Cupcakes and little Helpers

I just love baking with my kids. I try and bake cookies,or brownies, cakes or cupcakes with them as often as I can. I always have a constant supply of cake mixes,brownies, frosting's..etc in my cupboards.
On Thursday night while I was waiting for the New Project Runway episode I checked with Parker to see if he wanted to make some cupcakes...of course the answer was yes...who can refuse cupcakes?!?!?

I let him stir up the batter.

I decided to spruce up the white cake with some puree peaches

Ava was having fun helping too

She loved licking the cake batter off the spatula...so did Parker

After her taste of Batter she was clapping and saying YAYYYYY

We filled up 2 cupcake pans

Time to put them in the oven to cook..

I just love when the whole house smells like vanilla

I went back in the living room while the cupcakes bake and Ava was expecting to have a cupcake right then and there and I told her it had to cook still and she of course threw a tantrum

She kept throwing herself on the couch in anger cause the cupcakes weren't readily available...it was quite a seen.

Finally they were ready and time to frost. We decided to frost with cream cheese frosting with rainbow chips.

Ava likes to lick ALL the frosting off first then eat the cake

She was so happy she finally got her cake.

Parker was really happy to have a cupcake too! Parker is a funny kid...he wanted me to call some friends over to share some cupcakes with us. He actually said Mommy, can you call Thelma or Ally and have them come over and eat some cupcakes with us. LOL He insisted that SOMEONE else must have cupcakes too. I ended up taking some to work for my co workers.

I still have a few left...hmmm well I am off..to have one of those delicious cupcakes!

Ava's Guardian friends

Yesterday at work we had a photographer come into our office to drop off a Motorcycle we had loaned him to do this southwestern trip all over the place shooting photos along his journey. He was out for a few weeks doing this little touring trip and so yesterday he came back to drop off the motorcycle. Check out his site sometime..awesome work he has there.

Anyway he was staying in studio City and attended this Legend of the Guardians event and gave Josh (my co worker and I) some cool items from the Movie event for our little ones.
It was a cool owl lunch bag and two Owl beenie babies. AVA just LOVED them.

She held on to these owls with a death grip the entire night! She has another little owl toy she was playing with all the time but he kinda got tossed to the side once the NEW owls came into the picture.

She eventually started mixing him up and played with all 3 owls. She was lining them up in a row in the lunch bag and telling them night night. All 3 owls slept with her last night. I bet they were the first thing she went looking for this morning too!

Nice and Cozy with a side of Chili

I like to think of Fall as Chili season! I know a lot of people do chili in the summer time for chili cook offs and what not but seriously who wants to eat a hot steaming bowl of chili in the summer???

I been waiting for these cool rainy fall days for making chili. Last Sunday I made a huge pot of chili and it was so good! Parker said that my chili is his favorite food.
I added 4 different types of beans, stewed tomatoes,garlic,ground beef seasoned with a chili powder and other spices, corn,bell peppers, chili's from our garden and onions and I also add a little brown sugar for extra kick.
Each time I make chili I add things here and there and mix it up a bit.
But I always start my pot with a cup of butters and half a clove of chopped garlic and onion to melt down into the butter before adding all my ingredients.
Sometimes I add red wine, and sometimes I shave in dark chocolate.
I also make a really good vegetarian chili too with garbanzo beans,mini corn cobs, green beans amongst several other veggie items.
Once the chili was done we started to set up our dinners on the living room table so we could eat and watch our Netflix movie we rented. The chili was great with cheese and sour cream. We had some nice Blue moon beer to wash it down and while I was making the chili Gabe made cornbread muffins that were so moist and sweet. It was a nice cozy up evening....I can't wait for more nights of hot homemade food and movies with the hubby and kids all on the couch together especially with the sound of rain outside our window!

The Terrible Two's..HELP!!!

Ever since Ava turned two the terrible twos have started. The signs I have encountered so far.......

*Tantrums*
Example taking something from her death grip that she is not suppose to have and she runs a couple steps and launches herself to the floor kicking and screaming*

*Destruction*
She destroys pretty much everything she possibly can!
Example any book she has is torn to shreds (we now only let her view Board books*, She colored with a red crayon her WHOLE dresser, She tore off all her Yo Gabbe Gabbe Wall decals ( we were able to save most of them)

*Hitting and Screaming*
If I take something away and luck out not to witness a tantrum she hits me and screams instead..but that is usually before the tantrum launch

*Throwing Food*
She is purposely now starting to throw her food and dump out her drinks cause it amuses her...we are almost at the point of not going out to eat anymore

*Getting into Everything*
She finds away to get into EVERYTHING! So far I found her in the bathroom and she pushed her little potty chair to the sink and opened all the drawers and cupboards and took EVERYTHING out and put them in the bathtub, Pantyliners were covered all over the floor(wrapped ones to clairfy), She had all our toothbrushes in her mouth and TP scattered all about...not to mention the pepto bismol tablets she was trying to EAT!
I am constantly reminding Parker and Gabe to keep the bathroom doors shut

I always know she is up to no good when she is quiet....here are some photos of me catching her in the act.
She was running around like crazy and got really silent. I went into Parker's room and she somehow found a lollipop and climbed up on parkers desk and was just sitting there eating it.

She was having a good ol time. Most of the time she finds markers or crayons and starts Drawing all over the walls, furniture, toys, books and herself!

Luckily we have washable writing utensils in the household and a huge supply of magic erasers that are truly magical! We learned about the wall drawings from back in Parker's toddler days.........all in all she is much more good then bad. The terrible two stage I am hoping goes by quickly and it only rears it's ugly head maybe once a day.

She is much more into Playing, and singing ( she LOVES Singing) and loves playing chase and hide with Parker. I guess it is time to put her in tumbling tots to use up all that energy!

Travel Plan Clusters

I know I been lagging big time with my blog. I been sick and the cord to my camera is missing again!!
Anyways,
Work has been crazy on and off. I feel like I spend just way too much time at work. I was hoping on going to NYC for work but it looks like they cancelled my New York trip...because instead they are sending me to ITALY to work instead....Hey I'll take it! We will be in Pontedera at the Piaggio factory. The closest city near where we will be at to site see will be PISA. We are for sure going to check that out.
Luckily my passport is ready to go and it is awesome I get to travel with my friend and co worker as well.
We are leaving November for Italy and will be gone at least a week. We were suppose to leave October 18th but plans changed yet again.
I never been to Europe before so I am pretty darn excited but not about the long flight and certain jet lag.
I wonder what the weather will be like????

Vroom Vroom

Lately I been thinking about buying a classic car. I see people driving theirs around and it is just so fetching!!
Pf course if I had lots of money and could pick whatever I wanted it would be this Thunderbird!

I am really digging the old trucks too

This one would be great for toting our scooters around in!

I know it is really probably NOT going to happen for sometime but a girl can dream right!

My how she's grown!

Today my friend ally sent me some Photo's she took of Ava's 1st Birthday...

I cannot believe how much she has grown!!
On her Birthday we let her have her first cake all to herself. She was looking at it like what in the heck is this??

She felt it a little

Once she got the taste for it ..that little cake was history!

She was taking huge fistfuls of it and just eating as much as she could

A few days later we celebrated her birthday at the park. Got some great shots of opening presents...she did pretty good

The clothes she just moved to the side.

Some of the bigger cousins helped her out a little

She really enjoyed all the toys though...

I mean REALLY enjoyed the toys!

Ava's friend Evie with mama Vickie and Papa Josh

She had so much fun playing.

Ally made some really tasty cupcakes for the party...cupcakes are so much easier

It was a busy day for her...now time to relax with Grandpa.

Thanks Ally for the pictures! My how time flys!

My favorite season

I am so happy that fall is among us. it is my favorite time of the year. I believe besides the crisp cool freshness of the air, the beautiful colors of the leaves and of course the smell of wood burning from the fireplaces that I really love this time cause the holidays are coming.
My family really loves the holidays. I just love the time shared and the look of happy faces of people I love.
This year I am looking forward to Thanksgiving. I am going to set up long tables with white linens in the backyard and have a good old fashion harvest family dinner outside with all the traditional foods.
With the thought of the holidays coming it also makes me think that I need to get started early on my xmas shopping oh and can't forget to start making those Halloween costumes...even though I will most likely just buy them.

I can't wait for nights bundling up in a nice warm blanket with my kids, making big pots of chili and stews and finally busting out all my cute jackets and sweaters I been dying to wear, not to mention some fun friendly gatherings with friends.

Goodbye old friend

Yesterday I got some sad news in the morning that my best Guy friend had passed away. He was suffering from COPD and has been fighting very hard the past few months to get better. I talk to him on the phone just a few weeks ago and he did have labored breathing on the phone but sounded very optimistic about getting better.

Adrian and I met in high school. We had career guidance class together. He was newer to the school and was a attractive, slim, happy go lucky, class clown! A lot of my gal friends thought he was cute and he was pretty popular with the ladies.
Adrian and I have always just been friends and never ventured out to a route where we would ever consider being a couple. We were just almost instant best friends...siblings really.
The first words he ever said to me was " Hey, Can I throw a ditching party at your house?"..I replied back"ok".
From then on we hung out ALL the time, he was really close to my parents and my brother as well. As a matter of fact after I grew up and moved out of my parents house he still would go stay with my brother and parents house for the weekend. He often came over for the holidays and always said that me and my family were his family..his 2nd family.
I have so many fond memories of him. Long conversations, we would drink and play cards or games, we would go to gigs and hang out. He loved Parker. When we were in a bind and had no sitter for Parker Adrian would take a metro down to Long Beach and watch him for us. Parker LOVED Adrian. We would come home and Adrian would tell us what he cooked for Parker for dinner and the two of them would be playing video games together.
One of those crazy nights hanging with Adrian! He has always had health issues. We knew that he always slept restlessly. He snored so loud like he was always gasping for air. He would fall asleep standing up then wake up and have to eat then back to sleep and then eat again. During the last few times I saw him he seemed to be getting really bad. We always told him to go to the doctor and get checked out and he was just too stubborn to do it.

One thing about Adrian..he was the most caring, non judgemental, fun, loud, outspoken, crazy guy I have ever known.

He lived his life fast and hard and he always knew that he would have a short life. He often talked about death. Yesterday after I got the sad news I called my brother who was also close to Adrian and he came over and we cried and cried..then my mom came over and cried as well and then my dad came over and he was sad as well. We all had a round of stiff drinks and remembered good times and shared funny stories and we played a song he always told me he wanted played when he dies.... I just can't believe he is gone. He had so much more he wanted to accomplish in his life.

RIP Adrian Thomas Lookadoo Feb 2 1977-September 12 2010

You will never be forgotten!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDDJYuvweIU

Birthday 1...Sofia 1st!

I have been lagging really bad on blogs lately so I am going to start keeping up....but to keep up I have to get caught up.
A couple weekends ago Gabe and I had two birthday parties to go too and we made a whole day of two parties and a club later in the evening which i was blown away that I even had the energy to do.
The first party was little Sofia Agrusa's party. When we arrived her music teacher was just starting a circle with all the babies and parents for a little group session of song and dance.

Ava had fun participating!

Everyone did!

After the class session all the kids were up and at it. Ava saw all the party hats on the table and had to have one put on. The whole time she had t on she had to keep checking that her hat was still on her head.

Soon it was time for the birthday princess to have her first birthday cake!

She seemed a little unsure.

She picked at it with such grace and poise. A few of the bigger kids though came to help!

we sat around with friends and had a little wine and food and chatted.

while we all socialized and talked about fun upcoming plans we all need to work on

The kids all played...

Evie and Ava were having a blast together.

We had to get going cause we had another birthday party to run too so we gave Sofia her present and let her open it up. She seemed to like it!

We had such a nice time at this party and got to see alot of good friends.