Friday, April 29, 2011

Tornado in Tuscaloosa

On Wednesday, April 27, 2011. The southeast of the U.S was heavily affected by a very destructive EF-5 Tornado. The damaged caused has been incalculable. Many are homeless and many without loved ones. That afternoon, we gathered some pillows, blankets, helmets, water and toys for the boys to be distracted with. We got in the hall bathroom of our house and prayed. 

It has been the most nerve wracking event in my life, and even though it was a crisis, I found out that I am a very calm person in situations like this. Today I am more than thankful to be alive along with my loved ones. These past days have been very very emotional for me, and my heart aches, while I realize how close this tornado got to us and by all the destruction.

Please pray for all the ones that are displaced and for all the ones that have lost somebody. You can rebuild a home and a business but you can't get a lost life back. 







Pictures from Google



If you feel like you want to do something for the city or for the whole affected Southeast area, you can make a donation to www.redcross.org. Every little penny is going to help somebody! 

Saturday, April 23, 2011

Earth Day

Yesterday was Earth Day and I wanted to do something fun with the kids so we made Planet Earth and Clouds with rain. It was a bit difficult to take pictures while I also helped the kiddos so I decided I would just show what we made :)



Planet Earth

You need: Coffee filter, washable markers, dropper and water.

How to do it: Color the coffee filter with the markers and once you are done drop a little bit of water in the middle so it can spread better, color more if you want to, if not let it dry.



Clouds with rain

You need: Construction paper, scissors, staple or glue, ribbon or party streamers, hole punch.

How to do it: Fold the sheet of construction paper in half and cut it as a cloud shape. Then staple or glue the edges. Punch some holes at the bottom in which you will tie some ribbon or party streamers. Pass the ribbon through he holes or tie them, whatever you like best (We pass them through)


See how easy that was?And it doesn't take very long :)


.Be kind to our planet.

Friday, April 22, 2011

Easter egg dyeing

It is our very first time dyeing Easter eggs. The process was a lot messier and slower than I though it was going to be, but we got creative and had fun!







Hey! What about that last picture? How did it get there? :)

I guess I couldn't help the excitement of our very first batch of dyed Easter eggs that I had to take a picture of myself with them because the boys had lost interest at this point. Oh goofy, but even goofier because I can't turn the picture around and you are all going to have neck pain if you look at it for a few extra seconds  :)


Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Invite making

Hey guys!

I've been into crafting a lot lately and for Anthony's party I wanted to create the invites myself, so after he let me know what he wanted for his party this was my inspiration for the invites- a knight shield that Santa brought him.


What I did first was to draw the picture into a piece of paper of the size I wanted the invites to be. The one of the left was my first try, then it finished like the one on the right.


After I had the picture on paper,  I copied the shapes into the color paper I wanted to use -I used card-stock paper. Anthony helped by the way :)



Once I had all of them I put them together and glue each piece with all purpose glue and a paint brush. Typed and printed the info on the other side.




Ta-da!

This is how they turned out :)



I liked the finished product, but mostly I liked that Anthony was very involved in the whole process, he really was :)

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Birthday party

We had Anthony's birthday party on Sunday and he had lots of fun. We had family, friends and beautiful weather to celebrate birthday number 3. This year we had a lot more kids that we usually do, and I had to come with ideas to keep them entertained. 

So I created a Face Painting station

 

We got good use out of a wagon the boys have, and had also a wagon ride station

 
We also had a station for "How to Train your Dragon" characters coloring pages, but not pictures were taken.

And we also had a pinata which the boys helped to fill with candy and some other goodies.


 

And we had the good ol' fashion array of toys for all the kids to play with. 


I decided that I wanted to make the cake this year. Last year I made David's cupcakes and they actually turned out pretty good, but I had never really made a cake, and it was a bit scary during the decorating part. I practiced before I even touched the cake. I kept it fun, colorful and easily decorated, as well as the cupcakes.



What do you think about the cake? I think it's not so bad for being my first cake- if I say so myself :) The only thing though was, that birthday boy was pretty tired and not feeling well at the time of the birthday song, so he cried when everybody was singing to him. I didn't get to take a picture of him because I was holding the cake, but I wish someone else did because I also have a picture of my third birthday crying during the birthday song.

On another note, we got him a bike as a present. He loves to see his neighbors riding their bike, and even though it will be a while before he can actually be good at it, we can practice before then. 


 

I have to be honest, I got a little nostalgic when I saw him riding the bike. I can't believe my baby is 3 already!


We want to say thank you to all that came, and those who couldn't but were with us in spirit, to help us celebrate this special occasion. I love having birthday parties for the boys -even though every year I say we are not having one. I like to see our family and friends together, and absorb some of the life and love that children carry and project everywhere they are.

Thank you!

Saturday, April 16, 2011

How to train your dragon





This is Anthony's favorite movie and probably my favorite animated one too. It is such a neat movie, with great graphics, story and message. It is said that there is going to be a How To Train Your Dragon 2 for Fall 2013, and we can't wait to see it! If you have not seen it  and you have kids please do, rent it, buy it, borrow it or whatever, just watch it please, you will love it! 

Why the fuss about this movie? 

Well, we are having Anthony's Third Birthday party this Sunday and he chose this movie as its theme. I always say that we are not doing anything but cutting a cake and that's it, but kids birthday parties are always fun, and even though he will probably not remember much of it, he will enjoy every second and minute of it. We love to see him having fun with his family and friends :)


Friday, April 15, 2011

Happiness



"We tend to forget that happiness doesn't come as a result of getting something we don't have, but rather of recognizing and appreciating what we do have"— Frederick Keonig


(picture taken winter 2010)


Wednesday, April 13, 2011

When you thought I wasn't looking



When you thought I wasn’t looking
You hung my first painting on the refrigerator
And I wanted to paint another.

When you thought I wasn’t looking
You fed a stray cat
And I thought it was good to be kind to animals.

When you thought I wasn’t looking
You baked a birthday cake just for me
And I knew that little things were special things.

When you thought I wasn’t looking
You said a prayer
And I believed there was a God that I could always talk to.

When you thought I wasn’t looking
You kissed me good-night
And I felt loved.

When you thought I wasn’t looking
I saw tears come from your eyes
And I learned that sometimes things hurt—
But that it’s alright to cry.

When you thought I wasn’t looking
You smiled
And it made me want to look that pretty too.

When you thought I wasn’t looking
You cared
And I wanted to be everything I could be.

When you thought I wasn’t looking—
I looked . . .
And wanted to say thanks
For all those things you did
When you thought I wasn’t looking.

By Mary Rita Schilke Korzan


(picture source) 

Monday, April 11, 2011

Weekend recap

Hello all!

How was your weekend? 

We had a great and busy one.

Joe is part of Kairos, a prison ministry that takes place a few times a year. I have to say that it is something amazing that he and many other men take the time to prepare, and do this effort to present God to prisoners whom have never heard or felt God's love, or whom have given their backs to God, and had follow a dark road that took them to the place they are now.  It is an amazing weekend where many lives are touched and hopefully lives are changed. So he went on with his dad to do this over the weekend while the kiddos and I went to Atlanta to visit  family. We played and ate until we couldn't anymore, pretty special compared to what Joe did ha? Well, at least we had an educative field trip with Lisa, my sister in law and her kids, whom are not so much of kids anymore, they are preteens- if I must say- to Fern Bank Museum of Natural History. 

I was told that the museum just did an $8 million renovation! Yes, it was very nice and recommend it to all. The only thing that I would suggest is that they improve their Cosmos Theather...humm...not much interesting...they could build a little planetarium instead....or something like that. Something a bit more interesting, specially if you bring kids with you. 

We also, went to see my sister and then went to the biggest first birthday party I've ever been to! I'm guessing that party cost around $3,000 or more and I am not kidding! They rented a restaurant to have the party at, they had a clown show with activities and prizes for kids, they had buffet style meal and pizza exclusively for the kids, balloons everywhere, money shower (they threw rolled-up dollar bills to all the kids!), they also had a bottle of Old Parr whiskey in each table (they were more than 5 tables), Dj, moonwalk jumper, etc etc. The biggest first birthday party I've ever been to for sure. And my sister insisted that that was very normal in the Mexican culture. Can you imagine how the little girl's wedding is going to be? I can't even imagine...

Anyway, did you notice our new header? 

I was over the old one and I wanted something more simple and in black and white, so that's what we have now. I like it, I like it better than the old one. 

Have a great week!



Friday, April 8, 2011

Inspiration for life

I came upon this video a couple of weeks ago, and for some reason it kept breaking up and I could not see it completely; but the other day I gave it a try once again. It is such a beautiful and inspiring video that sort of gave me a little chill by acknowledging its entire truth.

I wanted to share it specially today, because yesterday was my little guy's third birthday and I realized how fast time goes by, yet, we do not realize it most of the time because of how busy we are, or because we are focused on other things. I am learning to set priorities and stay true to them. I want to enjoy the very simple little pleasures of life. I want to enjoy my kids, husband and family as much as possible. I want to be happy and spiritually complete.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I did...

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Three

Our first baby

Our first son

is 3 today....

We thank God for the amazing opportunity He gave us to be parents for the first time with Anthony as a gift. He has been an amazing little guy, and we are so thankful, blessed and privileged to have him in our lives.



*  HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANTHONY ! *




We love you more than you will ever imagine!



Monday, April 4, 2011

Water fun

On Sunday while I was cleaning out our back porch and doing some flowers planting, the boys decided they wanted to help out mommy water the plants. They did help out water the plants and the grass mostly, until they figure out that it was a lot more fun to play with the water :)

This is a little shot of both of them while playing with the water hose. Just a few seconds of minutes and minutes of water fun! 


Friday, April 1, 2011

Painting day

By being at home with the boys full time, it is a little bit difficult to find what to do to keep them entertained, specially because they both are at a different age. We play, read, color, paint, watch movies etc etc. I do try to keep them away from the T.V as much as possible, because I believe kids have a huge potential in their little superhuman genius brains that if they watch too much T.V most of that potential will not be developed like it should, yet it is difficult. 

Lately, I've been doing my best to do a lot more extra activities where we can bond, and they can also learn or just simply enjoy the moment, do something different, new and exciting. Today was painting day, it happened at different times because while David napped, Anthony painted, and vice versa.







Notice how I had to cover the painting area a lot more than what I did with Anthony?
Yes, David was a lot messier...


Ok, so in this one, I was actually was going to take a picture of him painting, when suddenly and quickly, very quickly!, he decided to taste the paint. He did not like it! 








 

 I really like all the pictures even though some are blurry. I had taken most of them with the phone because first, I could not find the camera, second, it wasn't fully charged. Lesson learned!  The good thing is that we are going to have a lot more days like this :)


Have a lovely weekend!


P.S. The paint we use is Crayola Washable Kids Paint 10 ct.


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