This weekend started out with Elle and her two buddies Charlotte and Logan going to lunch at Happy Dog Pizza with the Mommies and Baby Holden, of course. Believe it or not, despite having three toddlers and an infant, we had a nice, leisurely lunch. We then hit Home Goods and survived that, too!

Saturday we drove up to El Dorado Hills (Sacramento area) with the Corona’s for Sam Al-Esawi’s big 30th soiree complete with fabulous Persian food and a gorgeous belly dancer. Elle loved the belly dancer and was dancing for the whole hour with her. We enjoyed good music, good food and good friends.

Sunday we joined the Cohen family (Charlotte) and the Corona family (Logan) and hit Gilroy Gardens which is a little theme park just minutes from our front door. The kids enjoyed a few rides and just “pal”ing around with each other. It was in the mid-80s and gorgeous. We got a season pass and will be enjoying the water park there many times this summer!

As usual, the weekend went by way too fast, but was full of quality family time and many good friends!

Once in awhile I wonder where my career would be if I weren’t a stay-at-home Mom, but after I see pictures like these, I immediately realize that nothing else matters to me right now.

It was a hot one this weekend as temperatures made it well into the 80s. As you can tell from the picture above, Elle was much happier without her shirt.

It was a pretty busy weekend at the Aspiras household. Friday evening, we typed up and printed Holden’s Baptism invitations. Saturday was a day of cleaning and getting the house ready as we had the Corona’s over for dinner and drinks. They’ve been such a big help to us and we decided to fix them a nice meal to say ‘Thanks!’ Sunday morning yours truly had some play time to hit the driving range with Matt Corona. Auntie Becky and Aunti Shan stopped by for a quick lunch to see the children and catch up. We finished off the weekend with printing Elle’s birthday invitations Sunday evening. Oh yeah, Riggs got diarrhea and proceeded to poop on the floor in the guest room. I quickly sprung into action and headed over to Home Depot Sunday morning to rent a carpet cleaner. Whew! I’m tired to just thinking about what we did.

Today Elle reported for duty at eBay for their annual “Bring your child to work day”. She was greeted with her very own eBay badge and wore it proudly. After “shadowing” Daddy at his desk for awhile, she headed down to the cafeteria for some lunch and then a short stint in the Elmo bounce house. This was followed by a puppet show, an ice cream sandwich and a gander at the koi and turtle filled pond. Whew…..what a day! She was asleep the first few minutes of the ride home.

Pictures of today’s fun can be found here: http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=12tw9mxh.5chpt9ml&x=1&y=-obyfm5

Holden also had his 2-month check up. He has gained another pound and a half and grown another inch. He has been referred to a pediatric ENT specialist because the cyst is still hanging out in the back of his throat. Other than that he is doing great and survived his first set of shots complete with 2 Garfield band aids on his cute chubby thighs.

I really wish we could have stayed longer to spend more time with our family and friends. We had a great time seeing our friends Kevin Sharp and Deb Glazner (now known as Mr. and Mrs. Kevin Sharp) get married as well as enjoying pizza and sandwiches with their families at the rehearsal dinner at Ski Beach. Above is a picture of Dale “Meekrat” Robinson trying to sniff out some Wisconsin cheese. We had lunch with the Newmans which I totally feel bad about since that was the only time we got to spend with them. We brought the family to the zoo which I think Elle had more fun running around all that open space instead of seeing the animals. We’ll definitely make up for the short time on our next trip down there. I’ll have the pics I took of the wedding and rehearsal dinner on Kodak Gallery within the next few days. I also want to take the time to congratulate our friends Dave and Jen Dinnen who got married this past Easter weekend. We were unfortunately unable to attend but want to extend our best wishes to them on their future. Sorry guys! We really wanted to be there! Finally, as promised below is some of the raw footage of Elle finding her Easter goodies on our doorstep. You might want to turn up the volume for this one. Again, I apologize for the bad quality.

The title says it all. I just hope our refund gets here in time for us to pay our property taxes. Looks like we’ll be finding more stuff to put on eBay!

Well, San Diego actually. We will be packing up the car and leaving good ole’ NorCal in a couple of weeks for Kevin Sharp and Debbie Glazner’s wedding mid-April. For the road trip, I’m considering buying a GPS unit which I think might help other than just driving directions. Sure, one can go to Mapquest or Google Maps and map out the directions, but I think the selling point of the GPS is the Points of Interest (POI). If we’re on the road and need to stop for gas or take a break, the POI feature can help locate restaurants, gas stations, attractions, etc. I think it would help us make our trip somewhat stress free. Anybody out there have any thoughts?

Cliché I know but oh so very true. Especially for me since I’m out of the house before 7:00 a.m. and back after 7:00 p.m. for work. By then, I usually have about an hour to spend with the whole family before Elliott goes to sleep. Holden turned one month old today and it seemed like we brought him home from the hospital just a couple of weeks ago. We celebrated in a rather anticlimatic way by eating at a taco shop. Elliott is becoming more active and her vocabulary and memory are expanding at an increasing rate. She’ll be two in just a couple of months. It will be a busy week this week. It’s the end of the quarter so I hope to finish it with a bang – not a whimper (for you T.S. Eliot fans out there).