Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Day after election day!!


Senior!

Brandon is doing really well so far his Sr. year. I can't believe he's almost 17. He's been planning for his future after high school. After his trip to Korea he was definitely bit by the traveling bug. He wants to go back and visit Japan and other parts of Asia. I'm hope that he can do a ton of traveling, something I wish I would have done more of when I was his age. Keep up the good work Brandon, I'm very proud of you!

Defying Gravity


WICKED in San Francisco!! Maggie and I were able to go to a party in Union Square to welcome Wicked the musical back to the City. They gave away all kinds of Wicked swag.. cookies, lip gloss, GREEN sun screen, Wicked water, and a plethera of good stuff. They had a Wicked singing contest and MK was ready to sing "Popular". She was the first out of 20 other contestants of all ages. It felt like American Idol when they were going to announce the top 3! They called the other 2 girls first, then Maggie!! I of course knew she was totally awesome, but I was so glad to see the people at Wicked did too. She ended up being runner up and won a t shirt and CD. The girl that won got tickets to an upcoming show. She was SO CLOSE and I was so proud of her. She belted out that song in front of all those people in Union Square. I have it on video, so I'll get that up for you all to see soon.


After the competition we got to see the main actresses of Wicked sing and then we got to meet them and get autographs. Of course MK had to get her face painted green just like Elphba. We hope to go see Wicked again next spring and we highly reccomend you to go RUN and see it too!!



Humpty Dumpty COOKIES




Maggie had a wrap party for the Fairytale Town troopers and we made fun cookies for everyone! How do you think we did? I think it looks alot like Humpty!! It took FOREVER but it was fun and I have this big tub of different cookie cutter shapes that I can't wait to try. They were very tasty and a big hit at the party. The director gave all the kids little Humpty Dumpty bobble heads for participating.

Monday, July 28, 2008

My SUPERSTAR!



Maggie as Annie. I'm soooo proud of her, can you tell?

Friday, July 25, 2008

Cupcake Envy

It all started a few years ago. I was in Washington D.C. with Leo. He had a conference and I was exploring the city. One of my favorite places to go was the Smithsonian Museum of American History. After a wonderful day of exploring this amazing place I was going to meet Leo at the cafeteria in the basement at the Smithsonian. I wasn't hungry for dinner, but I thought something sweet would just perfect. Then I saw them. Beautiful fluffy baby blue cupcakes. Quite simple, just buttercream frosting and a vanilla cupcake but it was divine. The best cupcake I have ever had.

Since then I have been on the search for perfect cupcake and I have not found it yet. To my delight I have recently discovered some wonderful blogs dedicated just to cupcakes. One of my favorites is I Heart Cuppycakes. She has a wonderful variety of different flavors such as Creme Brulee and Midori Melon Mojito Cupcakes AND she shows you how to make them. She is also on a quest to figure out the best way to ship a cupcake and I'm thinking of trying that out to see if it works to send to some friends back East. Another fun site is Cupcakes take the Cake, showing wonderful tempting photos of cupcakes from bakeries and kitchens from all over. My favorite are the ABBA cupcakes in honor of Mama Mia! (which I am listening to this very moment. I LOVED the movie it was so much fun and makes me want to run away to Greece!) 52 Cupcakes has great decorating ideas, really clever!! And of course after all that you are going to need Cupcake Rehab..YES, YES, YES!!

While Leo and I were in San Francisco last weekend we came upon Kara's Cupcakes. We tasted the Sweet Vanilla, Java and Banana. They were very good, but not as good as my D.C. cupcakes. I thought they were rather small, especially for the price and I was a little dissapointed with the lack of variety. The fondant flower on the top of the cupcake tasted really weird. I have never tasted fondant before so maybe that is the way it's supposed to be.



So I thought maybe if I can't find the perfect cupcake maybe I'll have to bake them myself. I have always wanted to try a Red Velvet Cake. I think it might be more of a Southern thing because it is something I have never tried. I found this receipe Mom's Red Velvet Cake/Butter Cream Icing and I have to say it turned out pretty wonderful. Of course I made cupcakes instead of the cake. You actually need 2 oz of red food coloring and I only had one so next time I'll have to try 2. I subsituted 1 oz. of milk for the food coloring so it wouldn't be dry. Leo and I ate most of them. The kids didn't like them so much because they were "different" and not the traditional chocolate or vanilla. Next time I'll have to do Chocolate for them. So what do you think? Do you like my pretty cupcake? Still not the perfect cupcake, but I'll find it again if I have to hop on a plane to D.C. to find it!!

This guy makes me happy.


Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

MK's Performance

Our little drama queen has been quite busy this summer! She was in a production of a montage of "Annie" and she played Annie and she also is part of Fairytale Troupers at Fairytale town in Sacramento.



Annie was a one time only show and we bought the DVD and are hoping to get that soon so we can post it online. They didn't allow any photography in the theatre so they could sell DVDs..haha. It was a recital from her dance academy. She was amazing. There were over 30 different performances and hers was the only performance where they sang and she was the only one with a solo. There were about 500 people in the theatre and she came out and belted out her solo and didn't look one bit nervous. I was so incredibly proud of her and I just wanted to yell 'THAT'S MY BABY!!". I was blown away. My aunt,mom and in laws came to see her and were equally as proud.





Her role for the Fairytale Troupers is Witch Beth the evil witch of Fairytale town and sister of Queen Elizabeth. The play is Happy Birthday Humpty Dumpty and they do it on a wonderful outdoor stage for the children at the park. It runs every Sunday through August so if you're near Fairytale Town in Sac stop on by to see her. Again I am amazed about her professionalism and seriousness of her playing her part but yet she has lots of fun. I think one of her favorite things is when the children come on the stage afterwards and talk to her and take pictures. Keep watching my little superstar! It's very hard not to be a stage mom, but when you know your kid really loves it and has the talent you don't want to hold her back!

10 years!

Leo and I celebrated our 10th Anniversary on July 18th in San Francisco. The plan was to go to the Giants game and then to dinner. We HAD TO GO to the Giants game because it was Crazy Crab bobblehead day. After the game we introduced Crazy Crab to some of the wonderful sights in SF. I have never seen Leo so excited about anything. He loves that Crab. You see..Crazy Crab was the official Giants mascot back in the 80's. Crazy was really the anti mascot. Cheering that the Giants SUCK! when indeed they did. It became a tradition to hurl objects at poor Crazy Crab if you went to a game. Crazy Crab was retired in 1985 and this game was one of the first times this legendary crab has been seen. Now there is an underground movement called Rehab the Crab to bring back Crazy and replace the current mascot Lou Seal. After all the fun with our favorite crab, we went to our favorite restaurant in the City, House of Prime Rib, and had the BEST prime rib and dirty martinis. Ahhh..what a great way to spend our 10th anniversary :D. Me, Leo and Crazy Crab.



Thursday, July 3, 2008

Back from the Magical Kingdom




We are back from Disneyland and it as always was quite an adventure. I had a few issues with my feet because of terrible blisters (I wore Crocs that were well wore in, I think it was because of the 105 heat) so I got to experience the Magic Kingdom via scooter which was slightly embarrassing, but after a while I got over it and just enjoyed myself. A lovely lady in line for scooters kind of put it all in perspective. She always uses a scooter because it makes her happy and if she didn't have one she would be awfully cranky after walking so much and when mama isn't happy no one else is. She also said that she had a wheelchair and it was all fun and games for the first 15 minutes and after that the kids just abandoned her so the scooter was the way to go!! Now I'm not gonna lie, I enjoyed having the freedom of zipping all over Disneyland and California Adventure! I wouldn't do it again though I think unless absolutly neccessary. It was VERY hard to manuvour through the shops. So I had fun, but my heart wasn't into our Disney adventure as it usually is. I was dissapointed with myself, but my wonderful family bore with me and wouldn't leave me behind!! A couple photos of the kiddos. Of course it's too much to ask for them to sit still and take a decent picture LOL! MK was very adventurous and went on all the rides even the Haunted Mansion! She liked them all EXCEPT Indiana Jones which she thought before we arrived she would be riding 4 or 5 times at least! She was pretty scared poor thing. She did enjoy the Indiana Jones show which was so so but she did get chosen to be in it which was fun. It was funny we pretty much knew she would get chosen because she always does. I'm not sure how she does it!! I think our next Disney adventure will be to Disney World hopefully in the next year or so. I will have better walking shoes for sure!! But as usual I always have a feeling of forgetting all my troubles when I am in the Magic Kingdom. It's a great escape from reality for a few days.

Friday, June 20, 2008

Look out JT here comes the RAIN!

Before Brandon left for Korea we learned about a new pop star named "Rain" who is HUGE in Korea. As I was watching my nightly Colbert Report I learned that Stephen was competing with this kid named Rain for the #1 most influential person for Time Magazine. So of course Stephen called him out and challenged him to a dance off! Well what happened was hilarious to say the least. Check out the Rain Rivalry. If you have a few minutes watch Singing in Korean and Dance Off. I have to say I was impressed with Rain and of course Stephen. Who knew he could move like that? Rain is a little hottie and the boy can dance! Brandon brought me back a Rain CD from Korea and he said that Rain was EVERYWHERE! On TV, in print, and billboards all over the country. I am enjoying my new CD. He has a very soulful voice and is entertaining in a way that you don't even mind if it's in Korean and you don't understand a thing he's saying. Most of his songs do have some English in them. Here's his video. A little cheesy sure, but I enjoyed it.

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

He's HOME!!





Brandon returned home today from a 2 week trip to Korea! His Korean grandmother took him and his cousin Jessica. I was sooo excited for him to have this opportunity and it seems like he had a really wonderful time. He even talks about going back maybe for a few months and possibly teaching English with his cousin maybe after he's out of high school. I think this trip is just what Brandon needed. I'm so proud of him, he took some really great pictures. He also was very thoughtful and brought us all something special from his trip and I know he put alot of thought into it. I'll share some pictures of the goodies in another post.

Sunday, June 15, 2008

We are getting ready for a trip to Disneyland in a few days! I can't believe it's been 2 years since we have been to the "Happiest Place on Earth!". We waited way too long. I was looking back of some of our pictures from our last trip and I thought I would share. ENJOY!

I think this profile would look GREAT on a coin. Just sayin.