Grandma Betty Turns 90!

On March 11th, my Grandma Betty turned 90!!!  She has been telling us for the last few years that we could have a party for her when she was 90, so we wanted to go all out and surprise her as well (even though she knew something was up she had no idea the extend of the people coming!) So last Saturday we surprised her with a birthday party and it was so fun to have everyone together!  All my siblings were there as were  my dad and her daughter and almost all of her great grandchildren ans she even got to meet 2 great grandkids for the first time - Arther Ellis and Emma Bartron! We also had invited all 4 of her living cousins and several close friends! It was priceless to see her face as she recognized everyone in the room (I was taking video so did not get a good photo of that!)  Anyway, we had a great time with yummy food (Armenian favorites for my 100% Armenian grandma!) and we played Grandma Betty BINGO, had a photo booth, my sister Megan read a poem about her and Grandma had written a poem about turning 90 as well, so she shared that as well!  We had a 9 and 0 pinata - the 9 for the kids and the 0 for the adults (full of prunes, fake teeth, dental floss, etc!).  It was a fun night and a special day for everyone!

The entrance table

Me with the guest of honor 

Pinata Time! 

Photo booth time! 

ALL my siblings came - such a treat!!! 

My silly family! 

Celebrating a wonderful GRANDMA!!! 

Mitchell's Birthday Recap

Recap time for Mitchell's 4th birthday - a bit tardy but nonetheless here it is!

 He had a fun birthday week and he is my special and loved little man!

Time is flying by too fast.  First a bit about Mitchell! He is the sweetest and most loving son a mom could ask for, the most playful son a dad could ask for and the most fun brother a sister could ask for! Here is a bit about Mitchell as he turns 4!

 Favorite Things:

-FUN:  Right now he is on a lego kick!  He loves watching the show Ninjago and loves the Ninjago Lego sets.  He got a few for Christmas and although he could not put them together by himself since they were a bit complicated, his dad did and he loves playing with them with Shayla and being very inventive in his play. He also still loves cars (Hot Wheels) and loves playing with dinosaur toys!  He love riding his bike with training wheels up and down hills and tries to go on the scooter or skate a bit with not as much success. 

-Color: GREEN still but it also changes once in awhile to orange and purple.

-Food:  Argh he is a PICKY eater right now!  Despite my best efforts for him to have a sophisticated palate he likes the basic kids foods- pasta, pizza, cereal, etc.  But he does love fruit and his favorite food is green pancakes which are made with spinach and nutmeg etc and so if I get those in his system a few times a week he gets his green veggies! He also is a big smoothie drinker so I make sure to load them with veggies as well!

-TV Show: Ninjago and Transformers and Power Rangers – all boy!

-Best Friends: Shayla, Brodyn, Todd, Summer, Noelle, Chase, Brayden, Ethan and Evan – he is a charmer and a really good friend!  His preschool teacher tells me that every day if his buddies get to school before he does, they all hang around waiting and asking for Mitchell and run and greet him with giant hugs when he gets there.  He has many kids who call him his “best friend” in his class, and he is a good friend to all of them!

-BROTHER:  He and Shayla love each other so much and play so well together. They are great with sharing toys and playing creatively together.  They love playing outdoors in the backyard exploring for bugs, catching snails, running around outside, reading books, playing pretend animals (dino, little pet shop, etc). and do everything together that they can!

 A few other tidbits:

-He is my little baker!  He loves to bake with me in the kitchen (probably because half the time it involves chocolate chips!)

-He is a bit OCD and often has to have things just right or he obsesses over them.  When his room is clean (which is usual contrasting with Shaylas!) he has to have everything in place or it bothers him.  If one of his lego toys leg or arm or whatever piece is at the wrong angle he has me constantly correcting it.  It is funny and I am sure he will grow out of it but it’s a part of his personality right now!

-He loves to sing sings and is often singing songs from kids music cds as he walks around the house. He is also already reading sight words too and Shayla reads often to him! 

He is the most loving little boy – always giving me hugs and randomly reaching for my hand to kiss it or kissing the top of my head when I am helping him or reading to him.  He always wakes up happy and is rarely in a bad mood. He has a sweet, gentle nature at heart but also loves to be rambunctious as a boy and be rough and tumble with his family and friends.  He is our perfect little mix of slugs and snails and puppy dog tails! We love our little 4 year old Mitchell! 

Here are photos from his birthday celebration week!

Per request, he started the day with his FAVORITE food - green pancakes!

Then a birthday day photo shoot! They are the sweetest siblings and love each other so much! 

The off to preschool where he was king for the day!

Then some of his favorite people joined us to go see the Lego Movie!  They loved it and we ended the night with pizza and birthday treats!

 

Then we had our family birthday celebration with a Lego theme the following Sunday. 

With Grandma and his new legos! 

Playing pin the head on the lego man. 

Opening presents! 

Getting ready to dig into birthday Lego brownies! 

Mitchell is 4!!!

Our baby boy is 4!!! 

Here is his annual birthday interview and photo! 

More later on this special little man in our lives!

Sail Away Sail Away Sail Away!

Last month Jon and I were lucky to sneak away for a week to Florida and a cruise to the Bahamas!  I won the cruise as a prize for my strawberry recipe contest prize last year and Jon' parents and my parents were SOOOO generous to help watch our kids while we snuck away for our trip!

First stop - The Everglades! My first time in Florida (not counting a stop at the airport) and I wanted to go to the EVERGLADES and see some ALLIGATORS!  I know serious tourist stuff there, but I was glad we did that before our cruise.  I got to mark off one more National Park (the Everglades) off my checklist of the ones I want to see, and I got to get up close an personal with some Alligators!

Had to take this photo to show the kids!

Riding on the airboat!  There are several places leading up to the park that do airboat rides into the everglades and that was a really neat experience and you learn a lot about the area and wildlife from the tour guides!  We went to Gator Park (and great deal buy one get one free boat ride if you are there before 10 am!)

Feet away!

 Pretty sight to see!

I told Shay I was going to hold a baby alligator and get her an alligator tooth and that was all she could talk about!!

Shark Valley Entrance to Everglades National Park - here are my notes for anyone who goes there and wants to add it to their list of places to visit: We went in through the Shark Valley Entrance (there are 3 main entrances depending on which way you come from). You just walk around and pass dozens of alligators hanging out on the side of the roads, etc! I would say if you are with kids to rent a bike with trailer to do a bike ride through some of the trails, the best way to see more! But hiking there is good too! It was hot and humid so I can only imagine how it must be in the warmer months!

Now on to the Bahamas! Sailing away from Ft. Lauderdale port!

First stop, Nassau!  Although our boat docked on time they didn't let us disembark ontime so we missed our day excursion which was going to be a powerboat ride to a private Island to see sharks and swim with Stingrays, etc.  I was sooo bummed to miss it, but we hopped on a boat to go to Sandy Toes Island where we had  a nice ride to the beach with a tour and history of the islands around Nassau (and boating right by several amazing houses like Beyonce's, Oprah's, Nick Cage's, etc).  

Private beach at Sandy Toes - we got to lay in the sand and do some snorkeling too!

Had to post this because of the beach name Sandy Toes! Nice BLUE water!!!

Me and my honey!

One thing about Cruises, hey know HOW to feed you!  Our waiter brought me two vegetarian selections each night (this night was curry and veggie enchiladas)  - good stuff and tempted to eat it all but had to save room for my two dessert too (; 

Joys of cruise rooms - thats about all the joys to the small staterooms with twin beds pushed together - but Jon is smiling because he did not get sea sick (key to not getting seasick- get a room as close to the middle of the boat as possible!) 

See, I told you - room for dessert!!

The water was too choppy for us to tether boats from the ship to make our second stop at Cococay Island which I was bummed about since we wanted to kayak and snorkel that day!  Next stop was Key West which was very chilly even more January in Key West!

Key West - We did the on and off bus tour which was great as we could hear the amazing history of Key West and make several stops in the one day we were there!  We went to Duvall Street, saw Margaritaville, Etc.  I really liked stopping at the Eco Discovery center  - a low key place but really neat and learned a lot about the islands! 

Here's Jon and I at Southernmost point of Continental US - this was the third person we had take our photo and the best one - even though they blocked out the monument - the other ones had fingers in the photos! ha ha!

Here was the monument we were trying to get in the photo with both of us!

I really wanted to tour Ernest Hemingway's house since I had recently been reading some of his work and history about him as well.  It was neat to see and see many of his 6 toed cats too!

Here is where Hemingway wrote several of his books

BEST DESSERT I EVER HAD!  Chocolate covered frozen Key Lime Pie (made by Kermit's Key Lime pie).  Here I am with Kermit - the guys behind the pie!

Yep we were on the Majesty of the Seas- yep the EXACT same sick that the week before had a Norovirus outbreak!!  Luckily we did not get sick and they even made all the passengers use antibacterial stuff on their hands when entering or exiting any main rooms, dining or on and off the ship (Although ironically the norovirus is NOT killed by antibacterial gel so not really sure what the point of it was - maybe peace of mind?) 

We enjoyed the ships entertainment from the comedians to the dancers to the jugglers and more!  I like the built in activities which make it pretty easy to have a great time!

And returning home to these two cuties who had to try on our snorkel gear in the bathtub!  Sorry kids, maybe (MAYBE!) next time you can do the real thing with us! 

Overall a fun trip although we hoped for warmer weather and to hit all our port stops and did not appreciate our several airport layovers taking us 15 hours to get home, but still I would do it all again in a heart beat! Here's to the Bahamas! 

Happy Valentine's Day!

We hope you have a day filled with LOVE and all GOOD thing!  

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

Here are my two loves and third love (Jon) at work today!

My sweet little man!

Mitchell's Monster Truck Tattoo Valentine he picked out!

Shayla's Bookmark Valentine from our little girl who loves to read!

I had fun going through the kids valentines with them - lots of cute ones but also SO MANY RED LOLLIPOPS  they willing gave me! (no red no.40 for my babies!)  I gave them a valentine surprise in lieu of candy so that helped (Lego car for Mitchell, heart necklace for Shayla!

New Years Festivities!

Another belated post, but here is a look back on our New Years celebration!

We celebrated New Years eve with a New Years at Noon Party with our friends and one of our favorite things to do with a large group of kids - Ice Blocking!  Happy 2014!

Bonus shot:  Ice Skating with the Girl Scouts the week after New Years!

Rose Bowl Pre-Parade Festivities

Okay, I have a few overdue blog posts, so I am trying to catch up!

I wanted to check out the Rose Bowl parade floats with the kids, but knew they were not ready to do the whole Parade waiting overnight festivities and did not think I wanted to fight crowds the day after the parade to see the floats, so a perfect solution was to visit the Rose Bowl to see them making the floats.  I wasn't even sure this was an option so I looked it up online and not only do they have a preview of the floats so you can watch them made, they also have preview of the band performances and the horse performance, which we did not do this time, but maybe next time!  It was a neat adventure and the kids enjoyed seeing everything and then watching the parade the next day to see the floats they had seen in person!

Arriving at the Rose Bowl

With alien float 

Shayla got to sign the vial for one of the flowers going on the pirate float

Mitchell loved the rocket ship 

They got to see the FTD man and get their own rose 

This was the pavilion we visited (for future reference or if you want to go next year) as it was the only one without hour long lines and was still very cool!