Four Years With a Stud!

The birthday season has truly commenced! June brings all kinds of birthday happenings, starting with our Teagie and following with our Saigie Baby. I cannot even fathom the speed in which these kids are growing up. I feel like I was JUST planning their birthdays last year in Oki...seriously, this whole time warp thing needs to calm down.

But I guess it is safe to say that the lil stud has officially moved away from all things "free for 3 and under" and ventured into the "overpriced 4 and up" group. Truth be told, Teage could totally pass for 7 or 8 based on his wit and charm (I just beam about the awesome traits I pass onto my kids, lol). We decided to keep this year's affair a family only event (besides, this isn't my first rodeo and I just wasn't mentally sound to gather up a bunch of wild ass toddlers and unleash them into cake and pinata candy). So being that the other Isla Fam is here and they come equipped with two toddlers :o) , why not keep it that simple? So we did. Teage chose the bowling center as his venue and I used the extra $$ not going to strangers in his class to splurge on a giant Batman cake! It was fun and low-key and HOT (ummm, did I ever mention how ' hot it is here in the summer...and there isn't an AC unit within 600 kilometers of the KMC...it's just not right)!

Another added detail was I decided to make all my kids matching t-shirts to wear in honor of the birthday boy. They came out so great, but also led me to another side addiction. Iron-ons do everybody right! Once we got past the toddler out of turn-taking, a few tumbles on the lanes, random balloon poppings, a little fist pumping, and the 50 lb cake....we headed back to the casa to continue the party. Waiting there was Teagie's indoor/outdoor 2-sided kitchen. The chil'ren proceeded to have loads of fun and and proceeded to pour the wine. All in all it was a fabulous day and I thank everyone who wished him a Happy Birthday and sent cards/gifts. He loved every minute of it.

It's amazing how much can squeeze into a year. Teagie has gone through loss, confronting challenges, milestones, personal growth, and adventure. We are so lucky to have this little guy in our lives. Here's a montage to showcase his fabulous 4th year...ENJOY!!

Father of 14

I'm so excited to report that the wait on the party for Saige was well worth it because this has been the sunniest weekend we have had in over a month. The day started early as all get out...with a flea market sell. With all the rain we have had, the humidity is off the charts! I was sweating from every orifice by 6:30 am and it was all wrong! By 11:00, I was at the Japanese Bakery buying Saige's Strawberry Roll Cakes...the bakeries here are incredible. The precision they use is amazing! Look how beautiful...

Anyway, we headed to the beach first, I don't have any pictures of that because with the amount of stuff we had to carry, I opted to leave the 10 lb camera at home this time (plus, I didn't want it to get all sandy). Good thing, because the big kids didn't even step foot in the water. They were too cool I guess. There were 5 girls and two boys (one of them being Justice, the EX). They still act like a couple and when I asked her what was up with that...she said, I forgave him, but I'm not going back out with him because we're moving. Smart girl! He did give her a really nice gift...a silver chunk chain with a charm that says 'Saige & Justice' in Kanji.



I told her, "oh that's nice and it's in a different language so no one will ever know what it means and you can wear it long after you two are apart" LOL. She didn't care for that! It's really hard to adjust to the whole BOY thing. I'm trying though. Sometimes I feel like it would be much easier if it was like this...

...ahh the memories of when they were littles!


After the beach, we went back to the house and commenced with karaoke and World Tour. It was fun! Check them out in action....



Once the performances were over, the boys left and the girls got their goofy on! The icing on the cake was they decided to record their antics. And now, mama has a montage...YES!! These girls are a riot and Saige is always right in the middle of it all...

*THIS IS WHERE THE VIDEO WILL BE AFTER I FINISH BEATING THE CRAP OUT OF THIS COMPUTER* (stay tuned...)

Ahhh...Success, they finally wore themselves out!!



I know she had a great time and I'm so glad the kids enjoyed hanging out with our Family!

Today is Father's Day so I want to give a "Thumbs Up, High Five, Smack on the A$, Warm Fuzzy, Tight Squeeze Huggy, Slobbering Kiss" to my husband! Happy Padre Day to the man who makes all things possible for us...Love you George!!!

Happy Father's Day to all the other child rearing men in my life as well...

Love Ya!!

Three's a Crowd

Three may really be a crowd....but when you turn three, you can sure draw a crowd :o)

My Teagie is officially 3 and I can't even stand it. He has always been "big" for his age. By big I mean smart and sassy. So turning 3 seemed most like a confirmation for his feisty self. All day Monday he kept walking around the house saying "I'm Free, I'm Free". So cute!

So we went low key this year and had a party at his lil preschool, since this will be his last month there. Not to mention most of his 'outside' friends have moved already. The day was fun and tiring. We had games (Bingo, Pin the tail...) and fun (Pinata, balloon tossing) and good eats (pizza, cupcakes and candy). Teage was the prince (or king, as he wanted to be called) and had a fab time. Some of these pics are priceless...

Ok, so Bingo is funny...

...& everytime I would show a card, he would scream out the name for it!!

"I'm Free"

Then we came home and opened gifts...thank you to Grandma and Grandpa Isla, Uncle Alex & Aunt Rhea for sending presents. He loved the cards as well (he was acting like he was reading them and then would close them up like he was done, hee hee).



After that, we had Saige's 8th grade awards ceremony (way to go Sissy)!!



Then it was off to a birthday dinner at Chili's. By then I think we all were delirious and just wanted to go home and go nite nite....That probably explains the look on Teage's face when they came out and started clapping and screaming the Happy Birthday song to him. He was completely blindsided, a little scared and loved every minute of it...you can see it in his eyes!!



I'm so glad he had a great time and that he could truly understand the whole birthday thing this year. By the end of it all he was even roaming around the house cracking jokes..."I'm five now"! Slow down Tonto....

Singing St Patty's Day Pineapples

Hi there everyone...

We had our St Patty's day house party finally and it went off without a hitch. I made homemade mojitos for like 3 hours straight LOL and managed to only offend one person throughout the night. Seriously, like a friend recently reminded me, how annoying is it when someone doesn't take your words for what they are?? Oh well, I'm a big girl and can apologize if it means someone will feel better. ANYWAY, it was a success and thx to all who came. Check out the pics of everyone celebrating my favorite color...

We also celebrated JD's final choir performance at his school. Next year it's the big leagues, so it was bittersweet to see him up there as the oldest member. He loves it so much and wants to continue chorus in middle school. It thrills me that he is so into the arts. He had a narration part, an instrumental part and of course all the singing you could muster...



Lastly, the girls and I took a day trip yesterday and the weather was stellar!! Beautiful days like this make me excited to stay in Okinawa (Still waiting to hear of we are). So we ventured to the Pineapple Park and had a great time. I think we all thought we were professional photographers with our massive cameras...but DANG we took some good pictures! How cute are we....?

The weird pineapple car that drove itself...

Baby P

Teenage P

Life is good...Love Ya!!!

Balled into one Blog

I am back and will never desert you again...ok don't quote me on that! It has been a BUSY couple of weeks here and if this week didn't go back to normal, I might have lost my cool soon. Let's see...Both big kiddies finished their seasons to include parties, I worked at the Army Family Action Plan (AFAP) conference, I published a 13 page Newsletter, I had a paper due in Creative Writing, I am planning our St Patty's Day house party, working on a PowerPoint presentation on Europe for Geography, and the kids start testing this week. I know there is more I am forgetting, probably intentional. I was starting to feel a little stretched thin and so this week it is all about getting things back to normal. I did take some test shots on the new camera a while back and let me just say...it's awesome!! My new toy is off the chain (I am not usually into electronic thingys, but I have found my very own lil treasure). CAUTION: this post's gonna be picture heavy!!

Flower in the neighbor's yard

Poquito looking curious as always

Kids pizza creation

My gorgeous girl

Aren't they good for just the auto mode?...I am still tying to learn most of the fancy features.

Here's a couple from the conference...lunchtime of course.

As I mentioned before, the kids' seasons ended for basketball and cheerleading. They both finished 1st place Champions of course :o) Here are some pics from the parties...

Saige's Party

She thought she was bringing back the robot...

JD's Party

JD's party was at this place called "US Land". For a set price it is all you can eat and free play on all the games/services the have (fishing, bungee trampoline, batting cages, video games, etc). It was nice...I just thought it was funny how they decorated for the Americans to come to their place of business...check out the US flag motif:

George and I think it's only fair that we have a date night squeezed in as well...We went with some friends to Salsa dance and it was interesting! I am in no way on the up and up when it comes to doing salsa...but I'm always up for a challenge. Here's a few pics...P.S. George did not even TRY to dance!!

Fun Times!!

When the week was over (and the rain finally stopped), we decided to take advantage of the little sun that did come out Sunday, head over to the seawall, and dip our feet in the water. It was cold of course, but I love the smell of saltwater. Teage was napping and missed it all though. No worries, he will get his fill this summer for sure.

It was a busy, yet fun past couple weeks. I am all set to move at a steadier pace now and will be blogging more hopefully. I hope everyone is well and I will leave you with Saige's final Cheerdown routine (the best part is during the third song...'Boom I got your boyfriend'...she has a major solo in it).

***OK CRAP...the video is taking forever to download. I will post it when it's done!***



Love Ya...