The Jones Girls

I organized a fun cupcake decorating event at Michelle’s Bakery for La Habra Moms club.  We had a huge turnout and about 45 showed up!!    My sister Rosanne came with us to join in the fun. 

Michelle’s Bakery was so gracious to us.  They had a private room set up with tables full of all kinds of decorations, icings, chocolates, etc.   We each got a cupcake kit and all of us had a blast decorating our cupcakes.   Each table had an attendant to help us.  There were candy canes and chocolates for us to enjoy while we were decorating at each table.

They had cocoa and coffee for all of us as well.  What a wonderful experience!!

Today we attended the La Habra Moms Club Children’s Halloween and costume party at Vista Del Valle park.  I did most of the planning for the party.   My friend Angela did the decorations and my friend Corrie helped me plan the party as well as do some of the activities during the party.

The girls dressed in the bug costumes.  They were so cute, but Miranda kept tripping on her tutu and at the end of the party it was ripped, so I will have to fix that.  Poor Maryssa skirt was drooping so I will have to tighten the waist in her tutu.   Maryssa had a tough time during the whole party.  She cried during most of it.   She has been having a lot of meltdowns lately.

My friend Julie was hanging up the ghost pinata for us.    What a lifesaver Julie was!!

The first game we played was a age appropriate scavenger hunt.   WE had treat bags filled with goodies for the kids as their prizes.   The kids had to find certain things and then bring it back and trade it in for a treat bag.    We started with the 1-2 year olds.  They just had to find a little plastic pumpkin.  then we did the 3 year olds.  They had to find a little plastic pumpkin and a crayon.  then we did one for the 4-6 year olds.   They had to find a plastic pumpkin, a pencil,  and a crayon.  The older kids 7 and up had to find 2 plastic pumpkins, 2 pencils and 2 crayons.    All of the kids had a blast!!

We had lots of yummy snacks.  Angela made an incredible haunted cake!  I didn’t have time to eat it but my girls gobbled it down.   I made rice crispy treats with candy corn on top and I made homemade pumpkin pudding and brought whipping cream for the mommies to eat.  They loved that!

We did a pin the nose on the pumpkin.  The prize winner won a gift certificate at Red Robin for a free kids meal and a free sundae.  Corrie’s daughter Madeline won that.

Then the kids lined up and did a costumer parade around the park. All of us moms had candy and the kids accepted candy from all of us.   It was so cute.

They we all gathered around the pinata and the kids whacked away at the pinata.    It took all of the kids and then a couple of moms to finally break open the pinata.    We had about 40 kids there!!

What a fun Halloween party we had!!

Today I planned a really fun costume parade for the senior citizens at the La Habra Community Center.    

I baked over 70 peanut butter chocolate chip muffins yesterday.  I tell you, this is the easiest recipe and tastes like a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup in a muffin..totally delicious.  I put each muffin in a bag and put a personalized sticker that said Happy Halloween, Hugs from the Jones Bugs.   

It was a difficult morning for me .  I had to get all of the girls in their bug costumes and at the Community Center by 9:30am.  I was 10 minutes late.    There were other moms and kids from the La Habra Moms Club  joining us . 

We were introduced and the kids got a standing ovation from the senior citizens…there were so many smiles, laughter and true cheer beaming from not only our children, but from the senior citizens themselves.     It was so fun!!  I think my girls stole the hearts of everyone…their costumes were truly darling.

Today we went to the Halloween Pumpkin Patch and Carnival at the Puente Hills Mall.    I negotiated a great discount rate with the owner for our La Habra Moms Club…$5 per kid for 5 rides and a free pumpkin.   Normally the prices are $3 per ride per kid and $2 for a pumpkin.  I basically saved $20 for each kid…a good deal for certain.  So all of the La Habra Moms were thrilled to go to this event.

All of my girls had way too much fun.  They went on a ferris wheel for toddlers, a couple of bouncy houses, the swings ride where 2 girls got to sit together for each swing, and feed and pet all sorts of animals at the petting zoo-baby pigs, a baby calf, goats, sheep, chickens, etc.    Then the girls picked out their pumpkins and we took lots of fun pictures with the cute Halloween backdrops around the pumpkin patch.  The weather was a perfect 78 degrees and we all had so much fun.  We will decorate the pumpkins next week at the park with all of our friends.

I found the EASIST recipe to make caramel popcorn.   Use 1 cup of brown sugar and melt in pan with 1 cup of sugar.  Drizzle over popcorn and mix.   Then make popcorn balls or just serve as is.

I had some friends and their kids over from my La Habra Moms Club and we all made this in my kitchen.  It was so much fun and tasted so GOOD!!!  YUM!!

We also melted caramels and made caramel apples.  Double YUM!!

There is nothing better than caramel popcorn during Halloween time!

I planned a really fun field trip for my girls and for the La Habra Moms Club.  We had a huge turnout – about 26 kids and 15 moms.    We went to Red Robin, a restaurant that specialized is gourmet hamburgers and good food fare.

I arranged to have each child get a tour of the kitchen and how the restaurant operates, work with the chef to make their very own made to order burger, and then they all received all sorts of goodies like free gift certificates, keepsake cups, coloring books and crayons.

They had a private room all decorated for us.   There were balloons tied to each child’s chair.  It looked amazing!!  

Poor Maryssa was so wiped out and fell asleep eating her burger while sitting in the booth with the other girls.  I had to lay her down on the bench in the booth.    The event started at 2pm and my girls got to sit down and eat at about 3:15pm so I guess Maryssa needed to take a catnap – LOL!!

The kids got to sit down and have lots of socializing with each other while enjoying their full burger meal with fries and a drink for a negotiated discount price of $3 a kid.  Each mom ordered their own lunch.  I negotiated some free kids meal coupons so I was able to get my girls and my burger meal free.   I thought they were very gracious to our La Habra Moms Club.

Some interesting facts that I learned from our host that gave us the tour of Red Robin – the 1st Red Robin opened up in Seattle, WA in 1969.  They now have over 500 restaurants nationwide.  

The big informative fact that I learned is that they use FRESH ground beef daily – never frozen.  They chop their vegetables fresh every morning for each day.  They hand slice their cheese and luncheon meet with an electric slicer.  It doesn’t get better than this and for now on I will be supporting Red Robin and recommending them to everyone for a good and wholesome meal.

Today is our last day at Paradise Point.   I don’t want to leave…waaah!!    I called the Front Desk and got to speak to Annette and she arranged for a late check out.   Yay!!

The girls begged for more pool time and more beach time.  So we spent a couple of hours playing on the beach and then headed over to the pool for a while.  

Then I packed us all up.  That was not fun.    My 10lb pkg in 5lb bucket turned into a 20lb pkg in a 5lb bucket…yikes!!     I crammed everything in and slowly crawled out of the Paradise Point.   Please Gimme More of this resort.  I love this place.   I will be coming again for sure.

I decided I wanted to take the girls on a Harbor Cruise of San Diego Bay.  So I used my handy dandy GPS Navigator (I know nickname it Navi) and it guided me to the Harbor.   We purchased our tickets and were just in time for the next harbor cruise.   What a breathtaking tour it was.    There was a lot of fascinating facts and topics during the narration of our cruise.     We all had a great time.

Cliff has been in Arkansas working on a water purification project.    We miss him a lot.  He called me just as we were driving out of the San Diego Harbor area.     I told him we had a great time.  

We did a quick stop drive thru at Del Taco and then headed up to Tustin, about 1/2 hours north of San Diego for a cook out family picnic with my multiple moms club.

We spent a few hours at the cook out and I won the 50/50 raffle!    Just enough money to fill up the gas tank!!  Yippee!!