Mike's 32nd Birthday!

Mike's birthday usually follows a very simple trend... mostly because Mike doesn't care to do anything for his birthday... ever! This year was no different.

I said, "Mikey, can I do something THIS YEAR for your birthday?"

He replies, "All I need is football, you, the kids, some family...

and maybe some of those "white girl nachos" you make."

After the initial shock of football coming before myself and the kids, I agreed...

to a Pizza Party of course...

with football, pizza, beer, myself, the kids, and some family...

"white girl nachos" NOT included, because I make those any ol' time

a good football game is on!

In place of the nachos was a really cool juke box instead...

I'm pretty sure he'd prefer the juke box to my nachos any day!

And just to make sure I fully redeemed myself for the lack of nachos,

I made Mike's favorite cookies and cobbler in place of a cake...

which I know he prefers anyway!

With all of that said, Mike's birthday party was great fun! We ate, drank, watched football, played games,
and Mike played the heck out of the digital juke box!

I think it was a dream come true for him
because he couldn't stop talking about it!

Side Note:

On his actual birthday the kids made him some noodle art and cookies.

We decided to drive them to his work for a special birthday visit!

Then, we celebrated in the evening with Mike's parents

and a delicious cake decorated by Blake & Addie!

Please note that green frosted cake with Christmas M&M's

+ Grandma Orozco's Jewelry

+ Blake's busted play shoes

______________________________________________________

= GANGSTA ADDIE

Oh, and thanks to the friends and family who were able to join us, as well as the friends and family who sent special greetings but had prior engagements and couldn't swing our last minute venture!

O Christmas Tree...

We've always known that we would have a real tree for the kids when they became old enough to know the difference... and to my great dismay, 2009 was the year for that discovery... with real trees practically calling our son's name as we drove the city.

We decided that if we were gonna go REAL, we were gonna do it right! So, we went to a really cool family-owned Christmas Tree Farm in Alta Loma and picked the tree we wanted to have cut... straight from the ground! Okay, so you can tell we're from California, but seriously, how cool is that? Anyhow, the experience has solidified our decision to "keep it real" this year! With huge trees all over and all four of us having an absolute blast, this is sure to be a new family tradition!

A Festive Zoo Trip!

We decided to visit the Zoo for some Christmas fun this year... couldn't pass up Santa and his reindeer, which apparently aren't that friendly.... considering they were restrained by some serious sets of safety bars! And to think, the event was called "The Reindeer Romp"... now I'm not sure what exactly constitutes "romping", but I'm certain there was none of that going on! Unless it is possible to "romp" between bars...... okay, I'm done now!

Anyhow, we arrived pretty early on Thanksgiving weekend only to run into some friends in the parking lot! They've got 3 kids of their own, 1 boy and a set of girl twins. They were also accompanied by their neighbors who were also sporting 3 kids! We immediately joined forces for the day and made it a triple date! It was AWESOME! Never have I felt more at peace in my life with 8 children/toddlers running amuck... all kids were age 4 and under... FANTASTIC! It was so reassuring to be around other couples who have multiple children and close in age. They're beyond the stage of thinking "my kids will never act like that! (insert evil glare here)". They were realistic about their expectations and accepted tantrums readily and without the bat of an eye... which was necessary because there were about 17 of them between the 8 kids! In all honesty, all of the kids were very well behaved and we kicked off the Christmas season with some serious animal fun!