Getting ready for Madagascar 3!!

I am so fun!!  We are getting really excited for the new Madagascar movie...We loved the first movie, we thought the second one was even better, and now that the 3rd is coming out, I bet it will be the BEST!  We had a Madagascar themed party with the kids and some of their friends last night, and it was really fun.  I know you all wish you could have come!  Too bad most of you live in AZ, or I would have invited you all. :) 

These are the Marty from Madagascar Zebra cakes.

                                                     Who doesnt Love Circus Peanuts?  Well....apparently everyone at the       party but me.  It was the thought that counted!  It went with the theme. :)

 Circus animal crackers...

 Circus cups....My kids LOVED these.  I was pretty excited when I found them.

 The kids coloring their Alex the Lion masks....

 This was soooo good.  Chex with chocolate and peanut butter.  The picture doesnt do it justice because it was Delicious!

We even had a Madagascar 3 Wii game for the kids to play.

 Playing the Wii....

 Some of the colored masks...

 Amaia found someones plate and was picking any remains of the chex mix off of it.  :)

 The coloring books...

 ok...look how fun this is!  I kind of look like I have some major clown wig sideburns.....

We had so much fun playing games, coloring, playing the wii, and eating circus food!  Now that you all see how fun our parties are...maybe I can talk some of you into a New Mexico visit?  I promise to have a really fun party when you are here. :)

Swimming time!

ok...so I just joined this site called Crowdtap that lets me try out new products for FREE!  woohoo!  I just recently got into a sample and share where I got an Old Navy Swim suit for free!  The only rule was that the swimsuit could not be on clearance.  Ummm...That is one rule that I am definately ok with!  haha.  I havnt bought a swimsuit for myself since I was pregnant with Jocy, and I am pretty sure that a maternity swimsuit doesnt count.  Before that, I last bought a swim suit from Old Navy when I was 17.  I have been known to go swimming in a tanktop, and Zachs old workout shorts.  I was in definate need of some new swim gear so you can imagine my excitement!

 I don't like to go shopping with my kids, but since Zach is pretty much non existant these days, I kind of had to get over that.  Luckily, shopping for a free suit kept me happy enough that I wasn't in a bad mood when I left!  :)

I wish Amaia was looking at the camera in this picture.  She looked so cute in that hat!

                                  Rai's find...super cute, too bad we werent shopping for them!  :)

 Jocy LOVED these shoes.  I only post a picture of them to show just how fun my kids really are when shopping. ;)  When I finally got her to take them off her feet, she threw her Jocy tantrum and I noticed she already took it upon herself to take the tags off.  nice.

 My friend Danielle came shopping with me and I gave her my other coupon so she could get a free suit too!

Notice Jocy running around in the back ground of this picture.  She is such a cute girl, just a difficult one to shop with!

Just in case you didnt believe me...here is my swimsuit from 14 years ago! Notice the Old Navy tag on the bottoms. :)

Getting ready to swim.....

 Here is my new swimsuit from Old Navy!  I LOVE it!  Dont mind the handprints on the glass in the picture...I swear I clean them a million times a week, but with a baby in the house, they pretty much have hand prints on them all the time. :)

Maia. :)

Since I live soooo far away from all my family, I decided to start blogging again so I can keep you all up to date on the happenings with us!  I don't remember if I emailed this video to any of you, but here it is again!  Amaia must have been in a really funny mood when we took this video, because I can make cry faces all day long now and she doesn't care at all.  :)

McCormicks Grill Mates Memorial Day BBQ!

Happy Memorial Day! I was a little sad to be missing out on Lissa's fantastic Memorial Day party she has every year.  So I decided I would have one of my own! I had a lot to live up to since Lissa's were always so fun so I did what I could!  We had an Americana theme being Memorial Day and all...flags, streamers, flag decorations, and a lot of red white and blue accessories!  We had a bubble machine for the littles, and sandbox, water games, and a lot of good food!   I wish I could have talked some of you Arizonians to come down here to join in on the fun! We missed all of you!

 I got some new seasonings from McCormicks Grill Mates to use at our bbq.... Molasses Bacon seasoning, Brown sugar and bourbon barbeque sauce, Memphis Pit bbq rub, Montreal Steak seasoning, and Spiced Brandy marinade.  Why do I need to tell you all the different spices we used?  Because they were DELICIOUS!!! :)  We had all sorts of meat since all of our guests brought some, so we were able to try them all.  Can I just say that the Bacon Molasses seasoning is to die for?  I havnt had such a good burger in a LONG time! 

Apparently Zach has forgotten how to grill hotdogs...this is how all the kids food turned out.  It was black...and I mean Black!  It must have still tasted good though because Jocy stll tried to eat it! haha.  Thank goodness for good seasoning! lol 

                       Here are just a few of the people we had come.  I love having good friends. :)

We had a lot of food!  We used the middle table to taste all the seasonings and prepare the meat.

The bubble machine...How cute is that?!  You cant see the bubbles very well but they were spitting a lot out and the kids loved it.

The "sand box"  Really it is a sand volleyball court, but whatever works right?

                                                   Zach preparing out hamburgers....

                                                          He was really excited....

                                                                     Yum!

                          The cupcakes I made.  How cute are those!  I was very proud of myself. :)

                                                The girls getting ready for the bbq!

I don't know if you can tell in the picture, but we had such a great turn out!  It is so nice to know we have good friends, especially since we don't have any family to celebrate with.

My plate of deliciousness.  I wish I would have taken the bun off in the picture, because my hamburger turned out great!  A little small, but great!  lol

This is a video with Jocy's charred hotdog.  I say yucky, but apparently she thought it was delicious!

I hope you all a great Memorial Day!

Logans Birthday....

Logan turned 7 yesterday, and as he put it " it was the best birthday ever!" The day started out crazy since I had to go to the store, bake 2 cakes, and get us all ready to be out the door by 11. I had to stop by the bank before heading out to Peter Piper Pizza. My kids were as friendly as they always are and were talking to a nice old lady in the line. They told her we were going to PPP and that it was Logan's birthday. We headed over to PPP and about 15 minutes later, that same nice lady from the bank came in and found me. I thought maybe I dropped something in line, and she was returning it. Nope. She brought Logan $5 for his birthday. How nice is that? You don't meet people like that very often, and I was so touched. Logan got everything he could have wanted. Video game system with awesome games, a TON of silly bands( apparently they are the new thing..everyone has them and he has been begging me for weeks) and money. The kids had a blast of course. You cant go wrong with Peter Piper. We went home for a few hours before we went to meet Mom and Dave for dinner and more cake! We went to Pei Wei's ( my favorite! Thank goodness Logan picked chinese for dinner!) and Logan got more birthday money. He has saved up $45 which is good for him, but bad for me. Logan has saving for a motor scooter forever, and Zach told him if he saved up half of the money we would pay the rest. Apparently we will be paying sooner than I thought. Anyway, besides the going to Walmart 3 different times it was a fabulous day. Thanks everyone for coming and making the day so special for Logan!


Lila and the kids at the prize counter. Lee and Trace wouldn't let me take pictures of them, so I had to be sneaky with this one.

Logan and Hunter...

This is the nice lady that we met in the bank, that brought Logan $5.

My girls and their Lila.

Logan, Trace and Hunter playing with their awesome PPP blow up hammers.

Grandpa doing some cool tricks with Logans PPP yo-yo.

Mom and Dave with the kids...

I am so proud of what an awesome little man Logan has become.

Jocy....

All 3 of my kids were binki babies. They used them until they were about 2 years old. It is always hard to take them away, but once they were gone...they were gone. Jocy has been another story altogether. She was a thumb sucker when she was born, which I was totally against. I bought every kind of binki the stores had, trying to break her from the thumb sucking. I finally found an ugly looking butterfly binki that she would actually take. when she was about 18 months, we noticed that the binki was messing up her teeth. When she would bite down, only her molars would touch, and there was a big gap between her top and bottom teeth. The dentist said it was caused by the binki, so away it went at 18 months instead of 2 years. Apparently, she still wants to have a binki.......I caught her hiding in the corner behind the tree...with a binki in her mouth.

She realized she was caught...but is playing the "I'm Cute" card.

I took the binki away...

She was mad at me...

So, why do I still have binkis around my house for her to find and cry about? who knows!