a good week.

we have had a good week.

last weekend, our isabella turned 4.

(although she now insists she is 5. oh, that child.)

our weekend was spent celebrating her.

we started off on friday at disneyland!

while jackson was at school, i took her in by myself for awhile.

i loved the one-on-one time with my big girl.

the forecast for friday was rain.

ugh.

i am not a fan of amusement parks in the rain.

but we had promised, so we put on our raincoats and purchased some ponchos.

it was lovely in the morning... i thought 'rain' must have meant 'sprinkles.'

boy, was i wrong.

right about the time daddy came with the other 2 kiddos,

the skies opened up.

we got SOAKED.

we even pulled out the super-cool ponchos.

wet underwear makes me grumpy.

it finally let up around 2:00, just in time for our friends, the coltmans to arrive.

(she is amazing- she braved the rain with 2 little girls and a prego belly.

and looked super cute doing it. her hubby joined us a little later.)

the kids had a great time, despite the weather.

and they loved playing with their new friend, lainey.

bella insisted on riding the little mermaid ride 3 times, 

and would have kept going if we let her.

luckily, the other kids were big fans, too.

that night, we stayed for bella's favorite, the parade.

all the characters waved and wished her happy birthday.

she was in little-girl-heaven.

especially since she also got hot chocolate and cotton candy!

(charlotte ate her first cotton candy and was literally trying to shovel it into her mouth.  hi-lar-ious.)

the next morning i had a photo shoot with a fun family.

i seriously love taking pictures.  and so fun taking them of new people!

that afternoon, we decided to do a last minute non-party at the park with some new friends.

(my sweet hubby knows how i can get a little, well, obsessed with parties.  

so no banners, no decorations, no games.  just cupcakes and playtime at the park).

i wanted to make the perfect cupcake.

so i made this cupcake and this frosting.

neither turned out how i wanted.  and together... a cupcake horror.

(okay.. that may be a slight exaggeration.)  

but i had a gigantic minor meltdown regarding sad-looking cupcakes 

and my daughter turning 4 years old.

my oh-so-patient husband sent me to ralphs to buy some store bought cupcakes.

problem solved. crisis averted.

bella had rapunzel cupcakes and couldn't have been happier.

bella was so excited about all her new friends coming.

and i had this sweet moment where i looked around the table at all these families 

and was just so thankful that God has already provided these friends for us.

bella and her friend, nyomi.

nyomi's big brother is in jackson's class at school.

some of our favorite new families

(the coltmans + corrine, the halls, the brummels, the brauns, the rottschafers, and the mccartys.)

(side note... the week before, my sweet friend corrine came over while jeff was at work one night.

she helped me make these super yummy giada pinwheels with my kids.

so fun. so delicious!)

sunday morning was bella's actual birthday.

it was also daylight savings time.

seriously... i would like to take whoever invented daylight savings into a dark alley.

i may have a thing or two to 'say' to them.

we may or may not have bribed our kids to stay in their room with breakfast cupcakes.

i'm not even sorry.

and yes, those are the cupcakes from the previous day's cupcake-meltdown-extraordinaire.

after some early-morning sugar, we headed to church.

i even had friends to sit with this week!

happy me.

sweet brooke is jackson's special buddy for his class at church, 

and my kiddos favorite babysitter here.

she was super sweet and brought bella a birthday gift.

precious.

that afternoon we had a ministry event

(so fun.  i love balboa island. and kids ministry. and new friends.)

and then headed over to sprinkles cupcakes.

because bella just hadn't had enough cupcakes, right?

we dropped daddy off at work and then went home to eat this famous cupcake.

it really was yummy!

monday morning, our friends, the dodds came through town on their way to arizona.

they brought their doggies, lucy & murphy.

bella was in LOVE.

those poor dogs.

that night, i had my first girls-night-out since moving here.

it was SO.MUCH.FUN.

i loved every single girl there.

and the food was amazing!

i'm already looking forward to next month :)
(sorry- no photos.  i didn't want my new friends to think i was crazy. it is too early for them to know the truth)

tuesday jeff was back at work, but he surprised me with a date night!

whoo hoo!

(2 nights out in a row.... i didn't know what to do with myself!)

we had a gift card to this unbelievable restaurant.

seriously... i would have to sell a kid to eat there normally.

and it would be worth it.

we ate grilled artichokes, roasted beets (my first ever), crab cakes, mashed potatoes, and the best rib-eye ever.

my mouth is watering just thinking about it. mmmmmm.

after that, we took the ferry to balboa island to walk around, 

and then got vanilla chai at gypsy den in costa mesa.

maybe one of our best date nights ever.

and it had been a long time since we had some good time to talk.

i love my husband.

a lot.

wednesdays are my favorite mornings.

i have nurture at church, a group of about 100 moms meeting together.

we eat a delicious breakfast, pray and connect, and then listen to a great speaker.

i adore wednesdays.

here is my table- joyful.

(we are missing juliana)

emily is our table leader, and one of my favorite new people.

seriously.  she is adorable, thoughtful, and so fun.

here are the girls leaving nurture, both wearing their 'kitty' shirts.

i love them.

we had lunch at a park in costa mesa where they feed lunch to the homeless on wednesdays.

we want our kids to be part of experiences like that.

i don't think they totally got it, but it was neat to be there and see what was going on.

(but also sad to see how many people there were hurting and in need)

it definitely makes you appreciate how much we are really blessed with.

it was a great week.

maybe the best week i've had since moving.

it was less about what we did, and more about who we did it with.

time with my little family is always precious.

and i love all our new friends.

it doesn't make me love or miss my old ones any less,

but it does make life here much, much better.

yep.... 

it was a good week.