Working at the car wash

Well, this is it, guys! 

The end of A Photo a Day in the Month of May is officially upon us. 

Wow, that was like crazy FAST! Wasn't it?

For all of you who played along on your blogs and on FB, 

thank you SO much for letting us peek into your daily lives... 

the good, the bad and the funny! 

Yeah, you guys totally ROCK!

And to close out the month, 

I leave you with photos of my kiddos' favorite bath toys these days...

The Hot Wheels Bubble Car Wash.

And in the event my catchy post title doesn't have you singing the song yet,

here's just a little taste of that groovy song's fab lyrics:

Hey, get your car washed today
be in our band, you don't have to pay
come on and give us a play

get it washed right away

At the car wash
talking about the car wash yeah
come on y'all and sing it for me
car wash woh
car wash yeah

Yeah,... you're welcome

;)

Five Guys

I've been hearing about Five Guys, the burger place, for what seems like forever. People rave about their burgers and fries. And if you know me, then you now how much I LOVE me a good burger.

Anyway, since Memphis just had one open recently, we decided to go, check it out and see what all the hype is about.

I really really really wanted to LOVE it. I honestly did. But I can't say that was the case. Don't get me wrong, the burgers and fries were good. They just weren't as good as I was expecting, again due to all the hype. And the noise level in the place,... WOW! It was bad enough to make me want to run for the hills!

So the bottom line is, the food was good, not great.
It was unbelievably LOUD and crazy crowded.
But we'll definitely give it another try
Like, maybe once the newness has worn off a bit.

Friends

Hot Dog, I missed a day! And I was doing so good. Argh!!!

I wish I had a really great excuse for you, 

but the truth is I just didn't pick my camera up once all day yesterday.

Oh, well...

Anyway, today was a VERY busy day.

It was all about spending time with friends.

Celebrating a new friend's birthday

And dinner and drinks with old friends who will soon be relocating

This is a photo from our beach vacation last year, since apparently my brain is mush and I forgot to take my camera with me tonight.

Seriously!

We love the Tolls dearly and will miss them like crazy!

But since I still have another month with them, 

I refuse to talk about any of it right now.

Nope! 

Not gonna do it!

Zoo Brew

a date with my favorite guy

150+ different beers to sample
a lot of uninterrupted conversations
even more laughter

a live band playing awesome music

perfect weather

It was FUN!

Today we celebrated him

It's hard to believe that this little cutie, 

 who happened to be the ring bearer in our wedding

graduated from middle school today.

This makes me feel SO proud...

and SO ancient!

Christian Javier was my first nephew.

We have a very strong bond.

I adore him.

Scott adores him.

Our kids adore him.

And that's just us!

 Don't even get me started on the rest of our family...

I think it's safe to say he is loved.

By many.

In true Torres family fashion, he had the usual groupies there to cheer him on

 

and he seemed REALLY happy

But then again, maybe it was because of the King Size Crunch bar he got with his diploma.

Congratulations, Christian Javier!

We love you SO much!

Wordless Wednesday - My Boys

Yeah, I'm pretty smitten with these two!

Ten on Tuesday

Top Ten Signs that Summer Break is ONE Day Away!

1. At the beginning of the school year, I was really good about waking up early and getting everything ready for the day. Here lately, I've been getting up around 7ish and running around like a chicken with my head cut off. Not good!

2. Once upon a time, when I used to wake up early, I would prepare eggs and sausage/bacon, pancakes, muffins and all sorts of yummy breakfast foods. These days, the choices are limited to oatmeal, cereal or waffles.

3. We celebrated Isabella's Kindergarten "graduation"/end of year party last Thursday. She was so excited that Mom, Dad, Tata and Sam were able to come and celebrate. We had pizza and drinks and cupcakes and fabulous goody bags. Their teacher, the beloved Ms. Long, gave every student a cute little certificate. They were all beaming with pride. SO cute!

4. All the kids in Isabella's class talked about character and the characteristics that make an outstanding character. Then they voted on who ( a boy and a girl) in their class exhibited these characteristics, and would be considered a role model for Outstanding Character. There was a tie within the boys. But, Isabella was voted the girl who was a role model for Outstanding Character. Yeah, we are SO very proud of our girl!

5. Even though Isabella is so ready for a break, she gets really sad when she thinks about not seeing Ms. Long and her friends for such a long time.

6. Sam had his end of year program today. Mommy, Daddy, Tata and Isabella were there to cheer him on. It was adorable. His class sang four songs. For days, whenever I asked what he was going to sing, his response was "I don't know!" I just knew it would be quite the interesting experience. But he did great. Very funny,... and entertaining.

7. Scott and I gave the kids their end of school year gifts today. Sam got a remote control F150 (now he has a truck just like his daddy), and Isabella got the Penguins of Madagascar Leapster game that she's ALWAYS wanted. They both got an art caddy filled with art supplies. They were thrilled!

8. We've been busy brainstorming about all of the events we want to include in our Summer Fun List this year. Stay tuned!

9. We are counting down the days of our family vacation. LITERALLY!

10. These two aren't even trying to contain their excitement!

Splish Splash

We had a lovely day on Saturday. The sun was out, the temps were comfortable, and there was a nice breeze. So, we thought it would be the perfect opportunity to break out our brand new Slip n' Slide.

Isabella, the ever-so-cautious one, took her time getting used to it.

But she quickly got the hang of it!

Sam, the ever-so-carefree one, was rolling all over the place from the get go!

Literally!

There is no fear in this boy of mine.

 But he sure does make us laugh!

While the kids had a great time tearing up the yard and creating the biggest mud puddle EVER, Scott and I had a great time sitting on the patio, sipping some beverages, and just taking it all in.

Oh, how we love fun lazy days like this!

I Heart Faces "Yellow" Entry

Wow, it's been a while since I last submitted an I Heart Faces entry.

The challenge for this week is "Yellow". I immediately thought of some of the photos I took of Isabella WAY back in 2008, when she was almost 3 and Sam was just a newborn. Scott was out of town on business, so the three of us spent the entire day at the Botanic Gardens.

Gosh, she's a vision in yellow!

And she looks so little.

Go to I Heart Faces  to check out all the other happy yellow entries.

And here I thought they liked us

I would like to thank our dear neighbors and friends 

(or at least I thought they were our friends)
Jason, Christie & Jan for:

(a) putting him on the motorcycle

and (b) telling him how he really needs to ask Santa for one of these for Christmas.

Yeah, about that...
Thanks!

You guys are AWESOME.

Like really really super duper AWESOME!

Sigh!

It's been a BUZZING day

LITERALLY!

Before:

During:

After:

Our sweet boy got his first ever buzz cut.

At home!

He looks like SUCH a big boy now.

Like he's 5 or something.

He does look adorable.

And he totally loves it.

But truth be told, it breaks my heart a little bit.

Cheap entertainment

So much to say

So little time

So little energy and motivation

So, I leave you with a few pictures of the kiddos playing with some silly string this afternoon.

No one was spared...

Not me

Or the dog

Run Rocky! Run!

But a good time was had by all.
And all for the bargain price of $2.00!

You gotta love cheap entertainment!

Right this second

I needed a haircut.
Bad!
So, after dropping Sam off at school, I raced to my hair girl and asked her to perform a miracle.

By the look on her face, she was praying for some divine intervention/assistance.

I think she got it!

Right this second, this is what I look like.

The hair dye is also pulling for some divine intervention/assistance.

It's gonna need all the help it can get to cover all my gray.

I get it from my Mother.

Thanks, Mom!

Drowning

I feel like I'm drowning in a constant state of planning:

class parties

my mom's etsy shop 

summer activities

summer classes ~ art & swimming

family vacation

birthday parties

and in a sea of colorful buckets!

Prepping

Have I told you guys that my mom makes jewelry? She does. And she is good! Her stuff is so beautiful. Anyway, after months a year (or, quite possibly two) of talking (and talking and talking) about opening an etsy shop, we're finally doing it.

I spent a HUGE part of my day today working with my mom to get all of her jewelry ready for her shop. That meant a whole lot of photos, a whole lot of measuring, a whole lot of descriptions,... a whole lot of work. And unfortunately, we're not done. I'll be back tomorrow for a whole lot more of the same.

But truth be told, I'm SO happy for her and I can't wait for her to have her shop up and running so that I can share all her pretties with you guys!

Anyway, here's a quick peak of some of the goods:

Beads and wire and flowers, oh my!

Stay tuned for the announcement of the shop's grand opening!

Nobody likes a bragger...

but I just can't help myself!

 My new Nook Color is definitely the cat's meow!

This spot

right here...

is one of our favorite spots in our house.

It's a highly coveted spot.

A very busy spot.

And it always looks a little something like this.
Day or night.

Which is exactly what I had in mind when creating it!

Milk & Shake

Today, we enjoyed lunch at one of our favorite spots:

Milk & Shake

What?

Wait...

Is that not what you call it?

Cause that's what our family calls it 

Thanks to Sam!

:)

Tonight...

Scott and I went to the movies

and had lots of this

and watched this

 and laughed... 

like really really HARD!

Meltdown Central

Three is SO much FUN!

No really!

A total blast.

Not at all filled with drama.

And don't you let anyone tell you differently...

It is literally meltdown central around these parts.

From "NO" to tears... as easy as 1 * 2 * 3

*1*

*2*

 

*3*

See? 

Told ya!

;)

And yes, being that Blogger decided to take a 24+hour vacation yesterday, I'm kinda cheating and posting this under Thursday.

I'm officially pinned!

Have you heard of Pinterest yet?

It is an ultra cool, virtual inspiration board/file cabinet of ideas you find on the web and want to make sure you file away to remember later. READ: Another awesome time sucking vacuum!

OK, so if you're anything like me, you (a) find something you really like while browsing online and add it to your mile-long list of bookmarks, that you ALWAYS forget to go back to, because you know, your brain is mush, or you (b) think to yourself this is SO cool, and I love it SO much, I just know I won't forget where it is, only to look for it 5 minutes later and NOT find it because your brain is mush and you can never remember anything. At. All!

Well, that's where Pinterest comes in handy.

While you're looking through your daily blogs or surfing the web for ideas, once you find something that, let's say, inspires you, you pin it to your virtual board to look at later. You can create as many boards as you like, with any and all categories that interest you, so that you can easily categorize your pins for easy retrieval later.

And instead of having to remember to look through ALL your bookmarks and/or giving yourself an aneurysm from thinking so hard as to where it was you think you remember seeing the perfect "fill in the blank", you just go to Pinterest and look at your board. Easy Peasy! (Yeah, I'm still looking for that darn scrapbook layout I saw about a week ago... the one I loved SO much I just knew I would remember where to find it!)

There's one catch, though...at this point in its BETA stage, Pinterest is open by invitation only. You can request an invite here, but apparently they are so bombarded with requests, it can take up to a few weeks before you're up and running. But don't fret, my lovelies,... since I'm officially in (thanks, Alissa!), all you have to do is send me an e-mail with your e-mail address and I can send you an invite. Then we can follow each other!

Trust me, it is FILLED with all sorts of beautiful inspiration.
But be warned, you could spend HOURS just looking through all those pretty pins.
I mean, not that I know from personal experience, or anything.
You know, I'm just sayin',... that's what I heard.
On the street.

Anyway, gotta go and pin life away!!!