Yakitori Boy Karaoke Bar

Last night I went out with some friends for girl's night! We did some good ol' karaoke & snacked on some delicious sushi in Chinatown right here in Philly! We had a lot of fun together, they had a smoke machine that , I think, added an excellent touch to the mysteries/hilarity of karaoke. We were able to reserve our own private room which helped loose everyone up (without the need for alcohol ha ha) We SANG our little hearts out, and were blown away by how many people had really GREAT voices! I hopped on & sang some Queen classics...my fave was Bohemian Rhapsody. I hope we can go one more time before I move! Thanks for the fun night out guys!

Our Little Buddy is 3!

I probably say this every time one of my kids has a birthday but REALLY, these kids grow too fast!!! We kicked off Dylan's birthday as soon as he woke up. Claira really wanted to see him open a present before she went to school so that's just what we did.

He was so excited to get his first Thomas the Train DVD. If there is one thing this boy loves, it's trains, trains, and more trains. The old school Thomas the Train movies honestly kinda creep me out, but the show was redeemed in my eyes after watching an episode & hearing the narrator say "...and from that time forth all the trains called Thomas "the bees knees" because he was more useful than ever!" So great.

After we took Claira to school we blew up some punch balloons and went crazy!

Since he is the birthday boy his wishes were granted & this boy had a slice of cake right after breakfast:) Mmmm.

The weather was a sunny, balmy 46 degrees that day...very warm for January! So we got dressed and headed to the park to let him do whatever his little heart fancied.

First he decided it was too warm for a hat.

Then thought it would be pretty fun to rip the bark off of some trees for a while.

Mommy wanted to pause for a quick smiley pic, so I told Dylan to smile REALLY BIG and this beauty is the awesome face I got....Terrifying isn't it?! LOL!

We picked up some logs & tossed 'em around...

Sat on some tree stumps & admired the melting snow...

found a dazzling red Christmas garland and a shiny little quarter in the grass...

We played on the playground and went on a nice long 5 mile walk. He fell asleep in the stroller at around the halfway point. Wish I could have jumped in there with him!

After his refreshing nap we came home to meet Daddy & Claira to open presents

He got some cool stuff! he got these little 'pills' that dissolve in water and grow into...

...these little foam animals! They had a lot of fun watching them grow in the water.

He also got two foam swords (ya gotta have two right?!)

It was tough deciding between swords or battle axes...very tough. Luckily Claira came with me to help pick out his presents & she was able to give some very sound advice. She said "swords are better because usually battle axes are for cutting down trees." couldn't agree with you more;)

After opening presents, Dylan requested Five Guys for dinner & we all happily obliged!

We came home and got ready for cake! This year Dylan asked for a "Green Lantern Van Cake" As you can see my van model below. I wish that was the picture of the cake, but let's be honest I butchered his cake this year. Seriously. At the last possible moment I bought him an ice cream cake instead and....
a can of this....

Has anyone ever used this stuff? I for one had not & it is tricky...it was spurting and splattering everywhere! ha ha I had no control over what happened to land on the cake. Let's just say...it wasn't pretty! Luckily, being 3, Dylan was just as happy & excited about the final product as he would have been over a cake that was fashioned and baked at a bakery!
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Ready?
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M'yeaaaahhhhhh....check THAT out!!! (it's a van, I swear!)

Making a wish!

Psychotically happy after blowing out the candles!

Oh yes, it tastes so gooooood.

Happy birthday buddy boy! We love you!

Change of Scenery

Been seeing a lot of this lately....

But we'll be seeing a lot of this in the near future...ahhh:)

So, after being gone for 8 years we're finally moving back to California! Ben will be starting medical school this fall at Western University! Woo hoo! We are so excited. I am so proud of him, he has worked so hard and it was such an awesome feeling to find out he got accepted into the program. Waiting for an answer was so hard. I hate waiting...especially when they give you a time line to expect something and that said time line has passed...they should just tell you to expect the letter no earlier than 6 months from the interview so you'll be pleasantly surprised when it arrives in 2-3 months! ha ha, well it wasn't that bad but you get the idea;)

So we were pretty anxious and were checking the mail 90 times a day.

We have a mail slot in our front door so you can hear when the mail arrives from anywhere in the house. Having said that...the day his acceptance letter came we were both upstairs. He was in the kids' room playing with the kids. I was getting ready & doing my makeup in the bathroom. Then we both heard the mail (why does that sound crazy?!) and the race down the stairs got pretty outrageous & silly looking. Ben won.

He ripped open the letter and read it over and over...he was looking for some key words like "accepted" or "you're awesome" but it was all wordy and confusing, because what if it said "congratulations! You are on the waiting list!" you would be excited but not "I got accepted" excited. So at this point I snatched the letter out of his hands and read it and we eventually figured out what it said. It seemed too good to be true! We waited 3 years for this to finally happen for him and we were in shock! We hugged, we cried, we laughed...the kids were getting freaked out and wanted to know what was happening! Things got so crazy that Dylan just broke down and cried, but they were not happy tears. Poor guy:)

We got another acceptance this week at Drexel University here in Philly (Which was SO exciting) but after praying and talking together we both felt really good about Western. So out west we shall go!!!!! I'm ready for our next adventure!