Victoria's seventh birthday

I know *gasp* a new post...LOL!

My first born has now turned seven! I can't believe I have a seven year-old. Here is a recap of what we did for the party. After much debate she chose to have a 60's Groovy Girl Peace Party. To keep with the Locastro family tradition we had her birthday at the house. In my opinion the best place to have them. The downstairs was decorated with beaded curtains, lava lamps, tie dye signs and disco balls. We had a mirror in the entry way with a mirror that read Happy Birthday Victoria with a cup of permanent markers. We had all the guests sign the mirror when they entered the door. I also hung up the candy boxes around the kitchen where Gum Balls, Sugar Babies and Bazooka gum filled candy jars along the kitchen counter. I googled 60's candy and this is what came up. It was very colorful and looked great with the decor. I also passed out florescent bracelets and glow-in-dark necklaces to each guest. In the living room I had two fuzzy pink rugs (from the girls playroom and bathroom) and the Twister game setup. I was so glad to know I could decorate the house for so cheap! :-)

Now for the fun part...the cake. I made a tie dye peace cake with homemade fondant that I tie dyed myself. I also tie dyed the cake batter so when you sliced the cake the pieces were multicolored. Victoria LOVED her cake and so did the guests. We bought tie dye peace plates, napkins and tie dye balloons from the Internet and served rainbow sherbert instead of ice cream. Sherbert is one of Victoria's favorite desserts so I decided to change it up since it fit the theme too. We had a retro pink vending machine for the root beers and other sodas.

For crafts we made tie dye t-shirts and pet rocks. I also bought some inexpensive wedding boxes for the girls to decorate. These were used as homes for the pet rocks. The girls really go into it and gave their pet rocks names. I think the biggest hit of all was the Smiley Face pinata we did in the living room hanging from the loft balcony. This was our first party to have a pinata and the kids went crazy!! It was very loud but a huge hit! I wrote the names of each girl on a ziploc baggie so when it was time to go home we didn't get them confused.

It was a spectacular party. I even participated by wearing a peace shirt, headband, flare blue jeans and flip flops. This will definitely go down as one to remember.

Below is a few snapshots during her seventh birthday party...

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Where does the time go?

Wow this site is STILL up...cracking me up! Thought I would check in and see where I left off. I can't believe it was almost two years ago. Facebook and Twitter have taken up my time but since I left Twitter over a year ago I thought I would check in. New post soon to come...got lots to chat and update on. LOTS...

Summer Vacation

Well we finally made it to the beach this year.  The lucky winner was Destin, FL and may I say it was an awesome choice.  I have been to A LOT of beaches but I have to say Destin beach is by far the best yet!  We stayed two weeks and the girls had a blast.  We held and fed live alligators, we went crab hunting at night on the beach and found lots of crabs.  We are now the proud owners of a hermit crab as a result!  We also saw dolphins, went boogie boarding, built lots of sand castles, rode bumper cars, automatic boats and raced in some go-karts.  It was a memorable vacation with family and friends...I look forward to going back again real soon!  

We also drove up to Seaside, FL for a day...here are a few of my favorite pictures I took with my new camera from Australia.  It has been my favorite toy since I made the purchase!  :-)

Easter 2009

My precious girls dressed for Easter services today.  I'm SO glad they still like to be dressed the same!  I know it won't last forever so I'm taking full advantage of it while I still can!! LOL!

Jeepers! My baby turned 4!!

It's been Scooby Doo in our house since ClaireBear was about two years old. I tried it fight it as long as I could so finally we here are with a Scooby Doo birthday party! Here are a few pictures of Claire's birthday, I know some of you have seen them already on Facebook...but for you non-fb users here you go!

Claire's all time favorite character is Daphne on the cartoon so that is the birthday cake she asked for. Of course my girls get to pick the cake...so I did the best I could without a character Wilton pan!


This is the mystery machine I made as a prop for the party. This was the starting point for the mystery that was to be solved. If you look in the lower right-hand corner you can see one of the clues!

The first thing we did was dress each other up as mummies. Each kid had a partner and a roll of toilet paper to use!

Next was to solve the mystery. Claire's presents were dropped off in on the dining room table and I had the parents move them to the 'secret spot' while they were being mummies. Each child took a turn reading the Scooby Doo mystery clues.



They even had to go outside. One of the clues was hidden in someone's mailbox...this is a picture of the kiddos running after the other half of the kiddos who found the clue in the neighbors mailbox!


There were a total of nine clues scattered inside and outside the house. Each clue led to the next and they had to figure out what happen to the missing presents! They finally solved the mystery when they found Claire's presents inside the trunk of Daddy's car!!


We then opened presents, ate Daphne cake with Scooby and Shaggy's favorite ice cream and Phantom Punch.

One of her favorite presents was the Fancy Nancy Dress Up Trunk (she actually got two of them!) Here is one of my favorite pictures of her after her friends helped her dress up in the Fancy Nancy clothes.





And finally a picture of Scooby Doo and the gang!! (Thanks GT for being Scooby Doo!)

I knew it was bound to happen...

BEFORE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

AFTER!!!!!!!!

NUFF SAID..........

scissors and a three year old, don't mix!!!!!!!!

Returned from the Outback

Now that was a wild trip...I had so much fun and learned A LOT. I got to see the most beautiful scenery, I caught up with a high school friend that I haven't seen in over 15 years and I actually got to see some kangaroos. I was going to blog more but time just got away from me. So for now I will just post some of my favorite pictures during the trip. It's going to be hard to decide but I'll do my best.

On the last full day of sightseeing I headed to downtown Sydney and bought my Christmas present!! After TONS of research, converting Aussie dollars and collecting GST (government sales tax) we decided it was a must buy. I will post about the purchase further down in this post so keep reading... :-)
Checking out the Sydney Opera House...

Cockatoo's in the Botanical Gardens...
All those black blobs are bats hanging from the trees in the botanical gardens. At dusk they started to stir.

A beautiful view of the botanical gardens with downtown in the background.


In the blue mountains with the Three Sisters (rock formations) in the background. The blue haze in the far right background is oil from the Eucalyptic trees there, hence the name "blue mountains". :-)

Katoomba Falls. I took this picture riding on a glass bottom cable car going from one side of the mountain to the other.

My honey at Manly Beach...the water was definitely too cold to swim but that didn't stop all the surfers!
Night time view of Darling Harbor. We took a ferry over and had dinner on the harbor at blue fish.
YES!! I got a picture of the mighty fast Kangaroos! My dear friend Vanessa lives on some property where a pack of 20 - 30 roos come in her yard every morning. If you look closely you can see this mama and her joey eating next to her bent over. That's Monty the horse on the right. They make it a little hard to catch the roos on film as well. :-)
My friend lives out in the county about hour and half from Melbourne. I took a flight on Monday to Melbourne and stayed with her and her boyfriend for three days. They live in Mt. Franklin and this is the view from the back porch. Absolutely peaceful, beautiful! Bella and Monty the horses are missing from the picture and you can't hear the Australian birds singing!! :-(

Now, if you made it this far you're doing good! LOL! So my early Christmas present was a new digital SLR camera. If you known me for any length of time you know I LOVE TO TAKE PICTURES!!! I've been wanting (read whining) for a camera that I could zoom in with on objects, people, etc. Thanks to John's friend/co-worker I purchased a Canon EOS Rebel Xsi digital camera with an IS (18-200mm) lens and has 12.2 mega pixels! This thing is incredible!!!

Below are two pictures I was able to take before we had to head to the airport. My only regret is not getting the camera at the beginning of the trip because then I really could zoom in on those kangaroos and birds! Oh well, I've had 18 hours of flying time to read the manuals cover to cover now time to do some shooting...

I'm in Sydney Australia!

Now this will be an interesting post. DH has been working in Australia off and on all summer and I finally got to come over this trip. Thanks to the best MIL in the world - I'm kid-free in another country with my wonderful husband for 11 days. We are staying right on the harbor where I can see downtown, Harbor Bridge is about 100 yards from our corporate apartment. This is only my second day and it's incredible. Last night we hung out in Chatswood and right now we are getting ready to go in the city and see The Rocks, the Opera House and botanical gardens where apparently you can view some bats!!


Here is a picture I took last night from our balcony!!!!!! That is Harbor Bridge and Luna Park below. It's just breathtaking views all around!
Tomorrow we plan on taking the train to the Blue Mountains. I've been told by several people we need to do that so we have it planned. Well that's all for now...more to come soon

!

Halloween 08'

Every year our friends hold a Halloween Party for adults only and of course it's dress up. Last year John and I went as Charlie Brown and Lucy. This is what we went as King Kong and his girl (Fay Wray)!



Here are me and my peeps! LOL!

Left to right: Kim = Firewoman, Colleen = Catherine Zeta Jones, Me = Fay Wray (from King Kong), Julie = "A one night stand!" Natalie = Hooters waitress! We had a total blast, we're already try to think of what to be for next year!

There were lots of Tony Romo's and Jessica Simpson's too!
Check out her arm!!
Some others were Sarah Palin, Marilyn Monroe, JFK, Michael Douglas. It was so much fun!! I love Halloween. Wait until you see our garage this weekend. It's already setup and I can't even park my car in there...

These days

Well, I got a message from a friend who was checking my blog and commented that "it was still the same". SORRY!! Life gets so crazy I don't take two seconds to jot things down. It's seems when I lived in Phoenix I had nothing going on, nothing to do and whined all the time. Now my life is going so fast I don't have time to whine!

I started playing on a soccer league this past summer after I found out I had plantar's fasciitis in my right foot. It started in Arizona but I didn't know what it was so I blew it off. Now three years later I have it so bad I can't walk. I wore a walking boot for almost four weeks. Had several cortizone shots in my heel, had custom orthoditics made and take Celebrex daily. As of today, I'm out of my boot still wearing orthodics, still taking Celebrex and getting Physical Therapy. So running has been out since my TAH (Total Abdominal Hysterectomy) in April. Now soccer is out and exercising is non-existent. At least for now...I'm just hoping to make it through the rest of the year healthy so I can start fresh next year. :-)

Recently I helped my dear friend Natalie raise over $30,000 for the Vascular Birthmarks Foundation. It is very close to my heart since her daughter has lived through the heartache and pain of one since she was born. The event was held at the Texas Motor Speedway. Considering the economy we were very successful!

Amongst all that, I've been volunteering at Sissy's school and helping with her two soccer teams. She wasn't supposed to be on two teams but it ended up that way. That's another day for another post. :-) Also, we've been busy getting Grandma Twyla settled into her new Texas home. She is such a social butterfly and already plugged in the community. We finished hanging pictures last week. Next is some curtains and then she should be all set. Let's see, Sugar and I have enjoyed hanging out since Sissy went back to school. Although she is definitely giving the "testy three's" a new meaning. Some days we go for bike rides and have play dates on the days she's not in school (Tuesday & Thursday). Bike riding and swimming are the only activities I am allowed to do and since it was a low of 43 last night swimming is out. LOL! Right now we are curled up in the bed as she has a high fever, a little vomiting and a sore throat.

Daddy is busy traveling especially to Australia! He just returned from his second trip there and he supposed to go back next month. We are hoping I get to join him this trip but it's not confirmed yet. Please say a little prayer that I get to go. DH and I haven't been on a trip together in a LONG time. I've also volunteered to take on a Girl Scout Daisy Troop. Basically, all of Sissy's 1st grade friends. As soon as my background check clears we can start, I'm so excited. I remember doing Brownies when I was little and I still remember it to this day! Sissy is SO excited I'm going to be the troop leader. And Daddy is filling in for one of the soccer coaches so she is even more excited. Good times...

That wraps it up...our school carnival is tonight. It's the biggest fundraiser of the year and I have to go back up to volunteer. Daddy is picking up the Sugar's prescriptions and then coming home to relieve me. He such a great Daddy!!

Here's til next month...okay I'll try to make it sooner, I promise! :-)

Growing Up

I really can't describe what I feeling right now. I guess you can say it's bittersweet. As of August 24th, I have now a 6 year old. I'm the parent of a 1st grader. I'm a soccer mom.

How in the world did that happen?

Since the day I was pregnant I was told, "oh treasure them, they grow up so fast!" Or, on my many trips to Wal-Mart when they were screaming for a bottle or a snack, people would stop and say, "I remember when mine were that age..."

At the time it seemed so far away that it really didn't mean much. At least to me it didn't. I would just smile and nod my head yes and hurry to the nearest checkout to prevent a complete meltdown in the middle of the grocery store.

This year I'm busy driving carpool, doing homework, packing lunches and shuffling to practices and games. And now that Sugar goes to preschool two days a week, the days are a lot longer and I find myself missing her.

But it's slowly coming to reality what all those people were saying to me...they do grow up so fast! It won't be long before Sugar starts kindergarten and I'll have more of a reality check.

And, even though I can make it through a trip to the grocery store without flying goldfish, spilled drinks and screaming toddlers. Today, I will make it through Sugar terrorizing the dogs, climbing the cabinets and emptying my wallet.

But more importantly, I'm going treasure my little girl today because they ARE growing up so fast.

A busy summer

Wow, this summer has been super crazy busy. I swore before school ended last year that we would have a nice relaxing summer. I only scheduled one three day vacation to San Antonio which included Papa coming to visit for ten days and two small camps (one for each of the girls).

Well before I could blink, we added Schlitterbahn waterpark to the San Antonio trip, drove to Memphis for a week and packed and moved GT's house to Texas. Then, over the course of the next month and a half we had three different out of town guests staying with us.

Now I'm not complaining...we had a wonderful summer and enjoyed every bit of company that came our way, it just went by SO fast!

Now this weekend is Sissy's birthday and then school starts! Now that's even crazier. Sissy's starts 1st grade and we took advantage of the tax-free weekend shopping. Sugar starts a new preschool on Tuesday/Thursday that is right next door to Sissy's school, I'm so excited. Our plan is to ride bikes to school this year. We practiced once last week during school registration and it went really well. Let's just hope it's not triple digits again when school starts.

Well that's our summer it doesn't make much for an interesting post but I felt an update was in order.

Quite frankly, I think there is so much to blog about I'm getting a little overwhelmed...for example, do you know I started playing on a co-ed soccer team or that I got curtains made for our living room and surprised DH or that we may have some family actually moving to Texas VERY SOON near us or that Sissy is starting on a new soccer team next week or that Sugar is completely potty trained????

Well I guess considered yourself updated... :-)

Hand sculpted dog cake

UPDATE: This is an update to the questions that have popped up in comments. I apologize for the fast and quick post yesterday on the cake but I was literally running out the door.

So here goes...

This was a practice cake because it was the first time I've made homemade fondant icing. It turned out great but I got some great tips from a dear friend (who by the way is way more qualified and gifted than I'll ever be) on how to make the fondant taste a little better.

I got the idea from here but after I watched the video I did not realize the sculptor in the video was a top New York City-chef specializing in custom designed cakes and owner/founder of Confetti Cakes. She is AMAZING!

I watched the video with the girls and after it was done Sissy said, "Mom, I wish you could make me that cake for my birthday?" And I in shock said, "Honey, I'm sure that's a professional." There was a short pause and then she said, "Maybe you can take a cake class!"

ROFL!!!!!! (Rolling On The Floor Laughing)

Of course, I started to think about it and finally curiosity caught the cat and I thought to myself, "maybe I can make a mini one???" So there I was watching the video AGAIN observing every detail...steps, ingredients, tools, technique, etc.

It took 1 1/2 days to make the cake. I baked all the cakes and built the body on Friday afternoon/evening, then made the head the following afternoon. I don't know how many total hours I spent but it actually went quicker than I expected.

I used my homemade fondant icing and hand sculpted all the fur using a kid's Dixie plastic knife. I've got some high quality tools around here. I made two cakes, one 8 inch and one large batter bowl. Although, I ran out of cakes and still needed to make the head so I made a batch of brownies in a small batter bowl. Like I said this was practice. LOL!

So there you have it. The next go round' I'm going to make two batches of fondant with my new recipe (thanks Sweet Diva), modify the color of the dog, add some bling since it is a 'Glamour Dog' party and hopefully make it all using cake. :-)

i HEART mudrooms

Compared to the other houses I've lived in, this house by far has the biggest laundry room. Now I think that is a bonus...but really how can it be a bonus if it has no storage/cabinets/closets? Because if you've read this blog for any length of time you know that storage and organization are my two BF's. :-)

I've always been a big fan of mudrooms...the type you see in some very large homes. You know the kind where a room/hallway that connects to the garage or laundry room. Since we didn't have a separate room for one in our house, I decided to have one built in my extra large laundry room (off the garage.) Once I got the idea of what I wanted, it didn't take me long to find someone to build a storage unit that had mudroom-like functionality.

I'm so excited to say that it is finally finished and turned out better than I ever expected. Alas, here is our new made-up mudroom...
Now you can't see this very well in the picture but the backing is beadboard. My friend also cut out holes in the backing so I can still use my two electrical outlets. On the bottom bench (where it is stained) they are actually three hinged seats that lift up where the girls can store their shoes. I even had them pick which cubby they wanted so they could put their shoes inside. I still have to purchase three baskets to put up top but I'm truly enjoying it. No more over flowing rack of shoes and over stuffed hooks. :-)

I might even buy some of those rub-on letters and label the cubbies with their initials. I know...too much, right? It was Better Homes & Garden idea not mine!
(I think if you click the pic it might get bigger)

Latest home projects

There is no denying that when my dad is in town he means business. I just realized that I have not blogged much, if not at all about my amazing father. It's not because I don't think about him it's just that I don't see him near as much as I want to. He lives out of state and it's not exactly an eight hour drive away either.

But my dad has to be one of the most creative, smart, hardworking, man that I know. He can literally work on anything and fix it. Not only is he good at it but he enjoys helping others. My friends and neighbors know him and want to know where they can get a Rent-a-Dad! He's that good and knowledgeable. In fact, in the past some neighbors have paid him to do help around their house while he was here visiting!

Here's is the long list of what he did during his visit here a few weeks ago. Not to mention we spent three days in San Antonio and he still managed to get all this done. I really felt bad he worked so much during his visit, but every time we finished one project he would say, "what else you got on your list?" That's Dad...

1. New attic flooring. (pic below)
2. New register vent in garage
3. New register in attic
4. Insulation on garage door
5. Discovered and cleaned Fresh Air Ventilation System
6. Hung new light fixture in 1/2 bath
7. Hung new mirror in 1/2 bath
8. Fixed drain in master bath
9. Fixed magazine rack in MB stall
10. Added light in Sugar's closet
11. Took down 1/2 bath mirror (was almost impossible)
12. Cleaned gutters
13. Destroyed every wasp and mud dauber nests on the house
14. Fixed curtain rod in MB
15. Repaired dryer vent hose
16. Adjusted refrigerator doors
17. Added drawer pulls in kitchen
18. Adjusted dishwasher racks
19. Fixed two drawer tracks in kitchen
20. Cleaned vents inside house and outside
21. Inspected HVAC and fixed filters
22. Removed tree stakes from front lawn
23. Wash & detailed SUV

Now is he awesome or what?? Thanks Dad for everything you do (and did)! I love you lots and miss you already!!

Heres the attic flooring he added, I couldn't get pictures of the whole area but you get the idea...

One Prayer

Join us this month and other churches nationwide for One Prayer.

It's going to be amazing to see what God does during this special time.



Click here to get more details...

Boring bullet list

I have lots to blog about...and pictures to post but since DH is out of the country with the cable to my camera, here is a bullet list of this past month:

* Got a new blog skin! How do you like it?
* Sugar had her first ballet recital this past weekend and she stole the show.
* DH has been gone for over two weeks, he is in Australia, Malaysia and Singapore.
* Sissy's last day of kindergarten was this week. The party was fun but it was a sad day for her.
* Grandma came to visit us for a week and we had lots of fun going to the pool.
* I'm recovering very well now just limiting what I can lift and avoiding the vacuum at all cost.
* Sugar started swim lessons and vomited in class because she was so upset to go under water!
* Sissy started piano lessons and has practiced every day since Tuesday.
* Almost finished decorating my Texas-themed half bath downstairs.
* I've got 3 home improvement projects in the works & can't wait to post about them.

But most important of all, I can't wait for hubby to come home. He has one more week left and then he's home!!

The power of a Mac

I dropped DH (dear husband) off at the airport last night for his 15 + 2 hour LA trip to Sydney, Australia. He is working over in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne for two weeks and then he heads to Malaysia and Singapore.

The girls and I miss him already!! I have to say though, I absolutely love my MacBook! DH landed a few hours ago safely and we just got done chatting via video iChat! I was sitting in my kitchen in suburbia Texas and he was at an Italian Cafe having a cappuccino outside in the heart of Sydney, Australia.

Isn't that incredible?? It's Sunday morning there...

Also, hubby's cell phone died and he wasn't at the hotel room so we communicated via our MacBook's! As an added bonus, DH already took some great pictures of his view from the hotel room and already uploaded them to Flickr. Now when the girls wake up in the morning I can show them pictures of where daddy is at on the AppleTV. It just keeps getting better...

Thank you Apple!

Praying...

for Steven Curtis Chapman tonight. Apparently, his teenage son struck his five year old sister Maria in the driveway with the family's SUV. What a horrible accident. You can read the full story here.

Lifting him and his family up in prayer tonight!

*For those of you who do not know of him...he is one of contemporary Christian music’s most recognizable and most awarded names.