My Mom.

My Mom is something special.
If you know my Mom, then you know what I am talking about.
She really is one of a kind.
March 29th was my Mom's birthday and we had my family over to my house for dinner to celebrate.
I am so blessed to have her as my mom, and am so happy to call her my friend.

Can you tell these kids love their Gamma?

Up until my Mom's birthday it had been cold and gloomy all week.  We were wishin and hopin that the sun would be out by Tuesday and it was.

 Of course a few balloons were necessary for a party.
Hannah wanted to get aqua and red because she knows that those are Gamma's favorite colors.
The kids had SO much fun running around outside. 

 I was hoping for a cute picture of my girls in their head to toe matching outfits and Toms but these were the best I got.  They were just too busy.

 I prepared the salmon with olive oil, salt, pepper, fresh onions, lemons, and dill for Mr. Hass to bbq.

 We also had roasted asparagus with roma tomatoes and feta cheese, tropical iced tea with orange slices of course, brown rice, and a delicous garden salad that my Grandma made.

 We spent the entire afternoon in the backyard visiting and watching the kids have so much fun.

 Hannah and Noah had a serious hoola hoop contest going on.

 I hid in the bushes and took pictures of Mr. Hass while he prepped the bbq for our feast.

 Then he turned around and caught me.

 So then he started to show off.
He'll be so pleased I posted that picture.

My sister and I with Grandma.
Poor Erika was sick and really not feeling very well.
She did not want to be in this next picture of all of us but I made her.
She loves me.

This is our whole clan except for Drew.  He was teaching music lessons but we got to enjoy his girlfriend Diana's company in his absence. (We missed you Drew!) 

I set up the tri pod for this shot.  I am starting to get the hang of it.  Pretty cool that there are five generations in this picture huh?  Starting with Nana (my great grandma), then her daughter who is my Grandma, then my Mom, then my sister and I, and of course our kiddos. 

Erika brought my Mom's favorite dessert.  Angel food cake with berries and tru whip.  It was so good.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!

You are making the 50's look fffffff-AB-U-lous!!

Some More Random For You. And a Giveaway.

I'm sure you remember how I'm always talking about my talented baby brother the musician right?

Well if you'd like to buy his music you can do that here on itunes.

Told ya he was gonna be famous one day.  I'll be the stylist touring with him in a city near you.

I want the sunshine to come BACK.

It has not felt like spring and I am starting to get mad about it.

This last Saturday Mr. Hass was off work because he was going to the NCAA tournie, so in the morning we all got to go to the Farmer's Market.  This was his first time.  We were prepared to be rained on, but it only misted.

Mr. Hass and I were a bit tired on Saturday from our Wicked fun date.  And the banshees (that's what I've been calling them lately, because that is what they have been acting like) were tired because they stayed up late crying when Geeps put them to bed.

So remember how I told ya I got you something at the Farmer's Market?
Well, I did.
Last time I went I discovered that I LOVE the all natural soaps that are sold there.
I wanted to try a new one, and this one looked good.

It is made with tea tree and clay and is good to use when shaving, or on your face and body.  I've been using it to wash my face and oh my.  Seriously.  This soap, and jojoba oil, what more do you need?

It really does.  I keep sniffing it.  (My bar, not yours)

Soooooooo, I got one for me, and one for YOU.

To win this divine smelling all natural soap, all you have to do is this:

1. Sign up to be a follower on the right side of my blog.
2. Once you are a follower, (or if you are already), then leave me a comment and answer this question:

How many glasses of water do you drink a day?

Then I will select a winner randomly and announce it on Friday!

Did anybody watch Grey's Anatomy last week?  Do you  think they are trying to get Kali off the show?  Do you think she is going to die?  What an intense end to an episode huh?  They do that on Grey's.

I bought this coconut water today at Henry's.

I've been hearing great things about all the benefits of coconut water.

But I've also heard it tastes like crap.

So, I bought a couple flavored ones to try.

This one is pineapple, and I really like it.

They have a lot of electrolytes so I think they'd be a great post workout drink.  Especially in the summer.

That's all I got for ya today.

Peace out.

It was a WICKED good time.

Wicked as in bad.
Bad as in good.
Wicked as in...

WICKED!!!!!

You remember how I told you that all I wanted to do for my birthday was to go and see Wicked?  And how my birthday is not until May 20th, but Wicked is leaving the OC Performing Arts Theater on April 3.  Sounds like a problem right?

Not really.

I have absolutely no problem beginning my birthday festivities now.

Big big big THANK YOU to my Mom and Dad for sharing the babysitting duties last night so that we could go out for such a fun evening!!

(From what I understand, Claire was quite the pill.  Sorry bout that.)

Since it's been cold and rainy, I wanted to be comfortable so this is the outfit I put together.

blouse- Nordstrom

jeans- Paige Premium Denim Nordstrom

boots- Kohl's

necklace & earrings- BP Nordstrom

cuff bracelet- F21

Since this date night was for my birthday celebration and all, I decided to splurge on the gel nails.  Oh how I love them.  The color is OPI Lincoln Park After Dark.

The ring is from Francesca's.

I told Mr. Hass I had to have it because it completed my outfit for date night.  He completely understood.

Sorry Mr. Hass, I cut your head off.

To be honest, I took a few pics of us here, but liked this one best of me.  So, like I said, sorry Mr. H, but I went with the pic of half your head. 

Before we left of course we had to take more pictures.

I think in this one Mr. Hass was saying something like,

"Well why do we have to sit?  I dont' want to pose in this yellow chair.  Why don't you want to sit on this leg?"

And I was saying,

"We have to sit because I am taller than my Mom, and you shouldn't have someone shoot up at you.  It makes you look fat.  And I have to sit on your other leg because my hair poof is on that side."

He did not want me to sit on that side because his hip/leg hurts from running.  So in an effort to protect himself from my amazon frame he put his hand under me, but really I think it just looks like he is grabbing my butt.

Let's wrap this photo shoot up and get on to our date.

We decided to eat at Taps for dinner.  We had a gift card from my Grandma to use from Christmas too.  Thanks Grandma!

We arrived at 5pm.  Yeah, that's right.  We eat while the sun is still out.  It's cool.

Mr. Hass enjoyed a couple of their beers on tap.

And I enjoyed a delicious glass of cab (or two).

Jumbo shrimp cocktail for an appetizer.

It looked much prettier when it was first presented.  But we dug into it right away, and then I yelled "Wait! Wait!  I need a picture of it."

 People at nearby tables might have looked at me funny.  I feel like I need to explain that I am a blogger to them.  But I didn't.

For dinner I had the Pacific Yellowtail with cilantro and lobster flavored mashed potatoes, and asparagus, and whatever that sauce was all over the bottom of the plate- it was SO tasty.

Sorry, but Mr. H's dinner turned out a bit blurry.

These pics were all with my point and shoot.  He had the drunken mahi mahi and it was also extremely delicious.  I'm getting hungry again.

After dinner, our server came along with the dessert menu.

He started to tell us about the creme brulee (and I started to jump up and down in my seat and squeal with excitement-creme brulee is my favorite), and Mr. Hass said "Sold.  We'll take that."

And our server said, "Really?  It's that easy?"

And I said, "Yeah,  It's that easy."

Again, we dove in without taking a picture first, so I tried to make it pretty again.  Pretty and amazingly good.  We left no bit of creme brulee behind.

After we sat and talked for a bit, we decided to get a coffee before we got on the road.  A pit stop at It's A Grind and we were off.

 Dinner was so fun and so great, and I was so excited that we still had 3 more hours of wickedly amazing date night left.

This was our first time at this theater and it was really nice.

We parked easily, walked right in, had time to use the restroom, find our seats, sit down, I took this picture before the announcements to please not use your cameras...

and then BOOM.

Lights went out.

And the show began.

Talk about perfect timing.

Our seats were so awesome.

Wicked was so ENTERTAINING.

And funny.

I loooooved the story line.

(And the unspoken message about being different)

Loved it.  Loved it.  Loved it.

We had to wait a few minutes to get out of the parking garage when it was over.

So of course, I pulled my camera back out.  I started to take a picture of myself and Mr. Hass said, "What are you doing?"

I said, "I am taking a picture of my Wicked face."

He just laughed and looked at me like I was crazy.

Then I pointed the camera at him and said, "Show me your Wicked face."

Me- "Really?  That's the best you got?  That's not a Wicked face.  This is..."

Mine's not bad eh? 

So Mr. Hass tried to be Wicked one more time.

I guess he is lacking the Wicked gene.

I however think I can do Wicked just fine.

What a fun date night!

Thank you Mr. H!

Thank you Mom & Dad!

This is where Mr. Hass is right now.

One more game of the tournament they get to watch today.

His weekend doesn't sound too shabby huh?

Thanks for reading this LONG post.

You're troopers.

And to say thanks for reading,

I got you something today.

Well, I got one of you something.

You'll have to win it.

I'll tell you about it soon.

Be good humans.

Or be Wicked.

Whichever suits your fancy.

The most random post you ever did read on a Thursday.

Hi there.

Let me start this random post off by saying I am sorry if I let you down this week with no wiww post.  I just did not have it together.  It's been cold.  And raining.  I've been wearing hats.  Do you want to see my hats?

The black one was a Christmas gift from my parents.  The tan one I just bought at Windsor. (I was in line to buy tea at the cafe downstairs in Nordstrom yesterday and I spotted this hat.  I ran into Windsor, bought the hat.  Got back in line.  Bought my tea.  That's how I roll.)

A few pics from last Sunday...

There's been a bit of madness up in here.

Hannah even filled out a bracket. 

Today has not felt like a Thursday because Mr. Hass was home this morning.  He took the day off because my Dad took him and my brother for their Chirstmas gifts to watch the NCAA tournament games today at the Honda Center.  Or the Western semi finals something rather, NCAA championship games, Duke, and those other teams, and you know, the March Madness stuff.  They get to watch two games tonight and I think two more games on Saturday.  He was pretty excited.

 I think this was an edge of your seat kind of a game on Sunday.

 These pictures of my Dad with Hannah just melt my heart.

 My girls sure do looooove their Geeps.

I just love this one.  Both of their hands up to their face in a similar way.  It was a very intense search and find in this month's Highlights magazine.    ;)

While Hannah was in school this afternoon, and Claire napped, and Mr. H watched March Madness, I sat down with a snack and some new books I bought on amazon.

The coconut LARABAR was SO good.  I'm a coconut fan.  If you are, you must try this.  So so tasty.
So you know I'm on this kick about learning as much as I can about our foods origins and what's what. 
I couldn't decide which book to start first, but I went with Skinny Bitch.
I know the title may seem a bit offensive, and I have heard that it is a little vulgar, but I am already to page 55 and I have learned a ton of fun facts. 
I get the humor it is written with too, so I think it's pretty funny.
Oh, also, in case you don't know about Tervis Tumbler cups, that is what is pictured with my LARABAR up there.  I loooove them. I bought mine at Bed Bath & Beyond.  The cups are a bit pricey but you can use your coupon and in my opinion it's worth the money.  I have two and I use mine every single day.  They are double insulated, have different cute styles, and you can buy fun colored straws too.

I have one of these cups by my side pretty much all day.  These cups and my camera are my extra appendages. 

A bit more random facts on this Thursday:
-Claire loves Florence and the Machine.
-The girls faces lit up when I said they could buy 99cent windmills at Target today.
-Tonight at bath time as I lifted Claire into the tub I saw something fall.  I thought she dropped a bath toy, so I picked it up and realized that it was a small ball of poop.
Yes.  You read that right.  I picked up my daughter's poop with my fingers and then immediately dropped it.  Seriously Claire?  Being a Mom is just all kinds of fun.

Yes I realize that they are wearing snowman pj's, but it's cold and stormy tonight.  The heater is running as I type. 

Who knew 99 cent windmills could be so much fun?

Hope something as simple makes your day too.

Thanks for reading all my random tid bits.

Goodnight!