golden 4th birthday

Celebrating your children's birthdays is one of the many highlights of being a mom/parent. I love seeing their genuine, innocent excitement as they await their special day.

For Natalie's 4th birthday she chose breakfast at Ruby's and a little shopping spree from the Disney store and Lego store. We have had such pleasant weather this summer in SoCal this year so eating outside near the coast with great company and yummy food was just the right ambiance for a birthday celebration.

On her actual birthday we opened up more presents...

and had homemade mac-n-cheese and cupcakes per her request.

She got a little shy during her Happy Birthday song.

Happy Birthday my little Natalie! We love you!

Old San Juan

To satisfy our weekend cravings we are going to have to turn in our European castle exploring to California mission exploring. And lucky us, the birthplace of Orange County is right around the corner!

The mission was filled with everything CA. The beautiful aroma of various flowers mixed with colorful and quaint Mexican architecture made me smile. I sure love where I live. 

And Natalie true to her personality couldn't help but pick some flowers.

We felt very much at home with audio guides around our necks and pamphlets in our hands. The girls were in their element as well, exploring and asking questions about history. I just love it!

strawberry lemonade slurpees

What American children ask what slurpees are? Oh, mine. 

I think that was one of the first things we re-introduced the girls to when moving back.

Happy 7-11!

Newport Beach 2013

Here I am again, writing about another year, another beach house year. (Previous years since Marisa, here: 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2012).

An entire week of non-stop activities, sun, laughter, and lets be honest, pure exhaustion! I love having another child to introduce this family tradition. It highlights the best of the week all over again!

And what is the beach house without breakfast at Ruby's? 

In true Hart fashion, we are always the first ones to arrive to the restaurant and we take up the entire inside. I love family traditions.

I think Grandpa gets more excited about giving the kids chocolate milk and donuts than anything else about the beach house week. ;) He has been talking about giving his two youngest grand kids a taste for months now. Lucky Darren, probably too young to eat donuts, still managed to get permission from me to eat one. I mean, who can say "no" to his smile??

All in all, we all left with memories that will last a lifetime. Until next year...!

6 month check-up

Darren had his well visit last week and this is his update!

Weight: 16 lbs 5 ounces 30 percentile

Height: 26 1/4 inches 30 percentile

Head: 17 1/2 inches 85 percentile

Happy Father's Day!

To the man I love so dearly,

Thank you for being an amazing father. Thank you for all that you sacrifice to make us as happy as can be. You are the silliest, funnest, most patient and loving dad.
I love you so much. I really do.
I love waking up to you every morning and have the sounds of our kids in our bed. (Even when I am still not all the way awake. Ha!) I feel so lucky to have you by my side and raise a family with you. And my do we make good looking children... I love you!

whirlwind

It has been an absolute crazy couple of weeks. We have finally moved into our new place back in OC. And the very next day after moving in, it was our 7th wedding anniversary and Tim unexpectedly got called into work that same afternoon even though he was flying out that very evening to New York for training for a week. Happy Anniversary, I guess.
I have been working so hard to get the house settled by myself. My entire body and mental strength are wiped! But I think things are more or less done. Just minor details left. Whew!
But we are seriously so excited to be in our own place again and start our lives. Our place seems so massive compared to our apartment/flat living since we got married 7 years ago! We are happy and ready to move forward!
Today we decided to take a break from all the moving and go to our water park. We are only a short walk away from our house. You know where to find me this summer!