Playdate with the girls and Halloween

Last week the kids and I drove up to Rome, GA to visit Jana and her daughter Mara Kate. Katie, Ella Ann and Rane were there also so it was a full house and a wonderful time. Diego had a blast playing with Mara Kate and Ella Ann and wore butterfly wings for about four hours. Alexia kept up with the big kids most of the time and really enjoyed sitting at Mara Kate's little table to play "tea party." Jana, Katie and I loved the time we had to catch up and be together.


Diego leading the "train" into the living room. Notice wings, umbrella (which Ella Ann is holding) and guitar! Love it!


They were hysterical!




Alexia trying to manage the guitar and baby cradle together


She loved the wings! We picked her up a pair today for her birthday while we were out doing errands.


On Saturday morning our friends, Aaron and Helen came over for brunch and we had a great morning. The kids adore spending time with them and Alexia never gives poor Aaron a break when he is around. She is constantly pulling at his legs, asking him to hold her and giving him kisses. I didn't get many good pictures, but Aaron took some great ones with his camera so I will post those once we get them. Here's one of the kids being silly with Aaron.


Diego was invited to a birthday party on Halloween so we got the kids dressed up and headed over to an afternoon full of fun festivities. The party ended with trick-or-treating in the neighborhood so we let Diego join the kids and he had a BLAST. It was so fun to see the extreme excitement in him when he realized what it was all about. Alexia even became brave and went to some front doors with the big kids, without mom or dad.


The second the clothes went on Alexia, she kept saying "Meow, meow, meow, meow" She loved it!


Playing a ball toss game at the party


Blowing her bubbles. Lucy, Archer's mom is very creative so there were lots of fun games with great prizes!


Archer's grandma read a story and then had the kids play "Old maid says"


The turtle and his buddies "trick or treating"


Back home on the front porch, waiting for trick or treaters to come our way. We only had two families come by since it was already raining by the time we arrived home.


Out of focus, but just a glimpse of the sugar high Diego was on! He was running around in circles...


...and dancing!

Tia Rosa

Two weekends ago we had another special visitor, Tia Rosa (Ricardo's aunt). She is Aldo's mother so it was fun to see each of them one weekend after another. She was in town for business so she came over for dinner on Saturday and we had a great time. We enjoyed a nice dinner together and then made s'mores at the fireplace. Diego and Alexia really enjoyed her company and spent a lot of time discovering all the tricks of her iphone :) She brought Diego a Mcqueen shirt, vest and jacket set so he was thrilled!!

I think Tia Rosa and Alexia are pretending to blow the fire

Diego showing off his sticky fingers from the s'mores

Ricardo carved a pumpkin with them that weekend and at first, Diego did not want to touch it. He wanted to hold the top (as shown in the above photo) and let Ricardo do all the scooping.

But of course, Alexia dug right in and was all about scooping the slimy seeds out. Diego eventually warmed up to the idea and pitched in to help.

We took care of a friend's daughter last week and the kids LOVED her. It was so cute to see how they treated her like their little sister and worked as a team to make sure she was happy and entertained. Please pray for Abby today. She is in California on vacation with her parents and she had a seizure yesterday. After being released from the hospital with no answers, she had another seizure and was transferred to a specialty hospital where she has undergone countless tests today. She has now been released and they still have no answers as to why she had these seizures. Please pray that it was an isolated case and that she will continue to be a healthy and happy baby girl.

When Asher's mom dropped him off last week she said he had to finish up some schoolwork. He was so sweet and sat on the couch and read his book out loud to the kids.

A visit from Cousin Aldo and family

I have two blog posts in draft, but wanted to post some pictures today so those other posts can wait :) Ricardo's cousin, Aldo and his wife and step-daughter drove up from Miami to spend the weekend with us. They arrived Thursday evening and stayed until Sunday and we had a great time. Diego and Alexia loved playing with "Tio Aldo" "Eliana" and "Cami." I am bummed that I did not take more pictures of our time together, but we got a few good shots. On Friday we went to the aquarium which the kids loved. Diego was so excited to see the sharks and Alexia kept saying "Sharks, scary, sharks, scary." She is on this "scary" kick and a lot of things scare her. I hope this is just a stage and she doesn't end up being a toddler who is afraid of everything!
On Saturday we went to Stone Mountain and really enjoyed our day there. Ricardo, the kids and I left around 3pm, but Aldo and his family stayed there until 9pm!
We all went to church early Sunday morning and then they all hit the road from there. Thank you for coming to visit us Aldo, Eliana and Cami!!


They loved the jellyfish!


Diego's "scared" face


Alexia was nervous at first, but warmed up to them quickly

Maria Camila helping Diego touch the stingrays

Alexia tried her best to get her arm in, but just couldn't make it

After lunch at Stone Mountain, Diego asked for a dessert so we wandered around a bit and discovered a HUGE treat. A candy store! Diego had never been in a candy store before and he LOVED it. It was so much fun to give him a bag and see what candies he picked. He chose all gummy candies. I never buy him gummy candies b/c they're awful for the teeth so this was a big treat!

Alexia, on the other hand, chose all chocolate candies and was just as happy!

Posing with the pumpkin kids

This was the highlight of the day. Aldo, Eliana and Maria Camila did a huge obstacle course that is only for people over 48" tall. Aldo called us from up high on the obstacle course to tell us that there was one for children. We headed that way and came upon this awesome course. Diego was really nervous through the whole thing, but did an incredible job. Ricardo did a great job at documenting it:

Standing in line for the "zip line." As he got in the back of the line he told Ricardo, "Papa, I'm scared." Ricardo had him bow his head and prayed for him to not be afraid and for strength to hold on tight to the rope. Diego perked right up and was ready to go! He had to wait in line for awhile and here he is, waiting for the rope to be brought to him.

Holding on for dear life!

The guy kept yelling "ARE YOU READY?" and Diego wouldn't answer.

And there he goes!!

It was a long ways down (for a 3-yr old) and he fell when he let go, but he was ecstatic with the experience!

A group shot after church on Sunday. Diego and Alexia adored all three of them, but were especially attached to Maria Camila. Alexia was her little shadow!

Games and greens

I set up a fun letter game for Diego to play yesterday which he loved (Jana, thank you for the idea!) I hid all the letters around the living room and he had to place them on top of the corresponding letter on the floor. With each letter that he picked up he had to tell me the sound the letter makes and a word that starts with that letter. He did the capital letters in a breeze - it felt too easy...so, we decided to lower case letters...not so easy. He has known his capital letters for quite some time, but we don't work on lower case letters often enough so they had him stumped. He tried for awhile and enjoyed it, but didn't have the patience to make it through the whole alphabet. Today we worked on the lower case letters some more and we should have them done by tomorrow :)
Whenever Alexia sees the letters she sings, "A, B, C, la, la , la, da , be, de , go...." to the tune of the ABC's - very cute!
Excuse Diego's lack of pants in the pictures. He had just finished his quiet time and was not ready to get dressed. He always insists on doing his quiet time in his shirt and underwear.

Most of you know that I am a vegetarian. We do not raise our children vegetarian because Ricardo is a CARNIVORE. These children are after their mama's heart though because they love salads and vegetables. Diego's very favorite meal lately is salad with olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

Pouring his olive oil...

...then the vinegar...

...and enjoying his greens. The little things on the blue plate are crackers and hummus.

Alexia still loves black beans and here she is enjoying a black bean soup I made for dinner. On a side note, Diego does not nap anymore. He has a quiet time in his room, but doesn't sleep. He goes to bed at 7pm and since Alexia does nap, she gets to stay up until 8:00. Her usual routine is to have dinner with Diego (pictured above) and then sit down with Ricardo and I when he gets home and eat with us again. So, she ate a lot of what you see on her plate above and then when Ricardo came him this evening she had a second dinner with us. That reminds me that I didn't update on her latest doctor apt. We took her in for a weight check per the request of her doctor at her 18-month check up. We were excited to see that she has gained 1.5 pounds and is now at 10% for weight! This is a big deal since we thought she may have slipped to negative percentiles according to her weight on our home scale. Praise God for his protection of our little peanut!

"Cheers" to Auntie Paige. We had a video call with Auntie Paige yesterday (who is on bed rest in the hospital) during snack time. She was eating carrots and celery and the kids asked me for celery to eat with her. Since then, they have been on a celery kick and love crunching away at it.

After dinner Diego and Alexia went downstairs to play "Buruca" (dog pile). It was so adorable. They held hands, sang, rocked back and forth and then toppled over.