The joys of water!

We have Vacation Bible School at our church this week. Diego is in the 3 yr old class and loves it. His class gets to participate in a lot of the activities and he is having a blast. Alexia is in the nursery and has been doing really well there, phew! I am "leading" a class of four year olds which is a lot of fun. Today we had PBJ's for lunch in the car in the parking lot so that the kids could go straight down for nap when we got home. I wish I could take one too....but too much to do!
This past weekend was HOT here in Atlanta so we spent a lot of time in the backyard, playing with water.


On Saturday we played in the sprinklers and in a small splash pool


Diego loved running through the sprinklers. Alexia does not like the drops of water to fall on her face so she passed on the sprinklers


Check out his new work boots! This "pistola" kept him entertained for a very long time!

On Sunday we upgraded to the real deal. Tia Majo (Ricardo's sister) bought the kids this pool for Christmas and Diego has been itching to open it ever since. This was the first time we used it and it was fabulous. Thank you Tia Majo!!!!!!!

Diego LOVED running through the yard and...

...jumping into the pool, head-first.

Alexia would also run up to the pool, stop, look at me and say "up, up, splash, splash." So I would pick her up and throw her in too. Such fun!

A family shot with the timer!

Our week in pictures

Diego went to sports camp this week and LOVED it. It was from 9:00-12:00 everyday and I think he would've stayed all day long if he could have. He had the same teacher (Coach Todd) from the sports class we used to do in the spring so he was really comfortable and was not phased at being there for three hours, without me. They play basketball, soccer, play games, jump on trampolines, do gymnastics, do crafts, have snack and run around like wild. I meant to take pictures when I dropped him off this morning, but forgot. Alexia really enjoyed our mornings together, although she was tough most mornings because I think she really missed "De De." This morning after dropping him off, she pointed to his car seat and cried "De De" the whole way home! One day I took her to Barnes & Noble to read books and play with the train set. Another morning we went to my favorite bakery for a muffin and coffee (and milk for her). Another morning we just came home and read books, played Lego's, played and cleaned the house. I had never had so much alone time with her and really enjoyed it. Although I do think she is a happier girl when her big brother is around.

The pictures are out of order below, but it's too late to put them in to order...sorry!

Diego loves to help out in the kitchen. Tonight I was chopping things for fish tacos and he asked if he could cut the tomatoes. He has a special "smily face knife" that he uses and I was amazed at how well he cut the tomatoes. He cut it in tiny little chunks, just like I asked him to.

My darlings picking flowers for mami in the front yard!

Below: a favorite treat these days are "pro bugs." They are whole milk kefir in squeezable pouches. The kids LOVE them, but only get them on occasion because the price has gone up!

Our big boy ready to head to sports camp this morning

Here are some pictures of Tio Roby before he left for the airport on Monday evening. We miss him already and wish he could have stayed longer.

Look at Alexia's face here. She would grab his hand and pull him down with all of her might (all 20 pounds of her) and thought it was the funniest thing ever.

Chillin' in the backyard last Sunday

Sporting Tio Roby's flip flops

Tio Roby!!!!!!!!!

Ricardo's brother, Roberto flew in to town late Saturday night and is with us until late tonight (Monday). The kids call him Tio Roby (well Diego does, Alexia calls him Roby).
Roberto is an amazing artist and I thought it would be cool for him to paint with the kids. Ricardo and him went to Michael's yesterday to load up on supplies and everyone spent yesterday afternoon painting. Diego requested a shark and Alexia requested a butterfly. Diego and Roberto painted non-stop for almost 3 hours and had a blast. Diego was so into it and never got bored or asked to stop (not even to eat). Alexia's attention span was a bit shorter, but she LOVED every second of having her fingers in the paint.
We ended the evening with a great BBQ and ice cream sundaes.
Ricardo and Roberto are out playing golf right now and when they return we'll splash around in a little pool I bought for the kids.



Painting the base color with acrylic paint on the canvas


Working on the shark


Diego did most of the coral

The beginning strokes of the butterfly

Group effort!

The finished products! We love them!!!!

A Busy Tuesday

Yesterday was a busy and fun day. We took a new friend to the Botanical Gardens and had a really fun time. Her father was our next-door neighbor and passed away last week (at the young age of 45). We met her at the memorial service and thought it would be good for her to get out for the day and her dad loved gardening so we took her to the botanical gardens. She was wonderful with the kids and enjoyed playing with them. We hadn't been to the gardens for over a year so it was a special treat. We went to Willy's for lunch and the kids loved sitting outside on the terrace, watching the birds, dogs and commotion of the city.
We rushed home to drop Jaime off at her mom's house and then headed over to my friend Jessie's house to watch her kids at 1:15. This meant no naps for Lopez children which meant cranky afternoon for all! It wasn't too bad, but Alexia was put in time-out about 6 times because she was hitting a lot and was just really feisty. Diego and Sofia were really cute and did great playing together the whole time. At one point, Sofia really wanted Diego to play ballerina with her and he said "No, I am not a ballerina and I don't want to play ballerina. I am Mcqueen. Let's play mcqueen." So for the rest of the afternoon, Sofia did not call him Diego, she only called him "Mcqueen."

We headed home around 5:00 for dinner and then as soon as Ricardo arrived from work, I headed out to have dinner with a Jessie and her girlfriends. We went to my favorite sushi restaurant and had a great time.

We have another full day ahead of us. Here's the schedule:
9:00am: Go to our neighbor's house. She invited us over to have chocolate milk and watch the workers cut down her gigantic pine trees.
11:00am: Sofia's third birthday party at Jeronimo's (a bouncy house place that Diego LOVES)
1:30pm: Return home for naps
4:00pm: Gwen and kids come over to hang out and then we keep her three kids while she goes to a meeting from 5:30 to 8:00


Some pictures from the botanical gardens:

Abuelos

Last night, Ricardo spoke to his father and grandfather who live in El Salvador. They are our biggest blog fans so I am going to try to get better about updating on a more frequent basis because I know how much they enjoy reading about and seeing pictures of the kids.
I thought I would try to get better about documenting our daily happenings because we are so busy during the week, but when I try to sit down to write about, I forget details.

So we'll start with today:
3:30am: Diego cries out for me. He still wears a diaper to bed and lately he has been having a leaky diaper so wakes up in a wet bed. When that happens we let him come to our bed for the rest of the night. So last night when I heard him cry I thought that was the reason. I went in there and he just wanted to come to our bed...just because. The answer was NO! So, I gave him a cuddle and he fell fast asleep

5:30am: Alexia wakes up 30 minutes later than her normal time for a snack. She goes back to sleep

5:50am: I thought she had gone back to sleep, but she hadn't. She is ready to start the day. Ricardo and I are not.

6:15am: Diego comes into our room..."Mami, Papa, Alexia quiere a mami. Vamos a sacarla de su cuna. Ya no quiere dormir." (Mom, Dad, Alexia wants mom. Let's go get her out of her crib. She doesn't want to sleep anymore.)

6:20am: The day begins!

Ricardo didn't have to go into work until 9:00 today which was wonderful. Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays he has to be at the office at 7:00am and on Mondays usually by 8:00. So, it was a special treat to have him home all morning. I cooked a yummy breakfast for all of us (eggs & toast for us and oatmeal for the kids) and it felt like a Saturday morning.

We have a major crew of workers here right now clearing down several trees and weeds in our semi-forest of a backyard. This is a project that Ricardo has wanted to do for awhile and we finally decided to go ahead with it. So, the workers pulled in at 8:30 with their chain saws, wood chipper, trucks and all.

The kids and I headed out at 9:00am to go to Katie's house. A group of four friends and I are meeting weekly through the summer to have a time of discussion, prayer, encouragement and play. It is a time that I really look forward to and it's a blast for the kids as well. From there Ruth and her kids and I went to Chik Fil a for lunch and we continued our much needed time of discussion and encouragement!

I put the kids down for nap when we returned, but Diego is now sitting next to me reading a pile of books. He resisted the nap and since it's almost 3:00 I agreed to skip nap and have an early bedtime.
So, that's our day as of 2:30pm :) We still have to do laundry, iron, tidy the house, go to the grocery store, bathe the kids, cook dinner and pay some bills. It may not sound very exciting, but I praise God for the amazing blessing of serving him by taking care of my family.


Monkeying around outside of playgroup last week.


This was at Katie's house this morning. The big kids had a blast playing this game where you have to catch the butterflies that fly out of the tube. Very cool!


Ella Ann and Anjuli were playing with their dolls and Diego just sat next to them and watched, not saying a word.

Alexia kept holding her hands like this to Rane (Ella Ann's baby brother) and saying "Up, up." I think she wanted to hold him!

Alexia is really into puzzles these days. It is so much fun to watch her do them because she is really coordinated and puts the pieces where they go. Diego also loves puzzles so it was sweet to find them doing puzzles together last week.

At our church picnic a couple of weeks ago

Alexia and Diego's feet. The girl is tiny, but she has big feet!

I love that lil' face!