today

I am going to make some Pioneer Woman Cinnamon Rolls and pretend that I don't have a huge mess to deal with in the kids room. I have been ignoring it for weeks, so it won't be hard.

the shortest day and longest night

Happy Solstice everyone!

i am not a barber

Last week Porter told me and Jason that he wanted to have "hair like daddy". We talked about it for a while and I was stroking his hair and I said "i love your hair it is so pretty" and he told me that girls have pretty hair not boy. I respect Porter and decided that if he wanted to cut his hair then he could. I had an idea of how I wanted it too look, so I got out the clippers and started going to town. It would have been all good if I had had one of those smocks, but I didn't and the hair was in his shirt and itching him. After a while Porter had enough and I realized that I needed to take him to a professional to have it fixed. The final result is way shorter than I wanted, but I hope in a few weeks when it starts to grow out it will look better. Porter is happy about it and likes his new cut.
Here he is waiting to have his hair cut.

This is not the best photo, but you can get an idea of what it looks like.

silent blog, not so silent life

Sometimes I feel so overwhelmed with all of our activities I have no time to properly document and share them here with you. Life is busy busy busy.
two weeks ago we spent a night at The Pearl hotel for our 6year anniversary, last weekend I spent a night with friends at the Hard Rock Hotel, tonight we have Jason's work party, next weekend we are going to Utah to visit my grandma, the weekend after that we have a holiday party and I haven't bought one gift.

zoo trip

Porter's school let out early every day this week, so one day I took the kids to the zoo.
15 min into our visit.
Kid 1: I am tired of walking
Mom: then we can go home
Kid 1: I DON'T WANT TO GO HOME
Mom: stop whining and yelling or we will go home
Kid 2: I am hungry
Mom: you ate right before we came here but if you are still hungry let's go home and eat
Kid 2:I DON'T WANT TO GO HOME
Mom walks into gift shop and tells kids they can pick out a pencil, Kid 1 wants a candy, mom says "no" and Kid 1 starts whining again. Mom walks out of store and starts walking towards the exit with two screaming kids following her, every one looks and thinks "when I have kids my kids are not going to behave like that" and "can't that lady get control of those kids" Kids calm down and mom buys them a photo from the photo booth, leaves her wallet there and has to go back after hours with kids in tow to pick it up. I should have left after I took these photos.

Baby Tre is here

My little sister had her baby early this morning at home. He weighed 11 pounds and is 20 inches long.

Tutti Frutti

Porter's school was having a fund raiser at Tutti Frutti Frozen Yogurt so we stopped by on our way home from school yesterday. Liesl was at home sleeping, so it was nice to just hang out with Porter for a while and talk.
I love this photo of him chewing on the sour gummy worm.

birthday fun

My little brother and sister were born two years and 1 week apart, so growing up I think they celebrated almost every birthday together. This year my older sister and her family came down and we had a fun day celebrating their birthdays at my parent's house. The pool was heated and the kids had so much fun swimming with their uncle and cousins.

Spanish Class

Porter took his first Spanish class today and loved it. The teacher is really sweet and great with the kids.


I love that it is November and they can have class outside!

School Report

As you know Porter had a rough start with school and I am happy to report that things are much better. I received this email from his teacher this afternoon.

Hi Natalie!

I just wanted to let you know that Mr.Porter has been trying sooooooo hard lately! He's really become quite the model student.

I love writing parents happy grams! Go Porter!!!!!

after school fun

Yesterday as we were driving through Balboa Park on our way home I decided to stop and let the kids play for a while. It has been really nice and warm here, so we had a fun time playing.


Can you guess what she was saying?

After Halloween...

costumes are on sale and I let Liesl pick one out, she chose Lu Lu Unicorn.
Liesl and her friend playing in her friends room, check out the before photos here.

A tired unicorn.

This costume makes me laugh. It reminds me of Rainbow Brite or a Harajuku girl.

Halloween

they carved pumpkins

went trick or treating

and ate as much candy as they could for 30 min, then traded it in for a toy.

Halloween activities

This past week I had a class party for each kid and a school carnival to attend.
Liesl wore her witch costume for the imagination parade at her school. After the parade my friend and I went and baked some pumpkin muffins in the kitchen for the party. The school has a rule that you can only bring in store bought food or you can make it in their kitchen. I am not a fan of store bought backed goods, so it was nice to be able to provide a yummy treat for the kids. After the snack Liesl spent some time in the art studio painting.
Here is Porter trying on his white ninja costume.
We were inspired by this craft post and decided to make them.

a quick way...

to bring butter up to room temperature when you are making muffins for your daughter's school party.

Briercrest Park

Last week my friend and I took our kids to a park we had never been to before. It was so fabulous, it is what every park should be. The three-acre sensory park is designed with plants and objects that highlight the fragrance, sound, textures, and wildlife found in nature - including an herbal fragrance garden. The facilities include tables, benches, restrooms, children's swings, and climbing structures.

Pumpkins at the Park

Today we went to the Wild Animal Park to check out Pumpkins at the Park.
The kids decorated bags and made little spiders in a web.

Liesl is writing her name now.



The kids fed the ducks, pet the deer and had a fun time.

The activities we run by teens and it was not put together as well as other places we have been like Mickey's Trick-or-Treat or Sea World's Spooktacular, but it was fun.

Thursday Night

Baby Shower

My little sister is due to have her baby next month, so my older sister and I hosted a baby shower for her at my parent's house.

We ate tasty food,

played traditional baby shower games,

opened gifts,

and had a nice time.

Fun Roller

My sister found this Fun Roller at a garage sale and the kids had hours of fun with it.