Marisa is 6!

My baby girl is 6! Wow. Here is the beaming girl on the day of her bday (02/03/04). Great birthdate!
For her party I planned a mom's nightmare, and a child's dream - a candy party. I had a couple games (lollipop toss, candy bingo, and Pin the candy on the candyland game board ...) but the main event was the CANDY BUFFET. This was their "goody bag". They each got a bag that they had decorated, and were able to take 1 candy (or 2 or 3 depending on the sign on the container) from each candy dish. No candy was consumed at the party - I sent it all home. I'm no dummy.

Here they are going through the line ...

And the last few years I have had fun baking and decorating cakes for my kids' birthdays. THis year I did two (because there were 19 little girls and Lucas and a lot of moms and I was afraid there wouldn't be enough - but the real reason was I was just having fun decorating cakes and I couldn't decide which one to make!) The first was a Bubblegum machine cake.

And the 2nd was a Candyland cake. This one was fun to decorate as a family. (And I wouldn't be able to do this without my husband's help for sure! He's the real decorator.)

And the cake at the end. In this picture I'm saying "Is it over yet? Can someone please get these children out of my house?"

Visitors

Sunday morning we looked out in our yard and saw some visitors. Peacocks! Lots of them. There were about 15 I think. They live a couple blocks from us and come visit every once in awhile, but we'd never had this many at once. This one was the prettiest, but he never did show us his feathers. Oh well.



They even enjoyed the playground in the backyard. :-)

Coming up the stairs ...

Marisa is trying to feed them. We made the mistake of giving them some food and when we came home from church they were still here, along with lots of poop all over the sidewalk and patio! I wanted to send M and L outside to play but wasn't sure how mean or gentle they are ... so Victor got out the water hose to wash off the sidewalk ... and shoo them away. Enough excitement for one day. Now back to having clean sidewalks free of peacock feathers and other things ...

Come visit!

For those of you in the cold north east - I hear on the radio about the cool temperatures you're having. It's cool here too - only 70 degrees. Come visit San Diego! My children were in shorts and short sleeved shirts in school today!

Family Photo Shoot

My friend Kristen took some pictures of our family in November, and I'm finally trying to go through them and decide which ones I want to print ... there's a lot more, but I won't bore you with more ... here's my crazy family!

Marisa kept begging to do silly ones ...

... and more silly ones ...

That's my family! Sometimes I still can't believe that I'm really married and have children. I had cried and begged God for a husband for so long, and now I have one and 2 children! God is good. Thanks Kristen for the pictures! I like them more every time I look at them!

Good bye Christmas, Hello 2010!

Good bye Christmas tree! One last hug from Lucas this morning before it left the house and went outside to be ...

chopped up!!

We had a great first day of 2010. The day started with chocolate chip pancakes, and bacon. (There's always next year to eat fruit ...) I asked each member of the family what they wanted God to help them improve on this coming year. It warmed my heart to hear their responses. Marisa said right away that she wanted to obey the first time I asked her to do something. (Now if only I had enough faith to believe that could actually happen!) Lucas said he wanted to learn more about God and also love and obey the Lord our Father. I said I wanted to be more patient and kind and not get angry with them so much. Lucas nodding his head said "Yes, mommy, that's a good one." Thanks Lucas. You were supposed to say, "Oh no mommy, you don't have a problem with that!"

Victor slaved in the kitchen all day and produced a very tasty Puerto Rican meal. Very yummy. I look forward to this meal all year long! Sorry, I don't know the English names for the dishes, but we ate pernil, arroz y gandules, and mofongo and for dessert Tembleque. Doesn't that sound great? :-) The best part was the company we were able to share it with. My prayer partner Monica, and John and Jessie Robertus. Again, I forgot to take pictures.

Christmas!

Here's our month in a nutshell!
We started the month off visiting the mall Santa with our playgroup. I was really hoping Lucas and Marisa didn't inform all their friends that Santa is just a man in a red suit ...


... baking cookies ... I really relaxed this year and let them do whatever they wanted with the frosting and sprinkles. They did have some interesting cookies (or should I say lumps of frosting and sprinkles with bits of cookie?) What a good mom I'm becoming ...

... volunteering for Marisa's Kindergarten Christmas party. It's fun to see her interact with her school friends!

... I planned and ran Lucas' party so I didn't get any pictures of his. But Victor and I had fun watching the school's Christmas program on their last day of school. They have each class get up and perform things that they have been learning - like jingle bells in Mandarin :-). Here is Lucas' class playing a song on their recorders. (This is their dress uniform for special occassions. The everyday uniform is much more casual.)

... Christmas morning! 2 excited children in their new Christmas pj's!

... and now it's Christmas vacation - and Lucas and Marisa have to find something to occupy their time! So, they made a garbage tree! Actually, have been making a garbage tree would be more accurate. They have been adding to this tree over the past few weeks. Amazingly enough, Victor has actually not said anything, and is just pretending it doesn't exist.

... piano lessons - for daddy! Lucas is teaching daddy how to play the piano.

... and of course my angels ALWAYS get along. I found this note written outside on sidewalk chalk, supposedly written for her brother. I'm so proud of Marisa's ability to express herself and put words into sentences! Is it too much to ask that they be nice words? In case you can't understand Kindergarten spelling - it says "I do not like you."

... and last but not least ... no comment.

I LOVE IT!!

The other day we were driving behind someone with a movie playing in their van's DVD player. Lucas wistfully said "I wish we had a DVD player in our car." Half jokingly I said "But Lucas we have books to read in our car, that's much better! He was silent a minute then said "Yeah mom you're right - books are better than DVD's." I love it! It's worth it to not have a TV in our house! He LOVES to read!

Thanksgiving and Black Friday!

Marisa is enjoying the turkey leg! Her favourite part! We had a great Thanksgiving with my mom joining us from Ontario. It's good to have her here for 2 weeks.

Yes, I'm one of those crazy people who goes out shopping in the middle of the night. (It's all about efficiency - I get major bargains and a huge chunk of time without anyone bothering me.) I'm quite pleased with my loot! :-) I arrived at the outlet mall at 2am when most other shoppers were on their way home and then I headed to the Carlsbad mall at 6, then to the Christian bookstore, and Michaels. Home at 9. That's 7 hours of shopping. I think I'm done now. One of my best bargains was a Gymboree ski jacket for Marisa for $11.20.

From Pumpkin Patch to Pumpkin Stew

Look at my new pot! This was dinner last night - beef stew in a pumpkin.

I made beef stew and put it in a pumpkin to bake for an hour. Fun dinner.

Yet another pumpkin patch ...

Yet another pumpkin patch! How many pumpkin patches can we get to in just one October?
This is part of the playgroup that Lucas and Marisa have been in since Lucas was 2 months old. It'll be 7 years this month! We've gone to this pumpkin patch every October for the past 5 years. It felt like 90 derees out this day. Not right.

Another pumpkin patch visit ...

Last week we had another pumpkin patch visit. This time with Marisa's Kindergarten class. She wanted the green pumpkin. :-(
Don't you love the messy hair? Sorry Kristen, I just can't do it right!

The little Chinese girl she is with is the daughter of the Mandarin teacher at the school. Yes, they learn Mandarin starting at Kindergarten. I was commenting to the Mandarin teacher that we would love to visit China someday. She said "I go a few times a year. I'd love for your family to join us and I could be your translater and tour guide! AND I have an apartment in Beijing where you are welcome to stay!" I almost have the flights booked already I'm so excited.

And here is Marisa raising her hand to answer a question in the pumpkin program. After answering she said to the lady - "next time I answer a question if you want to call me by my name - it's Marisa." :-) I wasn't sure whether to burst our laughing or die of embarrassment.

The Yearly Pumpkin Patch!!

Last week we had a day off school for Parent Teacher Conferences so we headed to Bates Nut Farm for our yearly visit.
You never know what the temperature is going to be like in October here. Too hot for the Halloween sweaters - but good thing we have Halloween t'shirts too! One day last week it was in the 90's. Usually when you mix 90' in October in San Diego, that means fire, but last week it didn't thankfully!

They had fun in the straw maze - Marisa is pretending to not know where to go next!

And my little drama queen trying to pick up the pumpkin ...

Ahh, there we go - she got it.

Music to a Mother's Ears

Tonight Lucas said he hopes he doesn't get sick this winter because he doesn't want to miss any school. And if he does get sick, he said he hopes he's only sick on the weekends so he can be in school on Monday so he doesn't miss anything fun. :-)
Gotta love it.

Miramar Airshow

We've gone to the Miramar Airshow at least 5 out of the 7 years we've lived here. It's amazing and Lucas and Marisa LOVE it.
Before the show started we walked around and toured the planes and tanks. What more could a boy ask for? He had a chance to get in a tank and pretend to shoot a gun. If only I was as excited about this as he was ...

Now, just pretend that I now have pictures of many airplanes flying in close formation, doing all kinds of wild and crazy stunts in the sky. Put your hands over your ears to protect your ears from the ear splitting noise of the planes overhead, close your eyes and watch the parachuters coming down out of the sky, and ooh and ahhhh as you see the ground troops put on the "WALL OF FIRE".

See? A thousand words are worth a picture. :-)

Tooth #4

This tooth was so loose it literally fell right out all by itself. He is so excited to be SLOWLY catching up to all his friends who have lost many more ...

Tooth # 3

Lucas is a little behind in the tooth losing department. He just lost #3 last week. It had been dangling for so long Victor finally said he was going to do the "tie a string to it and slam the door" thing. Lucas was giddy with excitement but then chickened out numerous times. Victor finally just yanked on the string and it was out with no pain! Ahhh, the joys of childhood.

Happy Anniversary to me ...

Nine years! Wow. How time flies when you're ... going crazy? That's about how life feels sometimes. We took a one night getaway to La Jolla last weekend for our anniversary. Our new adopted grandparents - John and Jessie took Lucas and Marisa for the night. (They were THRILLED!!) Our anniversary took on new meaning this year as we were very thankful to have each other. The week before, my good friend lost her husband and father in a tragic plane crash. She is left with 3 young girls to raise. Amazing how all the petty little annoyances go away when you realize how insignificant all your whinings are.
The actual day of our anniversary - Wed, Sept 30, I had planned a nice meal (meaning I bought something from the store all ready prepared so it would taste good) and we sat at the dining room table. I had pictured nice conversation around the table with Lucas and Marisa about love, marriage, God, faithfulness etc etc. Then we were going to all 4 move to Marisa's bed and look at wedding albums and I was going to attempt to fit into my wedding dress for Lucas and Marisa to see. It was such a nice evening - in my mind. We actually talked about school and homework, fought over bedtime, rushed through showers and they went to bed without seeing the skintight wedding dress. (Some things are best left alone.)
Happy Anniversary - I love you!
OH, and I appear to have forgotten that I own a camera. We still look the same - few more pounds, a little less hair, a little more gray, a few wrinkles here and there ...

My great idea

I was so proud of myself last weekend. I came up with a great idea, if I do say so myself. We were out on a date night and had a girl babysitting who had only babysat for us a couple times before. Our regular babysitter from the past 5 years just left for college :-(
She mentioned when I took her home that L and M were a little wild. An understatment I'm sure. They admitted to me the next morning that they were indeed VERY wild. So, my punishment to them was they had to help pay the babysitting fee! There eyes were very big and full of remorse as I took money out of their banks and put it in my wallet. I just may have good children next time we have a babysitter! :-)

Yearly Playgroup Camping Trip

Almost every year for the past 6 years, Lucas and Marisa's playgroup has done a weekend camping trip in the area. It's always a fun, chaotic messy time. Here are the highlights! Let's start at the end. Dirty feet. They were actually pretty clean every where else, but those feet ...

LUcas and Marisa love to sleep in a tent. We're the only tent campers in the group, everyone else has nice trailers ... someday. Until then, we're building tent memories. :-)

Some of the moms relaxing while the dads took the kids "fishing" to a nearby creek. Lucas actually caught a fish with a stick and a hook and worm!

And the dads playing horseshoes ... or is it a new dance they're practicing?

Camp food! BBQed hotdogs, watermelon, corn on the cob - what more could a kid want?

They also want s'mores of course!! The best camp dessert.

The moms agree. ALthough I did see some of them just taking the chocolate ...

After smores it's time to "plug the kids in" and put on a movie shown on a white sheet on the back of one of the trailers.

ONe of the evenings we had glow sticks too. There were not enough glow stick necklaces to go around, so Lucas very kindly gave up his and said he'd rather have the earrings anyway. So, should I be proud of his unselfishness or worried about his interest in earrings?

We had plenty of bubbles ...

Plenty of playdough ...

Plenty of children riding on bikes ... (and also dads doing wheelies on bikes trying to teach Lucas to do wheelies on his bike ... thank you very much Jim!)

We took a side trip on Sunday afternoon to Julian to pick apples hoping to escape the heat in Ramona. But it wasn't meant to be. (Escaping the heat that is.) But we did find a nice airconditioned restaurant to eat delicious Julian apple pie.

A great weekend! Now to the laundry and those feet!!