C's 5th Birthday Party

My very own Superman

Charlie's 5th birthday party was so fun.

He had a great time running through his cardboard city with all his friends.

They all got to vaporize the villains with silly string and spent all day bouncing and going up and down the slide. He told me it was the best party he ever had...lol. Lots of love and time went into making this party happen from lots of different people. I thank you all for that. 

Here are a few shots of that day:

Superhero Energy Fuel and the adorable arrangements J made...

 

My play on words. I was proud of this one... instead of Gotham City,

we created a Gosselin City!

The supergirls

We made their shirts and capes along with their tutus...

\

Charlie attacking one of the villains

C with his grandparents

Charlie with all his little superhero buddies

My Big 5 year old guy!

{-------------------------}

On his actual birthday we always do a cake at home, just the family. He requested months ago that he wanted a really big cupcake cake. I wish I would've gotten his face on camera when he saw Jaclyne walk in with this...

On this night, we had the whole family over and my dad played jokes and tricks on the kids like my Grandpa used to do to me, my cousins and siblings when we were little.

Their reactions and expressions were priceless to say the least.

It was so sweet to see and made me feel very nostalgic.

I miss my grandparents. A lot.

Easter breakfast at Rainforest Cafe

The Rainforest Cafe at South Coast Plaza has special events a couple of times per year where they do an early breakfast and activities for kids. In December, my aunt, Teche, brought Charlie with his little cousins to the Christmas one and he LOVED it! So this time around when she asked me to go I said yes although it was EARLY in the morning and I am notorious for being a sleeper.

Well, I made it. I got up in time and we loaded up the 6 kids and me and Teche in my car...

it was a FULL load, let me tell you.

I'm glad I did wake up though.

It was fun and all the cousins had a blast hunting for eggs, coloring pages and eating a great breakfast buffet. 

(Minus the crappy service, huh Teche? ;o)

Here are my favorite shots from the day...

The girlie cousins before breakfast

She loves her Angie.

Mr Richie loves torturing his sister

The BFFs

Teche and the kids...

The gracious hostess with all the cousins.

Thank you for including me in this outing. It was really fun and the kids enjoyed spending time with you...

Lots of love!!!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

No pinches for the Gosselins. We're all dressed for the occasion. Heck, even our milk is green... ha ha. The kids loved that one. We had a late night last night making rainbow cupcakes for Charlie's preschool class. And when I say we, I mean everyone in the house was snoring away while I layered colors and colors for my homemade cupcakes. (I didn't have a boxed cake mix at home, I thought I did. Fun.)

Before baking

Topped with green cream cheese icing and a gold coin, we had the rainbow and the pot of gold all in one tasty little cupcake. I used Barefoot Contessa's recipe for flower cupcakes. It can be found here. It sounds strange to put sour cream in cupcakes but man, they were good. I just took separate little bowls and colored the batter in red, green, blue, orange and yellow and layered in the cucpake liners.

Little O'Cutie

and "Not Lucky, Just Cute"

Miss Kate, well she couldn't be bothered to take a photo for me. Every time I pointed the camera in her direction she screamed and tried to hit it. Yes, it's one of those days.

Our little Ella Bella crawls!

She is truly a little ray of sunshine all the time. (I may not answer the same way if asked at 4am though) She has learned so many things in the past month - past week even. She claps, waves hi and here's the kicker ... she CRAWLS! My little baby isn't so much a little baby anymore! I'm happy scared (of what she will pick up off the floor) and sad all at the same time.

Here is a little clip of her showing off her new skills...

Opening Day - T Ball

It was Charlie's Opening Day today for his little league team. We had an early start. The teams were all announced and all the little kids had to take off their hats while the National Anthem was sung. The kids got to participate in a little carnival before the game, which of course they loved. Then it was GAME TIME!

Charlie's team - the Orioles - played the Angels. Sooo cute to watch them hit and play the positions. They took it so seriously but they also had fun doing it. Charlie was the pitcher in the first inning (it's T ball so no pitcher is really necessary, he was just at the position) and short stop the second inning. He's so funny when he hits the ball, he takes off running and out comes his little tongue. A nervous habit we both share.

Charlie had his own built in set of Cheerleaders, his sisters.

They wore t shirts I made that said Go Charlie! and C.

The proud daddy...

 It was a fun and beautiful day today and I'm glad my parents and Jackie, Keeny & the kids and
Tante Be were all able to come share it with us.

My Very First Photoshoot...

It was very rewarding, taking all these photos in Manual mode and not with the trusted automatic option. It was hard and I got tons of over & underexposed, blurry shots but so rewarding.
I love doing this. I am very passionate about it...