A Few of My Favorites

All of you moms know what an ordeal it is to get your kids ready for pictures ... outfits, hair, attitudes, etc.  It usually makes for one stressed mom.  Last weekend was no different for me - let's just say it wasn't our finest moment in the ESPN house!  Lucky for us our photographer is so good with my girls.  He manages to make our children look like the cutest most well behaved kids around (which we all know isn't true - well at least in the behavior department)!  So hear are a few of my favorites ....

BTW - I purchased the outfits on Etsy and when they came in the mail I had Chatty try hers on and it looked pitiful ... it was a dress and it looked horrible on her - seriously!  So I shortened it and made it a shirt and it looked so much better. 

And just to keep it real ... 

Sneak Peak

Annual birthday pics ...

(Ignore Chatty's slightly dirty feet!!)

Hey Good Lookin' What you Got Cookin?

It should say What you Got Bakin' - 48 cupcakes, 12 mini cupcakes and a soccer ball cake was bakin' last night.  I also whipped up a double batch of butter cream frosting and tinted it pink and green.  Sounds like an exciting Thursday night at the ESPN household.  And guess what I will be doing tonight?  Frosting all of those bad boys and hopefully not licking too much frosting off my fingertips (sooo fattening!).  As if that wasn't enough excitement for a Thursday evening I mopped the floor and then proceeded to try and find outfits for our family for pictures tomorrow. 

Yes we had the bright idea of doing family pictures tomorrow before the party.  I found stuff for everyone to wear in the family except me - what else is new?  So that means in addition to my frosting duties and grocery shopping this afternoon, I need to find a shirt that is either navy, yellow or green so I look like I belong with the people who live in my house!  Bia told me this morning "No want picture taken" - lovely!  We told her and Chatty that we will stay and take pictures until we get good ones even if it means missing their birthday party (yes we are those kind of parents).  I even told Chatty to start practicing her smile (she has this goofy, constipated looking, fake grin that Mr. ESPN and I hate).  Needless to say I may get a note home from her teacher telling me that she couldn't concentrate in class because she was too busy practicing her smile so she could make it to her own party on time. 

If my children listen as well as they usually do it will be a doozy of a session tomorrow!

Bribes

So this morning I bribed the girls in order to get some cute pictures.  I wanted some pictures of them for their birthday party invitations (and because I haven't taken any in awhile), so the nice mom I am I told them that unless they complied with my mini photo shoot that they would not have a birthday party.  Yeah they don't know we already paid the $50 deposit for the place and we are contractually obliged to have it at the railroad park already (they had a sweet - cheap deal) .. we'll stick to the "Need to Know" theory around here and as far as Mr. ESPN and I are concerned, they don't need to know that information.  Hope you are having a good weekend.  Chatty and I are trying to kick our colds! 

Below are the results of my bribe ....

GOAL!

Last weekend Chatty had an early soccer game - 8:00 a.m. Wouldn't you know that last weekend was the first time we had winter weather here in the desert? It was 35 degrees out when we got to her game. While I know that isn't super cold for some of y'all it is cold for us here in the desert! Chatty didn't seem to mind - she was on fire (as one of the other moms put it) on the soccer field. I think she was running like a wild woman to keep warm. Anyway with the game tied at 0 in the third period Chatty faked out (that's how she described it) the goalie and kicked a goal!!! Guess what - I even saw the whole thing, but alas I didn't have my camera!! She was so excited - as was I! Last game of the season (until January) is this Saturday at 8:00 a.m. I sure hope it isn't quite as cold out!

The day before Thanksgiving we took the girls to get their pictures taken. Last time we did this Bia didn't cooperate very well and I wasn't a very happy mommy! She must have remembered that everything is better when mommy is happy because she was so well behaved and smiled/posed on cue like none other! I have to give a shout out to Casey and say thanks for telling me where to get the aprons - they turned out so cute. I plan on letting the girls wear the aprons to bake now that I have the pictures taken.

I used this one for our Christmas card