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Bridges of Madison {Cerritos} County...

One of my favorite movies is Bridges of Madison County with Meryl Streep and Clint Eastwood,  She is my favorite actress (I loved her in Sohie's Choice for which she won an Oscar}. Mr. Incredible's favorite actor is Clint..hands down he can watch all of his movies over and over and over again, but he has never seen The Bridges of Madison County up until a couple of weeks ago.  It was on again last night and I can watch it over and over.  Love the scenery, the farmhouse and the old trucks they drive up and down the dirt roads. 

Well I don't live in Iowa but we have a little park near our home and it reminds me of the movie.  The girls call it Pirate Park, I call it Paul Revere Park but its actual name is Heritage Park in Cerritos, Calif.  We LOVE going to this park. I love to take a good book and read under the trees, my Li'l one loves to take my camera and take lots and lots of pictures, {me too} and my eldest likes to jump on the rocks or kick the soccer ball around with a friend. 

This is why they call it Pirate Park...it has a stone boat out in the pond to play on...which looks like a mini pirate ship.

I call it Paul Revere Park because throughout the park their are places engraved in metal plaques with the poem of "The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere"...

there is play equipment, slides and jungle gyms enclosed in the cutest little buildings....that are replicas of a village in Massachusetts.

Can you see it through the doorway?

 

Love all the brick and all the White clapboard on the little buildings....

And here they are with their besties :)....

Madison's Hawaiian Themed Room

When we moved into the Cottage on Cullen in June we had the hardwood floors redone and repainted the Living/Dining room, Family Room and all of the bedrooms. The home is very beachy and done in blues and greens. Madison choose a very BRIGHT green for her room.  I was like.."are you sure you want this green?"  

"Yes, Mom, I'm sure". I know in the old house she kept saying her room was too white, well it is not white any longer.  Okey Dokey.   Before I show you her room in it's entirety {well, it is a very small room, the smallest of the bedrooms in all of 1300 square feet of our very humble abode}...let's take a look at the before pictures.  When we looked at this house the first time it had graffiti all over the walls especially in the family room and living room. Yikes!  Madison's room was lavender not a bad color for a girls room but she is not a purple kind of girl.

yes that is the doggy door over there.....who in the sam hill puts a doggie door smack dab in the middle of the room under the windows!!  Seriously!!!  

This is her very minuscule closet, lucky the girl does not have a lot of clothes like her sister, we would have to have them spill out into the hall closet.  What sold her on this room are those shelves that go across the top of the wall.  They are on two walls all around the top near the ceiling.

Even the ceiling was painted purple...and that hideous fan!! Gawd!!

She got this quilt this past Christmas from PBTeen...It was on her list.  We bought a rug from Ikea for the family room a few months ago, but Mr. Incredible thought it was too small for the family room so Madison said she wanted it in her room. So in it went and it goes perfectly with the Lulu Quilt.  The quilt ties the brown rug, green walls and her turquoise desk that I repainted for her old room. {it was my mothers and it was in our living room as long as I can remember}.

It has some cute shelves on the side where she keeps pencils, crayons, magazines, which is my favorite part of the desk.

After my friends' daughter baby shower we got to bring home the green lanterns and the turtle on her bed. I think we should add some poufy tissue papers balls to them in a turquoise or brown to add texture and more color against the green walls.

 Looking from the desk over to the opposite corner, the dresser was my husband's parents and her chunky TV. It was at the foot of the bed and it made it too squishy so it was moved to the corner.  The Jenny Lind bed was mine when I was a little girl, love it's chippy paint.

This magnetic raffia bulletin board is what got us started on the whole Hawaiian theme.   The green Gerbera daisies we had in a watering can in her old room and here we re-purposed them as as a magnetic flowers.  

Looking back towards her door you can see the board and her ceiling shelf.  
The large aqua ball jar has sand from Alabama where my In-laws live.  The small ovalish box is in the shape of Kaua'i, the island I lived on for 10 years.

Here "Shelf of Fame"...a few of her trophies that can fit up there and pictures of her softball and soccer teams she has been on.

I'm on the look out for a medium size mirror to put over these side table...with 1 tween and 1 teenage girl in the house.  I don't think I could have enough mirrors.  

Hope you like the tour of her room.  It has been fun working with her and seeing it come together.  I have some bamboo rods that I don't know exactly how to use them.  Possibly a valance rod or maybe a rod to hang pictures from on the opposite side of her bed.  I think I'll be getting some wicker type basket in brown for under her bed.  What do you think?  Any ideas?

 

I'm a survivor....

Not because I had Breast Cancer, BUT because I have survived 12 {plus her sister and her sister's friend} girls at the age of 12 SLUMBER Birthday Party...and there was no slumber to be had.

Yep that's right my Li'l One turned 12 on Sunday and she wanted to have a Slumber Party....but they stayed up the WHOLE NIGHT...seriously!  It wasn't until about 7 am when Mr. Incredible woke up and I finally went to bed { around 5:30 am}, and he went to get donuts, by the time he got back they had CRASHED!!  Down they all went!!  Finally some peace and quiet.

Yep I jumble of bodies, blankets and clothes.  

Snickers was ready to play soccer with them but she could not get them to budge!  

One party goer fell asleep with her sunglassess on...ha!

She choose a hot pink/zebra stripe color theme this year.  The goody bags had some nail polish and pink snowballs and other goodies inside.  They were closed with the Zebra hair clips that she made to give out.  

We picked up a small bunch of Hot Pink Gebera daisies to put in the Ikea pitcher.  They were so pretty and looked like they were fake flowers.  Nope, gotta love my Trader Joes for their flowers, at 3.99 a bunch.  

Decorations of the food table where a hodge podge of white balloons,  a few tissue paper lanterns and rose puffs that we made to hang from the ceiling.

A four layer funfetti cake with buttercream frosting.  The birthday Girl made the zebra banner herself.  I tell ya the girl is crafty!

I had bought different candles but could not find them when it came time so sing "Happy Birthday" so we ended up using the sparklers..I love then but they take forever to light.  

They played the donut eating game {similiar to bobbing for apples}.  They did an old fashioned scavenger hunt and then around 1 a.m. they TPed a neighbor/friend from schools house, they were so excited to do this, but I they kept giggling I thought for sure they get BUSTED.

I think the girls had a great time and it did not take too many days for me to recooperate.  {please do not pay attention to my make-shift curtains...that is on my to do list to sew up some with the material in the corner over there by the window}  

it's been a long time....

since the school as taken first place in the "middle schools' tournament", to be exact it has been 6 years. The girls were sooo very happy.

It ended up going to Penalty Kicks in the end and they dog piled the Goalie, who did a fantastic job for someone who has never played soccer, and goalie for that matter.   Madison did a great job helping her team to the victorious win by chipping two balls in the goal when the other team got a foal call.   

here is my girl....taking a free kick.

She is number 53 on her club team and let's just say I'm quite a passionate cheerer on the sidelines and I don't know all the girls names so I scream, "go number 10, go number 8".   In one of the games, "I was yelling Go number 9!!"...then I realized it was my own daughter..I'm such a dork!  I'm very proud of all the girls, they played hard.   Now it is on to Try Outs for Basketball......

As Valentines Day is just around the corner a few ideas to ponder....

Isn't this so cute to put in a simple frame, maybe from Ikea?

From Better, Homes and Gardens Heart Waffle Maker from their "shop" you can have darling waffles Pops for your Lovies on the special day.... 

Also from Better, Homes and Gardens putting together a "play on words" to pack a lunch for your "loveys"....

Love this wire tree to hold all the special Valentines....from their loved ones.

Making Red Velvet Whoopie pies for a sweet dessert, doesn't get any better than that....

Oh Gosh  I "dig" this.....with a beach shovel....from the dollar store and some M and M's in pink, red and white.....so simple and cute...

this is another great simple idea with white, pink or red heart shaped doilies sealed inside with a surprise for your "hottie".....

You know those empty M and M containers you get?  Well, is this not cute?  Some bubble gum and a kiss.....

And last but not least is from Twig and Thistle...a simple download printable that you can print on your home printer and fill with whatever sweets you like...a cookie or some favorite candy.....just a few of my favorite ideas to get us psyched up for  Valentines Day...

Oh...by the way I loved that commercial on the Super Bowl today with the very beautiful blue eyed brunette that was getting ready for a "hot" date and the message was "Give" and you shall receive"...I had to look over at Mr. Incredible and give him a wink.....

 

Citrus....

Our citrus trees are "going off"!  We have an orange tree and a grafted Lemon/Orange tree.

Here is the grafted one, meaning it is half orange tree and half lemon tree. The oranges are soooo very sweet and the lemons so juicy. 

Last week our temps have been in the mid 70's, my li'l one decided to have a Lemonade stand with one of the her girlfriends.  They didn't do too bad for a couple of hours, they made about $10.00 dollars.  This weekend the weather man is calling for rain so I think we will be swinging the other way and sparking up the fireplace.  That is one of the wonderful things about living in California, that we can be enjoying the warm weather in the winter and the next minute br snuggled up on the couch listening to a crackling fire.  

In other news the demo of the front yard is happening as I type....yep.  By summer we should have a nice green, healthy lawn and a new landscaped yard with beautiful coastal, tropical feel to it.   Post to follow on what we might be thinking....

 

Medical Zombies!!

A quick look at my two Zombies and their soccer teammate and bandmate in the Medical/Morgue room...

I have lots of photos to share...very, very soon....

I have TWO MIDDLE SCHOOLERS!!! Oh MY!

 
 
Can you believe it!!  They both were so excited to go this morning.  Big girls now..in their skinny jeans ....

 
 
in their Joes {not Toms}....I think they look exactly the same minus the label. 

 
Backpacks loaded with new school supplies.....and carried by happy hearts....

 
 
Weekly beach days....will have to wait until next summer...

 

 
 
Daily reading...for pleasure gives into reading for school....

 
Bike rides will have to be saved for the weekends.....

 

 
Weekly pool dates will come to an end....ahhh  as our summer comes to a close with the beginning of school so comes the fall season.....early mmornings, Halloween and the Harvest Festival, cooler mornings, packed lunches and meeting new friends and more and more soccer games on the weekends.....

 
sooooo long days of leisure....I'll miss you!!

 

 

We are the champions 2 years in a row! Go Girls U14 OCR!

 
 
For the second year in a row we have taken first place at the HB Strikers tournament.  This team has had lots of changes this past year from the loss of their beloved Coach to another fabulous coach Matt.  A few new players and a new goalie who never played before and made the most awesome save during the championship game.

 
Our goalie with her very emotional father!   We were so proud of her courage.

 
Love, love, love as we await our fate.....to see if we made it to the championship game..

 
Yep, I'm showing my OCR colors, two days sitting at the field from 7 am until 9 p.m. on the soccer field.  If that is not dedication...

 
yep...it is all worth it in the end has we take home the Tiffanyesque crystal Trophy...

 
Yep...my girl played her heart out to help her team take first place...so very proud of her....

 
 

 
This face says it all!!!  Love the new do!! Are you ready to audition for reincarnation of Amy Winehouse?!!!!!

 
Not only that Li'l sister's team did an awesome job at their FIRST tournament as a team....so lots parents went home with pride in their hearts after this weekend!!   Go OCR!!!!!

I want to go back to school!!

Each year the girls get a set amount to spend on clothes for back to school.  I forget what last year's budget was. This year, they got $300.00 each and they were responsible for carrying the dinero in their wallet and going up to the check out and buying their items.  They did very well...but dang while they were shopping, I was "shopping" in my little world.  We hit 3 different malls this week and Target and a two Old Navies.   While we were at I found some things I would of loved to spend my "imaginary $$$" on.

 
When the girls first told me about Tom's I was like those are shoes your Abuela {grandmother} used to wear.  What you like those?  Well at Nordstrom...I saw them in Burlap....and I loved them!  How cool is that? 

I have a friend that told me recently, "thatI dress like my home"..yep I have to agree.  I also liked the linen ones they had. 

 
These cool pants would be in a shopping bag going home with me...

 
from American Eagle I'd love to accessorize with this scarf...

 
 
this anthro sweater {sorry it is so pix-elated}...

 
 
I love the hand knit detailing on this....

 
 
This cute black and white Polka-dotted dress from Boden....

 
 
I think if I was to be a follow a fashion character on Glee..it would be Rachel....ya think?  I do like how she dressess.

 
Also from Anthro, I love the color of this..and that sweet ribbon tie...

 
I know I posted about this fun bracelet before...the teacher in me loves it!  I really need to make one....

 
Actually I bought these at the beginning of the summer....from Target.  They have them on clearance..I love Espadrilles...Je taime...

 
I love these white clogs....I've been wearing clogs since I was about 8 years old...love them!

 
AND MY VERY FAVORITE FIND OF ALL, WHERE THESE BABIES!!  OH MY...AREN'T THEY THE CUTEST EVA? Oh look they get even cuter....

 
yes!! they come with pink satin laces!!!!  I luuuuvvveee them!  Well, if I can't get them at back to school time...they are going on my Dear Santa list...you betcha!