Hemos dicho
adiós muchas veces en estos últimos años. Yo espero que sea un hasta luego.
Pienso que tal vez todos esperamos vernos una vez más; pues ahora que hemos
tenido que despedirnos, al menos tenemos la esperanza de volvernos a ver, con
la ayuda y el permiso del Creador.
Pero no tenemos opción, así que
decimos adiós, esperando que sea un hasta luego. Y los que quedamos, nos
dolemos juntos. Como podemos. Algunos editamos fotografías, y otros hacen videos, o
preparan un último lugar para nuestro ser querido. Intercambiamos todo esto entre nuestros familiares y amig@s y recordamos historias. Pensamos en todos los mejores momentos, pedimos a Dios perdón
por los malos momentos; y rogamos que la próxima vez que la oportunidad se haga ver, todo salga
mejor. Construímos juntos la memoria, para que siga esa persona viviendo en ella, pero nos despedimos.
Hasta
luego, tío guapo y fuerte. Dios te tenga en su gloria. Espero que nos podamos volver a ver. Y
entre tanto, que puedas tener paz. Que tu familia, toda tenga paz. Que Dios en
su infinita misericordia nos guarde a todos nosotros, hasta la próxima vez.
I cannot believe she is already 9 years old! How fast time goes by of late!
Edited to add birthday interview first:
Miss E had an unusual birthday this year. We celebrated at home, and because our city went right back to a red alert, we decided not to invite friends over this year. We did try, though, to make it fun in a different way, by expanding on the usual "family party" thing we do, where we plan fun activities and prepare to do all those fun things in advance- because looking forward to it and dreaming up the fun is just as fun as being in the midst of it! Miss E looooves making lists, and almost every week I let her come up with a girls night out... we've done all kinds of fun things. For her bd, about a month or so before the big day, we sat down to talk about what she'd like to do.
She wanted a space party! Her list included cupcakes, making galactic glitter, games, and of course, decorating the house. She wanted confetti and streamers and planets and stars. It could all be done with paper and paint, so I decided to also order shirts for a galactic shirt diy activity, for the sake of doing something out of the ordinary, I would say?
Gifts started arriving early this year, and so we decided to have a mini party when that happened- just baked a cake I think, and had a dance party, that sort of thing. Definitely a serious full day marathon of playing with the new toys.
Then the next weekend -which was still a week early!- we had all finally had enough fun waiting around and having mini parties, so we decided to just go ahead and have the big party with all the activities she had planned. After all, it was just us, so we didn't have to worry about keeping to the plan! As it turned out, that we decided to celebrate her a couple times and a weekend *early* especially, was very serendipitous, since the day before her birthday and for a while after that, her mother was in a dark cloud, and there was little celebration to be had.
A weekend before, though, we were all just going through life in our new normal and trying to have tons of fun "on our own." That aunts/tias and tios/uncles, grandparents and abuelitos sent cards, gifts, and called etc really did help in a special way this year, and I am so grateful for that.
Among many other things, her Nana sent her this projector, which has been on every night since. It's a definite favorite. She also sent a very fancy set of Gryffindor pajamas which Mr E totally appropriated! (Sorry, Nana!)
My sister A and tio E and my parents also sent gifts! There were toys, makeup, jewelry, educational supplies, etc. The journal being a very big hit. And Q's brother and sister and their families also sent toys and other fun things. S, Q's sister in law texts us every year to ask what the kids might need or wish for, and she and Q's brother go from there, and every year they send something very cool. The favorite this year was Waddles the pig. He is so cute. And Miss E instantly recognized him. It was a very sweet moment- I wish I had been taking video!
Well, here are some pictures from our little party!
They painted galaxy shirts. Or at least that's what the craft was supposed to be, but as usual, the kiddos had their own ideas of what the shirts should look like. I figured there was no harm in letting them paint their own shirts the way they wanted. Mr E painted a dinosaur, of course. Miss E painted a very big Earth in the middle and tons of stars, comets, etc all around it, so not so different, right?
There was of course a chess tournament.
We decorated Oreo cookies as planets to decorate the cupcakes with. It's like a solar system! We used home made sugar crystals and other sprinkles.
The "put the rings on Saturn" game. We all used our masks as eye covers jajajaja!
I think she really did have tons of fun, and I hope she will remember this birthday as having been special in its own way.
Q took the kids for an outing at the Children's Museum! It looks to me like they had a blast.
In the meantime, I had a relaxing morning. I actually made myself breakfast and sat down to eat it uninterrupted ~which is something I hadn't done in a while and felt super luxurious!
So nice!
I also cleaned up in the little garden (though there's still so much more to clean...sigh), and even started some hollyhocks, hoping this might be a good time to start them, but I don't know if I'll have enough warm days for this to count as a season. Who knows, I might be too late... But if I get flowers next year I'll be super happy. Miss E and I might get to make hollyhock dolls again. If not, then I guess I'll have to enjoy the hollyhocks the year after. No way around it. But since my tomatoes and chiles have miraculously made it through the cooler nights, I thought maybe... just maybe....
Can't believe they're still going! They're much happier now that the flowers are gone. I totally overcrowded this spot. Good to know.
The tomatoes are way less happy, but there's a lot of little cherry tomatoes I should be picking soon!
Baby hollyhocks. Crossing fingers haha
I've also been trying to grow grass in a patch out back which for some reason does not wish to occupied by anything non-spiky and evil. I'm all for wild grasses and wild flowers but goodness, the stuff that was growing there was awful! I pulled it all out- takes forever, and I've done it several times! I've planted clover and mini clover, grass of one kind and the other... Nothing seems to grow. I've had such little luck. But I'm still hopeful. Quijote says we should turn the area into a little veggie plot, since it gets so much sun (maybe too much sun), but I'm concerned that the spot is outside of the fenced area and close to a gas line or two (which means we'd have to reaaaally "build up" to avoid them). I dunno. This little spot has me puzzled. It actually looks A LOT better now, but I don't have a picture.
I do like these little daisies that have started growing there ^. Maybe they will start covering the area! I don't think I'm that lucky though... Maybe I should try a ground cover?
Drawing a comic strip~
In an effort to include their interests into our schooling, I've had the children start work on a comic story of their choosing. Unsurprisingly, Mr E, who had found a duck-shaped cookie cutter in the kitchen, decided to center his story around a duck, but turned it into a dino of sorts. The following image (kind of) reads: "Oh no! It's Duckzilla!" [...] "Oh yes! It's Super Racoon!" As the story goes, Mr Racoon is transformed into a super racoon by the leftover apples a certain family throws in the trash, and goes on to be of great help to his community. I see a talking racoon crossover in the making.
Daisy is a good therapy dog during the arduous morning school hours LoL
We looked at many examples from their comic book collections and talked about parts of a story, character building, drawing face expressions, and organizing panels and spreads, speech bubbles, and different text usage. They really enjoyed it.
Birthday Gifts
Birthday gifts are starting to arrive! The kids have loooooved every single one of them. I say the kids because although they're of course meant for Miss E, Mr E has been a happy playmate. Thanks to grandparents, aunts and uncles for adding to the magic!
More fun drinks my hubby's made for me.
I've started snapping a picture of my yummy drinks hubs makes for me after a day of school work. He's so nice. Here's two instead of the political cartoon I was going to add.
Never mind. I'm going to add it anyway. Haha please excuse me. I was trying not to pay attention to the debate but I could still hear it... and this has remained in my mind since I saw it a few days ago...
Maybe take a look at the kids pictures again before you go. Sorry to end on that note...
We went horse riding! The girls all did such a great job, and I think they really enjoyed the adventure. We had the help of three women wranglers, and though I didn't know this would be the case when I set it up, I was very pleased. I thought it was really cool that it was women leading the girls into this adventure. They patiently and knowledgeably taught the girls the basics of horse riding and made sure everyone was safe and had a wonderful time.
Miss E was a little nervous at first but quickly got the hang of it. By the end of our ride, she was wondering why anyone rides cars when we could all be riding horses. I think she has a point!
A video of Miss E meeting and getting on her horse:
