Summer - July Happenings

This year July was packed with fun things and FLEW by! We started out with more World Cup fun! All of my family gathered together to watch Colombia play against Brazil. Even though Colombia did not advance, everyone was so proud of this team for going as far as they did and we were all ready to cheer on James Rodriguez as he went on to win the Golden Boot! 

We still had another team to cheer for: Argentina! We got to watch one of the games with our Doyle cousins.

Here we are on the day of the final: Argentina vs. Germany. We didn't win, but it was still so fun to watch!

With the World Cup over, we moved on to having some fun cousin time. Levi was just born, and my cousin needed some rest. My kids were happy to get to play with their cousins. Here are the kids fishing in the lake in Lina and Vivi's backyard.

 

On another day, Lina and Vivi came over for sprinkler fun and popsicles.

July was a month full of rainy days. Looooots of summer storms. Pretty much daily. It was always cool to see the sky as they rolled in. 

We planned on going to the splash park with Lina and Vivi...

But the dark skies and thunderstorm rolled in after only 10 minutes.

It was okay though because we had more plans for the day. Dressing up like cows and going to eat at Chick Fil A! Free meals for everyone! Chick Fil A is the best!

Then it was back to our themed summer. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was up next. We watched the old movie because the kids thought the newer one was going to be too scary. Angela and Reagan were over one day so we included them in the "pie eating" fun. It was just whipped cream and they had to dig through it  for whatever color skittle I told them to look for. Diego's was a whipped cream I made out of coconut milk. It was pretty yummy for a coconut lover like Celo (or me) but Diego wasn't a huge fan.

We also made our own chocolates which was super easy and fun! Definitely something to do again in the future. The kids loved it. They made some pretty crazy combinations. Oreo peppermint coconut pretzel marshmallow chocolate bar anyone? We were also supposed to go tour the local chocolate factory, but I didn't realize you have to book that months in advance! When I called they said, "We have an opening in September." So then plan B was going to the local candy store. Buuuuut the local candy store was no longer where I thought it was. So we ended up going to the candy section of the dollar store and they each got to pick out whatever they wanted. They all picked cotton candy.

Next up was Rio Week. We all love the movie Rio so we watched it again. If I had planned better, we would have done this week on the week Rio 2 was playing in the movie theater (for free) but I didn't, so we watched Rio 2 a few weeks later and pretended it was still part of Rio week. Rio 2 was just as good as Rio in my opinion. The kids said they liked it better than the first. For Rio Week we danced to Samba music, which is always a good time. :) We made Carnavál masks with feathers.

We went to see the birds at the zoo and tried to spot birds that look like the birds in Rio.

It's "Blue"!

Some friends of ours were moving away in July, so a huge group of us went to the beach for a little farewell party. It was the first time we'd been to the beach all summer. We had so much fun and planned to go back again, but then there were a bazillion shark bites at our local beaches (okay 3) and now I'm too scared to go back.

My husband has the best farmer's tan ever.

The it was time for our last week of the summer. LEGO WEEK!! This was the week leading up to Celo's birthday, so he got to choose. We had looots of lego playing time. I took this picture right as Eliana sat on top of Marcelo so this is his "ouch, please get up" face. And you can see that Mila likes to sit right inside the Lego bucket so no one can get any more legos out. Super nice little sister. We did a group build where we all had to add a piece and make a creation together. The kids drew Lego versions of themselves (I printed out a Lego guy and they decorated it however they wanted). 

We did another game where they had to suck up legos with straws and move them into a cup. They thought it was more fun than I expected. They wanted to do it few times. That competitive drive. ;)

And to finish off the week, they saw The Lego Movie at the theater. Our summer themes weren't perfect this year and we definitely missed a couple weeks and did few activities per week than in past years. But we were on the go a lot swimming, going to the library, hanging out with family and friends, so I'd still say it was a success!

Mila is TWO

My beautiful Camila turned two years old. Not so much a baby anymore. WAHHHHHHHHH!!!

Whatever, I will call her my baby for life. She got to eat her favorite food for dinner: peetha.

Her siblings gave her lots of love on her big day. They adore their baby sister and it's so fun to watch. Not so fun when they spoil her rotten and give her everything she wants. But watching them love each other melts my heart on a regular basis.

Just some cute photos of her.

There will be lots of one on one time with the other three in school. I will squish and kiss this child often. 

Still a thumb sucker. 

Love our crazy haired girl!

Celo's 7th Birthday

Celo's birthday this year fell on a Saturday. In the morning we had to go to Melbourne for something so we decided that since we'd be close to Del's Freeze, we should go introduce him to the ice cream I had as a kid. Of course we got there and the only thing anyone wanted was a slushie so that was kind of a bust.

Marcelo ordered a banana split for anyone who wanted to try it. Celo finally gave in and took a bite. I know people rave about Del's Freeze (mostly for the nostalgia factor, I think) but yeah, we're never going there again. Funny how things that are great when you're a kid are not good at all as an adult. (Like McDonalds. Gross.)

The birthday boy just wanted to swim on his birthday. So that's what we did. :)

Celo chose Oasis Shaved Ice instead of birthday cake. Tato and Tata came along. 

He was a happy boy!

Afterwards we went to Pizza Gallery for dinner (backwards, I know). That's Celo's favorite restaurant. I think it's partly because he knows that Diego can eat pizza there and he's always thinking of his brother. We told the waiter it was his birthday so a bunch of waiters came out and sang the Pizza Gallery birthday song to him. He thought it was AWESOME. Look at him grinning from ear to ear! They gave him some little donut like things. Diego couldn't eat those, but he was happy to eat the candy I had in my purse.

I think he would say his 7th birthday was his best so far!

Summer - June Happenings

This summer is going so well that I'm afraid to write about it and jinx it. The World Cup is happening and the boys are so into it, which has made it the most fun world cup of my life. It has brought back memories of watching it as a kid and making "El álbum". We're making it this year and the boys have loved working hard to earn a dollar to buy a pack of stickers for the album. We're still missing their favorites: James and Messi. I'm pretty sure this summer has instilled a love of soccer in them that will never go away. Yay!

Aside from the World Cup, this is year 4 of our themed summers. After 3 summers of doing themes like Animals, Beach, Transportation, Science, Family, I needed to switch it up. So this year we based our weeks on books and movies. 

Our first week was Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. We read all 3 books and watched both movies. The kids helped me make meatballs and we ate "Tacodiles". We also made and decorated a cake topped with Barry the strawberry. It was a very chill and low key week because Diego was at scout camp that week.

Our second week was How to Train your Dragon week. That was so fun. We started the book but didn't finish it. We watched the first movie and the boys went to see the second one with Marcelo. We did some training exercises to be ready to fight dragons. We made viking helmets, shields, and swords. The boys shot the BB gun with Marcelo for target practice. They also tried using slingshots. We played a feed the dragon game. The kids loved it.

Week 3 was supposed to be Little House in the Big Woods but it fell during a really tough time for our family so we weren't able to do much that week. So we had to try again in week 4. We read all of the Little House books (the storybook ones not the chapter books) we could find at the library (6 or 7) and Diego read the chapter book on his own. We made butter, we made biscuits, the kids went fishing with Marcelo, and I made each of them a rag doll. I'm so complicated sometimes. Making a rag doll turned out to be way harder than I planned. They ended up looking nothing like I wanted. Oh well, the kids are happy!!

Now we're on to Frozen week. So far we've had a sock snowball fight and taste tested "Olaf 's nose". (Cooked carrots vs raw. Raw won.) Lots more fun to be had!

Here we are rooting for our teams: Colombia and Argentina! We of course cheered for USA, too, but they lost to Belgium today. :( Sad day. 

Aside from our themed weeks, I also have a list of things the kids have to do each day. I'm a big fat copycat and got this idea straight from a friend. I love when smart moms share their wisdom!!! Having this structure and these expectations has been FABULOUS. My kids thrive on structure. They love it. And I'm happy to give it to them! I made them a little list of all the things they have to do each day and display it where they can see it. Here it is:

Those are all the things they're supposed to do each day before they can play Wii or watch TV. I know, I'm SO MEAN. ;) So far it's going pretty well. Better than I thought it would, actually. It's not like they have to do all of these things before they can play legos or in the backyard or go on an outing or something. They just have to do this if they want electronics. I love it because when they don't quite feel like doing their reading yet or whatever, they play together A LOT. Lots of lego time, art time, making up games....it's been great! Sometimes they're having too much fun and making too much mess and I have to remind them multiple times that they need to do their list. On those days, they grumble. But they know they can't use electronics until they do these things, so they actually do them! I've been pretty lax with Eliana because....well because she's 4. So she does shortened versions of what the boys do. This doesn't mean we don't have days off where we just relax. I remember summer days of doing nothing but play outside with my brothers or neighbor friends and watch lots and lots of tv. And it was FUN. So I'm not trying to rob my kids of that summer dream, haha. But I know them, and I know that if I didn't have some kind of structure, they'd want to do nothing but play Wii or watch Phineas and Ferb all day everyday. I'm fine with an occasional veg out day here and there and I know letting them go overboard on movies once in awhile is not going to harm them in any way shape or form. I just don't want that to be the norm. Hence the schedule. Right now since we all have world cup fever, all their electronic time goes to watching the games. And I'm okay with that because we do it together and it's just so dang fun. :) Many days we're out of the house for several hours. We go to the library, the zoo, shopping, swimming, to a friend's house, etc. So between that and the things on the list, our days are full, but not so full that they're hating life and resenting me for being a drill sergeant. Really. It may sound that way, but it's not. They've really been great about it and they have way more free play time than it seems by looking at that list. The last thing I want is for them to look back on summer and feel like I was too hard on them. And I really don't feel like that's happening. I just told Marcelo last week that I think I need to tone down the fun come August because the kids aren't going to want to go back to school! 

However...full disclosure here...lest I become one of those moms that looks back on these years of my life and thinks, "Oh that was amazing fun, and so easy!"...there are times where the kids fight. A lot. "He took my lego car that I JUST made!" "The boys are not letting me play with them!" "Camila is breaking our stuff!" There are times where I tell them I do not want to hear anything resembling a complaint unless the house is on flippin' fire. There are times where I just can't take the fact that they left the pantry open for the millionth time and Camila dumped out all the sprinkles again. So I scold. And I nag. There are times where I firmly believe my house will never be clean again. And I make them clean the living room where they have dumped their stuff about 800 times in one day. (That was today, by the way. They were like, "We have to clean it up AGAIN?" I was like, "If you want to stop having to do that STOP DUMPING YOUR STUFF ALL OVER THE FLOOR." Deep breaths. Such is life with 4 young kids. I'm just sooooooooooo stinking happy that I'm finally in a place where I can take the bad with the good and not let it overcome me. 

Here they are doing their homework and reading time. <3 Such cuties I have. So thankful to be their mom!

Big Hearts

Marcelo's brother, Mario is going through some difficult health struggles. Our kids are aware of this and the older 3 do not miss a chance to pray for him. Every single prayer they say includes the words, "and please bless uncle Mario that he will feel better". It's hard to know how much they grasp at this age, but little by little we've been able to see that they understand more than we think. 

We recently had a family home evening where we talked about mourning with those who mourn and bearing one another's burdens. We talked about empathy, trying to teach the kids to think about other people's feelings. When I asked them if they could think of anyone we know that could be sad or going through a hard time, they were ready with thoughtful answers. The first person they mentioned was Tata Ceci, who lost her husband almost 3 years ago. They knew that it was still hard for her and that she misses him very much. They then mentioned a couple of others who are close to us who are also having a hard time. We had the opportunity to teach them about making sacrifices for those you love. And they got it. 

Yes. They understand a lot. And they have big hearts. 

Eliana's 4th Birthday

Eliana is in love with Frozen just like every other little girl in the world right now. But after going to her cousins' Frozen themed birthday party, she decided she no longer wanted a Frozen theme when it was her turn. I don't know why I was surprised. She's a strong and opinionated little individual. She's a leader. She likes to create her own path, not follow others. Not sure how to channel this so it'll be a good thing in the future and not a bad thing!! It could go either way!

Just because she didn't want a Frozen theme, didn't mean she didn't want Frozen presents. She got an Elsa dress and was pretty thrilled. But when Camila started whining and crying because she wanted it, Eliana sweetly said, "It's ok, Camila! It's for you!" And gave it to her. Her brand new dress that she wanted so bad. I have no idea how I'll be able to raise Camila to not be a spoiled brat when she's got her big sis spoiling her like crazy! The boys gave her a Tinkerbell backpack for the upcoming school year. She was pretty excited about that, too. 

Her party was based on the movie Tangled. She loves Rapunzel almost as much as she loves Ana and Elsa. 

With everything we've had going on with Marcelo's family, I didn't have time to really think about having a party. So I literally decided on a Monday to have a party on Friday. It was madness. I searched pinterest and got ideas for decorations (braids made out of tablecloths) and the cake (donut tower). I saw one idea I loved and had to copy even though I knew it would be time consuming. Rapunzel braids made of yarn. It took up an evening and a naptime, but they were fun to make and the girls all liked them. 

 My friend let me borrow her little blow up pool and I made a water blob (again, from pinterest). The kids only lasted outside for about 30 minutes, so I don't know if I can call this part a huge success. I still want to make it again on a sunnier day and see what happens. I also made chalk paint so the kids could paint on the fence (since Rapunzel paints in the movie). They played pin the hair on the tower. When the boys woke up the morning of the party and saw the tower I drew, they pretty much thought I was the most talented ever. Feels so good to hear my 8 and 6 year olds say, "Wow! Mommy, you're a good drawer!"

After pizza and grapes, the kids got to use a frying pan to whack Flynn Rider in the face. This homemade piñata was kind of a bust. I had to stab it with scissors to make the candy come out. Then we sang happy birthday and Eliana opened her presents. We still need to work on manners during present opening! And then I tried hard to get a picture of all the girls with their braids. This is as good as it was going to get!

For it being so last minute, I'd say it was a success. Eliana loved it and that's what matters!! A big huge thanks to my mom for all her help! Couldn't have done it without her!