Oh yes we did!

So much has been happening lately and I don't update nearly enough!  Where to start?  Sheesh.  Guess I'll go based on a timeline.  John's 32nd birthday was in May. I made sure to put 32 candles on that cake! I may have burnt my hands a few times. lol








Victoria graduated preschool (again)!  Of course my kid is the one making sure everyone is looking at her.  :)  She'll finally be off to Kindergarten this September and she's really excited about it. 

Mikayla just tested for her 2nd degree Orange belt in Tae Kwon doe.  I must explain this here:  the place is called "Karate for Kids" so I thought I was putting Mikayla into karate.  Well, they actually teach Tae Kwon doe and the belts for Tae Kwon doe are a little different than Karate.  They start with a white belt and then go to orange belt, then it is yellow belt.  In Karate the yellow belt is before the orange belt.  Confusing I know.  So if I say Mikayla has an orange belt in karate I actually mean she has it in Tae Kwon Doe.  :)  She's really proud of herself (me too). 

Which brings me to my birthday...which isn't until Tuesday but I got a present I'm really excited about.  I finally got a dog I've been wanting forever.  He's a Silver Terrier Yorkie mix and his name is Jasper!  He's smaller than Trinity!  He's the cutest thing ever!  The kids love him.  He's six months old, potty trained, and loves to cuddle.  Yay for Jasper...my birthday present to me...I'm so happy!

Angry Birds

As many of you already know our third daughter was born recently. Her name is Trinity Kali Riley and she's awesome! This I know because she's spawn of me. :) Just like my other two girls she was born to drink milk. I feel for the cows that must sacrifice so much for my children. In fact, we might save money by buying a cow of our own.

Since her birth the kids have mostly been left to entertain themselves although it's proved to actually be very entertaining for me as well. Victoria loves to steal my ipad and play angry birds (which she's quite good at actually) ...and well, this video explains it all.


As for Mikayla, she is now an orange belt in karate! She's been doing awesome and she's only 3! Watch out because she can throw a good punch. It's adorable to watch but lethal if you get in the way. So there's a quick update from the Rileys... love you all. :)

Parties!

So I've got some catching up to do in the blog department. We've had two birthdays recently...Mikayla is now 3 and Victoria is 5! Mikayla had an Alice in Wonderland themed party...complete with Eat Me Cupcakes and Drink Me "teacups". We had a tea party with sandwiches, cookies, and hot apple cider and celebrated everyone's merry unbirthdays just the way they do it in Wonderland. Everyone was told to come dressed in their best Wonderland outfit. We had some really cute rabbits, alices, and mad hatters! We also had a pinata...which turns out is really hard to break nowadays. John had to end up doing it and it took him a while too. lol.

Then we celebrated Victoria's birthday with her very first sleepover! Three kids ended up spending the night and about three others just came to the party part. It was hard to get those kids to sleep but they eventually did...which was good because Victoria had a dance performance at the festival of trees the next night. We managed to fit them all on her queen size bed...good thing those girls are small. :) She had her jungle cake that she requested...i just colored the icing green and added plastic animals because i wasn't going to pay $20 for a pre-made cake. Though it was a hassle I'm glad she got to experience having a sleepover. I think she enjoyed herself. So the next night was her dance performance at the festival of trees. She had no idea what she was doing this year but her Uncle Tommy and my brother and his family were kind enough to come watch her perform. She's still enrolled in dance and enjoys it so we'll keep with it if she wants to.

Other recent events have involved my mother coming to visit for Thanksgiving. The kids enjoyed having her here and going shopping a lot. Even meeting Santa. It was nice to get some help around this huge house for a while. We also found the time to make a gingerbread house with the kids. It was a fun experience and I look forward to eating it...yumm! So there's a brief catch up. If i've forgotten something I'll be sure to post it later on.

Too Many Bubbles?

Every once and a while we let Victoria and Mikayla use our Jacuzzi for bath time. John put some bubble bath in and walked away. 5 minutes later we come back to an overloaded bubble room! It turns out John used nearly the whole bottle of bubble bath. Oh well. Might as well let the kids enjoy it. You may also know that Mikayla loves playing with water. She helps to water our lawn sometimes. :)

Some stuff we've been up to...

Victoria had her final dance performance for preschool in June. She did a Lion King dance and "the Harry" which is super cute! I tried to post a video but it didn't load. :( Instead here's a pic of her in her outfit.

So school is out for the summer! Which means more time with the kids...i mean more time cleaning up after the kids. :) Unfortunately, due to Victoria's December birthday she won't be able to start kindergarten this year, which means she has another year of preschool she has to do. Her teacher says she's going to be REALLY ready for kindergarten...which means she'll be ahead. Maybe she can test out of a grade or something? We'll see.

I've been taking the kids out every once in a while to Classic Fun Center where they can get some energy out. They mostly love jumping on the bounce castles, but they can also go to the Jungle or go to the waterpark. Hopefully they'll learn how to swim soon.

John has been busy still in his "west wing room." It is coming along nicely. Although it's also taking a lot of work. He just put new sub flooring in where the office will be.

Life as of late has been the same for me...the usual cooking, cleaning, feeding, boringness of motherhood. However, I do have some news...I'm pregnant again. Yay! I'm currently about 10 weeks along and yes I'm throwing up...yuck. The due date is Feb. 17. I was hoping for a "summer" baby so that we can have some summer toys here, but oh well. :) Anyway, enjoy the video.

Please Help

These children severely need your help. They are so impoverished and starved they can barely smile . They run around all day and hardly eat anything. Your small donation of just a dollar a day can save them. They probably still won't eat or dress correctly, but at least they can have a new toy which will entertain them for a small amount of time. Researchers have named this one "Mime Disease." Characterized by the sudden urge to act like a Mime it begins with the facial makeup and continues into adulthood. You can help slow this process with your donation.

Disney World!

A few weeks ago we were able to meet up with my side of the family in Florida and take our kids to Disney World. Of course it was loads of fun. Victoria and Mikayla both got to meet their favorite characters. Victoria's being Tinkerbell I was quite surprised they even had Tinkerbell around to meet because I don't recall her being their when I was growing up. So of course when we saw she would be around we jumped at the opportunity to meet her. Mikayla got to meet Buzz and Woody from Toy Story, which she loves. Her actual favorite is Dumbo, but we couldn't find him. I wonder why. Oh well, she went on the Dumbo ride. They also met Mickey and Minnie, Cinderella, Belle, Aurora, Winnie the Pooh, and Tigger. It was great for them to meet so many people that they watch all day. Gotta keep those princess dreams alive. It was blazing hot and the waits were forever long, but hopefully they took away some good memories from there.

The adults got to have some fun too...and by that I mean me at Harry Potter World. My parents watched our children so John, Marisa (my sister), and I could go. The coolest ride was at Hogwarts castle. It was like you were flying a broom! And I got some Slytherin stuff for me at the shops. Yay! Fun stuff. We ate at the three broomsticks for lunch and had butterbeer.We also met the Grinch, which John loves. So that was cool. This was at Universal Studios...not Harry Potter World. The last ride I went on was the Hulk one...because it made me feel sick afterward. Luckily, we were about done anyway.

Other days, we just hung out at the resort, which was quite nice. We got free mini golf and they had nice pools and a gym, which I only used once like the first day. Who works out on vacation? Not me apparently.

And that is basically it. It was really nice to see my family and get to spend time with them. Plus taking the kids to Disney World for the first time is great. Now they just need a "Twilight World" and I'm on the next plane back to Florida. :) Yes, I'm a nerd.