master"PIECES" of my LIFE

yes, halloween happened

already, BUT i'm just getting to post about it now.  my ghouls consisted of PINK supergirl and captain commander Rex (from star wars the clone wars - for those of you who don't keep up with this sort of thing or don't live with a boy between the ages of 5 - 9).

    

here is PINK supergirl and captain commander Rex at the school parade on friday.

    

notice captain commander Rex doesn't have his helmet at the parade.  I got sebi the mask that came with the costume, but he kept talking about wanting a helmet.  the mask wasn't good enough 'cuz it doesn't go over his whole head!  geesh!  who knew?!?  well, after looking in two halloween stores, target, toyrus and even in tomorrowland in disneyland, i gave up on the helmet idea.  well, matt only got informed about the whole helmet thing at the umptheenth (is that a word ?!?) hour and in true dada fashion could not diappoint sebastian.  so sometime on friday he found the helmet at toysrus, which sebi & i had seen mind you, i just thought it was a toy not for wearing since it ginormous (another word- look it up).  anyway, the thing is pretty cool, it talks certain commands or you can turn on a microphone so your voice comes out all captain commander Rex.  sebastian wore it for all of two houses trick or treating & then it ended up in the wagon... too cubersome to run from house to house with...forgotten.  that was money well spent.  actually it was, since he still plays with it now.  anyway we went out trick or treating with our friends & neighbors.  here's the whole gang.  i love that the girls are holding hands.  i love that you can only see one of trevor's eyes.  not sure how i feel about sebastian's helmet since that could be any kid in there for all we know. 

  

of course lets not forget auntie fabianna who's with us every year!

  
  

just a couple of things i need to mention for future reference.  lexi's pink & blue hair extensions (the blue is in the back can't see it from here) are from her make over experience in downtown disney a couple of weeks ago.  i still need to blog about our annual disneyland trip.  lexi also received "tinkerbell & the lost treasure" dvd when sebastian got his ginormous (still a word) helmet.  since we had just met tinkerbell in pixie hollow it seemed appropriate.  we have met the princesses for a few years now, but this was our first stop in pixie hollow....but i'm getting ahead of my posts....more on this to come w/ my disney post.

back to halloween.  so part of my business restructure this past summer was to integrate a theme kit every month on top of my monthly technique workshops.  as expected the theme for october was halloween.  here's a peek at the kit & the samples i produced.

  

 

    
 
this was two years ago.  2007.  our last year trick or treating at the old house.  dublin.  cinderella.  spd red power ranger.  you can read more about this fun halloween here. 

napa & kids

napa

so this past weekend we ventured up to napa with some good friends & it was quite lovely.  and no we didn't bring the kids along (i'll get to them in just a little bit).  and yes that's two weekends in a row that we've been away sans children.  poor planning on my part but done accidently.  i didn't even realize until matt pointed it our a few weeks back.  so anyway, here we are at cakebread cellars where we started our saturday journey.  not too shabby.  i have to say all in all we were very responsible & we didn't get crazy.  very unusual with this crew.  we ended the weekend on sunday with spa treatments at silverado where we stayed.  i could have spent aaaaaaaall day there.  sonoma mission inn is still my favorite spa but this is also perfectly relaxing & restful.  one of the many great things about wine country is all the eye candy around you at all times.  so here's some of the stuff i captured.

here's a giant sunflower in the gardens at cakebread.  it's one of the owner's garden and it was beautiful and i'm sure she has plenty of help maintaining it.  here are some of the sunflowers out to dry.

cakebread was also doing some cross marketing with a local art gallery (i forget the name) but here is one of the pieces they had at the cellar.  i love stuff like this.  it's just FUN!

and considering we were there during {crush} it didn't seem very crowded, but we also stayed away from all the big commercial wineries so that probably helped.

and this is where we got a little bit silly.  that's wendy's "run- bear!" face and of course matt doesn't need any coaching on this kind of stuff.

i can never play along 'cuz i'm too busy laughing....

and i'm also convinced that mr. bear is a direct ancestor of mocha.  wouldn't you agree? 

and although i fully enjoyed both weekends away i do have to say it was hard to be away from the kiddos two weekends in a row.  i can't believe i'm saying that & i'll remind myself at 4:45pm when i wondering if it's too early to have a glass a wine as i'm tired of the other kind of whine.  anyway, it made me feel a bit disconnected from the kids & i don't like the feeling.  we missed 2 of sebi's basketball games, which apparently he's playing fabulously in.  we missed a birthday party lexi attended and another party sebi attended.  it's nice to take some time alone with matt and do some adult things, but these kids are little for such a short time and then they'll be busy doing adult things of their own.  i really try to live consciously and enjoy life for what it is today 'cuz these kids amaze me & make me proud all the time.

lexi

lexi is truly surprising me how she has fully engaged in the academics of kindergarten.  i know that the social aspect of it would be right up her alley, but she's embracing the knowledge part of it full on.  her kindergarten class has a pet named chappy and each child gets to take him home overnight.  we had chappy stay over a week ago and part of the process is to write about your adventures with chappy.  i'm thinking to myself, "yeah right, this is work for me 'cuz there's no way that lexi can write anything".  well bite your tongue cynical mother.  i looked through the binder and saw that about half the kids wrote their own & the other half the parents did.  so then i'm thinking well....but not totally confident.  so lexi takes chappy on a play date adventure & as soon as she gets home she gets the binder ready to do homework.  mind you lexi has been ready to do homework for 2 years now since sebi started doing homework.  her kinder class hasn't started homework yet at this point so she took this on big time!

 
in her eyes it was her first homework assignment.  she got her letter chart & with some help about what some letters were she wrote her own story!  it never even crossed her mind that i would do any writing.  this was all about lexi.  go girl!  chappy sat by her side as she did the work diligently.

i'm so flipping proud of her and the work she produced!

and lexi's day finally came yesterday.  she came home with her first homework packet & she couldn't get to it fast enough.  we have a standing play date on wednesday so lexi & i went to pick up her friend emily at her old preschool and she held on to that homework packet the whole way, proudly showed her old teachers and as soon as she got home sat down at the kitchen table to work.  her little friend drew for a little while but then became interested in lexi's work.  i was worried this might be a distracting work environment until i made copies of the worksheets for emily & both girls worked on their own together.  the girls whipped through all the worksheets & i giggled when i read the notes from the teacher.  it talked about how there's about a sheet per night and this should not take more than 5 minutes per night and that homework shouldn't become a stuggle, etc. etc.  well lexi polished it off in one sitting.  the only problem?  she's going to want more homework tonite as sebi works on his own so i'm gonna have to create some lesson plans for lexi.  this is a good problem to have.  love it and love this little girl! 

sebi

sebastian had his first field trip last week to the jelly belly factory.  i was a parent chaperone and i've always heard this is a great trip/tour.  it did not disappoint.  candy factory, do i need to say more?

 
but my favorite part of the day was when sebastian just came up to me in the middle of the trip with all other 2nd graders around and just gave me a big hug for no reason.  he loves that i'm involved.  he loves when i help out in his classroom.  he loves to have me around.  i cherish this right now, 'cuz i know that's probably not always going to be the case, but with sebastian i wouldn't be surprised if he's the kind of teenager that seeks his mother's advice.  time will tell and for now i just enjoy his sensitivity.  when i told him i was leaving when the kids were safely back in the classroom, he asked me to wait and ran over to give me a hug goodbye.

i love this boy with all his craziness and little boy energy and silly mouth sometimes, but it all makes him who he is & he's a fabulous individual.  we had our parent teacher conference w/ mrs. donovan yesterday and she couldn't say enough nice things about sebastian.  she started by saying "i love this little boy".  seriously what else could we ask for?  yes, there's reading and writing and math and respect and all that great stuff that we send our kids to school for but if the teacher loves him, it's 'cuz all those other things are aligned properly.  this is what i took away from the meeting.  sebastian is a funny boy with a fabulous disposition who everybody loves and is always happy.  although i'm paraphrasing these are her words.  and i know this as his mother, but it's wonderful to hear from the the only other person who spends the most time with him right now besides us.  he makes me proud.... A LOT.  

a couple...

of layouts.  i created these a couple of months ago but they are just getting put away now so i thought i would post them for funsies.... & there lies the real root of the problem.  i should be cleaning my scrap area..or..watering the plants outside..or..finishing that last load of laundry i always leave in the dryer on laundry days..or..decluttering the kitchen counters..or..you get they idea huh?  procrastination.  it's not good.  and it sits on my shoulder somedays as i tell myself  "a couple more minutes & i'll do something productive..."

  

 

in my defense though...i did work on the yearbook and some memory-works biz this morning so it hasn't been a total bust.  and besides, in a couple of minutes....

happy labor day!

 

great weekend.  great life.  great country.

back 2 school

 

so the kids started school last week.  here they are with the principal, who instills a fabulous community feeling at montair elementary.  lexi started kindergarten, while sebi began 2nd grade.  i'm so proud of them.  luckliy lexi got a morning kindergarten, which we weren't sure about until the school posted the teacher/classroom assignments the friday before school started.  not only did she get a morning spot but she got who is revered as the "best" kindergarten teacher.  i hate to say that, 'cuz they are all good, but there's always one that everyone talks on & on about.  it's actually a shared classroom so she has 2 teachers, one week on one week off.  the other teacher is one sebastian had one day a week when he was in kindergarten & i really enjoy her.  enough about the teachers, lexi has adapted without skipping a beat.  she's already made some friends & wants playdates, she talks about what she's learning with an air of superiority (she's a big kindergartener now, c'mon), and she loves all the back to school clothes that came with the big move to elementary school (somethings will never change).  any concerns or worries i might have had about her being ready have been squashed.  can u tell she's in her element?

 

sebi also has a fabulous teacher for second grade and he seems to have adapted wonderfully without going through the testing phase.  i think we have his first grade teacher to thank for that as well as all the preventitive maintenance matt & i did beforehand.  OR maybe he's just growing up.  either way we're very proud of him as well.  matt & i were just discussing last night how he seems to have matured.  he takes care of his sister, he speaks more eloquently and just seems to "get it" way more than before.  this BIG boy will always be my baby boy though whether he likes it or not.

     

back 2 school nights were this week & sebi's teacher gave him a rave report, quieting any doubts or concerns matt & i might have had.  we're not worried about him academically since he tends to be a fairly bright boy, it's that he's too smart for his own good sometimes & likes to see how far he can push a situation for leverage.  (i say future lawyer by the way).  But apparently his teacher hasn't seen any of that.  she loves his SPARK as she put it; love to hear that.  when she says it's time for business she says he responds immediately.  love to hear that too.  the funny part is we never even asked lexi's teachers about her transition.  lol!  clearly she's the lower maintenance child in this category, 'cuz we all know overall low maintenance is not how we would describe lexaliscious (as my good friend coined her).  in my defense though, i was a bit preoccupied as a room parent in her classroom to make sure all the proper forms were filled out.  not sure yet how i ended up a room parent, but at least i'm sharing the job w/ 2 other great ladies.

 

one VERY happy family.  two good kids, two proud parents (& one hairy beast at home~can't forget mocha)......

  

so...where were we?

last time we spoke, my in-laws were in town.  that was a fantastic visit.  we celebrated my mother in-law, marina's, birthday in style!  one night we went out to dinner.

 

on the actual night of her birthday i cooked at home and celebrated with family only.  i love a well dressed table.  it's just fun!  just only wish there was someone around to clean it all up afterwards, but anyway, it's well worth it.  we had caviar & champagne to start.  linguine & white clam suace for dinner.  and gelato for dessert at the birthday girl's request.

 

 

 

the girls.

 

three generations of materazos.

   

some grandma birthday love.

 

we also went to a local concert in the park with our friends the rooneys et al.  it was a jimmy buffet band & it was tons of fun.

 

a lil' dancing- always!

 

we also journeyed into the city & visited hog island oyster co in the ferry building (matt's old stomping grounds when he still worked at delmonte).  anyway, more champagne & some delicious oysters.

 

we also journeyed to the beach, tomales bay to be exact.  all i can say is been there, done that, don't ever have to go back....

 

 

 

after that august pretty much flew.  matt & i had five, fabulous days in cabo, mexico.  it was an incentive trip for conagra & the kids stayed home with auntie fabianna.  it was our first visit to cabo & we loved it!  conagra really did it in style and the resort, fiesta americana was great and the wait staff was even better.  here's the view  from our room.

i really relaxed and didn't take many pictures.  i'm relaying on getting photos from everyone else (fingers crossed).  can't wait to go back though, really, Really, REALLY loved it! 

now we're in back to school mode...more on that later.

smile!

 

my in-laws arrived for their annual summer visit from south carolina yesterday & these are the flowers i put in their room.  the kids are so excited and happy to have grandma & grandpa here they can barely contain themselves.  i love overhearing the conversations they have with them and i know my in-laws cherish every moment since they wish they could see them more often.  i love having company, whether simply over for dinner or for a week's stay, 'cuz it always motivates me to get stuff done around the house.  one of the projects i've been working on lately is this plant stand.

  

it makes me SO happy.  i had bought it at the dublin house when matt & i first moved in, where it sat in the corner of the kitchen.  as soon as we started having babies, which brings along with it all the gear, high chairs, swings, bouncy seats and the like, i decided to break down the plant stand & put it away (i really wanted to set it up outside but our patio in dublin didn't lend itself to it).  so i relegated it to the garage where it was moved around a few times, then made the big move to the danville house where it once again sat in our garage for a little over a year.  i set it up about a month ago & i was really, Really excited i had all the pieces and hardware i needed.  i know along the way some of the pieces were separated & the bag with the hardware was misplaced at least twice that i can remember, but low & behold it all came together perfectly.  now it sits in my covered patio just like i had always wanted.  {side note: matt always pokes fun at me 'cuz i always say "i've always wanted this or that or whatever" but it's TRUE.} this is what i had enviosoned and now that i dusted off my terra cotta pots & planted my fun plants it's a welcoming sight when we step out on the patio, that DOES lend itself to my plant stand vision.  in order to get all the plants i wanted with the right textures, colors, sizes etc. i shopped around quite a bit so my trusted companions also got a lil' somethin', somethin'.  can you guess whose is whose?

sebastian actually picked out both of them.  we first spotted the red one & only sebastian was with me while lexi was at a friend's house for a playdate so i thought it was only fair he could get one.  as i circled the indoor garden center at home depot for like the upteenth time sebi spotted the pink one & he insisted we had to get it for sissy.  yes, he is a sweet brother regardless of all the tough love he gives.  and if this wasn't enough greeness in my life at the moment, these pretties sit on my dining room table.

 

what is this other image you ask?  well, we just received some ReaLLy fun mail.  matt's team at work has won a trip to cabo san lucas next month.  this is our welcome package.  how FUN is that?!!?

 

it came loaded with fun information about our trip so i decided to start documenting our vacation with this box of fun.  matt & i are going alone for 5 days while the kids stay home with auntie fabiana & friends.  it'll be nice to spend some time together.  matt just received a wonderful prognosis that we have been worried about for some time and we have been blessed with a treatable & curable diagnosis that has finally put us at ease.  makes you appreciate life at a different level and reprioritize what really matters in this one and only fragile life we are given.

and these are some of the things that are putting a SMILE on my face right now.

summer happenings

just a little catch up to our summer happenings; unfortunately they're not so happening in the photo taking/documentation department.  the major events that have transpired so far this summer are lexi's dance recital and the 4th of july celebration.  well, lexi's recital photos are blurry for the most part,  i forgot to take my camera to the 4th of july parade (we ride our bikes downtown) and i then proceeded to simply forget to take photographs at the bbq at our house later that afternoon.  here is my feeble attempt~

 

matt actually took this one before the performance, hence why it's a great shot in focus.  for the first time i took pictures inside (you're not allowed flash photography during the show so i never bothered but the professional shots you can buy at $15 a pop aren't the greatest so i figured i would give it a shot instead~ i figured wrong....)

see what i mean?  lexi was still adorable; she's the one all the way to the right.  and although she didn't know the routine as well as she should have she still smiled through the entire performance.  it's all about stage presence baby!  to her defense it's really my fault.  i probably should have bought her the dvd to practice at home but i feel like they (the dance company) suck money out of you every time you turn around so i didn't spend the extra $$ to get it.  c'est la vie.

the 4th of july parade was a blast as always and although i'm really sad i forgot my camera, it actually let me enjoy the parade (& the mimosas we were drinking) in a more in the moment way rather than worrying about capturing everything.  at the house i also forgot to take out the camera until later in the day when the kids starting dabbling in the firework festivities, you know sparklers, stink bombs and the like.

 

 

NICE!

 

.....and this is what our patio looked like when we were done....GOOD TIMES~!

festivities follow-up

lexi's 5th birthDAY, 'cuz it lasted allllllll day, was fun & crazy & exhausting.  we started the day with a pincess mani/pedi and lexi LOVED it!  i might have created a monster.  she got the full blown deal w/ pumice stones and cuticle treatments and lotion rubs AND it still has not chipped off 36 hrs. later.  that's a record for any nail polish in lexi's five long years of life.

 

  

 

she selected the colors all by herself.  surprised?!!?  anyway, after the salon we headed for the candy shop for some old fashioned candies to put in the goodie bags.  of course the birthday girl couldn't leave the store without a treat for herself and walked out with a lollipop practically as big as her 5 year old self.

 

after stuffing all the goodie bags for her friends and sebastian getting home from lego camp we head over to safeway for the beautiful barbie ballerina cake....that was not ready...and allegedly not ordered.  well, upon some quick research the head master baker admits they flubbed and will quickly make it for us if we can come back in an hour.  well, this is where the best laid plans go out the window.  we had planned lunch w/ daddy in pleasanton and currently we're at the safeway in alamo, which is a good 20 to 30 min. ride depending on traffic.  the party is also in pleasanton so this means going from alamo to pleasanton, having lunch with dad, going from pleasanton to alamo, picking up said cake, and finally going back from alamo to pleasanton.  why not, right?  what else am i gonna do?  "hey, lexi, you know that beautiful cake you picked out the other day?  well the evil head master baker witch didn't bake it for you.  so u don't get a beautiful barbie ballerina cake for your 5th birthday..."  anyway, i promised to be back in a couple of hours (at a reduced price mind you).  so we had a fun lunch with daddy, spend almost an hour in toyRus where she gets a balloon & crown and everyone wishes her a happy birthday, but can't find anything she Really wants so we end up at target.  1 pair of shoes, 2 dresses and a jewelery mannequin later we head back to alamo for the cake.  back to pleasanton for the party & to say lexi had a good time is an understament.

    

after a very short moment as a princess she opted for the fairy existence.  a very good choice in my opinion; the colors just worked better for her.   

 

lexi & all her friends played dress-up, created some crafts, had a fashion show, ate and danced.  life doesn't get better than this for a five year old fairy surrounded with friends & fun.

 

even noah her little prince was there.

 

who she had no inhibitions about eating on her first date with....

 

the princess tea room was super cute and a great experience.  after we sugared the kids up with cake ('cuz they weren't hyper enough as it was) we sent them on out to the arcade.  and although it might not seem like it, my prince was there too, he just spent most of his night in the arcade with some buddies.

  

and after going home and while opening her presents my five year old daughter says to me "hey lady are you ever gonna stop taking so many pictures!"

 

hit the summer running

summer has officially kicked off & since the end of school my life has been a blur.  it's a good blur but i really want to slow down & enjoy the summer-i-ness of things.  lexi's graduation celebration was followed by sebastian's last week of school, consisting of field day, all day field trip to crab cove (which i chose to drive & chaparone) and end of the year party (which i also attended with lexi).  on this last day of school we left for idaho to our good friends' cabin.  it worked out beautifully since our friends have kids the same age and lexi & emily played and played and played.

 

and trevor and sebastian played and played and played.

and of course the adults played as well.  here i am with my good friend lisa who was generous enough to open up her cabin to the materazo family. 

 

the dads also had some fun.  here they are setting off for a 4 wheel excursion (much more controlled than the ladies experience, which i won't get into much detail here, but lets say... many dead end turn arounds, running out of gas & abandoning an atv and knocking on a nice lady's farm door...).

 

thank you bertas for a fun filled adventure.  it kicked off our summer in a hurry!

  

now my life at home hasn't slowed down as much as i had hoped either.  lexi's FIFTH birthday is on wednesday so we're hosting playgroup today in honor of that & the big princess tea celebration at super franks on wednesday.  we just finished baking the cupcakes for playgroup while sebastian is at lego camp.  this is the only week camp i signed up for.  lexi still has her dance with her upcoming recital at the end of the month and after that it's just US chilling in the summertime.

my june workshop is on thursday.  the theme is father's day/masculine layout.  since it's theme based rather than technique driven i'm reviewing circles & sheer/transparent elements in this class.  here are the  class samples.

 

... and ...

 

supplies used:

scrap within reach industrial theme paper set

prism cardstock - gray

maya road sheer clocks

tim holtz idealogy sprocket gears

american crafts mini brads - black & pewter

{MJM} "father time" transperancy title

mmm, the cupcakes smell good!  time for frosting.  i'll be back with birthday celebration updates.  happy summer!