Meeting Astronaut Barry Wilmore

You guys Tman's school always host amazing events where they invite people to come talk to the kids about the field they work in and such. I truly love those events and try to attend as much as possible because it's teaching the kids real life experience and what better way than to get the story straight from the horse's mouth.

This week was one that I was super excited about, they invited an astronaut to come talk to the kids and share his experience. My boy has been so excited about this that he even picked "astronaut" as his word to write for the week. I took the morning off and attended the event with my Tman.

Astronaut Barry Wilmore, who just returned from a 6-month trip to space, came to the school to share his experience with the kids. They were all so excited.

Tman and Barry Wilmore

He talked about how he became an astronaut, why he loved it so much then showed them a video of his last trip to space. The kids were mesmerized.

 Mommy also got super excited about meeting an astronaut :)

 After the presentation, the kids got lots of goodies from NASA. How awesome is that? Tman and his friend Mila (we went to Cancun together 2 months ago) waiting for their treat.

 Check out Barry Wilmore hanging out in space

That evening when we got home, Tman told his brother all about the event and went on to declare that he will be an astronaut one day. Dream big my son.

My boys playing in the front yard

 The neighbor's kid joined in on the fun

My adorable Bean, Mr independent

 I managed to get a pic with my boys

 I love this hilarious shot

It's not everyday that you meet an astronaut, I am grateful for Tman's school and all the fun stuff that they put together for the kids. What a fun day it was.

Bridal shower and bachelorette for HJ

My friend HJ is getting married in about 2 weeks and she asked me to be a bridesmaid. Such an honor. Since 3 of the bridesmaids are married with 3 kids each, and 2 of them live out of state, we decided to turn the event into a weekend celebration with just the girls. HJ loved every minute of it.

We started the weekend with a brunch style bridal shower on Saturday morning. We invited a few of HJ's close girlfriend and treated everyone to a nice brunch at a local restaurant. It was so awesome. HJ's colors are blue so that was the theme of the event.

The bridesmaids before everyone got there.

We created this photobook idea and asked that everyone bring a picture of themselves with HJ to fill the book

This scrapbook idea is going to be awesome

Check out the cupcake dress, my friend L made

I totally got the memo on the color and decoration. As you can see even my earring are coordinated with the shells from the menu :)

Our guest of honor arrived and she was so impressed with everything

She absolutely loved the cake, don't you love that she got the memo on the blue theme ;)

We enjoyed a delicious breakfast

HJ with her bridesmaids :)

And before everyone departed, we took a group shot of HJ with all the ladies

The bridal shower was a total success. After brunch, we drove to the city where we had reservations at a local hotel. HJ was so surprised. We only told her to be free for the weekend but didn't tell her what was going to happen.

We checked in the hotel and spent hours chit chatting and catching up on life. We had reservation at a restaurant walking distance from the hotel. When we got there, I asked this sweet lady to take a picture of us and she was really into it, asked us to get set up like on a magazine photoshoot. She was so sweet and I love this awesome shot with my ladies.

Dinner was so awesome, it was Mediterranean tapas style and so delicious

D and I were totally matching and it was not even planned. Great mind do think alike ;). Remember when we went to D's wedding in Cali while I was pregnant with Jbird? Yeah, that was 3 years ago, crazy right.

After dinner we went to a local bar and had a few drinks and just chilled. The plan was to go clubbing or something of that nature but HJ just wanted to spend time us. So we went back to the hotel and talked until 4 in the morning. It was so much better than a night club outing and oh so fun. We need more girl weekends in our lives.

The next day we drove to L's house and opened all the presents. HJ got that awesome book on the left and I had to get it in a pic ;). We opened some champagne and toasted our bachelorette before heading home.

I am so psyched for HJ's wedding coming up in less than 3 weekends. She is going to make a beautiful bride. Wedding season is in full effect, we are 3 weddings down already this year. It was such an awesome celebration of HJ's upcoming nuptial. She was a bridesmaid in all of our weddings so it was only fitting that we celebrated her in style.

Weekend fun - Father's Day and a visit

Last weekend was such an awesome low key weekend. My friend Melissa came to visit us and we had a ball hanging out with the kids. She lives in Texas now so we don't get to see her often anymore so it's such a treat when she is in town.

We started the weekend by attending a dance recital for my niece Saturday morning. She is an 8-year old avid dancer. She had 4 events and was so graceful in all of them. This is the first time that I attend her event and I must say I loved watching all the young girls busting out their awesome moves.

I took Tman and Jbird with me. Tman was really into it and was excited to watch his cousin while Jbird was just not phased by it all. He just wanted to run around everywhere. They hosted the event at a local high school and it was great to have the space to run around behind the scenes.

Us with our tiny dancer in one of her cool outfit, Jbird didn't want to look at the camera, look at him smiling away over there

That's  her crew on stage, she is the third one from the left

Tman and his cousin in another outfit

Check her out on stage, she is front right

I am so going to be a dance mom or a dance aunt ;) one day. It was so sweet to see these girls twirl around. In between her dancing events, I would take the boys in the back behind the scenes and let them roam around or play on the Ipad.

This picture is blurry but it pretty much sums up my big boys right now

Playing together all the time

Selfie time, Tman is so my mini me, Jbird was not even phased by us

Me and my Jbird, this boy loves him some mommy time

The dance recital was pretty cool, I'll definitely make an effort to go often. After the dance recital, we went to pick up aunt Melissa. Tman was so happy to see his godmother.

After lunch we came home and chilled for bit before heading out to JC Penney to pick up some shirts and ties for hubby. We are so low key when it comes to celebrating events and picking gifts, no surprises here :).

After all the shopping, we came home and chilled with aunt Melissa. She got to spend some time with all the boys individually

With Bean and his amazing smile, this kid is so adorable I tell you

With Tman who copies everything, this kid is so much fun I tell you

With Jbird who wants someone to take care of him, this kid is so cool I tell you

And a bonus pic of aunt Melissa hanging out with Tman the next day and in a very deep conversation

On Father's Day, we spent the day at home chilling. You know my hubby's number one request is always no posed pictures on his chilled out day. I am so happy it's not Father's Day every day. Hubby took a 5-hour uninterrupted nap and apparently it was glorious. That guy I tell you.

We went to hubby's parents in the afternoon to drop off a card for his dad before going out for some ice cream with the boys. We really wanted to go to a local carnival but can you believe that they closed early. We were so bummed, Tman was so excited about getting some cotton candy. Luckily he settled for cotton candy ice cream.

This picture is from Monday but I just love how calm everybody was. Hubby plays soccer on Mondays and it's usually just me and the kids and it's usually chaotic but this Monday was really peaceful. I put the Lego movie on after dinner and my kids were mesmerized, in the words of Emmet, everything is awesome :).

What a fun low key weekend. It was so nice to see aunt Melissa. I wished she lived closer and we could see her more often but alas, we have to wait another 6 months until Christmas to spend some time with her. It was so much fun to get some much needed down time. Hope you had a great time celebrating Father's Day too.

We are enjoying this calm before the storm because our July is booked solid with trips and activities. We are traveling with the kids to Houston to celebrate 4th of July with hubby's cousins then as soon as we get back it's wedding time for my friend HJ. As soon as we close that chapter, I am off to New Orleans for a conference for a week and as soon as I come back from NOLA, hubby and I are jetting off to Riviera Maya to celebrate our anniversary. Is that a mouthful or what? yeah, we are going to be very busy soon.

Coming up for some air

You guys the past month was the craziest of our lives in a very long time. Between funerals, visitors, wedding celebrations and just daily life, it felt like we didn't get a break at all. Somehow we survived and are thankful for the strength we found that we didn't even know we had.

Happy Father's day to all the fathers out there. It is nice to have a special day to celebrate all that you do everyday for your children and our society.

Before and during all the craziness that was our life the past month, so many exciting things and mundane things also happened. The coolest thing of all was my first boy, Tman graduating from PreK. You guys I can't even get over it, he is going to Kindergarten next year. I am so excited because I know he is ready and will do great. I am also grateful that  he will be in some great hands because he is going to a Catholic school where the principal is a great friend of mine. Go Tman, I am so proud of you my son.

My dad was here from Cameroon for my brother's graduation and he stayed for 2 weeks. Since we only see him once a year, we always spend every minute possible with him while he is here.

Check him out having breakfast with the kids, he is such a proud granddad. In typical Cameroonian fashion, he congratulates my husband all the time for having so many boys. 

We took my dad to the mall to do some shopping

I always let the boys play at the mall to wear them out while we shop

They love it. They even made a friend this time. I love that Bean always wants to be part of this group.

They were all passed out the minute we got in the car, we definitely wore them out :)

After my dad left, we got a visit from hubby's friend from College who lives in England. He came to visit with his mom and were only in town for a couple of days. These two used to live in the same house back in their college days, 3 kids later and they are still chilling :)

 His mom was so sweet, she loved hanging out with the boys. She also had 3 boys and told me all about the fun she had raising them. I love amazing testimonies like that.

 We took the boys outside to play while they were here

In the evening we left the boys at home and went out for a grown up dinner so that we could actually have a conversation. It was so nice hanging out with them

Another friend of hubby who lives in England came to visit. He also lived with hubby back in his college days and he was the best man at our wedding.

We went to a birthday party at pump it up. The boys love this place. We held their party there last year and we are thinking of doing the same thing this year. They had a ball there. My mom came with me, she love hanging out with the boys.

 Bean was unsure about all the jumping so we always held him

 Totally tackling Jbird here, hehehehehehe

 We went down this crazy slide

 I was more scared than the boys

 They had so much fun playing in the jump houses

 Future baseball pro right here.

I took my grandma shopping with me, it was so nice to hav e some company

Jbird fell asleep while we were there and we let the other boys run around everywhere.

My boys always pass out after a trip to the mall :)

After 6 weekends back to back full of activity and such, it is nice to know that we have absolutely nothing planned for next weekend but sleep. Our kids are such troopers because they just embraced the craziness and rolled with the punches. We took a breather this weekend  with just a few activities and how perfect that it happens to be Father's Day weekend. It's good to be back to some sort of normalcy. Happy Father's Day