eight is great!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU

Happy Birthday, Joaquin,
Today you are eight!
It's time to wake up,
September 7th's the date!

Time to flip from the couch
And climb the walls
Time to play hide and seek
And run through the halls.

Ice cream for breakfast,
Cake for lunch,
A box of candy for dinner,
Your favorites to munch.

We'll have lots of fun
Cause there's presents, too.
It's your day, don't forget,
It's all for you!

We love you so much,
Today you are eight!
It's your birthday, Joaquin,
And eight will be great!

by: mom

Have the best birthday ever, Joaquin!  You're amazing!  We love you!

off to school

When I was a kid, I always remember going school clothes shopping with my mom before the start of the new year.  It was sometimes torturous, especially as I got older.  She would want me to try on things I never would have touched.  I resisted, but in the end caved, and was always surprised they looked much better on then when hanging on the hanger.  (Except for those saddle shoes....I never liked the saddle shoes!)
But I don't do that with my kids...I suppose it's for financial reasons.  But whatever the reason, that's how we got to the night before school, and Isabela only had one shirt to choose from.  The rest were either tank tops or long sleeves.  Then we realized she only has one pair of shoes that are not flip-flops.

It made for an easy choice the first day of school, that's for sure.  And while I contemplated running out the night before school to look for some stuff, I knew it would be easier if I just held off until the next day.



Besides, all she cared about was wearing hook earrings.  Of course, hers were lost... so I looked through my tangled mess of a jewelry box and found these.  She was very excited.



And this is something you don't normally see the first day of school.  A smile on Joaquin's face.  Remember last year?  or when the principal had to pull him kicking and screaming from the car the year before?



The plan was Isabela would ride the bus and I'd take Joaquin to school.    Taking them to school and picking them up is one of my favorite things...it's extra time in the car to talk and find out about their day.



We were out there early and turned it into a family affair.  I love how Kitty even comes down to wait for the bus with us.  She always keeps her distance from Diego though.  Poor thing, all he wants is to hug her and pet her and just when he reaches out and is about touch her...she leaps away.

So the bus pulls up and I get in a quick question with the driver as Joaquin says, "Mom, I'm just going to ride the bus."  And like that, they were gone.

I came back in a little sad....it all happened so fast.  I thought we'd have the drive to school.

But I'm lucky...I've got one left to cuddle with.  For Diego, it's business as usual...just him and me and a grand ol' time.


ps.  Diego and I hit Target and got a handful of t-shirts on sale, girls, size 10-12.  She ready to go now.

unsupervised

Oops.



Really, he wasn't unsupervised.  His brother and sister were in the same room.  In their defense, he really can be very quiet when he's doing something naughty.

In comes Diego and plops down next to me on the couch.  I didn't even notice at first, his leg was bent under him in some weird angle.

But when I saw it, I thought he had hair all over his leg!

His story, of course, is much better.  I'll let him tell it.



Moral of this story:  Beware of raptors with sharpie pens.

summer blog break

“Today was good. Today was fun. Tomorrow is another one.”
      Dr. Seuss

If you never did, you should.  These things are fun and fun is good!

        Dr. Seuss

You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself
any direction you choose.
You're on your own.
And you know what you know.
And YOU are the one who'll decide where to go.... 

         Dr. Seuss

Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting. So. . . get on your way.
     Dr. Seuss



From there to here, and here to there, funny things are everywhere.

Dr. Seuss

Will you succeed? Yes you will indeed!
(98 and 3-4 percent guaranteed.)
      Dr. Seuss



You are you. Now, isn't that pleasant?
     Dr. Seuss

“You are you. Now, isn't that pleasant?”


“Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened.”
     Dr. Seuss


I'm taking a short blogging break to enjoy the rest of summer.  Have a great one!

my first 5k

Running and I have never gotten along.  I was usually one of the last to finish that mile run in school.  I remember once in high school deciding to jog around the block after drinking a glass of orange juice...only to end up puking and much worse as soon as I got home.

But last year, I realized, as I looked around the gym, that the most fit people are the runners.  So I started doing the treadmill.  One mile was my goal back then, and I always felt so accomplished after reaching it.

After months of intense aerobics classes, I realized I was able to do two miles without a problem.  Only about twice a week, but combined with other classes, I felt like a marathoner.

So, an enticing living social deal for the James River Splash and Dash lured me in and I signed up (oh, I also signed JP up so I wouldn't have to do it alone.)

The Splash and Dash is a 5k trail run around Belle Isle that ends with you jumping in an inner tube and paddling across the James River.  You know it was the splash part that sealed the deal for me.

So I tried to train for it, pushing myself to run more on the treadmill.  I even hit 3 miles a couple of times.  But did you ever realized that running on a treadmill is so much easier than running on the real ground?

I did one test run with a friend a couple of weeks before the race...I had to walk a couple of times, but it was doable.  Then I gave up training and just waited for the big day.

Which arrived with rolling clouds of thunder.  The race was postponed for 30 minutes with a nice little downpour preparing us for our dive in the water.

There were lots of sarcastic comments as they lead us about a mile away to the actual start of the race.  And the race was amazing!  We were jumping over roots, diving under hanging branches and sometimes all at the same time...I felt like a video game superhero.  It was muddy, slippery, and hot.  Unfortunately, there were no water stations along the way, and with the postponing of the race, it meant that I was SUPER thirsty before the thing even began.  At one point along the trail, I felt the back of my head and hands going numb and tingly because I was so thirsty.  Juan Pablo didn't want to hear any of it.  (He's somewhat of a camel anyway.)

He tried to encourage me on, but got discouraged himself as his words fell on deaf ears.  We had different goals here...one to win and one just to finish without collapsing in a heap.

But we finally saw the light at the end of the underbrush tunnel...giant, black inner tubes!  We plunged in, and no matter how brown that James River is, it was still very refreshing.

We learned quickly that the easiest way across was backwards with your behiney in the hole.  It was relaxing and exiting all at the same time.  I had been plagued with dreams of snakes and bad things happening, but none of it did.

We climbed the bank of the river to the finish line as a woman wrote down our times.  Out of almost 300 people, we placed 167th and 168th.  Not bad for my first race ever.

JP thinks this should be "our thing"...and there are so many cool races out there, I just might agree.  Although he's looking to cut our time in half.  Better start training now!

Have you ever run a race?  How was it?

tub 'o water

The other day, I grabbed one of the many craft books laying around, randomly flipped to a page, and ran through the house gathering supplies so we could actually do it.

Cork boats.  (I happened to have five corks laying around.  Isn't that amazing?)

Everyone enjoyed it for a short while.  Then it quickly became something else.  Joaquin decided to build a four cork raft.  And I decided to turn it into learning.

I started cutting out letters from the craft foam.  Then while they were floating in the water, I asked Diego to grab the "A" out.  He had a lot of fun doing this!  (If the water looks a little murky, it is.  The cork boats had playdough on the bottoms to balance them, and being homemade playdough, it slowly started to dissolve in the water.  It became ooey and gooey and not so fun after that.)

As I was typing this, I was thinking how this could even be a great reading activity for older kids...you could hook two letters together like "ay" or "oy" and ask them to pull out the one that says "oy" like in "boy".  If you took the time to cut out phonics patterns, you could even start to make words:

 'n'+ 'ight' = night.

Or throw all the letters in there and see if they could spell their spelling words.  Hmm, you might need more than one of each letter for that...but it still sounds a little fun.  They could even use them in the bath and stick the letters to the tub walls!

summer cleaning

Summer cleaning.

Like spring cleaning, but oh! so much better!

After talking about it for months, maybe even years, I've finally done it.  I've created a cleaning schedule that gets the whole family involved.

One evening, while waiting for the kids to finish their TaeKwonDo class, I grabbed a notepad and pen and scribbled each day of the week (Monday through Saturday) with the first letter of each kid's name under it.

Then came the hard part.  Thinking of the jobs.  Things they could do, but things that aren't always done...I'm talking about actually cleaning here.

After several scratch throughs, I had a workable list.  Then I realized that Juan Pablo and I should have a list, too, so I added us on.

And while I was in the happy place that list making can take you, I decided to make an individual list for each person in the family, with their chores for each day.  So in the end, I had six lists....one for each of us and the master copy.  And I planned to type it up pretty somehow and post it on a wall where we'd all see it.

That part hasn't happened yet.  I stuck the ugly lists on the fridge with a magnet.  But that didn't stop us from starting.  And I'm proud to say that almost everything. on every list. was done.

I have clean tubs and toilets, a smudge free storm door, clean mirrors, vacuumed rooms, mopped floors, wiped down cabinets, and more.

How did the kids like it?

Diego loved his chores...most involved squirt bottles, so how could he not?
Joaquin did his quickly in the morning after making his bed.  He likes to get things done and move on to fun stuff.
Isabela was my procrastinator and complainer.  I don't think she liked any of her jobs, and made gagging noises at most of them.
Juan Pablo did great with his jobs.  He even took the kitchen light down one day (not on the list by the way!)  and washed it out.  The next day, Diego asked if we got a new light.

And me?  Let's just say we're all sleeping in clean sheets, bathing in sparkly tubs, and driving around in a lot less trash.

Week one went great.  We talked about switching lists with each other.  But now I'm thinking we should do these for a month before we switch.

And maybe, one day, I'll type the chore list up pretty, but for now, ugly's working.