Look what the boy dragged in

Last Monday, we carpe diemed ourselves to music class with Tiago leading the way on his bike and Talia roughing it in our hiking pack. On the way home, a stray dog decided that we were a much needed distraction from the doldrums of feral life. With a squealing one year old and a giggling boy, you would think this dog might have lost interest fast. Quite the contrary. It followed us all the way home. I should rephrase that, it follow Tiago anywhere and everywhere he went. Tiago was half mesmerized and half frightened by this new found shadow. I took the opportunity to do some weeding while Tiago practiced the art of looking and not touching. I was fine with love at a distance and tried to not think about the fact that fleas can jump.

Tiago decided it needed food which I quickly changed to water. The dog waited anxiously at the door for Tiago's return. Infact, when Tiago sat by the dog, it seemed to feel finally at peace and decided to get a little shut eye. When it was asleep for a few minutes, I suggested to Tiago that we let it rest. Tiago agreed since sleeping dogs aren't all that interesting. As soon as Tiago left, the dog got up and faithfully followed.

Too bad the friendship was doomed from the beginning. It was good while it lasted.

Happy Birthday Fernando

Nothing says birthday fun then waking up at 3:30 am to get to work with a grumpy Attending. On a happier side note, he did have the chance to leave earlier to come home to his birthday surprise. Unfortunately, due to babysitting in the morning and an exploding bookshelf*, and not enough paint, the project isn't complete. I have been planning this idea for weeks. I have been looking online and in stores for a perfect desk and bookshelf to highlight the BYUness of the room. When the stores weren't looking promising, I thought "I'll just make some bookshelves." In the end, I decided (or time limitations and mom duties decided for me) that I would just paint while he was at work on Tuesday and put up some white trim on the walls. Ok, minus the white trim, this is what he got.

BEFORE


AFTER


After being surprised by the room, we shoved his b-day dinner of auju (french dip sandwiches) into our face to make it on time to Mia's singing performance at the school. It turns out that the singing was a sneaky way to get all the parents to attend this really boring PTA meeting. There was more PTA business including a redundant vote for the new PTA board then there was singing. Fernando, who was exhausted for a long day of work, fell asleep for most of the meeting while I followed Miss Curious around the gym.

Fernando had YM obligations and left right after Mia finished singing. I raced the kids home to bed so I could finish the last surprise for his office. Unfortunately I got stuck on deciding which wire should stand in place of the nonexistent black wire for the ceiling fan to work correctly. By correct I mean not start a fire and what not. Fernando came home mid-process and helped me finish. What a good sport. He picked at the cake the kids made** and we went to bed.

Happy Birthday, my love. You are an amazing person that I was lucky enough to marry. You are a fantastic husband, father, son, brother, doctor, chess player (ok and every other game except I totally got you on Tetris), and so much more. Enjoy your last year in your twenties.






*Just for all of you who might contemplate such actions in the future, cheap short bookcases are not meant to hold the weight of people. I foolishly and lazily used such a bookcase to reach the near ceiling wall part. It worked for a few minutes, but in the end it just wasn't meant to be. Shocking. Who would have guessed particle board couldn't support 150lbs?

**Tiago and Mia were in charge of doing the cake since I was busy painting. I put in all the ingredients and told them to switch off on mixing it. Tiago came running in a few minutes later screaming about Mia and the mixer being in trouble. I came out to a smoking mixer and a worried Mia. The hand mixer is toast, literally. I asked her why she didn't just turn it off and she told me that she didn't know she could do that.

Easter Saturday

A few years ago, we decided that all the fun/silly bunny stuff about Easter would happen on Saturday. With Fernando at work for the whole day, I had to summon a lot of imagination and energy to fill the day with Easter bliss.

The first thing they found from the Easter bunny was loaded baskets. The load was a movie, book, gum, and two (yes only two) peanut butter cups. You know, the small little bite size ones? Now, before you have a come apart, Easter was just the beginning of sugar overload with 3 birthday's coming up that next week. I have no problem with kids having some sugar, but really there can be too much.

After breakfast, we got geared up for an Easter egg hunt at the Lackland AFB. Though the eggs were few and far between
(and or there were four kids to every one egg with adults not doing there share of equality), it was great to get some free food, cupcakes, and a balloon made by a clown. I could have skipped on the clown due to my coulrophobia, but just like bug encounters, my kids seem to bring out my bravest side.
(yes, it was freezing. Ok, it was 60 something degrees, but that is cold when you have been used to 80+ temperatures.)

Parental Sidenote: While waiting in an obviously long line that is moving slower then the other three lines, move to another line. This is especially helpful when your kids are starting to melt down and you just stupidly gave your almost 1 year old her first taste of Kool-Aid and there was only enough for one taste.

Next fun stop was at Lakeshore Learning to make an Easter basket.
The kids loved all toys that were displayed for play and I was suckered into making a few purchases.
Mia and Tiago and Talia and I all took a good nap. I then received a manicure and pedicure from Miss Mia with her new nail polish.

The day ended with watching Over the Hedge (our Easter basket acquisition) while easting dinner which right now is evading me as to what that dinner was. Too many other projects that have happened between then and now. More on that later.

This little girl gets the trooper award. She was dragged from one event to another all the while being toted in a backpack or cart. Thanks for letting your siblings have some fun.

More Friday Fun

Fernando was magically done with work early Friday and we decided to get in some fun family time together. We really wanted to go on some hike, but didn't really know of a place that was close enough. There are some fantastic hikes about an hour away, but that wasn't going to work at 3:30 in the afternoon when your kids go to sleep at 6:30.

Thank heavens for the internet. I found out that the Bass Pro Shop was having a little Easter fun with a free bunny photo,
an Easter egg hunt around the store, and a craft.


The store is a mix of REI and a taxidermists. Ok, that sounds strange. It really is a fun store. The animals are grouped in natural settings. There is even a two story waterfall and huge fish tanks in the center of it all.

We had hoped to bike around outside before dinner, but the activities took a little longer then expected. We compromised and went on a mini hike around a small waterfall lake area outside of the store.
Then we drove over to the Red Robins across the way to celebrate the 3 April b-days in our family coming up this week. Funny that the last time we were at Red Robins was a year ago with Talia in my belly. It was a much more comfortable trip for me, (which explains the overly cheesy smile)
but Talia still felt cramped. At least the belly option had a continuous food situation and was a little more padded then this car seat.

Mia's Easter Party Fun

Like usual, we had a mini party because of Mia's insistence and personal invitations she sent out. It just so happened that Good Friday is a holiday here in Texas so it made for a perfect party day. And, as always, I am glad that she took the initiative. I wish that I had more energy to include more kids, but 3 invitees each for Tiago and Mia was about as much as I could handle. Two hours of Easter fun with no candy involved. . .it was a risky undertaking.

The kids helped clean the house. Mia made place cards for the kids and even came up with a game. She attached stickers to some plastic Easter eggs for a game of charades.


This gave me the few extra minutes I needed to finish cooking the food so it wouldn't be sitting around growing bacteria. That would be a little tacky to send kids home with some food borne illness. We had cheesy eggs (my style=lots of chopped up veggies like carrots, spinach, and red bell peppers with a few eggs and a little bit of cheese).


This face captures the "where are the eggs?" sentiment of the two kids yet to be exposed to my egg concoction. While the other kids, including my own, chowed down, the two boys said almost in unison, "I'm allergic." This happened to not be true since I always question the moms about food allergies before serving anyone, but very creative. In any case, no one was allowed to have the Egg shaped pancakes until they finished their eggs. The poor boy photoed above had the hardest time. Strangely, the other boy, snarfed his eggs down and raved about how good they were.



The egg shaped pancakes we decorated with toppings of their choice. Fresh fruit along with Nutella or Strawberry syrup made for yummy options. I sent the kids out to play while I cleaned up and got ready to dye some real eggs.



The option was a bunny rabbit or a chick. I was expecting an even smattering of the two options and was wrong. Everyone wanted to make a bunny which meant there wasn't enough pink dye. (For the record, Tiago's dye was "red for a rocket ship" or so he said.)
Mia was a trooper and agreed to make a yellow chick instead. While those dried (those name placards really came in handy throughout the party), we had some fun doing an Easter race. The kids had to balance a plastic egg on a spoon and drop it into a bowl.
Then they hopped like a frog until they made it to a plastic duck at which point they had to waddle like a duck to the play set. Then they would climb up to slide down the slide and race to the finish line. Tiago's little legs did the best they could, but wasn't able to beat out the 4-6 year old kids. Here are some of the winners cheering on the rest of the players.

The eggs still needed a little more drying time so we read some books. Finally, just as the kids were just about to exploded from waiting, the eggs could be transformed into their respective animal. With a pulled apart cotton ball and some pink paper ears, we made some pretty cute looking bunnies.