What can we do???

OK, Kev and I went to bed last night discussing the options for celebrating our 40th birthdays coming up---ugggg!!! Im not a super "I hate getting older" type person, but turning 40 is pretty big. I remember baking my dad a cake-- just us kids- for his 40th birthday. I was in high school. It just seems old. Besides always feeling like I could go to bed, I dont feel very old. People say that the 40's are the best years and I think, based on where we are in our lives, that I would probably agree with that statement-- but 40 just sounds old.

Soooooo, I turn 40 in 2 Mondays- March 6 and Kev turns 40 on April 4. We usually do a - between our bdays celebration-  and go away for a weekend but this year, with being on Dave Ramsey and paying off our debt and saving for this adoption, we are not sure we can afford the Venetian in Vegas with all the awesome eating out. So my question is, what should we do? This is a big birthday but we really cant do the awesome weekend away and we cant do the big party so what should we do?

One idea is maybe we do the weekend away but we make it very budget friendly. We live about 3 hours from Vegas and we love going there just to relax and eat-- we don't do shows or gamble-- just eat and relax. So one idea is staying at a super cheap place-- like $40 a night which you can easily do- and then eat maybe a bit cheaper-- maybe hit some of the super cheap places to eat with maybe one nice eating out night.

Or maybe Palm Springs?? We live about an hour and 15 min away from Palm Springs and we can easily do a weekend out there but it is not cheap like Vegas. I just really want to go away for at least a night so Kev and I can have some no kid time to reconnect. We can also maybe go to the beach- only about 40 min from our house- but it it is not cheap for hotels or for food-- although we probably can do restaurant.com.

So help. We have no idea what to do or do we just not do anything?? Ideas??

Groovy Mia ~ Winter Camp ~ Hot Pot

Lots of random stuff. First off most of these pictures were either taken with my iphone-- horrible quality-- or they were tagged on my facebook from Ethan's friends. We don't allow Ethan or Owen to have a facebook account so their friends just tag the pictures on my account-- it works.

Groovy Mia decided to put on the cool Afro wig-- she looks awesomse!!!

The following pictures were taken at the boys Church winter camp this past weekend. They had an AMAZING time and they both grew tremendously in their walks with the Lord

!!! It was a wonderful time and while I only have a few pics from being tagged on facebook, I thought I would post what I had :)

Owen and Christian (my nephew-- kids cousin- my brothers son) in the background. Kind of a cool pic.

Ethan being the "BOB" he is!

Looking for the next cool thing to do

Ethan and a bunch of girls-- and one other guy. The girl with her arm around Ethan is our niece Kaitlyn (Kevin's brothers daughter- Kaitlyn and Kylie). Kaitlyn and Ethan are the same age and have always been close. The girls have been going to church with us on Wednesday nights and some Sundays and love our church youth group. Tonight they actually brought a friend. So at camp last weekend were my boys, my nephew Christian and my nieces Kaitlyn and Kylie-- isn't that totally cool!!!!

I guess he was posing for the pic - our little model-- little nothing-- shoot he if about an inch taller than me now :(

So Kev and I are all into the restaurnat.com thing. You pay like $1 or $2 and sometimes $3 to get a $25 gift certificate to different restaurants. Go online and check it out as it will save you a TON of money. We wanted Chinese - good Chinese- and decided to drive to San Gabriel which is about 35 min from our house but it is in a VERY CHINESE area which is about as authentic as you can get. So we found this hot pot restaurant that was on restaurant.com and we had an amazing meal for super cheap! We had never done hot pot like this and it was a great experience We will for sure go back again-- you know it was good when we were the only non Asian couple in the restaurant :)

Tsing Tao-- Gotta love them :)

See the green noodles at the bottom of the pic-- they are handmade noodles you cook in the hot pot. They were amazing and I think the whole plate of noodles was only like $2. Super great food at a super cheap price and it literally felt like we were back in China. We loved it!!!!!

Valentines Fun!!

We had a few Valentines festivities around the house this year. The girls decided they wanted to make valentines cards on their own (kind of like the red envelope project we had done before) and to stuff the envelopes with candy. They turned out cute and we put the envelope in a heart baggie and we made cookies to also put in the baggie-- as if they don't already get enough sugar on Valentines.  They loved giving the Valentine bags to their classmates. They were very cute!!!!

Sorry, all the pics are taken with my iPhone so they are poor quality.

Owen helping the girls put the red hots in the center of the cookies

 

We were going to make the cut out cookies but I made the dough too sticky and even after chilling they still were too sticky to roll out so we made circles and pushed them down with a fork-- like peanut butter cookies.

 

Then the girls painted the cookies with egg whites and food coloring and then put sprinkles on the tops.

 

They were not as cute as cut outs but they tasted good!

I bought the kids a valentine gift that-- get this--  I actually budgeted for!!!! What a change that is!!! I went with a coffee mug theme. Our coffee travel mugs are severely lacking I decided to buy everyone in our family a new travel mug. My boys love a Chai tea latte on the drive to school or even a decaf latte and Kev too so I got them each a cool mug (forgot to take a pic of them). I also got Kev and the boys a super big bag of gum. There are 180 pieces of gum in these bags so they each have their own now and cant steal my gum (which I'm addicted too). I also got the girls a Dora (for Fin) and Princess (for Mia) travel mug and each of them got a pretty new dress from Target. The dresses are ADORABLE and even cuter in person and they were super cheap (hence the reason why I bought them:).

The girls in their adorable dresses with their mugs.

 

Mia with her dress and mug.

 

Fin with her dress and mug

 

Our little next door neighbor Lily was over when we gave the gifts so she wanted a pic with the girls too.

 

This last pic is from Ethan's hockey game on Saturday. My nieces came to the game and Kaitlyn has these fake glasses and Mia decided to wear them. I called her name and she looked up at me and I clicked this picture. I think it looks so funny- totally candid-- funny!!!

 

CNY Celebrations

My parents wanted to take the family out to our favorite Chinese Restaurant in Pasadena so we decided to make it our final Chinese New Year Celebration!! It was a great time and the kids had a blast. The girls and I prepared with lots of crafts and cupcake ice cream cones. We decided to buy all the stuff for making red envelope with little decorated notes inside. The kids loved the craft and the adults enjoyed getting their red envelopes stuffed with the cute notes. We also did these awesome ice cream cone cupcakes. I saw this on a blog I frequent and I thought the idea was awesome so the girls and I attempted the tasty treat and we did a pretty good job for the first try. I will adjust a few things next time but they cook up great in the cones and then you decorate them and you have a cupcake and an edible holder all in one. Great idea!!!

 

My dad with the grandgirls

Miss Mia

 

The girls attempting to work the chopsticks

 

My parents with all the grandkids- we had a great time!!!

Concussions and All Star Game

Ethan was honored to be chosen by his coach to be one of the two all stars for the All Star Duck's High School league team. His league is through the DUCKS organization and they have all their games where the Duck's practice but this all star game was at the Honda Center where the Ducks play!!! This was very exciting for Ethan and was thrilled to get this opportunity.

Unfortunately, a week prior to the all star game, Ethan was playing his regular game against a very aggressive team with HUGE players and at the end of the third period, a kid from the other team back checked Ethan (hit him from behind which is illegal) and he went down. No one could see it well because it was up against the boards right in front of where the fans sit therefore no one really saw where Ethan hit his head, but he got up and skated to the side of the ice and then just knelt there. Everyone was really confused and the Paramedic that is at every game immediately went to Ethan. They took him off the ice and determined that his eyes were unresponsive and he did not know who anyone was or where he was at. He knew his name and who Kevin was (I had the girls at a birthday party at my friends house over an hour away so I was not at the game) but did not know who his coach was or anything. It was scary! I guess they decided he needed to go to ER for a CT Scan so they took him by ambulance to UCI ER. I of course got the call from  a friend asking if I was at ER yet and I replied with "what??" Kevin had not yet called me so I had no idea. Kev called right then and I packed up the girls and drove them the hour plus to the ER and met my parents there and they took the girls to their house until we were done. Kev was already there with Ethan and while he knew who we were, he was really confused and we knew he must have been hit hard. They did the CT and it was fine-- no brain bleeding-- and they wanted to observe him for 6 hours and then after that he was released. We got home around 11pm and Ethan was off for a few days till his memory returned. It took about 2 full days for him to remember everyone but he still does not remember the exact events of the day. Luckily this was his first concussion so he only had to be off the ice for 2 weeks but we have to be careful because each subsequent concussion is a big deal and more dangerous. He is now fine and will return to play this weekend. Unfortunately, during his 2 weeks off, the All Star Game was scheduled and he was not allowed to play. His doctor allowed him to skate the warm ups (because it was a special event) and that is where all the following pictures are from, but he was unable to play the actual game. 

Anyway, here are some pictures of the game:

Star Spangled Banner

The Honda Center Jumbotron

The All Star Game Logo

It was cool! They were each announced and they skated out to their line and their name appeared on the jumbotron. There were a couple injured players like Ethan so they were announced and they skated out (if able to) but their # was not on the screen. Ethan is # 15.

The team being instructed by the All Star coach. Most of the coaches for this league are previous NHL players. It is an amazing league we are so thankful to be a part of through the boys school!

It was a great time and we were very proud that Ethan displayed the skating and leadership skills to not only be Assistant Captain of his team (as an 8th grader - they allowed 8th graders on the team for the first couple years of the teams beginning seasons) but also chosen to be on the All Star Team!!!!! Gotta have a proud mama moment :)