A week with Grammie

Back in late May, my mom bought a ticket to come visit us this past week. Four days before she arrived, Ricardo found out he had to go to England for the whole week. It was God's perfect timing that brought my mom here while Ricardo was away. We had a fun week and played much more than we usually do. My mom and I usually use her time here to get lots of stuff done and to do little projects around the house. We took it much easier this time and spent hours blowing bubbles in the backyard, playing in the splash pools, playing legos, playing Candyland and Zingo, building puzzles, reading books and going out to eat. Alexia has amazed us with her ability to build lego towers. She has awesome fine motor skills and can do legos just as well as Diego. Our big outing of the week was to the Zoo which was a blast. Alexia was very young the last time we went so this was the first time she was able to enjoy it and she had the best time ever. She loved every animal we saw and would repeat the animal names and corresponding noises over and over.


One night we went out to eat pizza at Mellow Mushroom. Alexia ate THREE pieces of pizza. She does not like to be fed, but this stuff was so good that she let Grammie feed her. On the other hand, Diego ate 3/4 of one piece. The entire week Alexia ate more than Diego at every single meal.



The zoo has a new bouncy house and Diego was thrilled when he saw it. I think his #1 favorite thing in the whole world is a bouncy house. I love this mid-air jump I caught with the camera!


We rode the little train around which was a lot of fun for the kids.

Diego loved the petting zoo and Alexia would not get close to the animals.

There is a new parakeet exhibit where you can feed the birds and hold them on your finger. Diego thought it was so cool to feed the birds!

We took two strollers which was so much easier so they could both hop in and out as they pleased. Here they are checking out the flamingos.

This little peanut is wacky! She found this winter wool hat of Diego's and would NOT take it off. She wore it all day long on Thursday. We even went out for lunch and sat outside, in the hot sun and she was dripping with sweat and still would NOT take it off. She even took her nap with it on. We finally got it off her head because they went outside to play in the rain and she was mad that it got wet and wanted nothing to do with it afterwards. She is a funny girl!

Ricardo does push-ups and the kids love doing them by his side. Alexia has mastered the skill of doing a push-up and it is quite impressive. You can tell by her face that she really is using all her strength. Notice the spoon in her right hand. She also carried that thing around with her all day long.

She walked around like this for a long time and thought she was hot stuff!

Diego running through the sprinkler...

...and making Grammie do it with him!

Grammie has a magic solution that makes mega bubbles. We spent A LOT of time outside doing bubbles throughout the week.

The kids were able to do them really well too...the wands are awesome.

This pictures captures Diego in his element - flying in the air. He loves to jump and sometimes I feel like he never stops jumping.

She loves to walk around with one of my shoes on. Diego puts on one of Ricardo's shoes and they walk around downstairs pretending to "be on a date."

A special Saturday

It has been a long time since we've had no plans for an entire Saturday. Today we took full advantage of having no plans and had a wonderful day. Ricardo woke up early with the kids so I could sleep in. I came downstairs to a pancake breakfast and a happy family...no better way to wake up!

We did a little research in our Georgia hiking book and decided to drive about 30 miles to Sweetwater State Park. It was a breathtaking place and we all had a blast. Diego walked the whole way and was such a champ. Alexia rode in a hiking pack and was as happy as can be on her daddy's back. We walked along a river which led us to ruins of a factory from the late 1800's which were fascinating. We had a picnic lunch on a bench along the trail and walked for almost 2 hours. It was such a treat to hear the excitement in Diego's voice and to see the sparkle in his eyes as he discovered all the wonders of the forest. Alexia was also very observant and enjoyed all the scenery from the perfect view.

Diego loved the river and especially enjoyed throwing rocks into it...such a boy!

This was Alexia's first time in the pack and she loved it.

There were some awesome granite formations and Diego loved the "sparkles" on the rocks

A beautiful view as we crossed a little bridge

Ruins from the river-side mill

As were walking to the car, Ricardo caught sight of this snake. It was fascinating to watch it slither around this tree trunk. The kids were...

...MESMERIZED by the snake.

Playing with a stick and being silly

After the hike we headed home for a much-need family nap. The boys didn't get out of bed until 5:00pm so we were all rested. We showered, got ready and headed out to dinner. Ricardo had been wanting to take the kids to the Old Spaghetti Factory for awhile now and we just haven't had the chance to go. Since he's going out of town tomorrow, we decided to celebrate being together as a family and headed to a special place. It was a really cool restaurant and the food was yummy. The kids were on great behaviour and we really enjoyed our time together.

Ricardo said "cuddle for mami" which is why Alexia is in this position...she is giving me a "cuddle."


Papa's turn for a cuddle

Alexia's monster plate of macaroni and cheese. She polished off most of the plate!

Diego opted for pasta with butter and cheese and loved it. He didn't eat as much as Alexia, but ate quite a lot. He loved the salad and bread as well. We found the kids meals to be a great deal at $4.99 for drink, salad, bread, pasta and dessert.

Alexia enjoying her ice cream

The hostess snapped a family shot for us on our way out

This is how Diego rode home from dinner this evening. He loves to read in the car, but this is the first time I've seen him using his "footrest."

On Tuesday, we drove up to spend the morning with Taylor and her kids. We went to a neighborhood swimming pool that was really close to her parent's house. So, we let Israel and Diego hop in the back of the van and wear seat belts. You should have seen the look on their faces - it was precious!

Tio Diego's visit

We had a wonderful time with Tio Diego. Lil' Diego was his shadow the whole time he was here and absolutely loved playing with him. They played lots of soccer and baseball in the backyard and Diego had to be the one to wake Tio up every morning. Here are some pictures of our fun weekend. Thank you for coming to visit Tio! We miss you already!!!

Alexia being silly

Alexia calls Diego "De De." When they were taking a bath yesterday she picked up the play phone and said "Hola mami, hola papa, hola de de, hola mami, hola papa, hola de de." When I recorded her she would only say "hola de de," but it was still cute. This is a chance for you to see her silly side :)

Random pictures

I still carry our small digital camera in my purse and take pictures with it...and then forget about it for weeks. I just uploaded some pictures from that camera so thought I would share some of the cute ones:

A couple of weekends ago we went to a Saturday picnic/festival for Ricardo's work at a local park. Here are the kids thoroughly enjoying their ice creams after lunch:

Diego's favorite thing to do is jump in bouncy houses. There were two at the festival and he ran straight in. Notice how much bigger the other two boys are - he jumped like a champ and never got knocked down. His big feet provide great balance :)

These next pictures are also from a couple of weeks ago when we went to visit Caitlin and Tia Paty. Diego and Caitlin have been buddies since they were about 3 months old and it has been fun to watch them grow up together.

We have many pictures of them on these chairs. They used to sit on one chair together, but now prefer to be on their own.


Alexia wanted to sit at the big table to have a snack with the big kids. She could barely reach up to her bowl, but she fit right in.

This was the begnning of an art project we did on the back porch...it turned out beautiful!


The kids helped me sweep out the garage yesterday, but here they are taking a break from the hard labor.

A fun weekend ahead

We have been having lots of fun the past two weeks and spending a lot of time out and about, hence the lack of posts. I'm not sure I've been great about having the camera with me, but I'll post the pictures that I have.
We are very excited about this weekend because Ricardo's brother, Diego is flying in this afternoon to be with us until Tuesday. He was supposed to arrive on Wednesday, but had problems with his flights so Diego has been VERY anxious for his arrival. I'm sure we'll have lots of pictures to share by the end of the weekend!

Alexia's first ponytail!!

Last night we had a really fun family pizza/movie night. We spread a blanket on our bed, watched the movie Jungle Book and enjoyed pizza and salad. The kids thought it was the coolest thing ever! Not only did we get to eat in bed, but we got to watch a movie while eating...so much fun!

Pizza night would not be the same without ice cream so the kids enjoyed ice cream and blueberries at the end. Diego likes to drink his ice cream "juice" from the bowl and Alexia has quickly picked up on the trick. This is her drinking the remains of her ice cream.


After all that sticky, drippy ice cream we took a break for a bath and then headed back to watch the last 20 minutes of the move in jammies. They always bathe together and I don't think I have any pictures of them in the tub. Alexia was very busy playing with her tupperware while Diego was pretending to sleep in the water.

Diego has been asking us for a watch since last November. He forgot about it for a couple months and would still randomly ask for one. This week we went on a hunt for a cool watch, under $10. We found exactly what he wanted for $7 at Walmart. He is absolutely giddy over his watch. He wears it all day and only takes it off for bedtime. He looks at it every 3-4 minutes and is learning how to read the numbers well. He wears "lightning mcqueen" underwear and we say that he has a motor on his bottom to make him go fast so now he says he has another motor on his arm to make him go even faster!

I made watermelon popsicles this week and the kids LOVE them. I just pureed watermelon in my magic bullet and poured it into the molds. I thought Alexia had finished her lunch so I gave her the popsicle. She then proceeded to ask for more food and would eat a bean, then lick the popsicle, then eat a piece of pizza and lick the popsicle...wacky girl!

I had high hopes for Diego's performance at church last week since he had sung and danced so well at the VBS closing ceremony on Friday. He did not sing a single word or dance a single move...he just stood there and watched all the kids around him and the audience.

Some friends brought us these beautiful flowers and Diego asked me to take his picture with them.