th. Twelfth!! He’ll be in college before I know it and I don’t know what I’ll do with myself!

Jules entered kinder (aww) and both Justin and Jorgie entered 9th. So we have 3 FRESHMEN!! WHAT?!

Jorge and I spent most of the day cleaning yesterday. The kids were at the other parents’ houses but since it was their first day today, Mario brought the girls back Sunday night instead of Monday morning. I got to see the boys like we usually do the night before school starts, and we had their photo sesh.

They’re hilarious; they each switched sibs 😆 .

I reluctantly saw the boys off, after hugs and smooches and well wishes. I’ll never get over not being able to see them off to bed or wake them up for their first day of class :'( .

We were all still in summer mode, but eventually the girls finished showers, the spaghetti and meatballs were done, teeth were brushed and new clothes were picked. (I let them make their own fashion choices this year, since shopping for what I like for them has backfired in the past 😳 .) 

At one point during dinner, I watched in awe at what sweet, funny, adorable daughters I had. I turned to Jorge and said, “I should record them to remember them like this. Before they turn into teenagers and don’t like me.” Alaethia says, genuinely surprised, “Mama, why would we ever do that??” I hope she remembers!

Goodnight hugs and smooches were given at least 4 times, and then it was really time for bed. I slept around 4 hours, but was ready when the alarm went off. The girls woke up in great moods and were excited. Mario and I exchanged photos of the kids when they were ready.

*sigh* I made those *beams* 😀 .

They all had great days and love their teachers (the boys, for the most part anyway). I had a good chat with all of them about their day. Emily was upset she didn’t get to sit with Maddie after all, but hopefully the teacher will rotate them and at least they’re finally in the same class!
Here’s to a great year for all of us!