Turkey Day Weekend

For the last few years, we have celebrated Thanksgiving weekend down in Los Angeles at my aunt Arlie & uncle Bill's house. This is fun for so many reasons, the first being that we love this huge family and the second being that it is really just 3 solid days of eating, kids and lots 'o fun!

The pictures speak for themselves... we had a fantastic meal for our Thanksgiving Feast, took the kiddos to the park to play baseball and burn off energy, played games, watched movies, went shopping, ate more food, hung out and shared some great quality time. Thanks Auntie Arlie for another awesome Thanksgiving Weekend!

Money, Money, Money, Money..... MONEY!

One of the things that drives me bonkers is when I find loose change lying around the house, so when Ben was born, I decided to capture all of the change in a large pickle jar. This has been living in the back of our closet for Steve to empty his change from his pockets into at the end of the day for 3 years. We realized it was getting really full about a month ago, so we made a contest out of it - at Ben's 3rd birthday party, we brought it downstairs and had a sign up sheet for our guests. The concept was simple - guess how much money is in this jar and win ______. (given the audience of this particular party, we were giving away a gift card to Toys r US)

Once the sheet was full, it was now up to us to get it counted and this was no small task. Yes, you can take it to the local grocery store, but they take a cut and we are frugal (and cheap?) and wanted to keep it all for ourselves, so one night last week, the counting began.

How much do you think? (scroll to the bottom to see)!

$423.16 ~

Congratulations Jackson Spier for being the winner with a guess of $413.00!

Caputo Baby #2 Party

I have some amazing friends in my life and many of us gathered together on Thursday night to celebrate the little man who is close to entering our family - baby Caputo #2!

When my friend, Sophie asked me what I wanted to do for a shower, I quickly said I didn't want a true baby shower - just a gathering... a party... a celebration... call it what you want, it was FUN!

Sophie & Galen (hostesses) put on a "sweet" (literally) baby party with a signature cocktail complete with a chocolate fountain! We had it in the evening, around the fire pit sharing about all things baby & momma & fun!

I love these ladies & am so blessed to have such a wonderful support source as I/we enter this new adventure in life ... here's some pictures.

Ojai Valley Inn Getaway

I supposed I could just take the same pictures from last year and apply them to this year's post as this is our yearly tradition to get away this first weekend of November to celebrate Steve's birthday and to celebrate another year of parenting, but we noted how different our lives are this year than last when we did this getaway... for starters, we are 7 weeks from bringing another being onto the planet and into our family. Um, yeah, that's big! Secondly, Steve noted he is skinnier (wish I could say the same) and lastly, we were both SO TIRED on this getaway! (could be the toddler chasing and hectic pace that we've had this last month).

In any case, we love getaways and it's always awesome to go away with Steve and just hang out - we have such a great time together and such great conversations that has nothing to do with who's picking up Ben, what time dinner is at and what is our project list for the weekend.

We checked in, hit the spa for hours, had a great dinner, slept until 7:30 am (BONUS) and stayed in our jammies for a few hours in the morning to catch up on reading and relaxation. 24 powerful hours in a stunning, relaxing, amazing place on Earth... Ojai Valley Inn!

Santa Barbara 1/2 Marathon

Steve's ran his fifth 1/2 marathon for 2010 on Saturday morning in Santa Barbara.... even though he's done this race before, the course was different and it ended up at Santa Barbara City College instead of down by the beach, which was SO much better for spectators (a.k.a pregnant moms with energetic toddlers) because there was seating and lots of room for the kids to run, jump and stomp through all of those bleachers!

We are so proud of you Papa! ;)

3 year checkup

Mr. Ben and Dr. Abbott had a meeting last week for Ben's 3 year annual checkup. All went well... and we learned that we have a large child. Well, a tall child (still not sure where that is coming from.) He is in the 97th percentile for his height - basically he is the size of a 4.5 year old for height. Very odd. He got a flu shot and all's well that ends with a lollipop!

Here's his stats and a few pics
Height: 40 1/4 inches (97th percentile)
Weight: 38 lbs (90th percentile)

Birthday Madness - Part 3

With all of the previous posting, you would think the birthday madness would be over, but none of that was actually ON his actual day of birth, so we wanted to do something simple, fun and easy for his actual birthday....he went to school for half the day and we both worked a half day, picked him up from school at 2 and went bowling!! (notice the birthday crown that he wore all day/night from school).

Luckily his friend Cooper and Cooper's hot mama, our friend Tina also were able to join us and what a blast this was! We will be back very soon for many more rounds of bowling... Ben had a blast (and kicked our butts -- notice the many happy dances from Ben!) Steve and I love bowling, so with a few friends, this is going to quickly become a very fun rainy day activity! After bowling, there were video games to explore, dinner to be eaten (ha! hardly) and yet another ice cream sundae with a final candle and a final happy birthday song to Bebo.
Happy Birthday Benjamin... we love you kiddo & honestly are so glad it's all over until next year! :)