Sunday Supper Spectrum

Met some friends down at Irvine Spectrum for an early dinner.  

The moms and youngins made a stop in at Children's Place, while the dads and teenager found a suitable eatery.  

Remember, my goal of purchasing only food until the addition gets built...well except that toilet and those hats, but other than those?!  

Well, now I have to add to the list of non-grocery purchases: Easter Shirt and tie for the little guy, the next size up of flip-flops AND hat and sunglasses chosen by Rett.  

Which looks like this:


At least it was all on sale.  

He didn't have a proper Easter outfit.

*sigh*

Other than these, I need to hunker down and stick to my goal; no more non-sense in my basket. (Heather, I can't stop saying it.)

On to our lovely dinner.

Lucky for us, the boys chose Javier's Mexican food, where the mango margaritas are divine.


Should have gotten a picture with the group of us, I was just having too much fun to remember.

March 10, 2013 

Game Day

Opening Day for the LA Galaxy against the Chicago Fire:

After the fireworks, fans on the far side of the field had enormous banners with the years of MLS Cup wins: 02, 05, 11 and 12.  SO cool!

Today was overcast at our house.  We wore long sleeves, brought our jackets and our collection of Galaxy scarves, of course.  Only to discover, the sun was out in full force upon arrival at the Home Depot Center. 

Rett and I treated ourselves to some new baseball caps, woohoo!  (But so much for having only food purchases in the month of March, remember how good I was in February??)

After the game, Rett proudly walking with Liam in all his Galaxy gear, talking about the 4-0 victory.

For someone in our family, the games did not end there...

For Christmas Liam and Grandpere got Lakers tickets!!!

Borrowed a jersey from a friend.

Meeting at the hotel parking lot, so their CAR could pick them up.  Grandpere does everything in style!

Here they are, getting into their ride.

He told me afterward, Grandpere took him to the VIP buffet for dinner.  The food was super yummy and he ate TONS of it.

Lakers beat the Atlanta Hawks, 99-98.  A close and exciting game.  What a memorable experience for my boy and his granddad!

March 3, 2013

Our Weekend with Scruffy

Almost forgot to post pictures of our weekend house guest.

We had the great pleasure of hosting Scruffy the bear.  As well as his enormous bag of build-a-bear outfits AND binder full of pictures from other weekends away.

That's right each student in the class gets to add to his scrapbook. Which to me translates as weekend homework. Ugh.

These are the only photos we took if Scruffy. Both from Friday.

He went a few other places, but we completely forgot to memorialize the outings with pictures.

After my day of classical music with Itzhak Perlman. We came home to have a relaxing Sunday evening; changed out if our fancy clothes into pajamas and prepare our famous homemade pizzas.

It wasn't until I was ready to start Rett's bedtime rituals that I realized we still had to print pictures and write about Scruffy's delightful weekend with us. Grr. 

The one stipulation was the information had to be handwritten by the child (kill me now). Isn't this why computers were invented?! 

I left Tim to supervise the writing while I printed the photos.

Of course, I then find the color printer is low on ink and I'll have to go out to get pictures printed!!! (Remind me to order backup ink for the color printer.)

Also, did you know the photo kiosk at Target closes at 8pm on Sundays?!
I found that out at 8:15. 

Luckily CVS was open and printed in just a few minutes, plus there were fewer people to see me in my PJs.
After that, I ran home, ready to slap the photos into the book and call it night.

Only, that's not how things went down. 

I find my child has written his story on the back of another student's page instead of on the BLANK paper I left out. He has jammed the words up to the very top; no room for name, date, etc. *sigh*

In order to fix the situation, I made a copy of the writing, used a giant eraser to un-graffiti the other child's carefully done work, and glued Rett's copied writing to the original bank page, along with pictures. Then, I read the story.

I wish I had taken a photo; total disconnect between the description of our weekend, which included a trip to the recycling center, ice cream at 31 Flavors and dinner at Slater's versus the pictures you see here.

I think my homework skills are getting worse, not better, with the passage of time. That, or my work ethic is slipping.

February 8-10, 2013

Back To School

Christmas break is over.  It's time to go to back school...dum, dum, dummm.  This little guy would much rather stay home and play Legos all day.  None the less, he made a valiant effort getting back into the swing of things.

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"First day back to school 2013. Freshly showered with his homemade cookie bagged and ready. Now to get out the door."

I'm happy to report we were on time for school.  Not always easy on Mondays...or for us in general.

January 7, 2013

Flip Flops and Feathers

My flip-flop boy.  The sun is out today.  Even if it was raining and cold, he would still prefer to wear these shoes.

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"Only a few days left of winter break. Glad it was sunny. #flipflopweather"

Later on in the day:

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"My hair is ready. #teatrozinzanni "

We had so much fun!  Here are a couple pics from our night.
 

 The full-length view of our very snazzy outfits.

 

Our dinner menu:

First Course - Intergalactic Surprise

Beet & Goat Cheese Terrine With Orange "Sphere" and Pop Rocks

 

Soup - Zuppa Di Fortuna

Segerstrom Lima Bean Soup, Bacon Chip

 

Salad - Garden of Delight

Greens And Shaved Endive Salad, Grapes, Apples, Gorgonzola, Candied Walnuts, Green Goddess Dressing

 

Main Course - Radio Waves

Patina Braised Prime Beef Short Rib, Truffle Potato Fondue, Baby Carrots, Mushroom Red Wine Sauce

Dessert -On The Air

Intense Chocolate Cake, Caramelized Hazelnuts, Chocolate Sauce, Chocolate Macaroon, Vanilla Chantilly Cream

 

Everything was scrumptious.  The show was laugh out loud funny.  And of course I was with two of my favorite ladies in the whole wide world, so it was a memorable evening!

 

January 3, 2013

Day 2 Photo a Day - Colour

Do you know what this means?  Two days in a row I have posted to my blog...I'm shocked at myself...and a bit relieved that it's coming back to me...a bit.

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"1st day of the new swim season - Day 2 Color #photoadayapril "

Below this is the "You Might Also Like" section.  Keep in mind, two years ago I still had to load pictures from my camera instead of my iPhone, this little one was at home full time and I hadn't discovered Instagram yet, how time flies.

Art & Soccer Practice

Mediums used today include colored corn syrup, shaving cream, yogurt and mashed potatoes.  This last picture is very Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

The penny is huge on him, but anything to be out there with his team.

March 29, 2010

Last Day of Swim & Things in the Stroller

It's the last day of swimming lessons!  I can hardly believe it.  Rett has been enrolled in swim since he was a baby. 

 

Miss Lisa was our teacher at Mommy and Me swim and has been his instructor for almost every session he's been in since then.  Also, now that the city has changed their sign-ups to on-line, we couldn't even get on the 5 deep waiting list, much less into one of the actual swimming classes. 

 

Oh well, Rett is a fantastic swimmer, but it was nice to have a regular exercise routine besides climbing the walls at home.

This is a shot taken with the camera phone. 
We were out shopping with the stroller, yes I still use it, don't make fun, I can hold a lot of bags with that thing...oh, yeah, back to the photo. 
So in the little pocket was a pair of glasses. 
Not mine. 
Let's see when was the last time we used the stroller? 
Oh yeah, that's right, SCP.
With was an epic shopping day, since I was out buying gift cards to stores Jr. Highers might like to find in the prize room for the Tech-A-Thon.  Too many stores to count!

March 24, 2010

What do you wear when you shop?

South Coast Plaza;  One of the finest, most high-end "malls" in the world. 

 

My child insists on wearing a fireman's outfit throughout the entire evening. 

 

We dined at Boudin's, he and Cousin Jen took a twirl around the carousel and we did a teensy bit of shopping.

 

March 23, 2010

Soccer

Notice the matching jersey for the game?

 

Each time he reallys does prep for "When they need me to run onto the field". 

 

Wonder when, or if, he'll notice this doesn't actually happen?

 

March 22, 2010

St. Patrick's Day

What a tasty St. Patty's day!  We started out by putting our corned beef and cabbage in the slow cooker.  We munched on green bagels for breakfast.  Then, when it was time for dinner we had Cousin Jen over and she made the us these tasty chocolate lava cakes, ugh, to die for, especially with the raspberries on top.

 

March 17, 2010

Vegas Day 3

Made it over to the Outlets for shopping.  It was really nice actually.  They had a pretty wide selection of stores.  Liam got all kinds of fun stuff.  Rett made it his mission to ride every coin machine in the place.  This car is one of many.  We split up at one point.  I was in the Banana Republic store and the boys went over to Quiksilver.  Tim left Liam to his looking and pushed Rett, in the stroller, over to more coin operated fun.  When I met up with Liam in his store, he looked around for some socks he was planning to purchase but couldn't find where he put them down.  Then he realized he set them on the top of the stroller, on the little canopy part that folds back...

I sent Tim a text "Were you a shoplifter?"  

"Why"

"Better check your cart"

"Nothing....socks!  They were hidden.  Be right back."

When he gets back to the store, his stroller sets off the alarm at the door.  Then he mentions how that happened when he left the store too, but never found the items that set off the beeping.

Dinner at Nobu, my very favorite place. 

 

Rett was so tired.  We had to employ all kinds of entertaining tactics to keep him awake.  Oh the fun to be had with chop sticks. 

 

Our meal was delicious as always.

 

Some of the things we had: the Yellowtail Sashimi with Jalapeno, Black Cod with Miso, Salmon Skin Salad, King Crab & Avacado Ceviche and tons of edamame.   I'm getting hungry just writing this. 

 

March 15, 2010

Vegas Day 2

Inside of the Wynn.  Picking up our tickets for Le Reve. 

Vegas is a city that takes their carpets very seriously.

Looking at the pirate ships outside Treasure Island.  After that Rett talked constantly about wanting to see the Pirate Show.

Inside the Venetian.  It made us think of our trip to Italy.  Very cool canals here too, but much newer. We watched the "show" in the pavilion.  Here's a juggler on stilts.

Lunch at Spagos.  We had planned on going to the FAO Swartz inside Caesar's but it was closed due to remodeling.  Very disappointing. 

 

Also, at lunch Rett accidently got a piece of fancy bread with walnuts in it.  Total allergic reaction.  Several Benadyll later and he was feeling better.

After Tim and I went to Le Reve we took the boys to the Pinball Museum.  It's way, way off the strip.  But for our pinball loving family it was a great adventure.

Check out the size on this mini-pinball machine.  It was the perfect size for Rett, so cool.  We are now scouring the internet to try and find another one.

 

March 14, 2010

Vegas Day 1

The fish tank at the Quiksilver store was a favorite of Rett's.

Liam enjoying our luxurious suite.

March 13, 2010