A complete family again...

even if it was just for a weekend.
Mitch flew home this past weekend to see us (can you believe it's been a whole months since we last saw him?) and also to celebrate Maddie's birthday with us. We picked him up at the airport on Saturday morning. In the afternoon we took the family to the cheap theater and watched "Despicable Me". Marcus has been waiting for that for a long time. After seeing that we went to the La Mirada Regional park and watched the kids play in the playground.


All of the family shares Marcus facial expression here. We were all giddy to have daddy home.


and here's a shot of me and my hubby together. Notice the major difference in color? I've been getting a good tan here in Cali while my white husband is turning pale in Colorado. Funny stuff!

and then on Sunday we went to grandma Tolman's house to celebrate Maddie's birthday. I usually invite family over to my house but since I have no furniture in it, my mother-in-law was gracious enough to let us have our celebration at her house.


here's my little 5 year old. I'm not sure why she made that quirky smile. LOL.


Noticed the cake? Yes I dabbled in creative cakes again. Somehow every year I get sucked into making her a "fancy" cake of which I have no ounce of creativity to pull together. I saw the barbie cakes on line and it "sounded" and "looked" easy enough for even someone like me to put together. But hence my cake curse, this had some challenges that went with it. But at the end of the day, my girl was happy so I'm ok with that.


She was showered with a lot of presents from family and one of her favorites was this Minnie Mouse shoes. She definitely has the filipino blood in her because she has a thing for shoes. Anybody remembers Imelda Marcos??? LOL


and of course she can't have the shoes without the costume. Disney store sure did make a profit from us this month!

And then on Monday, Mitch and I went on a date while the kids were at school. We had an early lunch at Polly's Pies. A place I've never been before and was so glad to try it because the food was excellent and the pies (we tried the Boysenberry) was delicious! I feel like a mission on tasting ALL of their pies is in the works for me for this next few months. *wink* After that we saw "Salt" the movie, also in the cheap theater. It was good, lots of action but it's also totally unrealistic. Angelina Jolie can be buff but I can't buy that she (in her tiny frame) can kick everyone's behind and not get any major body parts broken. Totally unrealistic but entertaining nonetheless.

And finally on Tuesday morning we drove him to the airport. Our visit was short but definitely sweet and although our circumstances hasn't changed we are counting our blessings.

Till next time,
Grace