"Gretel Gumdrops"....The Birthday Girl!!

For Gretel's FIRST Birthday, I was really excited because my family came to visit the weekend of her special day!! So Gretel was able to celebrate with her G-rents Mimi and Pop-"C",Uncle Teal, and her Auntie Hab, Uncle Stevo, and cousins Hudson and Oliver!

For her party, I thought it would be fun to do a Hansel and Gretel theme! So I made these invitations, and the rest of the poem had the info about when & where...





Everyone visited and ate when they arrived. We had two different kinds of soups, salad, spinach & artichoke dip/bread, sugar cookies and cupcakes when we sang to Gretel and the end.
The little kids went in the backyard and sat on blankets while my mom read them the story of Hansel and Gretel. Then we had them go in the garage to help decorate the gingerbread house and color. I had lots of help from friends and family for the party, so thank you everyone, for everything you did to help me!!

My very talented friend Abby is an awesome artist, and spent TONS of time drawing the entire story of Hansel and Gretel to create a giant coloring page for the kids at the party. It was sooo nice of her-I only requested one scene, and she went above and beyond!!

So the kids really liked coloring and decorating the gingerbread house, and played a quick game of "Throw the witch in the cauldron."

We watched the video that Johnny made of Gretel's highlights of her first year, which turned out really fabulous and Gretel still loves watching it! (Thanks Johnny for all your hard work!) Then we sang to her, & took pictures. We gave each family a party favor cd named "Ear Candy" (thanks Hab for labeling and wrapping them!) which had songs from her video and candy themed songs on it.
It was a lot of fun-we're glad we have so many fun friends and fam to celebrate with!!

On Gretel's actual birthday, we started off the day with having her open some presents from my parents and Hailey, Steve, and their boys. Yay for new toys!! Thanks, everyone...

Then we spent the day at a pumpkin patch where they had lots of fun things for the kids to do, like train rides, slides, and a petting zoo!!

Johnny had to stay home and study, but in the end he decided to skip class and go birthday shopping for our little girl instead! We were glad he met us for dinner (at B.J.'s) that night, so he didn't miss out on the whole day!

Fun+Uncle=FUNCLE!!!

We came back after dinner and opened more gifties-a doll with a stroller and a little toy hair/makeup kit that Johnny had gotten her. She just loves this-she sits all day long opening and closing all the tiny nailpolish bottles, and rummaging around her bag for her makeup brushes!! (I wonder where she gets it from?) Her first word was "Baby" and she says it all day-so she really loves her little baby that cries and makes sleeping noises.

Thank you Mom and Dad for all the fun outfits, accessories, and cute jammies too!!

Malibu, baby yeah!!

So this is really late, but I figured I might as well try and keep my little events in order. Sort of. This little girls' weekend happened at the end of August. My girlfriend Shar invited me, Abby and Shauna to stay with her at her "Grammy's" house who lives in Malibu. We felt really cool, because this was in the same neighborhood as stars like Minnie Driver and Pamela Anderson (I got a glimpse of Pammy at the very end of the trip-I was so thrilled!) And just across the cliff we could see Barbara Streisand's mansion. We walked down to a private beach every day and we saw....you'll never guess......Matthew McConaughey very up close! We walked (slowly) past him and got a good look at him playing with his two dogs. Shauna was especially thrilled because she touched one of his dogs. Also, I was not at the beach yet when my friends saw Luke Wilson so I was really bummed.

The highlight of our weekend was when we went to dinner at this really awesome/expensive Steakhouse in Beverly Hills called "Mastro's." Abby's brother-in-law is the general manager, so she made the reservations, and they were extra nice to us....they even comped our meal! Also, while we were there, the manager came and talked to us and pointed out what celebrities were there, and also told us who had been there recently. He quietly showed us that Kareem Abdul Jabbar was just a few tables away, and told us that "Puddy" from Seinfeld was there too. Chevy Chase had been in recently, and the night before, David and Victoria Beckham had been there with their kids!! I was so sad we didn't get to see them- Johnny can't believe that I actually get excited at the thought of seeing celebs; he thinks I'm really silly!

There were definite drama-filled moments; our car broke down and we had to stay longer than planned which didn't really disturb mine and Gretel's schedule (she was there with me) but it messed up everyone else's.

But we had so much fun at night when the babies were asleep-we would just talk and laugh while eating Snickers ice cream bars...and howl with laughter some more. My favorite line of the trip that we kept repeating more loudly and obnoxiously each time was, "It's a beautiful night..." "WE SMELL LIKE PIZZA!!!"

I just wanted to quickly journal all the good/funny parts of the trip before I forgot them. I don't have pictures because I didn't bring my camera, but maybe I'll add some later if I get a few from my friends!

Post Columbus Day Post...

So Gretel's BIG FIRST BIRTHDAY was on Monday, October 12 which was also Columbus Day this year. I thought since it will take me a little while to catch up on posting the fun birthday festivities, I would at least update my little blog with some pictures from about 5 years ago that I took with my very fun roommates! Betsy worked very hard on this white wig she made out of cotton, and we all dressed up, ate dinner together and took "Discovering America" type pictures...

My Cohorts: PARTY ON!!!

I feel like this past summer was a nonstop party! My friends and I seem to always have something in the works...and if not, we'll find a reason to get together! (After our babies are in bed, of course) I joke around that we're like a bunch of teen moms.

I went to a "Tacky Party" hosted by Angella and Katie. We got to dress in our tackiest outfits. I had sooo much fun getting ready. And Gretel loved watching me get ready. She was in awe as I was doing my hair and makeup! And you can see why...Johnny looked horrified when I came downstairs and saw him for the first time. He said, "it looks like you have a really bad sunburn!"

These pictures don't really do it justice, but Hab-I thought you'd really love seeing this!


My face makeup was much darker than my neck because I used tons of bronzer and made a definite line. Also, my blush was in two perfect lines, and it's hard to tell from the photo but I'd done super dark lipliner and really white frosted lips.

You can't tell, but I'm wearing socks and crocs!

The next group of pictures is of our Girls Gone Wild Karaoke Night. It was a going away party for our friend Jessica, who was moving to a different part of California. It was also Margarita's birthday that we were celebrating....so we found this Asian karaoke lounge where you have your very own private room. It was fantastic!! We stayed until midnight I think, but the place stays open until 4 am!

Gretel's Cohorts!

These pictures were taken on July 5, so although it was a while ago, I still wanted to remember all the cute babies that were born within the year. My friend Abby arranged for the babies to pose together, and I thought it was such a cute idea!


From left to right: Carissa, Avery, Brynn, Gretel, Claire, Samantha, and Katie

back row:Heather(Gibson), Abby (Avery), Bee (Carissa), Julie (Samantha), Katie (Claire)

front row: Kerry (Katie), Me (Gretel), Jaycee (Christian), Char (Brynn)

Only 2 boys and 7 girls!

My friend Heather was out of town when the picture was taken, but here is a picture of her little girls, Evelyn (just turned one!) and Nicole

Gretel also had tons of fun one day with Justin and Carissa!

Their mom Bee who is an awesome cook came over to teach me how to make chicken wings, stir-fry, and sticky rice (with my new authentic pot & basket) Then they stayed and ate with us...so yummy! She has also taught me how to make egg rolls. Thanks for the cooking lesson, Bee!

Johnny and I have met so many wonderful people that we just LOVE since moving here-so these are a few pics that I wanted to journal a little about. To be continued....because there are a lot more fun things I need to write about!

Gretel's Tongue Tricks!

We've noticed for a long time that Gretel has an unusually long tongue. And for the past few months she's really started having fun with it! I love how she knows she's being silly when she does all these funny things with it!
It's so long and pointy-I like to call her my little "Genie Simmons!" (you know, from the gross 80's rock band Kiss)

I had a hard time choosing which pictures to post; we just love our little lizard!!!