What a Blessing to be a Mom!

Mother's Day 2013 - this year both kids were in preschool at North Coast, so both classrooms had little celebrations that made Mother's Day that much more special :)

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Matthew's class had "Muffins with Mom" - we got to sit and eat muffins with them, and they gave us a photo they had taken (and colored) and why they love us (lol)!

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Kaylie's class had a Mother's Day Tea and Grandma got to come too! It was so fun sitting (in teeny tiny chairs) with Kaylie and having tea, so special. This is such a great pic of Grandma & Kaylie :)

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Me and my girl, love her so much :)

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The teacup was the size of her head, lol!

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On actual mother's day - 3 generations (4 really, Gigi was inside!)

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Working a dinosaur puzzle with Kaylie, what fun it is to be a mom :)

Chocolate Festival 2013!

What a better way to celebrate Mother's Day than with chocolate, chocolate and more CHOCOLATE!!! This year I got to help out Heather once again down at the Quail Botanical Gardens Chocolate Festival in Encinitas (check out last year here!) - it's always fun getting to visit while making all the pops (just about a thousand, to be exact) - however I was quite popped out for awhile after that, haha!

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Mid-dipping - we had 5 flavors this year:  Chocolate Brownie, Vanilla Butter, Red Velvet, Lemon Lavender and Pink Champagne....delish!

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All set up and ready to go! 

(Yes, Heather was on TV! She was on the show Sugar Dome on the Food Network!)

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It was pretty darn hot this year....even with a "shade" over us, the sun blared through and we lost quite a few pops that way. Oh well, we still had fun and sold plenty :)

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Had to get one of these for both of the kids - one of the booths had fun molded chocolate things, including these frogs, lizards, and much more :)

1st Annual GG Camping Trip!

Sometime at the beginning of the year, an idea starting floating around in our Growth Group....a group social? Weekend BBQ? Beach day? No, better yet, a group a camping trip....Ok hold on there, a group camping trip? Including all the kids?!?!? Let's just say I wasn't totally sold on the idea....not that I don't want to have fun with our kids and friends, we just didn't grow up campers and it kind of overwhelmed me. Give me a hotel any day and I'll be a happy "camper" (haha). Anyhow, the date was picked, the campsite chosen, and before I knew it it was the beginning of May and we packed our car to the brim (literally) with camping gear we gathered and were on our way to Cuyamaca! Despite my initial aprehension, we had a great time. Hopefully next year I'll be a little better prepared, but the kids had a blast and that was the most important thing! Here are a few photo memories from our first annual GG camping trip, I really hope it's not the last!

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Our amazing, wonderful, blessing of a Growth Group - our best friends :) 

From L-R (pretty much) The Kamerlanders (Kyle, Ronya, Calin, Callie & Cole) The Turners (Alex, Melissa, AJ & Miles) The Vias (Aaron, Tiffany, Caleb & Becca) The Davidsons (Andrew, Jessica, Samuel & Micah) The Tafts (Brad, Rachel, Adriana & Jet) and then us!

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Matthew and Kaylie had such a great time together, as always. I just love their sweetness together :)

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On a hike to the falls :)

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Just beautiful :)

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Matthew loved the falls - slippery rocks and calm waterfalls that you could slide down, even with an innertube (we'll have to bring one of those next year!) 

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The Vias brought a zip line, home made by Aaron - the kids LOVED it!

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Kaylie enjoying her first official campfire S'more - soooooo messy!!

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Saturday night sunset - just look at those clouds!

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Guess we need to invest in our own official camping gear, looks like we'll be doing it again :)