The Beach Outside my Window

Early this morning I sat next to an open window and let the cool breeze wash over me. I closed my eyes and imagined that the rushing of the school morning traffic was actually a set of waves washing up on a beach outside my window. Just like the beach outside my motel room last week...

Celebrating our 20th anniversary on the beach was a blast! We've never taken a real vacation together, alone. Not even a proper honeymoon.

We are not luxury beach resort people. Not even. This groovy little motel was just the ticket!

Isn't The Beachcomber just as cute as can be? It will always be "ours." 

We spent lots of time walking on the beach. I couldn't keep myself out of the water, but SHOOT it was COLD! 63 degree F water shattered my romantic illusions of playing in the waves. 

The weather was quite cool as well, so we took a drive to Dana Point and hiked up on some cliffs. The trail was fenced off so we couldn't get too close to the edge. Better that way...no accidents!

Nice view of the marina.

The dolphin/whale watching tour was a little to pricey so we headed back toward our home base in San Clemente. I spotted Urban Bicycle Outfitters on the way. How fun! We spent two hours on single speed cruisers exploring the beach trail. We even hit some hills in search of a more remote surfing spot called Trestles.

Famished after going strong all morning and a good part of the afternoon without eating, we sat down for a relaxing Mexican lunch at a beautiful place recommended by Pete at the bike shop. We ate so much we had to take a stroll afterward! That's when I spotted BC Surf shop...oh yeah...

Vacation!

I'm on vacation. Don't hate me, but this is my view.

See you in a few days!

Spa Night!

Tonight was spa night with my girly girl! 

She's nine now and wants to grow up so fast. I'm so glad that I stole a few hours to lock myself in the bathroom with her! 

We put up our hair, slathered on some dead sea mud, and soaked our feet. We cleaned up all those little piggy-nails and I painted hers silver. So pretty! We took our time. Can you believe we blew nearly two hours?

We didn't have time for hair, face, or fingernails, but that's ok. We will have spa night again. Maybe next time will be manicure night? And something else after that. I can totally see this becoming a cherished tradition for me and my girls.

What sort of mommy-daughter traditions do you have?

Happy 5th Birthday Ralph!!

Thank you all for the suggestions. They were VERY helpful!

My cake skills are not what they used to be, but I'm still a mom who likes to try it on my own. The cake had to be simple to build and decorate. I was ill with a migrane yesterday PLUS my husband and older (i.e. helpful) children were away all day. Also, I had a fundraiser dinner for Grand Staff Ministries to attend last night. Ralph LOVES Yo Gabba Gabba, so I built this cake for him today:

I used four 9 inch round cakes, some 7 and 5 inch card board circles and rectangles covered in foil, black licorice, yellow frosting, and black and white fondant. EASY!! Not professional, but good enough to please my five year old son. And that, my friends, is what counts!

As for the big birthday present: Ralph LOVES cars so the plasma car would have been great. And he LOVES to play outside with his brothers and sisters, so the helicopter teeter totter would have been a fun choice. The sand and water table is going to be put on the back burner for another certain little boy who has a birthday in a few months. Much more about him later. I went in a different direction for his present than I thought I would.


Ralph has occasionally slipped out of the house unnoticed. On those rare occasions, I almost always find him trying to get into the van or across the street sitting on the neighbor's riding lawn mower. He's ALL boy! What do boys like to do? They like to DRIVE!!

After receiving a major case of sticker-shock for a new one at the store, I asked my husband to check Cr@igslist for one of these and guess what? I got a smoking hot deal on this gently used, battery operated Jeep!! This is something I said I would NEVER buy for my children. Haha! What do you think?

Oh...and I just drew the winner of the gift card! It's AMY!! Congrats Amy! Hope this comes in handy. Thank you to all my other readers and lurkers. You make Ralphcrew fun!

Sharing Our Joy! A Giveaway!

So if you guessed that this week is exciting because of Ralphie's birthday, give yourself a pat on the back!! His 5th birthday has creeped up on me. I'm suddenly dealing with a bunch of jumbled emotions. My fragile, smooshy little baby is a baby no more. And he's not fragile anymore either!

Ralphie in March 2010

I've always wanted to make a HUGE deal out of each of his birthdays. The first one was spent, guess where? The hospital. His second we had a new baby Ruby. His third we were preparing to adopt. I'm trying to remember number four...brain fog must have set in last year. Life around here is non-stop drama!

Now I'm running into a time crunch. Sunday is the big day and I have NO CLUE what to get for him. (Well, I was sorta looking at those Plasma Cars, what do you think?) I don't even know what kind of cake I can pull together before then, or if I'll end up at W@lmart after church asking them to write his name on a purple and orange monstrosity from the cooler.

So I need your help.

I need present and/or cake ideas for a 5 year old boy. Leave them in a comment here on the blog on this post. Facebook comments don't count this time. :) I need ideas right away (for realz!! help a mommy out!), but I'll leave the comments open until midnight on Saturday. Links are mucho bueno, so helpful.

Sunday I'll set up a spreadsheet with your names and choose a random winner for a $25.00 Amazon gift card! I'll announce the lucky winner here at Ralphcrew. Fun, huh? Thanks for reading what I have to share, even when it's boring. And thank you for letting me share my joy.

Now get crackin'. I need ideas. Fast!!

An Exciting Week!

This is an exciting week at our house! Every week, heck every day, is exciting in it's own crazy and random fashion, but this week is super special. It's so special that I'm thinking about giving something away.

What do you think? Why is this week so very special? Should I give something away? Does anyone still read this space? 

Let's find out. Check out the handsome face above and leave me a little comment...whatever comes to mind.  God bless you!

I should do this more often!

I've gotten out of the habit of writing. I think about it often, but it is very hard to make myself sit down and do it. That's too bad because these are the days I'll want to remember someday, even if I think I'd like to forget about some of them now.

It's far easier to flip on the TV or play some mind numbing computer game than actually convert my thoughts into text. It's easier to cruise Facecrack. When I finally get all the children off to bed, I want to completely power down my mind.

Here is a little of what's been happening:

Theo was diagnosed with H. pylori. Poor little dude! Thank goodness I finally took him in for a GI consult and a scope. He's been doing so wonderfully since his treatment, very little throwing up, very few really cranky days. I now know he was in pain for a very long time.

Look! He's nearly learned to RUN!!

Rose had a birthday. The camera loves her! Looking forward to homeschooling her next fall.

Ralph got a new bed! And he is almost 100% done learning to potty! These really deserves blog posts of their own. I'll put that on my to do list.

I've been determined for years to have a garden. This year I started 72 seedlings in my kitchen window to force myself to get that garden going. Today my handsome hubs tilled the garden area behind the backyard fence, out of reach of the dumb, digging dogs. My goal this week is to get those babies in the ground.

Oh, and lookie what I made out of a pallet? I found a photo of this on Facecrack (it's not just a huge distraction!), and put it together in just a few hours. I love not having to pull weeds and grass out of this garden!

Looking good, huh? Cauliflower, broccoli and cabbage! Room for spinach and hmm, not sure what else I'll put in there...

Oh, and I've gone a little nuts and put in some grapes, a peach tree and a four-in-one cherry tree! I have found digging in the dirt to be very calming and soothing. It's good medicine for this "fragile" mom.

I say fragile because that's what my pastor said today in the second part of his sermon series on anger. I don't have a lot of margin in my life right now. Moms like me are susceptible to anger management problems. I'm going to be listening to this series online a few more times. You can, too, HERE.

Wow, I've missed this! I should try to write more often. :)