Games My Children Play

Miss E, of course, loves her tea parties. And even better if they can be bread and tea parties! Quijote will bake her a loaf of bread and put all kinds of yummy things.  Like these home made jams that we got in November from our friends from Tulsa and Kansas City:

yup, we still have a tiny little bit left! haha!

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They both like to play with this basket from Target. It is a train, a car, and with the addition of a few blankets, a comfy bed for their "babies" (usually whatever stuffed animal has their favor that week).

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Then there is the "making a doll house or a princess castle wherever we can" game, be it a box, a book, the tabletop and some blocks, or the tree house she got for Christmas:

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Paper crafts + dress-up fun = crazy costume making game

Miss E loves making paper dolls, and has gotten a lot of practice with her scissors from this happy endeavor. She will draw them or ask me to draw them and color them herself. Sometimes they have movable limbs and they are taped to a stick so she can use them as shaddow puppets. Sometimes she makes paper outfits for them to change into. We have made many variations together and though it has been the cause of a many a mess, I think the enjoyment she gets out of it greatly outweighs the clean up pain. heheh! It all started during one of our craft projects, a paper puppet we made during Advent season last year. Well, that sort of combines rather well with her love of putting together crazy outfits out of clothes and dress-up stuff (tutus, hats, purses, string.. haha!) and wearing "costumes" (Miss with a tutu and the foam play sword: "Mami, I am a princess knight!"). And this combination turned Mami into a dragon.

I didnt know I was going to be wearing it when we started making it!

Cheeeese!

okay, I totally made those wings for her. they are not mami sized :P

In all fairness, most of the time it's SHE who wears the costumes we make. Daddy made this one with/for her:

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Mr E loves being a monster still, and cars. Oh yeah. The game does not change much for him yet ;)
He does love trains, though, so we gave him a wooden train set for Christmas. Quijote made space for it to come out in his room today, so I hope it'll get a lot play time :)

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It's been an unusually warm winter at times, and whenever it is sunny I try to take them out to ride their bike/tricycle

We are so cool....

ey! dejame! k no ves k estoy de cool??

Mr E was impressed by this big guy!

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And then, of course, there is this:

Yup, this is my current profile pic on FB:

They really did have so much fun. And they did it a few times over the Xmas break :)!

Things My Children Say-- Winter 2015 to Early 2016 Version ;)

From Jan 16:

Miss E tells her daddy that Mr E "destroyed our castle yesterday"
Me: Yeah, E. We accuse you.
Miss E: Yeah! We're not gonna kiss you anymore!
I guess that might be a proper temporary consequence, "a-kussing" him? Heh heh!

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From Jan 14:

So I'm trying to put Evita down for the night right now, and I've been showing her pictures. Then all out of nowhere, she starts going "ribbit, ribbit!" I'm like huh? And she says: "there's a frog here with us somewhere" There's also a family of spiders having tea parties behind her bed, according to her stories. Cupcakes and all. Maybe I should be concerned?? 
 [On Facebook, my mom responded: No, es solo su imaginacion] {Quijote said: It's a traaaap!}
and (Miss E wanted to type her name on my phone as I was posting this, so I let her hold the phone, and she correctly typed her name with three capital letters. yay miss e!!) 

She also turned the kangaroo into a dog, by making it wear the pajamas that I bought in the wrong size with the pink puppies

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Mr E said his very first full sentence (on Jan 5) while in Juarez with his grandparents!! From Quijote's FB post of Jan 9:

Mr E has said two complete sentences already this month. First: looking at a chair: "I want to go up!" And second:

Me: No more brownies, E. You already had some.
E: But I need more brownie!

Mr E looking cute in his new boots y su sueter de orejitas on Jan 13 :)

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From the morning of Jan 7, as we were getting settled at home after the Xmas trip, and the kids had both made their way back into our bed in the middle of the night (ie, they were in my room at this point):

My children are just now waking up. "Are you a dragon?" Asks Miss E. "wraaaaaaah!" Says Mr E. Then something about chocolate. Then I hear them get out of bed together and someone fake screams. Then "let's go over there" and they are here in the living room with me. Nothing like the babies to make me smile 
 
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From November 4

So I've been trying to make sure Evita knows that we speak two different languages at home "Because mami speaks Spanish and abuelitos speak Spanish and daddy speaks English and grandpa and nana speak English" ~~~ which I *think* is why today when I said something in Spanish to her today she said "Si. I'm Spanish too, si. Gracias." Well... Close enough, mi vida. Close enough.

My FB friends made all kinds of jokes. Quijote said "We can give her a beret and convince her she is French ;)"
Others commented with things their bilingual babies/toddlers say. 
But what made me laugh the most was my cousin saying "Oh good, then she can always eat whatever she wants!" Her comment was a joke, in reference to a picture I had posted earlier that day: 


 


LOL!!!

Christmas 2015 and a Happy New Year

Our trip to Juarez actually started with a trip to Laredo TX. You see, we had intended to go to Laredo on our last trip but time was just not on our side. So, we postponed it to December. Someone's tire hit us on the way to Laredo and destroyed the front of our car, but it will get fixed and no one was hurt. It was good to see my grandmother again, and spend a couple of days with her. I have a couple more pictures of her playing with and talking to the kiddoes and I have been trying to add them to the post but blogger just won't let me for some reason?? I'll have to post them another time.

We headed to her house each morning and had breakfast with her, then spent the day talking or watching old movies.

We visited Grandpa Joe and left some flowers for him, and a rock on his tombstone.

Then we headed to Juarez, where we quickly got into an argument about whether or not the huge Christmas tree that my parents bought for the house in Anapra would fit in the house of Juarez.

I'll be the Christmas tree! 

Of course, we made cookies, as per our annual family tradition.

Como regalo de Navidad, trajimos delantales para los que siempre ayudan, y uno para Aunt T, la nueva de la familia!

todos en nuestros delantales, haciendo la masa.

heeeey! my parents took a selfie!!! I have such modern parents!

My mom also read the Nativity story to Miss E on an app on her iPad

The church had a series of posadas, and we caught the last one, at my sister's house :)!

More pictures of the cookie making. Sorry for the weird order.

Miss E's star shaped empanada worked out!!

My nephew decided we should give ourselves the challenge of making cookies without a mold. I made a nativity scene :)

Of course, after everyone voted against me -tan poca fe!!- my parents decided to buy a little Christmas tree.

One of those nights we went to a local park for some seriously lit up fun:

And then Chrismas Eve (which we also celebrate in Mexico):

And Christmas Day at my Abuelitos' :

The VIPs aka the tamale making team :D

the older cousins. we also took a pic of the younger cousins, and a third one of the aunts and uncles, ie my mom and her sibling, but again, blogger wont let me add them. ugh. maybe I reached the photo quota for this post!

and a pic of our family

the silly version

my grandmother caring for my grandfather

some of the younger cousins playing games or watching tv or something

the younger girls were singing Frozen songs with a toy karaoke machine

There was also the traditional Christmas star pin~ata, bolo (candy), and lots of jokes, laughter, and fun.

Then the next day, it was my Aunt S's birthday. Her oldest daughter organized a surprise party and we totally surprised her!! It was a lot of fun. My cousin is a great cook and she organized such a beautifully decorated party! There were balloons floating in the living room, and my aunt's favorite pictures were taped to the strings- so as we walked into the party we all enjoyed a glimpse of her life. It was beautiful.

My aunt wiping her tears and talking to the group.

Mr E and all the younger kids had fun with the balloons.

eating a delicious dinner

the little cousins had their own private party!

My parents invited us to their favorite Chinese restaurant:

And then a happy New Year celebration. There was admittedly a little more drama than usual with regards to figuring out what we would do. Between waiting for a student visa (the family party we usually attend happened in El Paso this year... it was in Anapra last year) and figuring out a growing family's modus operandi, we didn't know what we were going to do until the very last minute! The visa did come in time, after all, and we ended up joining the traditional Cruz family New Year's reunion. Our family comes together each year to party, but also to reflect on our year, listen to each other, and pray together as the new year comes. It is something so special to us, and I feel blessed to have such a support group. 

eating dinner together

Miss E and her cousins at the coloring table

A day or two after New Years we decided to go to the children's museum. It is HUGE. High tech. Beautiful, modern, well organized... just all around impressive. And so much fun.

After that we hung out, watched a really cool Spanish show, El Barco, on Netflix (didn't finish it and it's not on the US Netflix, sigh) and ate a lot. And that, my dear friends and family, was our time in Laredo/Juarez/El Paso this Christmas break :)