times

As in..... did you fall back this weekend? Complain if you must, but I love it :)

I had something really nice happen to me this weekend.

See those huge *BEAUTIFUL* roses next to my bed? 

My neighbor Tina said they were smiling at her in her garden, and they needed to come to me!

It made me so HAPPY! :)

I had a cold all weekend - Tina didn't even know! - and I had flowers to cheer me up!

THANK YOU my dear neighbor and friend!

Speaking of Tina, look at her and Ava on Halloween!

Miss Ava was the *CUTEST* little Minnie Mouse -

and Tina has a smile that lights up everyone's life! LOVE IT!

Seriously, have you EVER seen such an *ADORABLE* Minnie Mouse?! I think NOT!

And while we're mentioning roses, here are my last little blooms for the season (pink, just for Cindy!)

I hope you all had a great weekend!

Shell & I are wicked

You know what these two sets of feet mean.

SHELL CAME TO VISIT!

She was barely off the plane and we got pedicures first thing!

 I also made her get extra piercings because I knew she wanted them :)

So after we took a class at the Apple store, we went straight inside the mall!

 Second piercings on both ears, plus a cartilage piercing up top - SO CUTE!

 Shell was here when we had our Velvet vs. Cake Goodness Girls Only Taste Test!

I so wish we had taken a pic of all 4 of us: Tori, Taylor, Shell & me - 

we had so much fun and laughed so hard we were dying :)

 We spent a lot of time with the Mouse, and really enjoyed his guitar playing

He has a killer acoustic version of "Blackbird" that he's just GOT to record!

 Then Shell & snuck off for the day and drove to Redondo Beach

 and did something we had planned on for months but hadn't told anyone.....

TWIN TATTOOS

 We searched and searched for something that would be meaningful to us both -

we found a Celtic symbol that is beautiful and means several things.....

Friends and Sisters Forever

 Shell got hers in black on the back of her neck - it looks AMAZING :)

I got mine on my forearm in turquoise - also amazing :)

FRIENDS AND SISTERS FOREVER :)

 Obviously Shell and I did LOTS of fun things together during the week she was here!

Shopping probably topped the list. Well, after the piercings. And tattoos. And seeing friends.

And we drove to Santa Monica so Shell could go to one of the Shabby Chic flagship stores :)

 So of course we HAD to drive to Pacific Palisades and visit the house I grew up in!

It had been nearly 40 years since Shell had seen it! 40 years! Oh, the fun we had here together :)

 Matty took some pics of us before we had to drive Shell to the airport, hehe

They make me happy and sad at the same time - I miss her so much already.

I love you Shell!!!

foodie week: girls only cupcake war

Well guess who came a few weeks ago..... to spend an entire WEEK with me!

THAT'S RIGHT - MY COUSIN SHELL!!! HAH! :)

I'm going to report all our shenanigans on my blog next week (okay, almost all of them) 

but I need to blog about THIS one during foodie week!

~

Now that more cupcake places are popping up around here, I simply MUST go investigate!

It's really a drag, and I hate to do it..... but I'm used to it now :/

~

This time Shell, Tori, and Taylor (we missed you Whitney!) 

pitted Velvet Cupcakes - the reigning champion - against Cake Goodness.

This was definitely our closest competition to date! Cake Goodness turned out to be VERY GOOD!

Located on Lyons Ave. in Newhall, it is a very friendly and fun place to go! 

~

This contest was more about which cupcake/s we loved the most overall.

There were only 2 multiple flavors to compare (pumpkin!) so we mainly went with our faves.

(and the red velvet & salted carmel weren't in the running since they were Shell's)

Here are the flavors we had a *BLAST* taste testing:

VELVET CUPCAKES:

Pumpkin

Hazelnut Chocolate

Toffee Crunch

Classic Vanilla w/ Chocolate Frosting

CAKE GOODNESS:

Pumpkin

Double Chocolate

Cinnamon Crunch (like coffee cake)

Banana

And here are our thoughts on what we liked, loved, and couldn't get enough of:

• The pumpkin from Cake Goodness was the most spicy and flavorful, with cream cheese frosting
• The pumpkin from Velvet Cupcakes was smooth-flavored and more mellow
• (we all liked both pumpkins, for the different reasons I just mentioned)
• Velvet's Hazelnut Chocolate was a BIG pleaser - we all LOVED it!
• CG's Double Chocolate was a great, rich chocolate taste all around
• Velvet's Toffee Crunch tied with it's Hazelnut Chocolate for our most favorite - YUMMM!
• CG's Cinnamon Crunch had an AMAZING flavor, just like delish coffee cake
• Velvet's Classic Vanilla w/ Chocolate Frosting had SUPER awesome chocolate frosting
• CG's Banana was the surprise of the evening - it had a WONDERFUL flavor we all loved

OVERALL:

Velvet's texture, frosting, heavier density, moistness and flavors are still the winner with ME!

But I can't help it - I've never had a disappointing cupcake from Velvet Cupcakes! They ROCK!

HOWEVER, Cake Goodness was a near equal contender - we were all super impressed!

Their cupcakes were lighter & fluffier (which many people prefer), with TERRIFIC flavors!

OKAY IF YOU'VE MADE IT THIS FAR YOU'RE MY BEST FRIEND, HAHA

AND I KNOW YOU'RE LAUGHING THAT I THINK I'M A SERIOUS CUPCAKE CRITIC

I don't really think that, I just love cupcakes and this is so fun to do with my friends!

Alright, enough already..... go get some cupcakes!

VOODOO I DO

First there was Mr. Bill

Then came VooDoo Doll Gnome

And then..... after many years of yearning..... and with just a few minutes' notice..... 

straight off a plane from Oregon..... came..... wait for it..... drum roll please.....

~ VOODOO DOUGHNUT ~ 

Are you freaking KIDDING ME?!?! I could scarcely believe my eyes!!!

At the door was my AWESOME friend Heather, holding a REAL Voodoo doughnut for ME!

(below is where I start stealing all of her photos.....)

You DO know about VOODOO DOUGHNUTS, right? RIGHT?!?!

As a connoisseur of all things donut, I have known about VOODOO for years! YEARS!

It's an Oregon landmark for goodness' sake! A literal donut mecca, if you will!

But I had never been there, NOR had I ever sampled their famous doughnuts.

TILL NOW MUA-HA-HAAA!

Get this: Heather carried an entire box of doughnuts on multiple planes through multiple airports to bring them back to California! And bless her sweet heart, she knows how much I love donuts and brought me one! I thought I was gonna BUST! Thank you Heather! Thank you so much for being so thoughtful! :)

The doughnuts at VOODOO are simply INSANE (btw, you can NOT call them 'donuts' there!)

And I mean seriously INSANE. Click on the link below: you know you want to!

-----------------> VOODOO DOUGHNUTS <-----------------

Good things do, indeed, come in pink boxes! (just check out the maple/bacon bar on that box!)

xoxo

Mouse and the creatures

 Oh, little Angel..... how can you possibly be comfortable like that?

 This may be our new favorite animal - how unbelievably CUTE!

 Remember when the Mouse went to Cabella's in Utah? Well, there you go.

Hey, HOT DOGS! You gonna eat that? Are you gonna eat it? Are you done? Are you gonna eat it? Are you gonna eat it? You gonna eat it? Do you want it? Can I have it? Are you gonna eat it?

 I love taking secret pictures :) Matty & Tom - ah, summer :)

 Matty's work partner Cardon told him to come jam wearing a toga (as a JOKE)

Matty totally went dressed in a toga and Cardon thought it was so awesome he did it too :D

HAH!

"I don't wanna take a bath!"

"Well *I* certainly don't want to either..... stupid stupid stupid humans!"

the Mouse waiting for an appt. 

this may be my personal favorite :)

Aw, poor Angel! She fell asleep with one eye open and her tongue sticking out again :/

my heart goes on

 So though I might have had a very sad heart after my Daniel and my Davy left for Illinois,

like most moms, I still have STUFF I have to do and Matthew to watch over and life to live.

And so we go on.

Ah, my Luna - such a joy in my life. Her antics make me laugh all day, every day.

Her comical personality is my best form of entertainment, and she is a true comfort also.

 Kitty is Davy's cat, and she has felt lost and sad without him :( 

She specializes in being lazy and cranky on a good day. But she has her sweet times too.

Matthew has given her a lot of special attention and it's helped! Did I mention how cranky she is? 

Who would've known that 4 stranded young men from Idaho would lift my spirits so much?

The day after my boys took off, John's cousin called me to ask for our help -

her son and his 3 friends were stranded in San Diego and needed a place to crash for a few days.

We didn't see a whole lot of them since they were out exploring California (and sitting in traffic)

but when they were here, gosh were they the nicest guys EVER! (and way quieter than Davy!)

So often we think we're the ones helping out, when actually we're the ones being helped :)

Okay this might not look so great now, but don't knock it till you've tried it!

Anyone who knows ANYTHING knows that Jimmy Dean's jr. breakfast burritos are the BOMB!

 Now, I realize this is destructive. Especially because I don't promote destruction in any way.

And especially because this is a musical instrument.

But sometimes a little destruction in a semi-but-probably-not-very-safe environment is therapeutic. 

 In this instance it was, anyway. Matthew stuffed this old, broken guitar with mighty fireworks.

He ran, John ran, and Taylor & I watched from inside..... *BOOM* I admit, it was awesome.

 Before you get the wrong idea, the Mouse is not always destructive (I said not ALWAYS)

Sometimes, when I least expect it, he does something pretty incredible.

We have this huge old tree stump in front waiting to be removed.

 One afternoon he took my dremel and carved "The Giving Tree" into it.

Who even THINK of stuff like this??? Well, the Mouse does.

One of my dear Young Women from church - who is now away at college - asked me to sing with her in church before she left. I was honored! Riley is an amazing talent and I was thrilled to sing with her! We did her rendition of "Nearer My God To Thee" and it truly sounded wonderful!

Last but certainly not least, I got a pedicure. Talk about therapeutic!

They're supposed to be dice but everyone thinks they're polka dots - that's okay I love polka dots!

even MO summa - the Block PAR-TAY

~ BLOCK PARTY TIME! ~

(this is a VERY long post with TONS of photos so don't say you weren't warned)

We'd been talking about it on and off forevrrrrr, and since the date of the boys' departure was looming, we wanted to have it before they were gone! We were sadly missing a few who were out of town, but we still had a WONDERFUL time! Our little end of the culsdesac is small but mighty! Some of the very best people on the face of this earth! The attendees were as follows:

* the Fellbaum Family! (affectionately known as the F-baums)

* the Berndt Family!

* the Alunni Family!

* the Walker Family! (well that's obvious)

* our friends (and part of John's band) Darryl and Evan Mardirossian!

* our friends the Sanchez Family!

* our friends John, Taylor, Whitney, Liam, and Henry!

 Everyone took turns at the grills including Matty who did all the hot dogs

 Katie, Whitney, Claire, Tom, and Bree

Sanchez fam on the right - thanks for coming!

 Davy's band started off the entertainment (with John Sanchez and Henry Webster)

 this was actually the last time they ever performed together (sniff)

John Sanchez

 I know Liam..... we all have to deal with it :/

There we go - much better :)

 Whitney and Matty giving Luna treats :)

 Dan and Claire Fellbaum

 Bree and Tom

 Next came John's band (with Darryl and Evan Mardirossian)

They played for a long time and it was great entertainment

The best baby on the block and anywhere for that matter! Sweet Ava :)

Ava was the band's biggest fan by far :)

 As always, the ping pong table was popular

Davy, Taylor, Liam, and Daniel

 We gave everyone a little Walker harmony too (see? Ava loves music!)

 It's always so awesome to me, to sing with my boys :)

Especially when Davy will do it without getting mad, hehe :)

 Aw, I love this pic! Cammy holding Ava :)

Lunie!!!

 the Mouse treated us to some awesome entertainment as well

His own rendition of "Blackbird" is especially terrific!

And THAT, my friends, is how a block party is done :)

~

SPECIAL THANKS TO EVERYONE! WE LOVE YOU!