Happy Birthday, Melissa!

Happy Birthday, Melissa!

Today, our dear Meli turns 5 years old.. and we celebrated with a small get together at her house..

Melissa is the daughter of one of my best friends and she happens to be one of Olivia's best friends... 

It's great to see all these kids grow up and share the happy moments with my friends...

Here are a couple of pics...

Weekend in review...

This was a busy weekend for sure.. no time to blog at all..and definitely no time to rest or relax..but I guess that's expected during the holiday months...

Friday we went to Sabrina's 3rd birthday party.. it was so much fun and the cake and desserts were amazing!!! The kids had a blast, of course...

Gaby and Sabrina..they're super buddies!

On Saturday, my beautiful sister turned 29 and we celebrated at Macaroni Grill.. she was glowing and definitely ready to enjoy the last of her 20's..Happy Birthday, sis.. I know you had an awesome day!

We also attend the Rojas kids birthday party.. Giuliana turned 8 and Adrian turned 4...they had a great party with bounce houses, games and lots of food.. Fun as usual...

..the rest of the weekend was filled with Christmas fun..the girls are SO ready for Santa to drop by.. they've never been this excited before!

..we also had the opportunity to meet up with our cousin Andres and his wife Alejandra, who were visiting from Venezuela.. it's always great to see family....

...and it all went downhill when my poor Gaby was sick.. She currently has bronchitis and is taking A LOT of meds.. Hopefully she'll feel better soon...she has missed 2 days of school already so hopefully she'll be back to normal in no time!

Happy Blogging! I hope everyone is having an amazing December!

More Christmas stuff!!!

 As I already said in my previous post, I simply LOVE Christmas and the whole month of December....and for that reason I can't stop snapping pictures of decorations, elves, trees, etc...

Here are a few...

Here's our elf Mamma Mia doing her thing.. she has climbed on trees, taken naughty bubble baths and a few other things... how fun!

...here's one that my brother-in-law sent me.. This is my niece Isabella (5 months) with Santa... He said she LOVED him and was laughing the whole time.. how cute!

...and last but not least, here's our awesome cat Abuelita and her Christmas hat... It was supposed to be a photo prop for a quick picture and she kept it on for a while and posed for several pictures.. it was so cute and funny!

Tomorrow we're going to put up the outside lights and then our house will be ready!

Happy December, people!

Movie review: "Lincoln"

I had promised my dad we would watch this movie together, so we did and it was a great moment to share....
Now, I will give specifics about my review...
The movie is a historical account of Lincoln's unwavering (and ultimately successful) attempt to pass the 13th Amendment, that eventually abolished slavery in the United States...
Even though it's hard to ever go wrong with a history movie, I'm going to go ahead and say that this movie was lacking "something".. Daniel Day Lewis does an AMAZING job at personifying president Lincoln and the make-up people did an even better job at recreating this character... Sally Field and Tommy Lee Jones also do a great job at playing their characters...BUT, I think the movie should have featured a little bit more detail (and even action) about the Civil War and all the events that surrounded the passing of this historical amendment.. I also think the movie was very slow paced and even sleepy at times...
Another thing I didn't like was that they didn't show the actual assassination of president Lincoln, but rather just showed him laying in bed after he had been shot... I think the movie could have been a little better if there had been a scene about the actual moment he was killed...
...but nonetheless, it was very interesting (and emotional) to somehow be part of a time when slavery was legal and so many people were oppressed by such sad and embarrassing concept.. I will admit that I did cry a few tears during the scene where the amendment was passed... to even think that it happened in real life seems crazy!...
So, I will be objective and give "Lincoln" 2.5 out of 5 stars...it's good but not great!... and that's my review! 

Christmas and stuff....

Ahh!! I absolutely LOVE Christmas season and the whole month of December.. it's just so joyous, colorful and plain HAPPY...

We finally got our tree this past weekend and I'm proud to say the girls were very involved in the process..They helped me pick out a tree and even put half the ornaments on it.. it was cute and definitely exciting to see that they're already at an age where they can help me and enjoy it too!

Here's the girls posing at the tree place...they were quite happy..

..on Saturday night we went to Gulftream's Symphony of Lights show, which is an awesome display of dancing lights that takes place every year at The Village At Gulfstream in Hallandale, FL...the show iso so awesome and of course we love the Christmas spirit.. too good!

Here's a picture of us at the festival.. my face looks unusually round in this picture..(I definitely need to lose a few a LOT of pounds soon!)... either way it's a cute family picture, or so I think! ;)

..here's our tree.. beautiful as always.. ;)

...and our handmade Christmas stockings, which I absolutely LOVE!

..and last but not least, here are a couple of pictures of our naughty  nice elf, Mamma Mia, who has been a hit with the girls...how fun is this!!

..so this Christmas thing is awesome.. I wish December was longer! 

Enjoy it, people!... it goes too fast!!

"Elf on the Shelf"

I'm sure by now most people are familiar with the "Elf on the Shelf", which is (in my opinion) a great Christmas tradition and fun thing to do with kids...

I know there are tons of people who believe this is entirely too "creepy" and odd, but I happen to like it, even though I must admit I was reluctant to give in to it! ;)

The other day Olivia came home and asked me "mommy, how come elves never visit our house?"...she also said most kids in her class have an elf that visits them and they go to school telling stories about it...

Soooo.. I felt compelled to buy her one and I did..(it did pain me to spend $30 on a plush and a book, but kids are worth it, right?)

Our (girl) elf made her appearance yesterday morning, along with a note from "Santa" and the book with her story...the girls were overjoyed and I was a happy mama! They named her "Mamma Mia" and  she has already stolen our hearts...I'm sure we will have a blast with this little lady and she will also help with any behavior issue.. or so I hope! ;)

Here are few pictures of our girl elf...

...this is where she showed up this morning! ;)

..and here's a generic picture of the "Elf on the Shelf" merchandise, in case you have no clue what I'm talking about! ;)

Have fun all fellow "elfsters"...let the Christmas fun begin!

..and Happy December, by the way...!!!

Walk-A-Thon

Yesterday was a fun day as the girls' school hosted their 7th Annual Walkathon... a day when the kids can have fun playing games in the field and walking around with their teachers and friends...

I took the day off and attended the event with my girls.. It was such a fun day and they had such a great time exercising and playing games...

I love that the school hosts this type of events and encourages all parents to participate..it's a great way to get to know the kids and their parents...

I can't wait 'til the next Walkathon..

Here are a few pictures..

This is Olivia with her friend Maria..

..this is Olivia showing off her spray painted hair.. she loved it!

..Olivia and her friend Santiago, who was obviously not in the mood for pictures..LOL

..and here are a few pictures of Gaby and her friends...the little ones were so cute together!

What a fun day we had! ;)