Holla for Pala!!!

If you follow me on instagram, you probably know that last weekend my mantra was "Holla for Pala!"
I spent the weekend at Pala Resort and Casino with some of the girls in my family.
This same group stayed at Pala for a weekend three years ago, and we had so much fun. 
We figured we were overdue so my Grandma treated us all to a super fun weekend!

My sister, me, and our cousin Deanna drove out together.  And we yelled "Holla for Pala!" the whole way there. ;)

And upon checking into our room, and scoping out our super nice bathroom digs, I was still yelling "Holla for Pala!!!!!"

After we unpacked, first thing is first and we had a glass of red in Grandma, Mom, and my Aunt Glenda's room before heading down to dinner.

I don't know if you can tell from this picture but we joked that we needed to bring our own coffee mugs next time.  We are all coffee drinkers and this teeny tiny tea cup just was not cutting it.  My sister said she thinks she drank 18 cups with her pinkie out.  Ha.

We hit the gym by 6:30am and we even dragged our 17 year old cousin Deanna along with us! She is used to sleeping in waaaaay past that, but she was a trooper and joined us in the gym. 



I'm thinking my sister and I look a lot alike in this picture... yes?

After working out we enjoyed breakfast by the pool, and then checked into our poolside cabana that my Grandma rented for the day.



And we might have flagged down our cabana server because we got thirsty while swimming and ordered a round of regular and virgin pina coladas. :)

We spent the whole day lounging, swimming, reading, sitting in the spas, eating, and I even went to the room to see where my sister and Deanna had disappeared to at one point and we all took a nap! 

It was glorious. 

I love my family and my girls more than anything, but when I get some time to myself I sure do appreciate every single second of it.

It was such a treat to not have to worry about anybody but myself all weekend.

Saturday after reluctantly leaving our poolside cabana, we cleaned up and had a nice dinner at the Italian restauraunt inside the hotel.

What a fun weekend!

I am so lucky to have these women in my life.

Thank you for everything Grandma!!!!

Holllllaaa for Palaaaaaa!!!



Hannah's First Day of Soccer!

There have been a lot of "firsts" happening around here.
Wednesday afternoon Hannah had her first soccer practice.
I was so bummed because I work late every Wednesday but I told Mr. Hass to take lots of pictures for me.

I'm so glad he was able to take some because I felt like I got to be there a little bit.
He said it was kind of a nightmare with Claire.  I think she wanted to be by Hannah and had several meltdowns, but he said that Hannah had a blast.

Her coach seems very nice and very organized.

Hannah was pretty nervous about going at first because she had no idea what to expect.
But once she was there and met all the nice girls on her team, Mr. H said she was just fine.
Every time the girls ran in for a water break she would smile at him and say "This is the best day ever!"
So cute.

Poor Claire isn't old enough to play soccer yet, but she had some fun on the playground.

Does that look like the face of a kid having a good time or what?!
I love it.

After practice they had to pick a team name.

The Coach asked if anyone had any suggestions.

Hannah raised her hand and said "The awesome soccer girls!"

Then someone else said the rainbow girls.

And they decided on The Rainbows.

So now we need to get cleats, shin gaurds, and rainbow soccer socks!

I have such fond memories of playing sports and being part of a team growing up.

I hope that Hannah enjoys this first experience at soccer.

My girl has also been learning how to read. 



At night we used to read to her, and now she wants to read to us.

Sweet memories.



Claire's 1st day of Preschool

Well...
it was one busy day here at the Hass House.
We walked to school with our friends this morning and dropped Hannah at kindergarten.
Walked home and I had about 20 minutes to shower and get dressed and redo Claire's hair that she ripped out on the way home and attempt a few pictures of Claire on her first day of preschool.

I asked her to hold the first day of school sign and she said
"I don't want to Mom.  I tired."

 I looked at the image on my slr and thought, that does not look like a kid who is excited to go to preschool.
Come on Claire, school is gonna be fun!
Give me a smile...

Yeah,
and you can probably guess how the drop off went right?
I was actually worried I might cry because Claire is my baby and I remember taking Hannah to this same school when I would carry Claire in on my hip still wearing her cute little footsie jammies from the morning.
And now here I was signing that cute little baby in footsie jams in to her very first pre school class and I am leaving her there.
Yeah, I was maybe fighting tears.

As soon as we walked into her classroom another little girl was already trying to claw back up her mother's body and crying "nooooo! nooooo! nooooo!"
And that did it.
Claire grabbed my legs with a death grip, her cute little lips started quivering, and she looked at me with tears in her eyes and said,
"Mom, I tired,  I tired.  No pwe-school, I tired."
Oh boy.
The teacher was trying to comfort another little one whose mama had just bolted out the room, and it was kinda chaotic in there.  I couldn't leave her alone with all these crying babes, so I kept trying to distract Claire.
I showed her a book.
Showed her the playdough.
Tried to get her to have a drink, go to the bathroom, play trains.
Nothing was working.
So her sweet teacher had another teacher come in to help with Claire.
I gave her a kiss, swallowed the gulp in my throat, and told her I'd be back to pick her up in a little bit.
And I ran outta there.
Luckily I saw a few friends outside and got distracted thinking about my sweet girl.
Otherwise I might have been one snotty mess all the way home.
I rushed off to the dentist,
then had 30 minutes to kill before it was time to pick up Hannah so I ran into Target.
I bought some new sweat pants and a hot pink sports bra and I felt a bit better.
When I picked Claire up from school she ran out to greet me with her drawing.  She was waving it in the air and happily told me "Wook (look) Mom, I not wervous (nervous) anymore! I not vervous anymore!"

Deep breath.
1st day of pre school for Clairey complete.
It's 7:55, both girls are in bed, it's shark week, and I might go have a beer.
Cheers.

Weekend Haps & Other Stuff.

Well, I made it through the first week of school.
It went pretty smoothly.
We were all pretty tired though.
It was a tough transition from laying on the beach for 7 days in a row, to having everyone up, dressed, fed and out the door by 7:20!

Claire's first day of preschool is tomorrow but on Wednesday this last week she started back up in speech therapy where she had been going last school year.  Come to think of it, I might have already blogged about this in my last post.  That's how tired I am I don't even remember.  Ha.  Anyway, she did much better the second day than on day 1.  Just took some time to get used to it all again I guess.  She will be going three days a week to speech and three days a week to preschool.  The girl's almost got a busier schedule than I do.

 It sort of dawned on me during dinner tonight that tomorrow morning I drop Hannah off at kindergarten, and then I drop Claire off at pre school, and that means both my babies are not babies anymore.  Sniff, sniff. 

 Last week we received the biggest farm box yet! It is the same amount we always get but this delivery included 4 canteloupes and apparently required a larger box.  I also got one beautiful eggplant.  What should I do with just one eggplant?  I've been looking on the app epicurious for a few ideas.

I made my own cream of mushroom soup in the crockpot this week and it was so good.  Several of my IG friends asked me to post the recipe, so this is for you...

I sort of combined a couple different recipes that I saw on pinterest and made them my own.  So I will try to tell you how I did it as best as I can remember...
-In large skillet, saute several chopped garlic cloves and two chopped shallots in coconut oil and 2 Tbsp of butter, then add 2 pounds of cremini mushrooms cleaned, de stemmed and cut into fours.  Add salt, pepper, oregano, and garlic powder, and cook mushrooms for about 5 minutes or until they begin to cook down a bit.
-Using spatula dump mushrooms and be sure to scrape all that juicy goodness into crockpot.
-Squeeze juice of one lemon over mushrooms.
-Add 2 c. of stock (I used mushroom broth, but I'm sure you can use vegetable or chicken) and 2 c. of water
-Add 2 bay leaves, a pinch of nutmeg, and a splash of worschestire sauce.
-Cook low 8 hours.
-Hand immersion blend and then add one quart half n half.
-I seasoned afterwards to taste with some more salt, pepper, and minced onion.
Once it completely cooled I poured 10 oz. into baggies to freeze for cooking.  Bon Apetit!

I posted this on instagram and couldnt get over how long the girls looked.  But especially Hannah!  She is 4'3 right now at 5 1/2.  

Last night Mr. Hass and I had a date to the Angels vs. Mariners game.  I was so happy to be getting out alone with him.  It had been a while and we needed it!

 It was a steamy and humid 100 degrees and rainy when we left the house.  Good thing I didn't bother washing my hair!

 We had a quick bite to eat at a favorite of ours before heading to the game.  Mr. H's shirt just cracks me up.  It's Snoopy, and you can't see Tweetie Bird but he's on there too and it says "Someone Tweeted".  I saw it at Target and it just cracked me up.  I text him a picture asking if he would wear it and he said of course.  ;)

 I was worried about melting at the game, but once we got to Anaheim it was only 84 with a nice breeze and felt delightful.
My Uncle Dave has season tickets and was so nice to let us use his seats to see Mr. H's favorite team play.  I'm trying to convert him into an Angel fan.  He said he likes Mike Trout so much that he may become a fan just for him. 

 Why is it that date night time just flies by??!
Time goes way too fast.
Especially when you are out on a hot date. ;)

 Here's a look at my morning tomorrow...

That's it from me.
I am out!

Hannah's first day of Kinder

Summer is officially over for my crew.
Hannah's first day of kindergarten has already come and gone.

 Monday was kinder orientation and I just dropped H in her classroom for 45 minutes for a trial run.
I thought it would go smoothly but she did not want me to leave.  She even cried.  I felt awful, but by the time I picked her up 45 minutes later she was all smiles and telling me all about her new friends in her class.

 She is going to morning kinder and each day they just have a 15 minute snack break.  She asked for pizza on her first day.

 I bought both girls Brave t shirts at the Disney store on Monday after they were both so brave for their orientations.  Hannah also spotted this Perry the Platypus t shirt that she is wearing and had to have it.  Since Phineas and Ferb is my favorite cartoon that they watch, how could I say no.  That is what she wanted to wear on her first day.

 It's so nice that her school is only about an 8 minute walk.
Although today at 7:30 in the morning it was already almost 90 degrees and very warmmmm.

 When we got there we found her cubby and her name tag, and all the parents were invited to stay for the first 30 minutes.  Each table in the room had a different activity set up that we got to help her do.

 Above she is writing her name on the foot which will be her form of transportation to and from school.  "walking".  I love how her sister was always right by her side.

 After washing the paint off her hands she had to go to the bathroom. 

 And here she is telling me how good the soap at kindergarten smells.

 And having her sister smell how good this kindergarten soap smells.

 ...still talking about the soap here I think.

 When we were back in her classroom she said she had to get something out of her backpack and ran to her cubby.  I was wondering what she needed because I didn't think there was much of anything in her backpack yet.  She came walking towards us with her camera and said "I need my camera so I can take a few pictures."  Too funny! I wonder where she gets that???  We told her that we had to take that home with us and she got so upset.  So first she wanted to run outside and take a picture of her kindergarten playground....

 So funny.  I'm pretty sure she was the only kid who took any of her own documentation of her first day of school.  ;)

 The neighbor across the street from us has a boy in Hannah's class.
And today while walking we met a family from our neighborhood with a little girl in Hannah's class.  And tomorrow we plan on walking to school with our new neighbor friends whose son also goes to H's school.  Now that she knows more faces and has seen her new school surroundings I think she will fall right into step this year.

While Hannah was in school I ran to Michael's in search of a chalkboard to use as a photo prop.  It would have been nice to have this morning, but better late than never right?

 And of course the little one had to get in on the action...

Don't ask about the "dancing princess" thing.

I don't know.

It's hard enough to understand what she is saying most of the time so when we do, we just don't ask questions.

Ha.

Last night I made this oatmeal breakfast casserole so that Hannah would have a nice yummy breakfast all ready to go on her first day.  She liked it so it was for the win.

I got the recipe from pinterest, and for those of you on instagram that asked me about it, you can find the recipe here.

***And just so you are not under the impression that anything is sugar coated around here, I will say that after we picked Hannah up from school, the rest of the day has been not very fun.
She was in an awful mood (I am assuming she was tired and not in the mood to talk yet), but she threw a fit... more like several fits, and Claire has been right there with her throwing fits, acting out and not listening.  Fighting and whining is pretty much the only sounds I remember coming from this house since we got back from vacation.  I am sure it is a mixture of being gone so long, being tired from how busy they were on vacation, the weather being 106 today does not help, and then a very busy week with school starting. 

Claire had her first speech appointment today and it did not go very smoothly.  She threw a fit, didn't want to go into the classroom, said "I'm tired" over and over again whenever the teacher tried to talk to her.

So. Yeah.  It's been fun.
And I'm just keepin' it real.
Between the different start and pick up times for both girls schools, and speech therapy three times a week, I'm afraid it is going to be a long and very busy school year.
I better go to bed so I can do it all again tomorrow.