Pool + friends = awesome birthday!

We had a small birthday celebration for Mikey at the Robert Livermore Community Center in Livermore. The kids had a great time splashing around in the pool and playing in the super awesome water structure and slides.

The birthday boy had such a great time playing in the water.

Isaiah and his buddy, Jake.

Isaiah made sure to catch some rays and work on his tan...as if he needs to make a conscious effort to do that....

Cupcake time! Happy birthday, big boy!

Thanks to our wonderful friends joining us and helping celebrate.

Happy 3rd Birthday, Mikey Monkey!!!!

Three years have come and gone and it has been a hoot and a half watching you grow into a wonderful little boy. Your quick wit, funny antics and unruly hair are definitely from your Dad, but your stubborn nature and seriously good looks (should be illegal) are obviously from your Mom. ;) I love spending my days with you and can't even remember what life was like without you. My days are brighter and my heart is happier. You are very special and I love you more than you will ever know.

Make your wish and blow out your candles, birthday boy. The world is full of wonderful things for you to experience and I feel so lucky to be able to be there next to you, every step of the way.

The Sunday brunch bunch

Whenever my girlfriends and I get together, it's always for Sunday brunch. That's always the first suggestion that comes from any of us. We love to eat. lol Janice suggested a cute little Italian restaurant called Il Fornaio at Broadway Plaza in Walnut Creek. It turned out to be a perfect, kid-friendly place, especially important considering we would be toting a busload. We enjoyed great weather, great food and the company of charming children and good friends....the kind you only see once in a blue moon, but each time feels like you just saw each other yesterday. You've gotta give credit to anyone who can stick by my crazy a** side through three, and now FOUR, pregnancies and childbirths! We're more than friends, we are sissies. :)

Mikey's birthday treat just delivered.

What a lucky little birthday boy.

Uncle Daniel and the bunch.

The girls. Savannah banana-rama has always been one of the girls.

Liam couldn't have picked his nose with a more picturesque background.

After brunch, we headed over to the San Francisco Creamery Co. for some yummy homemade ice cream. Shawn was determined to take their "Kitchen Sink" challenge, which was featured on the Food Network show, Man vs Food. He'd have to eat the gigantic Kitchen Sink Sundae where they throw everything in, even the kitchen sink, in 30 minutes! Yikes!

Nevermind that. We all stuck to a scoop of our favorites and Shawn settled for a milkshake. :)

I heart my family....BIG TIME.

My family loves to get together but, with so many of us, there is rarely a time we can all be in one place at one time. We were blessed with one of those rare occasions today, where we got together to celebrate Father's Day, Fely's birthday and Mikey's birthday. EVERYONE was there and there was lots of food to commemorate the occasion! It was a very special day for me because it is really almost impossible. I'm sure my Mom was also there in spirit, enjoying the festivities (and food!) with us.

My Auntie Connie and baby Malia.

Karen and little Siliana.

Me and baby Malia. Everyone says we look alike. This is my baby girl. :)

Lolo and his pretty girls.

Mikey and Fely blowing out their birthday candles.

We love kiddie museums!

We love to explore the many children's discovery and art museums that are scattered all over the Bay Area. Today we packed up a picnic and made the drive to beautiful Marin County to visit the Bay Area Discovery Museum in Sausalito. I love visiting this part of Marin Co because the hills are always so lush and green. The museum is a strip of converted army barracks on Fort Baker, facing the Golden Gate Bridge. The fog was pretty heavy in the morning, but cleared up while we were there. Great view, nonetheless. :)

Our little NASA astronauts.

Mikey building the Golden Gate Bridge.

Exploring some tide pools. (The crabs are fake, btw.)

Isaiah doing a horrible acting job of pretending the be trapped in a spider web.

Massive redwood tree trunk.

My three little birdies sitting in their nest. :)

Riding the tide on a whale.

Liam exploring a shipwreck for treasure.

Enjoying our little picnic lunch before exploring some more.

Another great family day!!!!!

Today's Paycheck

The day camp that Isaiah will be going to every other week for this summer is at the sports club that we are members of here in town. This week, he has a break from day camp, but it was such a hot day (the high hit 98*) that I decided to take all three boys to enjoy the pool and waterslides at the club. (Ok, I'm lying. I wasn't going to bring all three boys to the pool since there is no possible way for me to keep an eye on all of them. I took Liam to the kids' club, where he was happy as a clam for two-and-a-half hours and even snuck in 45 minutes of shut-eye.)

Well, while we were there, Isaiah caught up with many of his buddies from day camp who were curious about why he wasn't joining them today. His answer was, "I'm just taking a break guys. My Mom misses me so I'm gonna hang with her. I'll be back next week, though." Ohmygoodness. He somehow deduced the "My Mom misses me" and is totally right. I just think it's funny that he knows that's the real reason why he's not there, no matter how much I tried to mask it with other reasons I was pulling out of my ass when I told him he wasn't going to camp this week.

Anyway, that wasn't my paycheck. My paycheck today was when one of his camp leaders came up to me and said, "Ok, I just have to tell you this. Isaiah is such a great kid. He was really the most well-behaved kid we had in camp last week. Always so sweet and we never had any problems with him. How come he's not with us this week? He's coming back right? Everyone's missing him."

OMG. I must have been smiling from ear to ear as I told her he'd be there every other week. Having a stranger tell you how wonderful your child is has got to be the most rewarding feeling EH-VER. Like all your hard work is paying off, yet no amount of money on a paycheck could ever make me feel as satisfied as those words that came out of that young girl's mouth did this morning. I freakin' love my job.

The boys hanging poolside today with their friend, Jake.

Sunday Peddies and Peet's

This is becoming  a monthly ritual for me and I love it. I love my guy for giving me this time to relax, get pampered and enjoy my coffee and a good read without my 3 shadows bickering or screaming Mommyyyyyyyy! Hey, and look at this...I'm even able to blog about it while my polish dries....Gotta LOVE it!

Great idea, Mikey!

Today was just one of those days. I was up most of last night with horrible nausea, which continued to rear its ugly head as soon as I woke up this morning. I had to cancel any and all fun plans we had for the day but still had to suck it up and make a trip to Costco since the famine in our household was lasting far too long. My morning sickness has been over the top with this pregnancy and makes even the simple task of going to the grocery store near impossible.

Mikey, Liam and I rushed through every nook and cranny of Costco like crazy people, grabbing everything we needed without even stopping, and we were out of there in record time. It might have been 15 minutes or something like that, including checkout. Crazy how you can fill a cart with food worth $100 in 10 minutes.

The only thing we did stop for was the flower display. I wouldn't have even stopped if Mikey hadn't screamed, "Mama! Stop! We need to buy flowers for you! Look, aren't they prettyyyyyy??!!" My baby boy...always knows how to make his mommy smile, even when I feel like I have the weight of the world in my throat ready to be barfed out any second. So, the cart came to a halt. Mikey picked the sunflower bouquet. He knows what I love.

They have made my day exponentially better.

What?! Pneumonia?!

Don't people only get that in the winter when it's cold? Apparently not. Winter and spring are when kids are most susceptible and that includes our little Liam. :( He's had a fever since last Friday, then developed a horrible cough which we found out at a Dr visit yesterday has developed into pneumonia. So now we are (hopefully) on the road to a speedy recovery armed with antibiotics, Fever-All suppositories, and an albuterol inhaler and mask.

He is such a trooper and has been in good spirits through it all, so long as he has episodes of the Little Einsteins and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse on tap via the DVR. My biggest problem has been occupying Isaiah and Mikey, since we are pretty much holed up at home during their first week of summer vacation. Poor guys...Thank heaven for Redbox and microwavable popcorn.

All I can do is be thankful for modern medicine, pray to my Mom for strength and guidance (she hasn't failed me once) and keep in mind that this too shall pass....

Hello, Little One!

Thought I'd share the sweet image of our growing little kidney bean. :) This is my fourth time experiencing the growth of a child in my belly, but it still amazes me just as much as the first. It is truly a miracle and it makes me happy to be a woman.

We will be delivering at Kaiser in Walnut Creek this time, which I'm oddly excited for, just because I have heard that it has the most amazing birthing center EH-VER. I'm looking forward to experiencing it. But I should be careful not to expect too much so that I don't get disappointed if it totally sucks. lol We are due December 30, but all three of my boys came at least a week early, so I wouldn't be surprised if this little kidney bean follows in his brothers' footsteps.

We have a few names we are arguing between but for a boy, Cade Anthony looks like one that we both love. If it's a little girl, I think I want to name her Charlotte. :) We shall see.......

Regardless of anything and everything, I AM IN LOVE. The boys are in love, too, and they wake up every morning and go to bed every night with a kiss on my belly for their new baby. Can't wait to meet you, little one!