February Photo Dump

February has come and gone and I'm still super behind on my blogging.. Oh well.. 

Here are some pictures of this month's fun... it was all filled with LOVE as usual! ;)

Olivia and some of her classmates during the school's annual Walk-a-thon

The girls cheering on Team USA the day the Sochi Winter Olympics started.. (it has been fun watching all these great winter sports!)

Us on Valentine's Day....

With all the olympic mania, we went ice skating on President's Day.  Needless to say, we spent more time holding on to the rails than actually skating BUT it sure was fun....

Here's Olivia and her friend Alba.

I took a painting class with a friend at Paints N Cocktails... It was really fun.. I strongly recommend it to all of my local friends...

Monster High Birthday Party

Yesterday we celebrated Erika's 7th birthday party!

The party theme was "Monster High", which she selected a long time ago...

While it was a challenge to make skulls and vampires look cute, I must admit the party turned out great!

The cake was beautiful and SO delicious, all the kids loved it and so did the adults! ;)

Erika had a blast with the very artistic face painter and enjoyed a great afternoon with her closest friends...

Here are some other pictures!

Happy Birthday, Erika! I hope you enjoyed your special party....

Erika's 7th Birthday!

I realize I haven't blogged in a while and I have no reason for it other than we've been "busy" with school, sports and so on....

How ironic is it that now that I stay home with the kids, I find less and less time to write. 

I do have a few things I'd like to blog about and I promise I will get to it within the next week but for now I want to dedicate this post to my beautiful niece Erika who turned 7 on Wednesday February 19th!  It feels like just yesterday I was holding her for the first time and now she is this cute little first grader who makes us all laugh by the minute. 

We had a small family gathering on the day of her birthday and we will have a party with friends and family this weekend.  She is very excited about it and so am I since I am the planner! :)

Happy Birthday, Erika! I hope your day was all you wanted!

We love you! 

Movie Review: "The LEGO movie"

"The LEGO movie" is the latest masterpiece from Warner Bros. studios; it cost about $60 million to make and just this weekend it rose over $69 million and took the 1st place at the box office... coincidence??  I don't think so... the movie is actually pretty funny and extremely entertaining...
I'm going to start off by saying that the animation is top notch.. it was pretty amazing to see all those LEGO pieces come to life in an incredibly perfect animation... the colors were awesome and the characters are very dynamic...
As far as the story goes... well.. the plot is sort of "out there" in some parts, but it is overall easy to follow; it revolves around "Emmet" aka "the special" who is to save the world from destruction and the evil ways of "The Man Upstairs", currently threatening to use the "Kragle" on all pieces... I won't say who the "Man Upstairs" really is or what the "Kragle" really does since I don't want to spoil the movie for anybody.. but I will say it's not what anyone expects...and it is VERY funny...
Some of the jokes and humor that is used throughout the movie is not necessarily geared to "kids", so be ready for "THAT" sort of humor.. I don't think younger kids quite "get it"..
In the end the movie does deliver a beautiful message about creativity and the beauty of imagination... and did I mention what a great campaign for LEGO this was?  Wow.. I got out of the theatre wanting to go build with LEGOs and create an alternative reality with just LEGO pieces.. ;)

I give this one 3 out of 4 starts.. definitely worth seeing! 

Catholic Schools Week and 100 Days of School

Wow! I feel like I haven't blogged in forever!!! It has been 12 days since my last post and I was seriously having "blogger withdrawal", if that's even a term!

Life has been hectic... VERY hectic and the kids' activities are very demanding.  We also might be moving soon so that has my mind very occupied as well...

So, considering I don't have that much time to spare, I will jump right into blogging about our life lately...

This week we celebrated "Catholic Schools Week", which is an event celebrated across all dioceses around the country; all Catholic schools plan a fun filled week and the kids get to connect with their faith. 

Olivia had a blast on her field day and I was lucky to volunteer with her class; the kids got to play around and do a lot of fun and interactive things with their classmates. 

Here's a picture of Olivia's class...the day was hot, but the kids had a blast!

Today it was the 100th day of school and Olivia made a great project in honor of the day. 

She came up with the idea of "Olivia's Sky", where she pasted 100 stars with a glittery moon; I love to see her creative side and she really enjoys all the compliments she gets! :)

Here's Olivia and her friends Alba and Emma during today's 100th day celebration...

..and here are my two babies with their certificates... they were so excited to be "100 days Brighter", how cute is this!?!?

6.5

Today is the 6 1/2 birthday of my first born, my "little lady", one of the most beautiful and sweetest little girls I know. 

Ever since she was born, Olivia has always kept me on my toes; she is inquisitive, active, creative and VERY energetic. It's always never ending fun with her and she makes me laugh so much every day. 

Olivia is also very smart; she is one of the top students in her class and her best subjects are reading and art; she also enjoys sports and is especially good at tennis (daddy is very proud of this!)

She enjoys music very much and has been playing the piano for a few months; she also got a guitar for Christmas and will be starting lessons very soon. 

Olivia has also grown into a very religious little girl; she makes up beautiful prayers and really seems to take to her Catholic faith; we're so blessed to be able to provide her with this beautiful grounds for her future. 

This little girl can also be very headstrong and extremely hard to convince.  She is very moody and tends to go from total happiness to total misery within seconds.  I think she might have a career in acting too because some of her tantrums are definitely Oscar worthy.. LOL.. I still love her the same and we have learned to live with this. 

She LOVES pictures, dressing up, hair accessories and everything girly.. she could literally wear 5 outfits in one day and still have room for more!

I am so happy to have Olivia in my life and I can never thank God enough for making me her mother.  I pray that I will be with her many years to see her flourish into such a special person!

4.5

Today marks 4 1/2 years since my little Gaby was born so I wanted to write a little bit about her since she's so sweet and amazing!

Gaby is the light of our house.. literally! She is sweet, loving, caring and very imaginative. 

She enjoys making up stories and playing pretend with her dolls and toys; sometimes I can't believe how creative and eloquent she gets during play time, it is really a feat to watch her interact with all of her toys and friends...

She is also such a fun sister and Olivia really enjoys spending time with her, as we do too.  They have the most amazing relationship ever and I can only hope they remain so close for the years to come. 

Despite her sweetness, Gaby can also be very stubborn and lazy; she doesn't like cleaning up her toys or making her bed. She is also a very lazy and picky eater so every meal is a fight with her, although she has gotten slightly better in the past few weeks, it's still not perfect. We're working on getting her to be more compliant with minor commands and instructions overall. 

Gaby really enjoys going to school and has made a lot of friends in her PreK-4 class...(btw, I can't believe she'll be in Kindergarten come August!).  She has learned so much in the past few months and I really enjoy watching her grow into such a smart little person....

Also, she is a cat lover just like me.. and that makes me very very very happy! :)

I am so proud to have such a wonderful daughter and I thank God every day for Gaby's health, happiness, personality and for every unforgettable memory we create every day. She is such a blessing!