1 Mission Down, 20 To Go!

We had a free day and what does a homeschooling mom of three who has way too much on her plate do when she has an unexpected free day? Well, she goes on a field trip of course! It's not like she could use the day to get caught up on schoolwork or anything. That would be silly. Actually, after 11 years of homeschooling, I do realize that it is silly. If you have a chance to take your kids on a field trip, you should, especially if it's something of interest and your kids will learn something from it. So, we packed our lunches and headed to the nearest mission, Mission San Jose. Mission San Jose is actually in Fremont which is only about 20 minutes from our house without traffic. Of course, this is the Bay Area, so we ran in to traffic. None other than a terrible accident. People need to slow down, me included. After about an hour, we arrived at the beautiful mission.

I was taken by how large it was. Well, of course it was large, it had to house a lot of people, some willingly, some not so willingly. We'll save that for another conversation, not my happy little blog. Besides, my girl wanted to run and dance on the sun washed steps. She's smart.

The wall had fallen down in an earthquake and was never truly rebuilt. The absence of the wall does allow you to peer into the gardens as you walk by. It makes you want to see more.

Signs clearly marked our destination. I appreciate that.

Local history, that's what I really like. Make it mean something. Ranch San Ramon, doesn't get closer than that.

You would never be able to tell that my beautiful children have been raised in church by this picture. Nothing but absolute respect for the house of God.......um....well.....

The inside of the mission housed many artifacts, this one caught one of my children's attention. Just what he needs, his very own branding iron.

Apparently people were much shorter back then. My almost six foot boy didn't fit through the doorways very well. Watch your head!!

Ah, Father Junipero Serra. I've heard so much about you and that would explain the small doorways.

It was a long walk my friend, but you made it.



The beautiful fountain in the gardens. Time has only made it better.

Oh, the chandeliers inside the big church! They were gorgeous!!

They almost seemed out of place for a wooden and stucco church but they were just so beautiful.

This one feels so "beauty and the beast" to me. Loved it.

The view of the church from the back. Very fancy.

I had to take one more.
And these are my lovely sons who just really appreciate that I want to take pictures of them on beautiful historic grounds. I kept reminding them that we could be home doing math.....

Palm trees! Now they make great photographic subjects.

And the famous El Camino Real bell marking this very historic route in California. All in all, it was a lovely day and my dream of seeing all the missions has begun. So, 1 mission down, only 20 more to go!!!

She turned 8!

If you know me, you know I like parties to have themes, especially birthday parties. It helps me decorate and plan. Well, I let the girl choose the theme and surprise! She chose a cat theme. I know, you're not surprised. She loves cats. I wanted her party to be pretty and super cute so we went on Pinterest and got some great ideas. We decided on a pink and gray cat theme. Purrrrrfect. Oh, and Cookie the cat decided that he should be invited too and well, he does match the decorations. We had pink and gray cat cupcakes and my favorite pink foofy punch. It's made with 7up, pink lemonade and pink sherbert. When you pour the 7up over the pink lemonade and sherbert it fizzes! Love it and it tastes so yummy. We made cat sleeves for the cups with gray and pink paper. Breanna made cat masks and I made cat ear headbands for her guests. So fun.

Of course all the food had to be cat themed as well. We came up with these cat face shaped sandwiches. Celery for the eyes and carrots for the nose. Sweet.

To add a little something to the table we made these little felt cat faces. One for each corner of the table. Felt is so fun.

The food table was fun to put together. Tuna fish sandwiches in the shape of fish, cheese and crackers with the cheese cut out like mice, rainbow fruit shishkabobs, goldfish crackers, peanut butter and jelly cat face shaped cookies. Graham crackers for the ears, chocolate chips for the eyes and nose. Again, yummy. The plates were super fun to make too. We just made cat ears and whiskers then glued them to the plates.

These cupcakes were created with homemade marshmallows for the ears (thanks, Kerri!), chocolate chips for the eyes and m&ms for the nose. Adorable.

My dad wanted her to have flowers for her party. So sweet.

Oh, Pinterest. You are so wonderful. These rainbow fruit shishkabobs were super easy to make and they really added color to the table.

Of course she wanted to play Pin the Tail on the Cat and so we did. She drew the cat and made all the tails with bows. Oh my heart.

My baby turned 8. She is more than I could have ever asked for or imagined. She's more than I could have dreamed of. I don't think she's even aware of how happy she makes me. Don't get me wrong, I don't find my happiness in my children, they just bring me joy. Each of my kids fills a very special place in my heart. Marcus is the fulfillment of my dream to become a mother and to have a son, Justin healed my heart after losing a pregnancy and he gave his brother the gift of being a brother, and Breanna, well it's pretty obvious what she does. She fills my days with pink and beauty and joy. None is more special than the other but each is special in only a way that they can be.

Gifts, that's what they are. I treasure each day with my children and I know it goes so fast. I live it. I see the calendar days flip by. Sometimes I have to take a second look at my children because they are growing so fast. I enjoy each day as it comes and at the end of the day I am so thankful for the time with them. In a few months, I'll have a 13 year old and a 16 year old. Yikes! I wonder what theme they'll want for their parties.............

Cookie Exchange

I've always wanted to do a cookie exchange with my friends at Christmas. The thought of having dozens of different types of cookies that I didn't bake sounds wonderful to me but when you ask your friends to bake 7 dozen cookies they get a very scared look on their face and rightly so. You mean you want me to bake 7 dozen cookies on top of everything else I need to do in this crazy month of December? Yes, I do. I bake a lot and I realized that a regular batch of cookies makes about 3 dozen. If you double the recipe you have 6 dozen and if you make your cookies a little smaller you can easily get 7 dozen. I made peanut butter chip cookies since it's easy and everyone seems to love them. My children would prefer that I stop at the dough part and just feed them dough. Not today kids.
Here is what 7 dozen baked cookies looks like. I know, you want to eat them, it's okay, so do I. They go great with tea or coffee.
My husband realized I was having a houseful of women with baked goods and realized that I should have my Christmas present from him a little early. Best Christmas present ever! I absolutely love it! So adorable and perfect for me. Meet my new best friend...

Readying the counter. One must have a hot beverage with their cookies on a cold December night. I heated up the spiced cranberry cider and the pear cinnamon cider. Love them both. Absolutely delicious.

Here is what 7 dozen cookies times 6 looks like. Fun, that's what it is.
Let's see, we had gingerspice cookies, mexican wedding cakes, snickerdoodles, peppermint meringue kisses, orange zest fudge and peanut butter chip cookies. Sugar high!

And here are the lovely ladies that were brave enough to take on my challenge. We missed those who could not attend but I realize during this extra busy season it's not always possible to do everything. I've scaled back school this year during the month of December so that I could make room for the things I really want to do but never have the time for. So glad I did.

Star Wars Baby Shower

Star Wars baby themed gifts? Y es, I can do that. Bryan's cousin, Nicole, had a Star Wars themed baby shower and since this family loves Star Wars we came up with some really fun gifts for the baby. OK, they're more for us but who cares. The baby will love them someday too. We'll make sure of it. Here is Jabba the Hut in baby body pillow form, a Chewbacca monkey (like a sock monkey but it's Chewbacca, and a yoda pillow. Chewy wanted to join us for our morning reading time. We had a book just for him. Imagine that.

This little number was so easy. I found the perfect color of fleece at Walmart, freehand cut it, sewed it inside out, turned it the right way and then closed it up. I used thread to embroider the face. I like him.

He wanted to stay for breakfast.

So did Chewy.

And Jabba made himself right at home.

The cake was amazing. A baby Darth Vader with his binky. Adorable.

Super cute onesie. I sew want to make one of these. Yes, that was meant to be a pun.

Love this t-shirt for Brandon. Perfect.

I think Brandon likes Chewy too.

And Nicole enjoyed the yoda pillow.

Had to crochet a yoda hat. Warm my head is...

And since I made Makena a blanket I had to make Greyson one too. The Star Wars lettering really looked better in person but hey, I did my best.

Seriously, this Jabba body pillow is sooo cozy. You want to hug him.

The cute Beach Family. We were happy to have Brandon home on leave since he's been in training for his tour in Afghanistan. Makena has the most beautiful hair and is super smart. We call her Baby Gate. (You know as in she should be in the gate program but for babies.) We love this family and we're so happy they're giving us another addition to it. Welcome Baby Greyson!