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.

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!!!!