The Katie Show

To celebrate my birthday, the big 34, Mike and Damon and Andy joined us for dinner at our weekly dinner.  My family certainly knows what I love!  Mike and Damon brought red wine and aptly names it the "The (Katie) Show".  Matt surprised me with a trip to Vegas with our friends, the Archards, and I got money to go shopping form my parents and Bill and Marianne.  Best of all we had a great dinner and quality time.  All of my favorites!  I am so very lucky to have such an amazing family.  

The kids practicing being "grown-ups"

After our mid week celebration, we went to Cordianos, an adorable pizza place up in the hill sof Escondido with a beautiful view,  to celebrate again because the other thing that I like is going out to eat:).

My crazy boy who loves making silly faces these days.

Our little princess that was decked out in jewels for the event.

3 + 4 =34

The best gifts of all!

Pre Halloweekend

Halloween is such a fun time with kids and they love dressing up and, of course, the treats! We had full weekend of pre Halloween festivities. 

On Friday night we had a picnic and one of the older neighbor boys had face paint and painted the kids' faces to get ready for the weekend festivities. 

Saturday, after Abby's dance class, my parents picked up the kids to go to a Michael's craft class while I shopped for the afternoon party and last minute halloween stuff like candy:).

After Michael's was the Scripps Ranch Farmer's Market and more face painting.

Then, we went to the neighborhood Halloween Carnival for some games and activities.

Abby got her nails painted by her dance teacher:)

Z and I were watching some kids ride the mechanical bull.

Abs climbed the rock wall.  It was a little big for her but she  charged it!

Last stop, a trip around the block in the fire truck

It was certainly a full Saturday but the fun was just beginning.   We came home and changed into costumes. Introducing Ariel and Spriderman...


After costumes and a quick 30 minute power rest i.e. forced sitting on couch to watch a show. We headed down to the west end of the street for our first Libelle Ct. Halloween Extravaganza.

The evening was packed with crafts, candy, games, contests and fun galore!

Zack with Matt's special Halloween drink.

Zack and Asher

Hayrides in the Old Chevy

Pumpkin Bowling

The Libelle Ct. Kids

Hunting for ghosts

Making our way back to the cup-de-sac after ghost busting and enjoying the sunset.

The piñata rigged- thankfully there is a fireman in the neighborhood to make this happen...

Madness...

The donut eating contest

Movie finale... Zack requested to go to bed by this point.  Matt graciously took him in:).

I found this clipping from the paper of our old Segovia Ct. Halloween parties...30 years ago!  Our neighborhood is exactly what I imagined for our kids-thanks to growing up in a neighborhood like it with lots of kids and amazing families that put on events like this for the kids. 

After a very busy Saturday, we vegged on Sunday.  We had Mummy Dogs for lunch

We carved pumpkins and made pumpkin seeds.  The kids each picked the shapes they wanted for their pumpkins, drew them and I carved- against their wishes:).

Jack!

I found out that Jack was coming to town, which is better than Christmas in my book, so I was so excited!  Since he only plays in small theater style venues now it is pretty difficult to get tickets.  They had a lottery and only a select number of people could even buy tickets.  Even though we put in multiple entries, we didn't get selected to be allowed to buy tickets.  I was disappointed but didn't think there was much to do about it.  Unbeknownst to me, Matt immediately began investigating and was able to buy tickets and surprised me for our anniversary back in July.  He is always so thoughtful and good about gifts!

My parents took the kids and we went out before the show in the Gaslamp and walked over to the Balboa Theater for the show.  It was such a great venue.

He was amazing as always!

The encore with Paul Fuga was "Better Together", one of our favorite songs and our first dance song.  I love to hear it, especially live!

A fun date night and great show!

Lisa and the Kiddos visit SD

 Lisa and the kids came to vista mid October ( almost a month ago!?).  Obviously, I am way behind!  It was so great to see Lisa and Joseph and meet Ella!  The kids had a great time paying and we got to catch up for a bit but it was just like we had seen each other yesterday.  I am so thankful for enduring friendships that span the test of time and distance!

We got a picture of the crew but it certainly does not do little Ella Bean justice.  She is so cute with her piggies and big blue eyes!

Lis and I had a chance to go out with just the two of us after the kids went down and it was so fun to catch up without kids.  Can't wait for the next trip!

We jumped at the chance to meet up with the dela Montaigne crew at the beach on Saturday morning.  The kids and I got there early so the kids there rocks and explored for a while before everyone arrived and the sun came out.

The kids got right down to business and played for hours!

The Hawaii born kids!  Joseph, Sydney, Zack and Abby.

My loves...sandy and happy about it.