Monday, November 23, 2009

KA Thanksgiving

Today was the first day of our first ever KA Thanksgiving program! And boy am I wiped out! When I left work on Friday we had 29 kids signed up (I'd say successful since we just posted the camp 2 weeks ago), but when I arrived today I found out that 11 more kids had signed up over the weekend for a grand total of 40 today! Success! It's so rewarding to see the camp continually expanding and thriving! We had a fun day of classic KA games, gymnastics (my first time going to gymnastics EVER in my time at KA, if you can believe that), some lego engineering, and more KA games! At the end of the day one of the parents asked how the day was and I replied that it was great, but I'm definitely not in camp form right now! (Meaning that it's hard work keeping up with those kids!) I might be sore and sunburned tomorrow (ok, definitely sore and sunburned tomorrow), but I'm enjoying every minute of it!

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Chock Full o' Surprises

Daryll and I shared a very eventful weekend, chock full o' surprises. Friday night we traveled up to Burbank for a much anticipated surprise party for my mom's 50th birthday. It was such a success! My mom was so genuinely excited...that she cried (sorry Mom, you probably won't read this anyways)!
We had about 30 of her friends and family members there, including my Uncle Rod who jet set in for the evening event.

There were even more surprises in store for my mom that evening with some wonderful gifts. Amy and I gave Mom a gift that will love her back... a new Australian Shepherd puppy!!

More pictures from Mom's party can be seen by clicking here.

Saturday brought a new day and another surprise party... this time for Uncle Joe's 80th birthday.
We enjoyed good food and a good time with the family at Buca di Beppo's.

After the party, we drove up the hill to Dad's cabin near Arrowhead and enjoyed a restful evening and relaxing morning the next day. More pictures from Uncle Joe's party and the cabin can be seen here.

We finally returned home Sunday evening, tired but content and happy that everything went off perfectly without a glitch!

Thursday, November 5, 2009

Some Random Fall Shots

Just thought I'd share a few pictures that I haven't shared yet from this fall...


Daryll and me on our 1st Anniversary


Anniversary stroll at Mission Bay


The pups love each other too!


Lulu dressed like a fire hydrant at the pug meet-up


George with the pumpkin he carved for us...yummm, pumpkin seeds!


Stealing a kiss at the pumpkin patch

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Amy's Gift

Q: What do you get when you take an old window, a few hooks and screws, and a vinyl decal?




A: THIS!!


Conor picked up a bunch of old windows for me after my last project so I had to come up with a new idea for this batch. Amy asked me to make one specially for her, so I came up with this cute little wall hanging.


I was so in love with it, she almost never knew of its existence. I might just have to come up with one of these for my own house. And luckily for me, Conor picked up even more windows! I'm just that inspiring. ;-)

Sunday, November 1, 2009

A Wickedly Delightful Halloween Weekend

Halloween held more treats than tricks for us this year with Amy and Conor visiting for the weekend! Saturday was a completely packed out day that we decided to spend at Sea World. We spent a few hours there enjoying the shows and Halloween festivities (including watching a bunch of cute little kiddies in costume). One of the highlights of the visit for me was when a dolphin allowed us to pet it for a minute in the area where you can touch them.

We enjoyed a delicious lunch in Old Town before venturing to the thrift store to pick up some last-minute Halloween costumes. We got back home about an hour before dusk, anticipating all of the trick-or-treaters arrival. We were disappointed in this regard though. The doorbell only rang 4 times the whole night! The last kids were heard leaving our front door saying, "they gave us a lot of candy at this house!". Well, at least they were happy. :-) With all the free time we had, we put togehter our costumes. Daryll and Conor dressed up as Mario and Luigi from Mario Brothers and they were quite the dynamic duo.

Amy and I had planned on being nurses together, but the scrubs I got from the thrift store didn't fit, so I had to fall back on ol' faithful, my American Gladiator costume.


Even Ella and Lulu got in on the action for a while, dressed up in style as peanut butter and jelly (and then as little country bumpkins).

After dinner, we headed out to the Blarney Stone, a local pub, for some Irish tunes and general merriment. Overall, a top evening and day indeed!!