A Birthday Dinner She'll Remember

Angelina's birthday dinner was really fun.  She told me that she will never forget it, because she had so much fun.  She told me that it was cool to watch the food being made right in front of you.

Where did we take her that she would have said this?  Benihana!!  I love this restaurant!!  The look of amazement on my girls' faces as our cook made, tossed, made it smoke and threw our food was priceless.  If you ever want to take your child to a restaurant and know with almost 100% certainty that they won't whine much because they'll be too busy being entertained, then a teppan room is your place!  It's more pricey than McDonald's, but it's SO worth it!  :)

Here are some pictures of our night at Benihana...

My girls LOVE edimame!  

And to my surprise, both girls loved the soup below.  Even though it had onions and mushrooms in it.  Angelina was surprised at herself too.  She says, "Mommy!  I love this soup.  I even ate the MUSHROOMS AND ONIONS!"  :)

Fried rice is so good!  But, it's even better when it's shaped into a heart first... don't you agree?  :)

Our cook was awesome!  He pulled out all the stops for Angelina.

Flipping bowls of fried rice in the air and catching it - without spilling 1 grain of rice.

He cut the food at lightning speed, and even flipped an egg around with his spatula.  

Angelina's mouth hit the floor with each new stunt.  :)

And Zoe just watched on in 3 year old amazement.

mmmm! 

And of course he promised us the volcano, which I knew Angelina would love.

Once again her mouth dropped open and she giggled. 

Zoe stared.  haha!

She was so excited the whole time!  

They sang her Happy Birthday and gave her an elaborately decorated wedge of pineapple

and we all got ice cream.  Perfection!

I made the girls these skirts the night before Angelina's birthday.

I also decorated a plain white shirt with rolled flowers. 

Angelina's rolled flower was a little more gigantic than I originally planned.

But she loved it even more.  

And Zoe was excited to get a new skirt and shirt too. 

All was right in their world.

And mine too.  :)

So.  Next time you're not sure where to take your kids on their birthday.

Might a suggest the teppan room?  

Trust me.  You won't be sorry.  Just the looks on my

girls' faces made it priceless.

Angelina's Concert

I am so behind on event posting.  Oye!  I don't think it's possible to be any busier than I am.  Which is definitely a great thing.  But it can be pretty stressful.

So... let's catch up!  Back on May 13th Angelina had an end of the year program.  She was granted a talking duet piece in the concert.  She was super nervous, and mom and dad and sissy were so proud of her.  She got the part because she is an accelerated reader (6th grade level).  She ended up doing awesome, which we knew she would!  Here is a picture through my video camera of her...

And I snapped a couple pictures of Zoe and Mike while we waited for the concert to start. . .

I DIE over this picture!  Perfection!!!

And this one cracked me up!

Such a funny girl.

Next up!  Angelina's birthday!!!  New post for that one.  :)

Huge!

This girl...

Just POOPED in the potty!  HUGE HUGE HUGE!  I know this is a bit weird and TMI for a blog post, but this is such a huge milestone!  I was beginning to worry because she's 3 1/2.  But worry no more!  She did it!!!!!!  There might have been screamings of YAY and WOO HOO and we are SO PROUD of you Zoe!!!  Yayyyyyyyyy!!!


That is all.  :)

Night Owls Tweet

One night I am chatting it up on Twitter with my lovely Aussie friend, Kris.  Then an idea hits me.  Like a palm to the forehead!  So, I ask Kris this question...

"Hey!  I just got a SWEET idea!  Wanna play?"

To which she replies... 

"lol - so long as it's SWEET"

I tell her my idea, and she calls me crazy, but is totally on board, because crazy can be fun, right?  Of course it can.  Especially when the ideas come while you're up late at night like she and I always are. We are crazy night owls.  :) What was my idea?  Blogging photos of our lives.  She lives in Australia and I live in Arizona, USA.  What could be more fun than 365 Photos over 52 weeks?  I can't think of much.  

So... Night Owls Tweet was born.  Every other Monday I will be blogging 7 photos.  1 photo from each day of my life.  The other Mondays, Kris will be blogging them on her lovely blog.

SO, without further ado... the last 7 days of my life in pictures . . . I know!  Most are of my girls... they're cute.  Can you blame me?  ;) 

Week 2: Arizona

I adore these trees!  They bloom the most gorgeous yellow flowers ever!  

The new Cherry Limeade camera strap slipcover added to my shop here.

A view of Angelina through the video camera.

Angelina's Birthday dinner at Benihana.  Yum!

Just looking cute.  Not too hard.  :)  

Angelina making a wish!

She's a little model, huh?  

You can see Kris's Night Owls Tweet Week 1 by clicking here.  She is an amazing designer, so take your time and check out her blog.  It's fantastic!!  She designs fabric.  :)  I need to order some soon!!!

So, what do you think of our little gig?  Fun, right?

Mother's Day & Giveaway Week!!

Welcome to giveaway week!  The next post will hold the very first of many giveaways going on this week!  :)  If you haven't signed up for the newsletter yet, you are definitely going to want to ASAP!  There is going to be some insider info in this first newsletter that you simply won't want to miss.  I mean... all newsletters sent out will have insider info... sort of like a *Shey*[B] secret society.  :)  Wanna join?  Your only initiation is signing up!  I promise no binge drinking, or stealing anything from a sorority!  :)  So.  Go ahead!  You can sign up right over there  <------------------- on the left sidebar.

I hope all of you moms had a divine Mother's Day!  Unfortunately I slept most of mine.  I cried about it already too.  I am really mad at myself for doing that.  Sleep is needed, but I assure you.  The amount of sleeping that I accumulated was just ridiculous.  Never ever again!  But when I was awake, my kids gave me a card that held a locket in it.  Lovely.  And my husband got me a cute card a book.  We don't really do humungous gifts for Mother's Day around here.  Because... that is not what Mother's Day is about.  My hubby and girls did, however make me the most amazingly delicious breakfast!

I promise.  It tasted as good (better) than my camera could capture.

Everyone of us loved the stuffed french toast.  Smiles everywhere.  Yum yum yum!

After breakfast daddy read the girls a story.

The girls played some educational games on the computer while mom watched on from the bed.  Which was a bad idea.  Because I fell asleep.

But when I woke up, I was informed that we were going to dinner.  Dinner at one of my favorite restaurants called Lucille's.  Fabulous food!

I took advantage of having my family so near to snap some great pictures.  Get ready for a picture assault!

For dinner we had Fried Green Tomatoes for an appetizer.  They were incredible.  The girls were dying to get a taste of the sauce.  :)

And I had Tri Tip for dinner.  As always.

We ended the evening with a stroll to Barnes and Noble where I added to my ever growing humungous stash of books just waiting to be read.

So, there is my Mother's Day play by play.
How was YOUR day?