airborn!

A surprise trip to the airport...no we're not going anywhere....just visiting the aviation museum.

It looks like these guys were doing some damage to this plane. I told them not to touch it!


This is a motley crew of pilots...luckily there's not room for passengers.


And I'm pretty sure this is NOT the face you want your pilot making over the open ocean.


This place is amazing....definitely worth the visit. Beautiful, brightly colored airplanes were everywhere!! And although I didn't get to read much about them (chasing kids around), they each have a story. There was one that even flew to Antarctica in the 1930s.


There was an old army helicopter, too. The kids were IN AWE of the propellers and how GIANT they were!


Lots of model planes to look at, as well. Diego was in heaven here.


But this miniature flight simulator was definitely the highlight. The kids were really able to make it fly.


And this picture definitely sums up our experience...kids running in every direction and Diego trying to touch propellers he shouldn't be touching.


For members of the Science Museum of VA, admission here is free. (But not if you stop by the gift shop.)

después de la tormenta

(Spanish Friday...con latinaish.com)

Qué tormenta tuvimos el otro día!! Al fin, puedo usar chapparrón en algo más que la canción "que llueva, que llueva..." La casa estaba temblando con cada trueno.

Tenemos una piscina plástica para nuestros hijos....pensé que ésta los llamará afuera más este verano, pero no. El agua es muy frío cuando la llenamos con la manguera...y es aún más difícil vaciar. Mi idea ahora es cortar un pequeño círculo en el fondo y usar un tapón de la tina. No sé, si me equivoco, no podría usarla para nada.

PERO con esa tormenta, se cayó tanta lluvia, que la piscina estaba bien llena. Mis hijos fueron a investigarla, y el agua fue bastante tibio.


Perfecto para alguien de 36 pulgadas.


Qué panza!


Y qué sonrisa!

celebrating the fourth

Bug spray.

Water.

Snacks.

Yep, we were ready to go to the annual fourth of July parade.


And I finally learned where to park...at the start of the parade. If you do that, there are no long gaps between groups, you're not waiting an hour for it to start, you get to leave early, and most importantly, they haven't run out of candy.

It was all about the candy...as it is most years, but I went with it this year. We ate as much as a we could. I said, "Yes, yes, yes," and it felt good. It's tiring having to play bad cop most of the time, so this was refreshing.

And for the record, balloons are just as great as candy.


Love the boats! We are lucky to see a large group of sailboats in the lake some mornings and they are so beautiful. On my to do list is to find a place that will let us take the kids on a sailboat for a bit.


Diego was able to enjoy it more this year. He cheered the people on as they drove by.


"Yeah, Mom. This is definitely fun.


I love this picture of Isabela. It's really hard to get a natural one of her....she sees me pointing the camera in her direction and quickly turns around or poses...but here is her beautiful smile that we love.


Hope everyone had a very happy fourth of July!!

zoo animals

I took Diego to the zoo a couple of weeks ago....he and I have passes. It was so much FUN!

We went early so the animals weren't tired of everyone looking at them yet. And a lot of them were being fed.

Zoo pictures are notorious for being really boring. I didn't have my zoom lens with me, but some of the pictures turned out really good anyway. One lady we ran into said she decorated her playroom with blown up pictures she had taken from this zoo...I thought that was a cool idea. So here they are:

The flamingos flapped away just as we got there....


...but they came back and settled down.


This guy was bravely trimming the grass around the chimpanzees. He kept looking over his shoulder to see where they were and to make sure his wife was throwing the banana peels to them from across the water. Very entertaining.


Look at this fish picture!! A little scary if you ask me.


Diego LOVED it all. He's at a great age for the zoo.


They have some beautiful birds there. A lot of them are towards the back of the zoo, so maybe I just never made it that far before.


Diego was cautious around the giraffes.


A definite highlight was watching the rhinos eat. They were SUPER close and every once in a while let out a tremendous snort that sent us jumping.


The wise and aged galapagos turtle gave us a nice smile.


And the peacock chose not to open his beautiful feathers, but he's still amazing anyway.


Diego's keeping his eye on that peacock as it strutted around the picnic tables.


It was a great day...we beat the heat, and you can never go wrong if a snow cone tops it off.

the northern lights

I asked the kids to choose a state to learn more about this summer.

Isabela's first response, "Canada." (I'm glad we're working on this.)

I suggested Alaska since it's actually a state, and she agreed.

Joaquin's choice? Hawaii.

And that about sums up their differences.

So I came across this fun art activity (I'm pretty sure it was on this Iditarod webpage)when looking up things about Alaska. It's a water coloring of the northern lights.


To do this, you need:
a black sharpie
watercolor paper
watercolors
tape
water

Just tape down your paper with a nice border, and draw your landscape with the Sharpie. This is great since it's all black, the details are all colored in. Hardly any mess ups!

Then paint a layer of water on to your paper to wet it. This helps blend the colors. Then paint some bright color in the sky, and fill in any remaining white with a dark color...we used black water color.


As it dries, it spreads and some amazing colors come out. Very fun and addictive! We even thought of using these as post cards.

clean up, clean up

Tonight, I found myself cleaning up the dinner meal mess by myself, AGAIN.

The kids were ransacking the house. Juan Pablo was at work. And I wondered how come I was the only one cleaning up. My good intention of creating, or heck, even copying, a workable chore chart just hasn't materialized.

Well, I was going to put my foot down, whether they liked it or not.

As I was rinsing off dishes, I yelled for the two oldest to come into the kitchen...they ran in, maybe expecting a treat or something.

I calmly said, "I need you two to help me clean up the dishes," fully expecting a barrage of protests on why they couldn't and shouldn't have to help.

Instead, they immediately started handing me dishes and putting them in the dishwasher! What?? I was shocked and awed. Maybe this was their plan.

But quickly the dishes were almost done, and I wondered how much more I could get away with. I offered the spray bottle to Joaquin to wipe down the table. Isabela immediately countered with, "But I want to do that!" What?? Were they actually fighting over cleaning up?

So I responded with, "Well, I have another bottle in the bathroom. You can wipe down the sink in there." And off she went.

Now you will absolutely not believe what happened next.

Joaquin runs to me asking if it's alright to clean the toilet! And Isabela is right behind him with, "But I wanted to clean the toilet!" Well, OK. We have two toilets. Go right ahead and clean them.

And I have to add, the fun didn't stop there. The night ended with a very clean shower as well, thanks to these two.

Now I'm not sure what was in the dinner tonight, but we are definitely having this meal again.

flashmob!

One of the greatest inventions of this decade has got to be the flashmob. Getting hundreds of people to do the same steps in wide open public places is SO COOL! But the hardest part is keeping it a secret.

Saturday, I was in one!

It was at the Science Museum of Virginia during their huge Cultsha Expo. My plan was not to tell the kids or JP at all and just start dancing when the time came....but I knew by Saturday morning I'd have to tell Juan Pablo in order for it to work...otherwise I'd somehow be stuck carrying all the bags and Diego and miss my big chance. But the kids still didn't know.

We were all given the same t-shirt to wear...they told us to hide it with another t-shirt, or something to take off right before we went out. I put mine on in the morning and the kids immediately started asking questions. Who gave you that shirt, Mom? Joaquin said, "It doesn't match your jeans, Mom, put on another one!" (How can a black t-shirt not match jeans?)

So here's a video of it taken by someone (goodluck trying to find me):


And this one, you can see me for a bit...then I bump into someone as we're moving off to the next part.

The kids' faces were not what I expected...they looked more confused than anything. Like, "Why is mama over there dancing with those people?"

But it was SUPER fun...there were all types of people in it, too. If you ever get the chance, definitely try it!