High Five ME!

::disclaimer::  This post is for the sole purpose or bragging and showing off. 

I had the pleasure of making this cake for my friend Ivis’s son Brandon.  Every so often I get to create a cake that I "wow" myself when I am done and step back to take a look.  I think my last one was for Armandito’s first birthday of Dr. Seuess (which I could have sworn I posted a picture of and was going to link to that line.  I apologize) 

Here is the Dr. Seuess cake

and the most recent addition to the brag book:  Mario Cart themed cake (missing Mario) I am such a corn ball, I was in love with how the banana peels and turtle shells came out. I am in head over heels love with my new KopyKake markers.

Not sure if I had pictured this one previously, but just in case... it is another I am quite proud of

Aiden’s 1st Birthday

As promised, I am going to post pictures from Aiden’s birthday extravaganza!  We held it at West Wind Lakes Park, its pretty close to home and beats having the mess once the guests are gone.  I decided to go with a safari/ jungle theme.  More so because I was able to find things relatively cheap early on.  Yup--- that is basically how I go about picking the boy’s birthday themes.   It is usually selected by what I stumble upon that is cute and moderately priced.  Well some things, I guess since I make most of the things, it is all about finding materials on sale.  Which I am very proud to say that I gave myself a high five this year!  Target dollar spot was my 2nd best friend (when they place things on 75% off I go to town!)only to be out done by my 1st best friend- Dollar Tree, you have yet to fail me friend.  I start planning for the boy’s birthday themes no less than 6 months ahead.  And than begin to actually start on everything about a month in advance.  I am glad to announce that I have rubbed off on some of my friends.  Take notes folks...a lot can be saved if things are done with anticipation not to mention DYI websites are the BEST!

     

  ***that popcorn machine was one of my best investment.  It costs $75 to rent each time, I purchased it at Wal-Mart for $79.  It was my 3rd time using it, so I think I have definitely gotten my monies worth.  (Liani, you’re more than welcome to it for Lia’s birthday!)

The rest are just of actual party shots.  Which by the way my friend Cindy Reyes (she also did my maternity pictures) took for us.  I am a big fan of candid shots, and she does such an awesome job with those types of pictures.  Thank you Super Cindy oxox--- we LOo0o0oVe you :0)

       

Cake Time!!

The balloon guy was beyond awesome!!! He did such a spectacular job on all the hats and animals.  Jimmy Picos is his name (let me know if you want his number), and he was definitely worth every penny.  The kids (and adults) loved him!  Not your average sword and sausage dog making balloon guy, he made the coolest hats for both Omar and I (lmbo!) monkeys, aliens, a crazy road runner for Aiden, Spiderman for Omi...seriously he was out of hand.  I really recommend him guys, kind of gets away of the usual entertainment.

And as always, I could not resist posting a little picture of my two monsters.  I took it on Tuesday while shopping at BJs.  Thank goodness for their shopping carts, they make the shopping experience a little less chaotic.

Ready or Not

So for quite some time I have been trying to catch up on the whole blogging effort. I give myself a high five because I believe I am almost caught up. See previously I had some what started a blog here and there but not published them--- only to realize that I had saved them on Windows Live... in my OLD net book, remember the one that died? So yeah I thought I could just adjust the post date and place the posts where I felt they should go. But I have opted to do nothing of the such. Since then the "new" posts would only not show as NEW. Yeah I am just as confused trying to explain it. So this post will be like the biggest post ever! More so due to pictures and all sorts of fun stories. So if you don’t have at least an hour of your life to set aside to read and proceed just come back later--- bwaaahahaha ... just kidding :0)

I usually post a nice little romantic bit about our anniversary. I will spare you this year and just post a million pictures instead. SO let me start by saying that our little four day stint to New York was wonderful. See our last visit was 5 years prior for our honeymoon and we (I) had decided we would return again for our 5 year anniversary. Which I cannot believe has gone by as quickly as it has. But I digress, so the last time we visited we had intentionally visited with hopes of seeing snow and spending some winter days out and about. Quite the opposite--- it was record highs and was in the 60s our entire visit. Literally we were walking around in t-shirts. This visit however did not disappoint. Our first day there we did the very touristy thing and marched on down to Time Square. Yes we tried not to look like fools snapping photos all over, but it was hard to contain ourselves. Although I have been to NYC more times to where this habit should have more than worn off by now- it has not. I apologize.

 

The rest of our time was spent just wandering around the city and taking it all in. One of my favorite spots is definitely The Village, no visit to NYC is complete without a walk through Washington Square. For those of your who are not aware, I secretly dream of living in a brown stone in the Village where SJP and are best buds and walk through the park with our little ones in tow. LOL!!! My imagination is a vivid one isn’t it guys?

And of course, visiting Lombardi’s! Don’t forget your cash...these folks have still not joined the rest of the world and do not accepted credit or debit cards. That Italian sausage was too good.

My husband he is so wonderful and crazy thoughtful, for our anniversary he ordered snow!!! (hee hee... he does HAVE that kind of power!) For those of you who actually have a winter- boo to you. In Florida we have hot, hotter and humid... and every so often we have a gust of wind that we all decide is cold and pile on the sweaters and scarves for half a day. So when we woke up on Friday to snow, not flurries--- SNOW I was all school girl giggly. I woke up Omar got dressed and insisted we visit the park. It did not disappoint either!!! Due to the snow storm they had gotten the week before most of the park was still nice and buried in the fluffy white stuff. Seriously I was borderline annoying about playing in the snow, it was great!

My Omi is too cute, leaving our mark.

I pelted him with a snow ball here!

He got me back...seriously he did.

Ok so the fact that the smoke was in the air made me all geeked out about it looking like the movie. If you need to ask what movie I need to hurt you next time I see you. (Ghostbusters)

Our dinner was so planned out in advance that we decided not to stick to it. LOL! I had made reservations at Capital Grille a month before. But after much and forth we figured we could eat at Capital Grille back home, so thought we would do Victor’s Cafe (a Cuban restaurant off of Broadway). Than (obviously) decided we could eat THAT any day and pretty much do. So we ended up at a really wonderful Spanish restaurant. It was so0o0o delicious, the Tapas were beyond outrageous. The presentation was so elegant and wow, you would have thought I had taken a picture. But in typical Yvette fashion, I thought of it too late when we had already devoured it all and it looked like a wildebeest had consumed dinner. It was likely the doing of the Sangria.

As to be expected I am going to spare you all of the pictures from our lovely little trip. But just a last few to make you say "o0o0o0o0o0 and aaaaaahhhhh"

I was amazed at what they do with the Rock’s Christmas tree. The cut it into planks right there in front of everyone. I guess it was another one of my touristy moments, but I simply had to capture it. There are actually more than just one picture, but I chose to spare you the cheesiness.

I think I was having a Mary Tyler Moore moment, right after this picture I threw my hat in the air. If you don’t know who that is--- oh hell, don’t even bother. lol

This one is here purely for the purpose of showing how dirty the bottom of my boots were.

This was our room number. Oddly, it is also Omar’s birth day: September 1. I take pictures of odd things like that.

Last but NEVER least... my little goblin Aiden Eric has turned a year old ladies and gents! I always go on and on about how quickly they are growing but wow! A year old- I can’t believe it! Birthdays to me are such a huge deal. Everything about them is important to me, in every way possible. We prayed for our little one’s for 2 years, and when we were blessed it was surreal. And still is to me. So the celebration of their lives is something I make sure we go all out for. For Omi’s birthday (since his birthday is in June) we have always taken him to the water park, Aiden however is not that fortunate. Yes I know we live in Miami... not cold compared to the rest of the nation- I get it. But let me share some information: a) the water park is not open during the week in the "winter" and b) the water is too cold for us PLUS it is likely full of Man-of-War and jelly fish. So I decided to take a trip to Jungle Island, it kind of stuck with the theme of his birthday party (safari). Which the boys loved! But not before Mr. Aiden was given the opportunity to have his smash cake. Which he loved!!! He also got a little bit of help from a certain 2 year old who also happens to inhabit our home.

As usual for the evening portion we took the boys to Chuck E Cheese. That place is a mad house, but the kids can’t get enough of it.

It really is for the kids... or is it?

Don’t we take the absolute BEST family pictures?

I have over 800 pictures of Aiden’s birthday party to sift through. So I hope to post those ONE day. Actually, it will be my next post. But for now...let me just go ahead and post the last pictures of the month. Which should bring everyone up to date.And all will be right with the world once again.

These little monst--- er ...darlings are the children of most of the cousins (there are 6 missing)

Happy Valentine’s Day!

This year I had the honor of having 3 very handsome Valentines.

Here is my big guy making Valentine cards and decorating cupcakes!

He couldn’t resist!

phew...now my next post can be about a true topic and not just descriptions of pictures. Oh my goodness--- I almost forgot, look who is potty trained!!!!!