little faces

We spent the afternoon at a spring/summer carnival on campus. The kids loved it! They had their faces painted...Xavi was very excited to be a tiger. Carolina was not thrilled with sitting still and thought the flowere were, eh ok...But check out that hair color, huh? What's up that?!?! No, not the mailman, as Daniel likes to joke.

By the way, I did have a hair clip in her hair when we started out that day. Not only did she yank it out, but she lost it! Next up, pics from mother's day. Just a sampler, there were over 70!

Pictures from Mother's day

I know I haven't posted in a long time! There are reasons for this. Life is busy with two kids...just ask my friend Jenny:

"I FINALLY have a minute to check e-mail without little people hollering in my ear. Next to the bed is a giant mountain of clean clothes that probably need to be washed again since they've
been sitting there getting progressively more all over the place since they were washed last month ... I don't think those clothes will ever
see a shelf of drawer again. I don't know what the hell I actually do all day but I do know that I don't have time to do anything other than
nurse the little man who is fast becoming a giant Pilsbury Dough boy! My dreams of sitting on the couch eating bonbons while catching up on LOST Seasons 4 and 5 during maternity leave are really pretty hilarious fantasies to me now."

I had to include that because it perfectly captures the laundry situation and ear splitting screams in our home. Those screams make it hard to actually have a coherent thought in my brain.

I'm only able to update the blog now because I have a couple of no show, delinquent students on my calendar this am AND my sister sent me these pictures from mother's day! It was a great day. We walked/ran the mother's day Y-Me race in the early morning and then had brunch with the Lopez side of the family. After nap, one of our students took a family portrait and a bunch of other great pictures. I'm so excited about the pics and I can't wait to frame them.

Yes, I know Carolina's hair is a mess. It's really long. I'm debating whether to cut it really short again or let it get long and put it in a pontytail every day...one that is way in the back so she can't reach it and let her hair loose!

new baby, school and new words

I should have Easter pictures to post, but I don't...maybe my sister will have some. I was too busy hiding eggs one day or keeping the kids from fighting for the same egg. Story of my life these days. That's what in store for you - Ben and Jenny!! They had their baby last week. No worries, I think it'll take a year to get there, so enjoy the months ahead. Xavi is already saying he wants to visit Sarai to meet her brother. I shouldn't complain, as bad as the fights are the playing and giggling together is about 10 times better. Here is a picture fighting over Xavi's bike...below is a happy moment. Xavi has already informed me that we have to buy Carolina her own bike.

Here are some updates on the kids. First the school update, Xavi didn't get into Lab....oh well. Now Caro and Xavi can go to the same school next year, when she turns 2. It'll be nice for them to be together (same building and outdoor playground, different classrooms) and easy for me to do pick and drop off at one place - not to mention the lower cost and better schedule! We'll have to figure out schools but not until much later, I hope. Xavi can stay there another two years at least (before K) since he's just past the Sept 1 deadline. Maybe we can even move them at the same time??? We'll see.

Ms. Lola decided this was the week to start talking and boy did she fire it up. Below is a list of first words she started using this week. Kitty, waffle, mine, bobo, agua, jugo. Before that she had been saying no, wow, and uh-oh, which I'm not sure I would have counted as first words. I tried to record waffle because it's the cutest. I think there is too much background noise to hear it but I'll review all recordings later today.

Cinci Weekend

So I experienced another mami milestone last week. We had decided to meet the Sax family half way, in Cincinnati, over the weekend and at the last minute Daniel had something come up - so I decided to drive by myself! It's a five hour drive! Six for the Saxes so thanks for taking that extra hour! He would meet me there, as would Ben, Jenny and Sarai, but it was scary when we ventured out on the skyway on Friday morning. I have to say that I, and the kids, did ok on this little adventure. It took us 8 hours but we got there. We stopped for a long lunch about an hour into the drive and then again for almost two hours in Indianapolis at their new Children's Museum. If you're ever driving in that direction with kids and need somewhere to stop, I highly recomment the museum. The kids loved it and Xavi is still talking about this stop-over. There are more pictures below.

Here are some pictures of our and the Sax family arrival at the hotel.

The plans for Cinci included their Zoo and Botanical Gardens, which we've visited before and loved. The weather, however was not as cooperative as we had hoped, though it was a good 10-15 degrees warmer and spring had already landed there, proven by flowers and budding trees. We went instead to a really touristy Newport, KY. There is an aquarium, an expensive aquarium, there. We paid up and waited in a long line and then were herded through, in a similar line as the one outside, like...hmmm...sheep. There were lots of complaints from the parents, none from the kids. I have to admit it was a tight fit so you had to move through in a line, but (don't hate me) I liked it very much in the end. I enjoyed it and thought it was worth close to the amount we paid...not the entire $50+ our family paid but close. It's not the Shedd, but I loved the tunnels and the gators at our feet (under a plexiglass floor). The penguins looked sad (think Happy Feet) but the kids loved the tropical birds that drank nectar from little cups in their hands. Xavi is still talking about the bird that took his cup. Wouldn't go there often if I lived nearby but I'd go again, in many years when my husband has forgotten how expesive it was and the kids are old enough to help me bully him into it.