No greater joy...

Than being a mom

being welcomed "home"

being part of a magnificent family

smiling so much your face hurts

seeing my parents love on our girls

drinking wine with Yaya

Oh, and planning birthday parties for my favorite twosome!

Party planning and baking may not be her thing, but she is a great sport and helps me out tons.  

I'm afraid that without her, I would not ever meet my deadlines.  

Thanks Buddy, let's do it all again next year!

The supplies.

Please note the ever-present wine.  

One would think we were on our way to the "Betty", but believe it or not, we have it under control.

I think

These did not turn out too shabby!

Hard at work 'till the wee hours of the morning! But very well worth it!

These were my favorites.

Some might think I am crazy, as they scroll thru the party pics, and some may call me extravagant or excentric, while others just nod and understand that I am just creative.

Every year while growing up, there were a couple of constants for my birthdays; one: I would have a party, and two: my cake was ALWAYS homemade. My Abuelita, who also stayed up way too late decorating and making things perfect, would smell like icing and cake. In fact, the whole house would smell like freshly baked cake and flour and sugar and all things sweet and delicious.  I cannot help but think of my sweet Abue as I do the same for my girls.  I feel closer to her during these frantic nights of baking and decorating, like she guides my hands to create what she would have done for my gals if she could. This makes me happy, but I also miss her just a little more.   So I will continue to honor her, and each year, like Abue, I will top the last year's creation, and by the time they are teens I will rival the cake boss or Duff...

at least in my mind's eye I will.

bed time, wine time, blog time!!

I know it's been a while, but we were gone for two weeks and, well,

 I think a week to recover is not too much to ask. 

 The girls' internal clocks are still haywire, so no one is getting much sleep around here.  They have been going to bed later than normal, around 7pm, which BTW, I am not so fond of, and waking up at the 5 o'clock hour!?!  This insanity has to stop; so here I sit at 6:45 pm, wine in hand (with a coffee chaser because did I mention, I am TIRED!!), quiet children in bed, about to start 

the blog hour!

Three-ish weeks ago, when Seattle was actually hinting at having some kind of summer, 

we were getting our Chicago prep on.  

We tested out our swimmies, our pool and our 'eyes' (what the girls call their sunglasses).

Seriously, doesn't she look a little too glam for an almost-two-year old?

 The plane! the plane!

Marlo has become our very own little Tattoo, which makes Andi, or myself, Mr. Roarke. That's up to you, but I'm thinkin' she would look better in an all-white suit!

A girl after my own heart! Can never pack too many pairs of shoes! 

After playing in the sun, we tried to pack but, well, with this twosome "helping"

 we had to wait for bedtime.  And as usual. we overpacked. 

We had four bags, four carry-ons, and one stow-away dog.  This time though, we were well-armed with an iPhone, a DVD player, and an iPad.  We thought we were set, but boy were we wrong. 

 I will spare you the deets, just know that we may never EVER be welcome to fly Virgin again. 

I can still hear the voices... "how can they be drinking while their kids are going wild?"

To the nice flight attendant who brought us the drinks! WE LOVE YOU!!  

To the snide remarker, we drink because they are BANANAS!! DUH!!

Please note, getting two toddlers up at 4 am to catch the ShuttleExpress for an early morning flight, while cheap in price, was very costly to our already fragile momma psyches.

Needless to say, a couple of airline bottles, a bottle of Xanax, and many, many hours later, we were there!

I believe Buddy Guy said it best...

SWEET HOME CHICAGO!!

  

We're back!

from our summer vacation in Chicago!

and as soon as we finish unpacking, 

I'll get back to bloggin'!