The Bright Side

February days

noreply@blogger.com (Miss Mary) — Fri, 13 Jun 2025 04:21:00 +0000

The hills are so alive in February by us! It's the greenest time of the year and I love it so much and soak up every bit of early spring that I can!

Vincent has been doing an art class this year that is a bit above his age level. It is for age 7-15 and he is 7, so definitely at the young end of things. But just look at this--he is the most fantastic artist!!! He had to do a black and white sketch of a photo and look at how it came out! I love it so much!

Speaking of Vincent, he and I enjoyed a lovely little before-school date at Peet's. He is fabulous company and felt so special!

Lots of beautiful skies happened in Feb!

And the magnolias were all blooming!

Something really fun in February was that our new Walk-Its arrived! It was the joy of the whole spring to go for walks with my boys, while they listened to different already-downloaded educational podcasts! It was so much fun and a great way for us to get outside!

Here are some pics of them in action :)

We also spent a lot of time at the library doing our work while Bennett worked with his math tutor.

And lots of work at home too of course!

Loved reading our book club book, The Mindful Catholic--such a beautiful and helpful read!

Fencing with the Cub Scouts. Desmond got to get out there this time too and loved being like one of the big boys.

This kid can build anything!

Vincent's first practice with his new baseball team. Check out his new cleats!! He picked them out himself, after trying on many, many pairs. He loves shoes!

No hope like a spring day at the garden store, buying all the spring things!

A delicious little treat at one of my favorite spots for treats--Paris Baguette!

My new year's resolution (one of them!) was to make something every month, and in February, I made a bunch of these cute pencil cases! If I know you in real life, I probably have you on my list to make a pouch for. It has been so fun learning a new skill! I have made at least a dozen by now and have kept a few for our art supplies but otherwise having been giving them to friends. It is making me super happy.

Bennett's soccer team before a game. Bennett was elected captain for the whole season! What an honor!

More painting with Nigina and Sarah! We made barnyard owls but mine didn't come out so I just had fun with it! Love these dear friends so much!!

Finished another read aloud and had a "tea time" to celebrate with chocolate milkshakes, which were featured in the book.

Ann Marie sent us this amazing huge tub of Garrett's popcorn for Valentine's Day!! Isn't this so sweet? The taste of Chicago. We were all so happy and ate every last piece!

Met up with my beautiful friend Therese for a walk on the Martinez shoreline. So great to catch up with her!!

Found this amazing painted rock in the tree. It just seemed like such a happy sign!

Cute little happy rocks in my favorite geranium.

Valentine's things! We didn't do too much but I do like this holiday and love celebrating in sweet and simple ways!

I put together a few little things for the boys--pocky and a mini can of cherry coke and a valentine for each of them.

We made cards for each other!

Vincent made this for Paul and I, saying it was a self-portrait! haha, love how his mind works!

The kids made these at our co-op and I think it is so precious!

B and I play a game together everyday during the school year and it has been a blast! We have been getting really into Sequence!

Love this pic of Theresa and Chris with the boys before Chris left for Liberia!

Science class at the library!

I'v been upset daily by the actions of our President, of whom I am not a fan (understatement). Especially when it comes to his treatment of immigrants. It's plain and simple--his behavior is wrong and it's cruel, and it's against my faith, my moral code, and frankly, my humanity. I refuse to normalize this, since there is nothing "American" about how he is acting. This is an immigrant nation! I could go on and on... The boys know my feelings as well. Well, one day in February, something truly joyful happened. The boys and I were driving home from the grocery store, and the main street near our house was erupting in shouts, chants, cheers--the high school near us, which is predominately Hispanic, had organized a walk-out in support of immigrant rights. The whole school was out! Thousands of kids! They all had signs and drums and were shouting and I WAS SO HAPPY!! We drove by and honked like crazy to support them, which made them erupt in more cheers. It was the most hopeful I have felt in a long time. I was truly happy that there were people who gave a damn, people who cared to stand against something so wrong. It made me feel less alone. Anyway, we drove back and forth a few more times because it was so joyful. And then when we got home, Vincent made this Mexican flag, and Paul and the boys drove by again and Vincent waved his flag out the window! I think it will definitely be something they remember about this time. I certainly will!

My beautiful friend Jennell had me over for a morning tea one day and it was so wonderful to talk and catch up and be together for a bit, eating cinnamon rolls and drinking tea. What joy! Love her!

I forget what we were celebrating, but at the end of February, we took the boys out to dinner at Melo's and it was the most wonderful time together. Everything went so well and the boys loved their food and everyone was in great moods, and it just all felt so great. Super grateful we got to have a night out like this. We pretty much never eat out--well pretty much never!

Jenny had given the winter babies a gift card for their birthdays to take us all out for ice cream at Handel's, and it was such a treat to go after our fun dinner out. Made the whole night so festive!

Sending you all lots of love!

Art, culture, and field trip fun

noreply@blogger.com (Miss Mary) — Sat, 07 Jun 2025 17:53:00 +0000

Always in need of fun cultural experiences to balance out all the sports in our lives, and it's been so great to get free passes from the library for all the local museums. Good times with my favorite people! It will forever be my favorite thing to get out into the community with Paul and the boys and experience something that stirs the soul!

First up--Oakland Museum of California! We love this place! Vincent posing with his favorite Barry McGee:

Love all the CA history stuff, and even though I have been here probably a dozen times, I always learn something new!

Desmond being born in 2020--we had to add it to the community shout-outs for the year!

We had fun with this giant kaleidoscope!

And being in the neighborhood, we had to take the boys to Shan Dong for some hand-pulled noodles! It was so fun to be there again and have the delicious noodles!

Another day, we went to my fave, the SFMOMA, and it was such a fun day! One of those days where everything just works out with ease and joy!

And we got to see the Amy Sherald exhibit, which was a dream!!

There was also this super fun sports in art exhibit, which was fabulous and I know we will remember forever!

Taking pictures of each other taking pictures of each other :)

With our homeschool group, we went to the John Muir House in Martinez, and that was so amazing and I learned so much! I had only been one time in 3rd grade for a field trip but I don't remember it at all, except that I got a bloody nose and had to go outside, haha!

I think climbing up the bell tower was one of the favorite parts! Hannah and Will ringing the bell!

The boys with some of our favorite friends! :)

I absolutely love the beautiful land around his house! It was the perfect spring day for exploring.

Sending you all lots of love!

little getaway

noreply@blogger.com (Miss Mary) — Mon, 02 Jun 2025 20:02:00 +0000

Paul and I needed a little time to catch our breath from the hustle and bustle of our life, and since we didn't really get to celebrate our anniversary this year, we opted for a little 24 hour getaway to SF! We hadn't had a date in awhile so this felt monumental. Thanks to my amazing parents who agreed to have the boys over. It was so nice to take a little time together in our happy place! We mostly ate delicious things!

We started out in the Mission for some Arizmendi treats and browsing some shops. It was just like old times! Do you know that the Mission is where we had some of our very first dates? The old Elbo Room, Muddy Waters, Cafe Gratitude, and Cafe Revolution. I think most of those places are closed now, but the memories remain!

Then we made our way to The Crafty Fox for some beers right at the bar. So fun to be out together! They even had some wonderful NA beers for me, while Paul enjoyed the regular ones :)

That evening, we headed to North Beach, which is probably the neighborhood that holds the most of our memories together, since we lived and worked so close to North Beach! We had a delicious dinner at Il Casaro, for an amazing wood-fired pizza and homemade pasta. Love this place!

We had fun being out on the town together! We have so many things to reminisce about, so many stories and memories. Also being in cities at night makes me feel alive so this was wonderful!

Finished our night at Cafe Zoetrope for a little drink!

The next morning, we slept in and then had the fun idea that we should get breakfast sandwiches at LeBeau, which is a fancy market near where we used to live. So fun to go to LeBeau again! It brought back all the memories of all the (pricey) groceries we had bought there over the years. We took our sandwiches to Washington Square in North Beach, to eat and soak up the sun. Isn't that so great?

And then we went to go pick up our little sweethearts, whom we always miss so much when we are apart of course! But they had the best time with Joni and Billy. There was lots of sports, and look how cute they all are cuddled up in the bed together, watching America's Funniest Home Videos, a show that sometimes makes me cringe, but the boys absolutely love it!!

Grateful for a little time away with my favorite person and glad our boys were in good hands while we were gone!

Sending you all lots of love!

Desmond's 5th birthday

noreply@blogger.com (Miss Mary) — Mon, 02 Jun 2025 17:24:00 +0000

Our wonderful boy Desmond Louis turned 5 in early February. How is our baby 5?? It seems crazy to ever imagine a life before this wonderful, joyful, silly, beautiful boy and we feel so lucky that he is ours.

We had a wonderful day celebrating him at the Bay Area Discovery Museum, and at his favorite place for lunch (In n Out, WITH a soda for his special day!), and a homemade ice cream cake.

We started with presents of course! He loved everything so much!

And waffles with strawberries!

And then off to the Discovery Museum! I have been wanting to take the boys here forever, and it was so nice to finally get to go as a family. We had a blast!

They all loved the block printing so much. I need to buy us these materials so we can do it at home!

And then home for some downtime and then some homemade ice cream cake! Here's the recipe I used--it was so good! The boys have all said it was one of their favorite cakes and I will definitely be making it again.

He really brings the joy and the laughs over here. This sweet guy loves to cuddle up with a book, loves games of all sorts, is athletic and competitive, plays hard (and keeps up!) with his brothers, is so observant and pays attention to everything and has the best memory, and he does hilarious impressions, especially of teenagers and “old people.” He is happy most of the time, but is no shrinking violet when it comes to his brothers—he will definitely make his opinion known and knows what he wants. Makes friends everywhere he goes and loves talking to people and has so much fun all the time! He laughs a lot and is busy all day. He’s growing up so quickly as the youngest brother, but he is still so little in my mind. Still our baby, even though he is tall and definitely in that big kid category. Hard to believe we are solidly out of the baby phase, but it really keeps getting better, with so much to celebrate about each age. What a joy it is to love him! Here’s to a fantastic year ahead for our little big guy. Love him so much!

Sending you all lots of love!

January days

noreply@blogger.com (Miss Mary) — Sat, 31 May 2025 02:42:00 +0000

Here's the rest of our January in some pics.

My New Year's resolutions in collage form:

These sweet boys decorated the table for Paul and my dating anniversary, which is January 5th! This was so sweet because I was extremely sick with Covid the first week of January and could not even get out of bed for several days and had extreme vertigo...so this was such a lovely bright spot of the early days of 2025. My favorite part of this was the flowers in our blender cup, dirt included.

How cute is this?

Will made lots of cotton candy in January!

Paul and I always try to watch 52 movies each year, and these were our favorites of 2024!

This little artist loves making his clothes "his own" with his Sharpies. I don't even mind because he is so creative and that creativity needs somewhere to go!

Got talked into buying the giant bag of kettle corn at the Farmer's Market. Haha!

Went on the first hike of the year with these cuties, and our kettle corn!

Bennett had a fun few days staying overnight at Chris and Theresa! He loved his special time with them, and especially loved playing game after game of Rummikub with them and John and Choppy and Pilly. He had the best time and had so many fun stories to tell when he got home!

He also liked winning money with Rummikub!

Our co-op has been such a blast this year. I helped out this year with the elementary art!

We went ice skating with the boys for the first time ever! It was SO much harder than I remember it being. I probably haven't skated in like 20 years...I could barely move on the ice at all. The boys did better than me, holding onto the wall and the push chairs.

Hanging with our friend Baby Robin! Desmond is the newest family member to be absolutely crazy about babies, like the rest of us!

These days, the boys are all about the same height! It is so cute to me.

Lots of indoor soccer during the rainy days!

Desmond got this kindness award at preschool. There was a new kid in his class and his teacher said that he was super friendly and played with the kid the whole day. How sweet is this? If my boys do nothing else, I hope with my whole heart that they are always KIND.

Had the most wonderful time painting at my friend Nigina's house with Sarah. We have been dabbling in watercolor after the kids go to bed and it has been so life-giving and fun!

Will and sweet Hannah at our co-op, teaming up to build log cabins out of pretzel rods for our study on Little House on the Prairie.

Science class, hosted by one of our homeschooling friends at the library.

In-n-Out date with my little buddy!

B, making homemade marmalade :) Theresa taught him how and he has made it several times since then. What a cool party trick, right?

Will is good with machines and quickly figured out how to use the sewing machine!

I made this tote bag, which was thrilling because I used the fabric from one of my mom's old dresses--one of my favorite dresses of hers. It was so much fun!

"Mom, take my picture with my bandaid!"

Paul stayed the night in SF one night, hanging with his brother and Jeremy and Ryan, and I love this pic that Jeremy snapped of their run together.

Sending you lots of love!

Will and Desmond's birthday party!

noreply@blogger.com (Miss Mary) — Sat, 31 May 2025 02:12:00 +0000

We did a combo birthday party for our two winter babies and it was so much fun! Their birthdays are about a month apart, so we did their party in the middle of January. And of course it was a sports party again! It was all such a fun time. Our parents helped us so much with the set-up and actually they brought a ton of the food! Very grateful for so many dear friends and family to help us celebrate our wonderful boys!

Look at this cute crew!

Sending you all lots of love!

Will's 9th birthday

noreply@blogger.com (Miss Mary) — Sat, 31 May 2025 01:42:00 +0000

I can barely believe it Will is 9!—time really flies when you are having fun! And this guy is as fun as they come!

He had such a great birthday this year, celebrating with presents, donuts, a trip to the arcade where he won 1000 extra tickets, carrot cake and ice cream, going to his favorite park to fly his new drone and play some soccer with friends who happened to be there, and going out to pizza. He finished the day snuggled between Paul and me, staying up late watching TV. A perfect day for our wonderful guy!

Here are some pictures of his special day!

Very excited about his cotton candy machine!

He had the best time at the arcade. And he got super lucky and won a thousand extra tickets on one of the games, which was the perfect birthday surprise!

All their prizes!

Joni, Billy and Kate came over to celebrate with us a bit!

He was doing the trick here with the finger and the candle!

He loved flying his new drone! And playing some soccer of course!

DeVino's was the perfect end to the day. We all love their pizza!

Will is one of a kind and truly such a light in our family. He loves to help with pretty much anything, loves to organize and clean, and do nice things for people. He could definitely run the household—we frequently wake up to him having gotten Desmond dressed or having made someone breakfast, or worked out a compromise between feuding brothers. He keeps me on track with the different things we have to do, and I love having a right-hand man in everything! Will is very capable and responsible and is borderline offended if you ever question whether he can (or should!) do something, even things like going on the roof to hang Christmas lights, or climbing a 20 ft chain link fence, or jumping out of tree from an unusually high angle. He is naturally kind, loves to bake, loves creating a joyful chaos when things get too slow for him, is very competitive and moves quickly, loves babies and wanted to be Joseph in our church’s nativity this year so he could be closer to the real baby playing Jesus, and still loves everything sweet especially candy. He has had a HUGE year, and it has been beautiful to see him growing and learning so much! He learned to read this year, is so good at math, can put anything together (and take anything apart, which he does!), absolutely tears it up on the soccer field, and is pretty fearless from what I can tell. He is such a joy, with the biggest golden heart of all time! We love you Will! Here’s to a fantastic year ahead for you! Keep shining and being YOU!

Sending you all lots of love!

Sister Time

noreply@blogger.com (Miss Mary) — Sun, 16 Feb 2025 15:00:00 +0000

So fun to have my sister in town for about two weeks this Christmas! So grateful we got such quality time together. Love her! We went out to tea in Lafayette, went for a hike, and of course had all the Christmas fun together.

We also had a sister's day in the city which was just the most perfect city day ever!

We started at the Ferry Building, and ate all the delicious things, most of them not pictured :)

Such a gorgeous day too!

And then we took the bus up the hill to Grace Cathedral, which was just transcendent as always. SO happy we were able to go and it really felt extra special because we got to indulge in all of the Christmas decorations but not the crowds, since we went after Christmas. I think this is the trick! :)

Then we popped over to the Fairmont, which is always lovely to see all decked out!

We had so much fun wandering around the hotel and looking at all the historic photos of SF, including several from the 1906 Earthquake and before. I am so glad someone thought to save all those pictures and frame them in such a beautiful hotel. I love walking around and looking at all the history of my favorite city.

And then we walked down the hill to North Beach, which is always the right decision. We went to City Lights first, and then to Vesuvio. Vesuvio is one of my favorite old haunts--that's where Paul and I would go for drinks sometime when we were just starting to date, so I will always love it!

We got some coffee/tea at Caffe Greco's and enjoyed taking in the lively vibe everywhere we looked!

And then we got burritos at El Farolito, which was delicious, and then headed back to the East Bay. It really was the perfect SF day with my sister bear!! So grateful we could get away!

Sending you all lots of love!

Brother's Gifts and special time

noreply@blogger.com (Miss Mary) — Sat, 15 Feb 2025 15:00:00 +0000

One of my favorite traditions is the boys doing a Secret Santa with each other, which we call Brother's Exchange. It is so much fun and the boys love it!

Sometime after Thanksgiving, they pick names out of a hat, and then spend the next four week pretending to have certain brothers, and making guesses as to who has who. It is highly entertaining, haha! But my favorite part of the tradition is that I get some one-on-one time with each boy at the beginning of December to shop for their secret brother, and to also take them out on a little date. It is a really special time!

This year, they all stuck to a budget of $15 per brother, and they all did such a great job shopping for their brother.

Will went first and he picked Ice Monster for his treat! We had a great time together. He always knows just what he wants to buy and is a fast shopper. Love hanging with my Will!

Vincent went second, and he wanted to go to In-n-Out for his special treat! And his dog Snoop (Dog) came too, because he loves to be alone with me with Snoop in the car because he loves to make Snoop do funny voices, and I think it's cute, whereas others find it irritating, haha. Loved my time with my Vinny Boy! He loves shopping and has so much fun looking at all the choices.

Bennett went third, and he LOVES special time like this and is also a pretty quick shopper. He chose frozen yogurt for his treat. Loved spending time and talking with my Little (medium-sized!) B!

And Desmond went last, and although he has very little interest in shopping, he knew exactly what he wanted for his special treat--In-n-Out WITH a soda, eaten IN the car. Haha! Love any special time I get with my baby!

They were so excited to give their carefully-selected presents on Christmas Eve! Love seeing them so joyful like this. Desmond got Vincent a pack of markers, and some poster board, and some gum.

Vincent got Will some candy and an Advent calendar full of cool rocks!

Will got Bennett a chess set and some of his favorite candy canes (the cherry ones!)

And Bennett had Desmond and he got him a Knock-Out punching game and his favorite candy, sour watermelons.

Each of them was just THRILLED with their presents! I hope they keep up this tradition for as long as possible. It's so sweet! Pure brotherhood joy.

Sending you all lots of love!

Christmas Day and after

noreply@blogger.com (Miss Mary) — Fri, 14 Feb 2025 15:30:00 +0000

After our Christmas morning at home, we headed to San Jose for Christmas with Paul's family! We had a wonderful day together celebrating! Love our family so much.

Right when we got there, everyone exchanged presents, and the boys were so excited about all the fun new things they got! So generous of everyone!

And then we had a wonderful afternoon playing games with the cousins.

And then something fun--Dani and Bennett performed a duet! She has been rocking the guitar lately, and Bennett loves playing the piano/keyboards, so they each practiced individually for 3 weeks or so, and then came together on Christmas Day to perform Jingle Bell Rock for the family! It was so wonderful! I hope it becomes a family tradition for a little performance every Christmas Day.

Here they are practicing together before the performance.

They were so cute and did an amazing job!

And then we had a delicious meal!

Bennett loved walking around during the day, taking pictures of everyone. He loved this one of Paul so much! Haha.

We took a family walk after dinner, and saw all the amazing lights in Chris and Theresa's neighborhood. People really go all out! Came back for more games and staying up late with cousins. I went to bed early, which was very delicious after my marathon of all the Christmas things :)

The next morning, we all lazed about a bit, and then Paul and I and the three younger boys went to the nearby high school to try out Will's new drone. It was so fun seeing him figure it out!

And back for more fun with cousins!

And more games! Such a relaxing time hanging out together.

It was another wonderful Christmas and I am truly grateful for being surrounded by incredible family, with whom we are so lucky to celebrate! We love them so much!

Christmas Morning 2024

noreply@blogger.com (Miss Mary) — Thu, 13 Feb 2025 15:00:00 +0000

Merry Christmas!! It was a wonderful Christmas morning. The boys were up super early but I did my best to be cheerful with my little sweethearts! :) So much joy and excitement and it is always so fun!

God gave us this beautiful sunrise!

We did not go crazy with presents for the boys, and honestly, a lot of it we found at thrift shops, or on major sale. It felt great to make it a special Christmas without spending a lot! They don't need much to be happy.

Vincent made me this adorable picture!

Desmond's dream came true of a pretend phone.

Will made me this Christmas picture!

This Shoot the Moon game has been very fun for all of us!

Will was so happy to get a little drone of his own! And he made Paul this ornament.

And B got me my fave, Reeses. He used his own money to get me this! He got Paul his favorite, a Twix!

After the boys opened the smaller presents under the tree, we led them to the other room where their main present was covered with a blanket. We got them a 4-in-1 game table. They were THRILLED and screamed with joy. It was all so exciting! They have been playing with it non-stop for a month+ now so it has definitely been worth every penny!

They spent the rest of the morning trying all the games and having so much fun!

Will made this card for the brothers, and it was so sweet! May they always be the best of friends!

Paul made the most wonderful make-ahead French Toast, and it was so amazing. One of my favorite moments was this one--sitting in my favorite chair, eating this amazing breakfast, and watching the boys play with their new game table. Felt so grateful and so full and SO AWARE of all of my incredible blessings. Like are we the luckiest people in the whole world, or what??

Hope you all had a sweet Christmas morning. Happy birthday Jesus!!! We love you!!

Sending you lots of love!

Christmas Eve 2024

noreply@blogger.com (Miss Mary) — Wed, 12 Feb 2025 15:00:00 +0000

There wasn't much of a 4th week of Advent this year, so we will go right to Christmas Eve :) Peak joy for me is Christmas Eve. I love it so much. It's the day when everything comes together for me and I feel truly joyful! The stress of the season is behind us, and all that is left is waiting in joyful anticipation and celebration.

Started off Christmas Eve with a cozy cuddle sesh by the tree. Perfect start to the day!

Love this picture of my sweet boy!

Then I went on a walk to St Francis to pray and finish my Advent devotional. It was such a relaxing morning!

Then I got busy making our favorite lasagna for dinner later that evening, and I made one for my parents and Kate too. And then we headed out to Mass for the Children's Nativity.

Love having my parents and Kate join us for Mass!

This is one of my dearest friends, Shannon! She runs the whole Nativity play every year. So grateful for this wonderful friend of mine!

All four of our boys were in the Nativity for the first time! It was so very special! Will was Joseph, Vincent was Caesar Augustus, and Bennett and Desmond were shepherds. It was all so wonderful!

Will LOVES babies and wanted to be Joseph when he found out that there would be a REAL baby Jesus! It was so exciting! He did ask me several times why Joseph doesn't get to hold the baby AT ALL during the Nativity. Haha! He did such a great job as Joseph.

Our family was asked to bring up the gifts during Mass. Shannon snapped this pic as we were getting lined up! Such a special Mass. I was so proud of the boys!

When we got home, we went for a family walk and that was wonderful.

And then we had our delicious lasagna feast with garlic bread and salad. It was amazing as usual! The boys had a pack of those Christmas crackers and were wearing the little paper hats and playing the games.

And then we do a Brother's Exchange, where they each get to open the present from their Secret Brother. It is peak excitement and joy for them at this point! I'll tell you more about it in the next post :)

And of course, I had to get my annual pic in front of the tree in their pjs! These are the days!

Grateful for this good man who loves us all so well!

Love my family so much!! Beyond grateful!

Lots of love to you all!

Christmas Eve Eve EVE party

noreply@blogger.com (Miss Mary) — Tue, 11 Feb 2025 15:00:00 +0000

We had my family's party on the 22nd this year! It was so wonderful as usual!

Look at these handsome boys! Love these nine boys so much :)

Made Sally's peanut butter bars for the second year in a row, so it is definitely a tradition at this point! We also brought homemade mac n cheese, and a fruit salad, and little mini cheesecake bites, all of which were hits.

My parents had all the games set up of course! It makes it seriously so fun to play games the whole day. The boys love winning the prizes too. It is so sweet seeing how excited they get!

Also, my mom got a box of Frangos, and that is truly the taste of Christmas for me. Growing up, my Godfather Lee would send me a box of Frangos from Chicago every year from Marshall Field's. Now they sell them at Macy's, but back then, it was so special! They still are.

A wonderful day filled with delicious food, fun games, lots of laughs and my family, whom I love so much! Grateful grateful for so many blessings.

Sending you lots of love!

Silver Bells, Silver Bells

noreply@blogger.com (Miss Mary) — Mon, 10 Feb 2025 23:03:00 +0000

....It's Christmastime in the city! This is in my top 5 of all Christmas songs. I just love it!

Love our annual Christmassy day in the city. We had so much fun! We started in Union Square, which didn't have too much going on a weekday, but still so fun to see all the trees and decorations. Then we headed to Aquatic Park area to have a little picnic lunch, and then to Ghiradelli Square for ice cream sundaes! We wanted to go to Grace Cathedral as well but we ran out of time--can't do it all and Paul and I always try to quit while we are slightly ahead. Another special day with our boys!

Just a casual brother kick during the picture! Ha!

Such a beautiful day down by the water!

Love that all 6 of us are in this one, accidentally!

Okay, next up our Christmas party with my family!

Sending you all lots of love!

Third Week of Advent--Joy and Christmas through their eyes

noreply@blogger.com (Miss Mary) — Mon, 03 Feb 2025 02:21:00 +0000

This third week of Advent was when that JOY really started to creep in! I love the feeling as it gets closer to Christmas. Look at this beautiful poinsettia art that Will made! I love it so much.

On my walk one morning, God gave me Advent-colored skies! It was so special, and I felt so loved!

We made these yummy chocolate-butterscotch-peanut candies and they were amazing! You just melt the chocolate and butterscotch and then stir in peanuts!

Vincent's Christmas note to Desmond. So sweet!

Entering my perler bead era :)

Ahh, I love all the winter citrus around here! Chris and Theresa's neighbor has this amazing mandarin tree and I have been so into them. The perfect thing for the cold days!

Joni had us over for the annual Christmas tea! Which was just wonderful, of course! I love it so much and feel so grateful that she wants to do this. I love little traditions like this, that hopefully the boys will have fond memories of as they grow. I know I do!

She always puts out such a delicious spread of holiday cookies and treats, including candy cane spoons this year for hot chocolate.

And we always use these gorgeous golden tea cups from her grandmother. It is so special!

We then went over to her neighbor Hazel's house, who loves to sing and play piano and loves singing Christmas carols, so we all had a sing-along. It was so festive and fun!

The boys had so much fun being there and singing and seeing all her special Christmas things!

Someone gave my parents this amazing card and I LOVE IT SO MUCH that they said I could have it. So beautiful!

Time to make my favorite cookies, peanut butter blossoms. And these two cuties pretty much handled the whole thing and that made me so happy!

B had a white elephant party and bowling with his Boy Scout troop, and it was very cute to just stand in the background and see how the boys did the white elephant party. B's troop is completely boy-led, so the parents don't get involved with the plans. But I had to snap a little pic because I'm that mom, haha.

Speaking of Bennett, he is entering genius territory in my mind because he has been writing his own piano music and it is incredible! He is a composer!!

Awww, love this so much! So grateful for these beautiful days together, and such a joyful motherhood!

It was finally time to watch my favorite Hallmark Christmas movie, Christmas in Vienna! It is so sweet!

Had our annual fun night with Bret and Jessica and Alice and Louie! We LOVE this tradition! We went to their house for dinner and then we head to the Tilden Merry Go Round!

This was the first year this guy was big enough to ride all on his own! Everyone is growing up.

Couldn't love these friends of ours more!! It has been 17 years of friendship with these two, and it is just so fun to be with them!

Bennett took a shift ringing the bell for Salvation Army! He also brought his melodica (keyboard wind instrument combo) and was playing Christmas songs sometimes instead of ringing the bell. He got a few people who gave money to the bucket, but then also gave him a personal tip. I think he had so much fun! He came home and said, "I'm a working musician!" It was so cute!

On the winter solstice, we like to have a little candlelight dinner to remind us that The Light of the World is coming. It is so sweet! The boys get so excited turning off all the lights in the house and lighting every candle we have.

And then after dinner, we drove around and looked at lights! So many houses in our neighborhood go ALL out and I love it so much. It is a big deal for us to get our single strand of lights up, so this just amazes me!

Love this picture of my sweet boys, taking in the lights!

I made these little cheesecake bites for my family' Christmas party and they came out so great! I need to make them next year too :) I'll tell you about the party in the next post!

Sending you all lots of love!

Second week of Advent--Peace and doing all the things

noreply@blogger.com (Miss Mary) — Sun, 26 Jan 2025 15:00:00 +0000

Our second week of Advent (week of Peace) started off beautifully with Bennett's first ever piano recital!! It was so exciting. He played Mozart's Eine Kline Nachtmusik, and did such a fantastic job! I wish I would have thought to get a picture of him playing but I only have video. Joni and Billy were able to come with us to the recital, and then they treated us to lunch afterwards at Jack's. It was a wonderful day!

God gave me this rainbow right when I really needed it! It was so beautiful! A rainbow in December is very rare for these parts. He is so good to me.

We made Mexican wedding cookies for the feast of Our Lady of Guadelupe, and our co-op celebration. It was my first time making them and since they are a family favorite that my mom or sister usually makes, it felt like a right of passage. So delicious!

I loved the tree so much in the early mornings before the sun came up. Just so pretty and sparkly!

One evening, I went for a hike up on Lime Ridge and it was so wonderful and peaceful.

I even stayed up there for the sunset which was so special, and so sacred! I felt so full of love and goodness from that experience.

We got several wonderful gifts from friends this year--really special and thoughtful gifts and I am so grateful. I do not really consider myself a gifts person, in the sense that I can't really think of what to get people, and I talk myself out of pretty much every purchase. But I would love to be the type of friend who gives a special little gift every now and then to all the dear people in my life because it is so heartwarming to receive such a gift. Look at this beautifully-wrapped gift from my dear friend Jennell!

We had some friends over for our Christmas party, and it was just the best! Not everyone could come this year so it was a smaller group, but I absolutely loved catching up with everyone there and the kids had a blast running around and playing soccer in the front yard. Everyone brought something delicious to share. I love potlucks! We made Bab's fudge which was amazing, and put out a bunch of chips and dips, and enjoyed all the food everyone brought.

My Goddaughter Brave Maeve, getting so big and just as fun as can be! Such a great party with so many of our favorite friends!

The three younger boys loved making sure our nativity was set up nicely at the end of the day. It would get absolutely trashed every single day, but then they would re-set it to it's glory :)

Had dinner with our dear friends Kayla and Josh, and their three awesome kids, at their house for a delicious lasagna dinner! It was so much fun to be with them and to laugh and talk with Kayla and Josh while the kids ran around. So nice to be invited to someone's house for dinner!

The three older boys performed at our home school recital. Bennett taught Will and Vincent to play the drums and the bells, as he played the melodica to the tune of Hark the Herald Angels Sing. It was so special! Of course I have videos, but here is a little pic of how cute they were.

The artist in his natural element! He has decorated his room in such a cool way and I love his sense of style. He is always creating!

Cozy times, delicious smells, llama llama jingle bells!

LOVE how Vincent spells Joni--Jonenyee! It is so cute!

Bennett and Will had a tournament in Sunnyvale the second weekend of December, so the two of them and Paul headed the hour south. It seemed like a tough tournament, soccer-wise. But very glad that Chris and Theresa could help out so much with the boys that weekend! Paul and the boys stayed the night in San Jose too to make it easier. I am so glad they could do that! Paul was under the weather, so it was so nice to have C&T there too.

And look he captured a rainbow for me at the soccer field!

The decompression lunch after a few of the games!

Bennett's games were all early in the day and Will's were all at night, so we were thinking it would have been too much for the two non-soccer boys to be there all day so we divided and conquered and I stayed with the little ones. Who makes the decision that the 8 year old's game is at 7:30 at night on a freezing field? haha

The boys loved eating pancakes and spending the night, so that was a major perk of the tournament weekend!

Vincent and Desmond and I had fun while they were gone. We pretty much spent the whole day of Saturday at my parents' house, with the boys having fun and playing sports with Grandpa Billy, and relaxing with a movie. And in the evening, we went to the holiday market at their church, which I loved so much! It was so festive and fun. I hope we can go next year too!

Lots of moments of seeking peace, and a few moments where Peace found us. I won't give up seeking it. I am so grateful for all these sweet moments with our boys!

First week of Advent--Hope and getting ready

noreply@blogger.com (Miss Mary) — Sat, 25 Jan 2025 23:48:00 +0000

Hi friends! I have so many December pics to share (SO MANY!) that I thought I would try and break it up by weeks, and then when I am all caught up with December, I am hoping to switch to a weekly format for these posts to keep them shorter and more frequent :) I love you! Thank you for being here with me. I know blogging isn't really a thing anymore, but I will always love it and love having this family record. It is priceless for us! I am also going to be starting a Substack soon for more writing and thoughts (writers gotta write!), so I'll keep you posted on that!

Here's all the things from the first week of December, and the first week of Advent. It was the week of hope and I am looking for it every chance I get!

The month started out with the Dickens Fair! It was just wonderful to go with Jessica and Alice again this year! We had such a fun girly day together. I do think the boys would enjoy it and maybe next year, we can all go, but it is really a very specific type of fun and Jessica, Alice, and I are all similar in our excitement and enjoyment, so it is such a JOYFUL time together!

And the delicious cinnamon almonds, warm from the mixer. Mmmmm! The taste of the Christmas season starting!

Paul had the boys come with him for a run one day and they loved that!

We volunteered at the Food Bank with our homeschool group and it was so fun. Bennett and Will were particularly productive and bundled up hundreds of kiwis. Vincent and I worked on packaging up oranges. I loved talking with our friends while we worked.

Peak coziness with all four of my guys snuggled in with me!

Celebrated St. Nicholas at our co-op with these cute candy cane crafts. Love this picture of Will!

And James and Vincent are such good buddies!

Made Christmas cookies at the co-op too, which was so great because then I could check it off of our list for December activities to do with the boys :)

God gave me so many beautiful sunrises in December! My soul needed these hopeful mornings, where all His mercies are made new. I also did a daily Advent devotional with my book club from church and it was just so fulfilling and beautiful and one of my favorite parts of the month--a few minutes every day to quiet my heart and try to listen to what He wants me to know.

Listened to this fantastic book in December and it was so delightful! You all know how much I love Brooklyn (the book AND the movie!), and this is the sequel. Very immersive to be back with all the characters of Brooklyn, but in a new way 20 years later.

Tried to have a cozy cup of tea in my Christmas mug every day while we did our school work. Really lovely to sit there working with my boys--feeling so grateful for these long days together.

We found the perfect tree (under $60!! which is what made it perfect, haha!) at the Shadelands lot. I had to get a pic with these cute guys and our tree. Love the excitement of finding a tree and them racing around the lot!

It was so much fun decorating the tree! The boys pretty much did the whole tree this year! And I was too tired to really care about fixing the ornaments, which were mostly all at the same height :) It was so precious though, seeing them so joyful and excited and I loved just being able to be present for that moment. Love this pic of B playing catch with one of the ornaments, haha!

Sweetest guys!

And after 4 years, it was finally Bennett's turn to put the star on the tree again! He was so happy and has been waiting for this day!

And we celebrated St Nicholas Day with chocolate coins and candy canes in our shoes, as well as a little craft kit for each boy. Love how excited they are to check their shoes in the morning on this fun feast day!

Great start to my second favorite month, and certainly my favorite time of year!

The rest of November

noreply@blogger.com (Miss Mary) — Tue, 14 Jan 2025 15:00:00 +0000

November was so big and full and I think I experienced every emotion in November! All the highs and lows.

The boys went camping with the Cub Scouts! And Bennett went camping for the first time without us, with the Boy Scouts! All on the same weekend. I don't have any pics of Bennett's camping adventure, although he had a blast! Here are a few from the Cub Scout one, that Paul attended!

This little sweetie and I had some time together, and had a sleepover in my bed instead of joining the camping fun!

The next day, we went to my friend Eileen's house, who had so many lavender bushes in need of harvesting, and she so generously offered us to come and cut some. It was so much fun!

She had eucalyptus for us as well. My car smelled so good on the way home and the scent filled our home as well. Just wonderful!

Felt pretty devastated by the election (understatement), and it sure helped that my dear friend Barbara had me over for a little tea time the day after the election. She really felt like a safe space that day, as did our dear friend Priscilla, who was able to join as well!

Paul sent me this to cheer me up, and I love it so much. We will keep fighting and working to be the good we want to see in the world.

We took a few days off of school after the election because I just needed a minute. Being with these two cuties on a beautiful day, hiking around our area certainly helped a bit!

Bought myself a support geranium :)

And a few little pies, for emotional support.

This one in his "chicken" hat!

A wonderful reminder. God is bigger than all the things happening in the world. My job is to keep loving the people he puts in front of me, and the ones that are far away too.

Lots of time spent hiking these hills near my house, trying to get my groove back.

Bennett had a soccer tournament in Half Moon Bay and it was so fun that we could all go. The tournament didn't go very well, soccer-wise), but we had so much fun with Chris and Theresa, and tried to make the best of it. Loved going into the adorable shops downtown with Theresa and Vincent, everything all decorated for Christmas!

Love all the amazing murals around town, many of them historical and telling the story of this beautiful place.

After Bennett's games, we all needed a morale boost, so we headed to the beach, which was SO WONDERFUL! The boys were happy to jump around!

That night, we slept at Chris and Theresa's house, and Paul and I were able to sneak away for a little pasta and ice cream and bookstore date!

Yes, they are...

All the fall leaves were in full force in November, which is my favorite. Look at this one!

My amazing mother took me out on the most wonderful birthday date! We went to downtown Danville and walked around all the shops in the Livery and some of the downtown area and then ate lunch at the incredible Piatti's! It was SUCH a treat, and I loved my time with my favorite person so much. We had such a great time together! We also went in several thrift stores, which was more our speed than the fancy Danville stores--I do love looking at fancy stores, but I pretty much never buy anything. This day with my mom was one of my favorite of the whole year! So special!

This tree had all the colors!!

When I got home from my time with my mom, I opened up one of the books I had gotten at the thrift store, in the free pile, and imagine my SHOCK when I found a $100 bill inside!! I cried happy tears because it just seemed like such a sign that God has GOT US. Things have been a bit hard financially for us lately, and this was a clear sign to me that God will always provide for us, in little ways like this, and in big ways that I don't know yet. Isn't this so incredible???

In November, Paul, Bennett, and me headed to LA to meet with the craniofacial surgeon at CHLA. We have been wanting to meet with him for years, so that we can get a second opinion about B's upcoming midface surgery, so it was really a dream come true to get to meet with him. The three younger boys stayed with my parents and had the time of their lives, of course!

And it was so nice to have some special time with Bennett too. Here he is at the airport with his Pinkberry. Love him so much!

Team-mode activated!

We tried to make the trip at least a little fun, especially since it was emotionally sort of a hard trip. But thankfully, we got to have a few fun meals out with our awesome boy!

Before our appointment at CHLA, we walked around the hospital and saw all the Christmas decorations.

Something that made the appointment and hospital time 100 times better, was that we were luckily able to stay with Jenny and Omar and the girls, and had such a great time catching up and hanging out with them a bit. Also, Omar picked us up and drove us to the airport, and they lent us their car to get to and from the appointment. SUCH a blessing! It helped make the super short trip worth it!

The next day was our 13th anniversary! Paul and I were exhausted from our whirlwind trip, and had just gotten back late the night before. But he picked me up these beautiful flowers, and a jelly donut as a symbol of his love! So sweet!

We needed a family day after all being apart for a few days, so we used a gift card and took everyone to The Best Christmas Pageant Ever! It was the best movie and I just cried and cried at the end. It is so good and I loved it so much! Grateful for this man and our family and the life we have created together, full of God's blessings!

My sweet friend Carly at the co-op, looking cute! Love her and it is so fun to see her every week now at our co-op!

There were some seriously gorgeous skies in November! Like look at this sunrise one morning!

And these amazing clouds!

Letters to Santa were written! "Dear Santa, Merry Christmas! I want a surprise and some basketball cards."

Got to see Allie and Kat for a bit after Thanksgiving at Oak Hill! Even though it was brief, it was so great to see them both!

Look at this angel, bringing me a flower!

Had a few days of deep thick fog, and it was so thick that I couldn't see 15 feet in front of me on my walk!

Ended the month with the most fun birthday party ever for our friend Ryder! The boys are still talking about it--there was a nerf war, jumping on the trampoline, slime-making, and then a movie in the backyard with a bonfire! Pretty incredible!

Sending you lots of love!

Thanksgiving 2024

noreply@blogger.com (Miss Mary) — Mon, 13 Jan 2025 15:00:00 +0000

We actually had two Thanksgivings this year! An early one with Paul's family, and one on Thanksgiving Day with my parents. Basically, we are the luckiest people in the world to have all this family around us who we love hanging out with!

Vincent in Paul's old Little League hat!

Will helping with the garlic bread.

Fun at the park, being pushed aggressively by Will in the swing.

Theresa getting in on the action!

Kelty and Chris were babysitting Doris, so it was so fun to see her again!

Olivia came over for a bit and I just love her joyful personality!

Will and I made Sally's salted caramel apple pie bars and they were so good! I would definitely make these again! I LOVE that Will likes to bake--it's really fun to have someone to make stuff with.

A little Rummikub with Grandma after dinner, which is becoming a fun tradition for the boys!

On Thanksgiving morning, we headed to my parents house right away, because I LOVE watching the Macy's Parade and it's so fun on their big tv! There was also lots of football to watch, and the boys had a great time playing sports with Grandpa Billy. We had such a great day together! It was so nice to get together. Another wonderful day together!

Here we all are, selfie-style!

Everything was so good! My favorite part were the amazing butter rolls my mom bought, and I always love cranberry sauce. Also, the mac n cheese we made came out really great. Okay, and actually I think it's my favorite mac n cheese recipe and we have made it maybe 5 times now, and each time, it's so good! It's not TOO cheesy and feels light and fluffy in a way, which is how I prefer my mac n cheese.

Playing Tenzi with Grandpa Billy!

We used my great grandmother's beautiful wheel-cut crystal glasses for the meal and that was such a treat.

After the meal, a few of the boys came for a hike with me and Joni, up in Castle Rock by their house. It was so much fun and so beautiful up there! The perfect thing to do after eating a big meal!

We came back for dessert! We made our favorite apple pie, this old recipe from Posie Gets Cozy. It is incredible! We look forward to it all year. Next year, I am going to double the topping, for sure.

Here's the inside of the pie. It is so unique and seriously amazing!

Rack-O is our other family favorite game, lately!

So much to be thankful for this year, and at the top of the list is that we live close to our parents and that we get to see our families so often! So grateful that the boys have four wonderful grandparents!

Sending you lots of love!

Chinatown family adventure

noreply@blogger.com (Miss Mary) — Mon, 13 Jan 2025 00:26:00 +0000

We were studying Asian countries in November, and the boys love learning about China, so of course we had to do a family field trip to Chinatown! It is one of their favorite places, and it's so fun that we have gotten to go a few times in the last year. This time, we spent some time at the Chinese Cultural Center, which was so fun! And then went to the Fortune Cookie Factory (of course!), and then to lunch at one of the oldest restaurants in Chinatown (Hang Ah Tea Room). We finished off the day with two boys going to the park with Paul, and two boys wanting to go in the shops with me. Such a fulfilling day and we all had so much fun!

So wonderful to talk to the curator at the museum at the Cultural Center. She shared so much with us, including how Portsmouth Square is going to be torn down/renovated, and that the bridge connecting the Square to the Cultural Center will be torn down and not replaced. It was interesting, and also sad, to hear about all the people who will be displaced, as well as the thousands of pigeons who call it home.

I can't believe this might be the last time the boys are on this bridge!

I love how alive and colorful Chinatown is!

Well, isn't this lovely?

My summer babies love to shop!

Sending you all lots of love!

41 and still having fun!

noreply@blogger.com (Miss Mary) — Wed, 08 Jan 2025 03:15:00 +0000

Another great birthday with my boys! Grateful for another year, and I am trying to embrace the privilege and honor of aging. Hopefully gracefully and with all the joy in my heart!

Look at all these wonderful gifts!

And Paul made me birthday crepes, my favorite!

We had a little outing to the Berkeley Botanical Gardens and it was such a joy to be out there together.

And then we had a wonderful lunch out at Burma Superstar, a longtime favorite! It was so fun having the boys try it. They loved the garlic noodles and the coconut rice. I had the samosa soup and the tea leaf salad. So delicious!

Everyone gave me their Reese's from Halloween for birthday gifts and it was so sweet!

And then my birthday always includes All Saints Day Mass and it was very sweet that I had four little saints that wanted to dress up for the procession! I had a John the Baptist, a St. Patrick, a St. Vincent de Paul, and a St. Louis Martin! I love our parish family so much.

And then I topped off a wonderful day with a dinner out to Pizzalina with some of my dearest friends! They were all so sweet to me and we had such fun!!

Grateful for this wonderful life!

October times

noreply@blogger.com (Miss Mary) — Sun, 15 Dec 2024 16:02:00 +0000

Here's the rest of the October fun!

Love this quote I found. I really relate to this!

Our neighbor was giving away this bookshelf and we are so happy to be the recipient of it! All of this homeschool stuff was on my desk or right next to it, so this is a huge relief!

All those gorgeous October skies!

A fun birthday party at COPA for our dear friend James!

Vincent and Desmond (the little brothers club) love cleaning their room and making their beds look awesome! I think it's more of Vincent's thing, but Desmond loves doing it with him!

Will's team played in the BooFest this year and they got first place! It was so exciting!!

It was a costume tournament, and his team all dressed as rockstars! It was so cute, although I don't think Will loved the wigs and tattoo sleeve they wanted him to wear. He is a no-fuss guy and took off the costume as soon as they started playing.

Love watching this sweet boy on the field! He is a phenom out there and not one to be messed with :)

His coach bought everyone Kona Ice when they won, which was of course so exciting!

My dear friend Shannon and I had a wild Friday night one night, driving to Tiburon to see the Sisters of Life! They are so amazing and so joyful in their love of Christ and their ministry. Shannon and I are big fan girls. It was so great to be there in person. I was so inspired by the wonderful evening. Catholic moms gone wild, haha! There was a talk, and then adoration while the sisters played the most beautiful music on their guitars. You can tell they are close to God, and their joy in the Lord in contagious! They invited us to come to their retreat in May in Colorado, so hopefully we can make that happen!

Look at the cute notes I find sometimes:

I think Desmond took this one, but I had to include it because it is my "decompression mode" after our weekly co-op section where I help run the elementary group and teach art. When we come home, I love to sit on the couch after lunch and watch either Samantha Brown's Places to Love or my latest cooking show which is called Mary Makes It Easy. Haha, love that this little snippet of my life has been captured!

Will loves to help me in the kitchen and loves baking! We were making Bab's pumpkin chocolate chip loaf, although we made it in a sheet pan and it came out so great!

We had our monthly kickball game and it was so wonderful and extremely fun! The kids and parents are all having a blast! Grateful for each of these wonderful women!

We had a big potluck after the game which was a blast and so great to all be together as families!

Firefighter's festival near our house and the two boys who absolutely LOVE this type of thing (like me!) were so excited!

Sweet little Vincent Bear loves his sleep and was so cute when he ended up in our bed one morning and went back to sleep!

One day when I needed a particular morale boost, God gave me this giant gorgeous rainbow one morning over our house. It felt just for me in a way, although I heard from several friends that they felt it was also for them :) God is so good and his mercies are new every morning! This rainbow stayed for like 20 minutes!!

And on the other side of the street was a gorgeous sunrise! A rainbow during sunrise? God was really showing off that morning and I so needed the boost!

Loves pretending to be Vincent!

Rocking it on the looms lately! So cool! I love it when he is crafty and works so hard at everything!

Had a wonderful city day with my guys when we went to Crissy Field and then the Palace of Fine Arts. I had been craving some ocean time and needed to get to the Pacific. It was the most glorious, easy, happy day!

This guy is also in a loom phase! He did this all himself!! He also worked so hard at this. Amazing!

Look at these sweet boys at the Palace!

Group hug captured :)

Had another wonderful day in the city, this time with Allie and James! Had so much fun meeting up with them and strolling along the Embarcadero and catching up. Love them! It happened to be Fleet Week when I was there, and Allie and I were laughing at how times have changed and how we used to love going to the bars during Fleet Week and seeing all the sailors, but now we were just happy to be at a playground with James! Haha! This is better than our Fleet Weeks of the past!

Such a gorgeous day!!

Paul took the boys miniature golfing and to a brewery while I was gone!

Went to dinner at Shannon and Scott's and the kids had the best time together, of course! They always do! This was the only pic I snapped the whole fun night!

Bennett has been playing lots of soccer too! Chris and Theresa came this day to see him play and he had an amazing game! Love watching him on the field too--he is so calculated and talented and gives it his all out there! He had this crazy shot from the corner that BENT and went into the goal. It was so exciting and I won't ever forget it! One of the parents on the team was saying "Bend it like Bennett!"

His friend Hunter from last year's team was there and stayed to watch Bennett's whole game and then wanted a picture with B afterwards. Grateful for the NICEST people on every soccer team. We have been surrounded by kindness, truly.

Look at this beautiful cloud! Desmond said, "look, it's a baby in the clouds!" And now I can't unsee it. Of course it is!

Lil Cutie had to have a cardiology appt but all is well!

One day, I took Desmond out for a secret cookie, and he told me that Paul had taken him out for a secret fro-yo earlier in the day. Haha! Paul and I laughed so much about this. Lucky lil guy with his double treats.

Will and Paul went out for breakfast one morning and Will was so happy!

Bennett is ROCKING the piano lately! We got this keyboard with a stand and seat, and he has been playing so much everyday. He writes his own music, and seems to be able to play by ear? What in the world? I do not understand music, but LOVE music of course, so this just absolutely astounds me.

Like look at this song he wrote! I can not even begin to understand this kind of musical genius!

Needed a few hours to myself and had the best morning! Went to Civic Park by myself with my NYTimes and a blanket and had such a fun time laying in the shade and reading! It was so leisurely with nowhere to go. Reminded me of my city days :)

And then went to lunch at Dumpling Hours, one of my favorite spots in WC. Wonderful as always!

Will finds a way to take apart everything and can (usually!) put it back together as well. He is so engineer-minded and it is so fun to see that he is still doing the same stuff he was doing as a baby when he was obsessed with batteries and loved to take them out of things and then organize them in their little battery case.

And I don't always get a picture but I pretty much never miss a First Friday mom's dinner out! It is so fun to be with dear friends, laughing and talking and eating delicious things. It is a beautiful part of my self-care truly---a dinner once a month with these wonderful women! Eileen hosted us at her house this time and it was wonderful!

Paul took Vinny on a special little date to CaliCraft one night and he was SO HAPPY!

Nigina and I have had so much fun with our watercolor painting nights! Love her so much and so happy we can do this together!

Loves to play around on the keyboard too!

Bennett started going to our church's middle school youth group! It feels so grown up!! He was nervous for the first day because he didn't really know anyone who would be there, and when we showed up, no one was there! We had the wrong start date! So we pivoted and him and I went out to ice cream at the new Handel's and made the best of things. I loved my special extra time with him!!

And then we went to Barnes and Noble and had so much fun browsing around! Love him so much!

Lots of good things these days! These are the days of miracle and wonder, truly. Sending you all lots of love!

Halloween 2024

noreply@blogger.com (Miss Mary) — Sat, 14 Dec 2024 18:56:00 +0000

We had a great Halloween this year! Maybe our best yet? The boys were so into everything, and we did the perfect amount of activities--not too much but still festive and fun!

Our Dia de los Muertos ofrenda this year, with sadly a few new people added this year. May the Perpetual Light shine upon them.

Had a wonderful field trip to the pumpkin patch with our homeschool group! They had a bluegrass performer there and it was so fun for us all to dance to the music!

Such a cute pic of my four sweethearts!!

Some of the homeschool parents! So nice to do life with all these fun moms and one dad!

Desmond had the cutest costume of all time this year! He wanted to be a firetruck! So Paul made this out of cardboard and duct-tape. It came out so great! Here he is before his preschool party, which we all went to.

Joni had us over for the traditional Halloween Hunt, which we all love so much!

And here we all are, minus Paul who didn't dress up this year! So we had our firetruck, who also wanted to wear his fire man costume this time, a bee, a skeleton, a bank robber (which I put together with stuff we had in just about 5 minutes!), and a PG&E worker for the second year in a row :)

We did a little fun trick or treating experience at the co-op where the kids went around the building and knocked on doors and the moms had candy at the ready!

Ready for trick or treating!

Matched with my 11 year old, at his request! How special is this? And I was nice and cozy!

We had truly the best trick or treating ever! We met up with Cyrus and Daphne, who happen to be our neighbors, and the boys had an absolute blast! I love the community aspect of trick or treating and love talking to neighbors and seeing everyone be so welcoming!

This little sweetheart fell asleep in the wagon on the way back home!

Joni's bday!

noreply@blogger.com (Miss Mary) — Sat, 14 Dec 2024 18:42:00 +0000

Celebrated my amazing mother's birthday towards the end of October! It was so fun to all get together and celebrate everyone's favorite person! We had such a fun day together!

Love this pic with her and all the grandsons!

Desmond and Tia had matching shoes and it was so cute!!

Loved watching the boys and my brother play in the front and do some skateboarding! Ryan's still got it, ha! And so does Dominic!

homeschool times in Oct and Nov

noreply@blogger.com (Miss Mary) — Sat, 14 Dec 2024 18:35:00 +0000

Working at the library while the boys rotate meeting up with their math tutor. It has been really wonderful to have time together to do our school work in a new setting! We bring a lot of literacy and math games to play and that has been so fun.

Taking the game of Tree and seed memory a little too seriously! The boys are all very competitive!

Bennett was taking a math test here, and was not too happy about it!

Vincent lost a tooth and is just looking cute as ever!

The boys got to help out with building a playhouse for Habitat for Humanity at our church! It was so fun as usual! B made these awesome sunflowers!

This one mostly ate snacks!

One of the moms from our homeschool group decided to offer a free science class each month for our homeschool group. It has been so fun!

Desmond made this adorable turkey hat at preschool, which he has called his "chicken hat" on several occassions!

Post-election hike. I needed a few days to get myself together. Nature definitely helps a bit.

Went on an AWESOME field trip to a Step Afrika performance at UC Berkeley with our homeschool group. And we got to ride with our dear friends Cyrus and Daphne, and their amazing mom (and my dear friend!) Nigina. Such an amazing performance. Bennett said it was one of his favorite things we have done so far this year!

We ate Soul Cakes at our Catholic co-op for All Soul's Day.

And the kids could dress as saints if they wanted and give a little presentation about their saint--well Desmond was the first to volunteer! He talked about St. Florian, patron saint of firefighters :)

Making mini apple pies at the co-op for our book How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World!

And painting some apple trees!

Speaking of the co-op, one of my favorite things about it is that all the kids play together at the recess and at the end of the day. Like we are talking my little elementary boys playing football with all the middle schoolers and the super tall high schoolers. I think because all these kids are homeschooled and have many older and younger siblings, that no one really bats an eye about such a range of ages playing together. It is so special, and my kids LOVE being with the older kids so much! And I have seen Will and Vincent helping the preschoolers and the babies throughout the co-op as well, so it is really sweet how everyone helps and plays with every one else!

We studied Africa (specifically S. Africa, Tanzania, Ghana, and Libya) during the month of October and it was so fun! We attempted to make Africa-shaped sugar cookies, but I would say it was mostly a fail. Haha! I think they tasted pretty good though!

To keep with the Africa theme, the boys did these fabulous kente cloth-inspired paper weavings. I loved them so much and loved how they came out!

Had to take a pic of Bennett's before he cut it up for the weaving part. So awesome!

Forever my favorite view!

Another project the boys did for Africa was to pick one African animal to learn more about, and do a drawing tutorial of that animal. B chose a zebra, W chose a cheetah, and V chose a gorilla. Vincent also made this cool diorama of a gorilla he made with clay. I love it so much!

Desmond has been excited that for his science this year, we subscribed him to a "zoo box" where he gets a new stuffed animal each month, as well as a book and activities about that animal. It's been really cute. He was so excited about his snowy owl!

A very sweet moment with all three in the same atrium for Catechesis of the Good Shepherd!

It's been a very full and fun school year so far! Love these sweet boys and so grateful we get so much time together.