What is a vole?

Don has some new CR Jewelers commercials on YouTube. I think the company did really well. You can see the videos here

Quick and easy pizza

I found a great recipe for pizza at allrecipes.com. It is easy and quick since you don't have to let it rise. It takes approx. 30-35 minutes from start to finish and very little work. The first time I made it Carlos ate half of it. Very surprising since he almost never eats pizza. He kept telling me it was delicious. Today I made it for all the little kids that were here at lunch time and they also liked it.
These are the directions from AllRecipes.com:
Ingredients:
1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast
1 teaspoon white sugar
1 cup warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
2 1/2 cups bread flour
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon salt

Directions:
1.Preheat oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C). (I baked mine at 390 because my oven is too hot) In a medium bowl, dissolve yeast and sugar in warm water. Let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes.
2.Stir in flour, salt and oil. Beat until smooth. Add more flour if it is too sticky. (I used my hands to mix it and knead it a little in the same bowl) Let rest for 5 minutes.
3.Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and pat or roll into a round. Transfer crust to a lightly greased pizza pan or baker's peel dusted with cornmeal. (I put cornmeal in my pizza pan and spreaded the dough directly on top of it) Spread with desired toppings and bake in preheated oven for 15 to 20 minutes, or until golden brown. (I baked mine for only 15 minutes. When I make a plain cheese pizza I usually add the cheese at the very end or it burns in my oven) Let baked pizza cool for 5 minutes before serving.

The best bubbles

I searched the internet for a homemade bubble liquid recipe and I found many with different ingredients. I made one that worked very well. They recommended using Joy dishwashing liquid but I used the one I had, Ajax lemon. I put cornstarch and Karo syrup. The kids had a lot of fun and played with it for hours. I am going to try again with Joy to see if it makes better bubbles.

Change

Sometimes I wonder if what I could do to help somebody could really mean something to the person and I hesitate and don't do it. I always regret it but then I do it again. That is something that I really want to change about me. Sometimes it is shyness, sometimes it is doubt that they will receive it or need it and sometimes it is just laziness, I guess.

Yesterday the kids and I we came back home to have lunch and we saw the people that cuts our lawn working in our garden. It was extremely hot and humid outside, almost 100 degrees and it felt more like 110 degrees. I felt bad for the people working and I thought about doing something and then I questioned if it was the right thing to do. I don't know why. Fortunately I decided to do something and I brought them water and sodas and asked them if they had had lunch and they said no. I came inside and prepared food for them and put some groceries in a bag and went outside to give it to them. They were so appreciative and they devoured the food in an instant. They ate like if they had not eaten in a long time. Maybe that is the way they normally eat of maybe they were really hungry. I am happy that for once I did something. Of course, I regreat all the other times I have done nothing. They have been cutting our lawn for more than 7 years so I have had plenty of opportunities to help, have thought of doing it and I have not done it. I really need to change that.

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day!

Don had a nice day. He did not have much time to read his newspaper in peace in the morning but he managed to read a little. In the afternoon Keri and Larry had a nice family gathering with great food as always. We were very happy to spend the day with Grandpa and the rest of the family.

Janie and I got a treat from one of their trees. Lychees!!! Don cut lots of them for us. Thank you so much Keri, Larry, Laura and Allie!

Carlos' ride night

If there is one thing that Carlos loves is to go on a ride, at the fair, at Disney, Universal, Six Flags and any other place where they might have one. He loves to watch them on YouTube and he tries to recreate them with toys or any props. When kids come to the house he makes rides for them. He likes doing the Cat in the Hat. He puts a video of the Islands of Adventure ride on YouTube, makes a mess in the room and brings the kids in an office chair around the room while he narrates the things they are saying on the video.

Last week he decided to host a Ride Night. He made signs for the kids and then made and printed invitations for the neighbors. He wanted to make rides upstairs and downstairs but I did not want a bunch of kids running upstairs so I offered to help him decorate the garage. He made a Haunted Mansion ride with Halloween stuff. It worked better and the kids had a blast doing the ride and then acting it for other kids. They loved the things that had sensors and only turned on when they were in front of them. Fortunately, not all kids came at the same time so it was not too crowded. They even made a little kids ride called The Wonderful World of Monsters because the little ones were too scared of the Halloween stuff.

New belts

Carlos and Titi got new Tae Kwon Do belts! Titi is now a green belt and Carlos a high yellow belt. They were very happy at the ceremony and they loved the fact that a ninth degree black belt master awarded them the belts. He wrote their names in Korean in their jackets and they loved it!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDPA!!!!

Today is Grandpa's 87th birthday!!!!


Happy Birthday!!!

We love you a lot!


Don, Carmen, Carlos and Titi

Elizabeth's Baby Shower

Last weekend we had a baby shower for Eli and Mario Alberto. They are expecting their second baby in August. Mario Ariel will be turning 4 right around the same time and he is very excited about becoming a big brother. It is going to be another boy!

It was a nice shower. It was mainly Eli's family and us and we had a good time. We played some games and ate yummi food. We can't wait for the little baby to be born.

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El fin de semana pasada le hicimos un baby shower a Eli, la esposa de Mario Alberto. Si, Mario y Tere van a ser abuelos otra vez! Mario Ariel esta muy emocionado pues ya quiere ver a su hermanito. El bebe va a nacer en Agosto y Mario Ariel va a cumplir 4 anos en ese mes tambien. Eli tambien es de la ciudad de Mexico y la mayoria de su familia vive aqui.

Kids

I am organizing Carlos and Titi's school papers and art projects and I have found some things like these:

vampire

Bear

Alligator

Titi's definition of Peace. (I don't know why the pictures are sideways, I could not fix them)
"Peace is TV and when my brother is not at home"


The best $5 I have ever spent. Seven years ago I got this plastic slide at a garage sale for $5. The kids used it inside when they were little, then outside and now it is a pool slide. They have so much fun with it!

School parties

Last week Carlos and Titi had their end of the year school parties and they had a lot of fun. I had to be there at 8:30 and I thought I was going to be able to park easily since it was early but I was wrong. There were cars everywhere and I had to park far, far away and carry the things I brought with me. I was already tired by the time I got to the classrooms.

Carlos played games outside for a while and then they had a disco party in one of the classrooms. They usually do things together with another 3rd grade class so they celebrated together and loved it. I had to leave early to go to Titi's classroom. They had a talent show and the kids were very excited. Titi was not sure of what she wanted to do but at the end she decided to do a Tae Kwon Do demonstration. They could do it on video or in person and when I filmed her at home she did great, she did it at the first try and it lasted 4 minutes. I convinced her to do it in person but she got stage fright and did very little. She was still good! The kids were impressed with her kicks.

When it was her turn, Titi was kind of shy. Later she participated in a skit with other kids and she was very comfortable.

Another month!

Don and I were feeling kind of depressed this morning, thinking that it was a Monday, another month had gone by, the heat and rain were back, hurricane season was here, school was almost over (only 2 more days left), etc. We almost never feel like this but I guess we did not rest as much as we needed. Anyways, we are hoping we are going to have a nice summer. We do not have any plans yet for vacation but I am sure we will go to Orlando a couple of times. We have the annual Disney passes and we want to stay at a new Disney resort.

Some of the things we did in May:
Celebrated Mothers Day


We attended the last Cub Scout meeting of the school year. Carlos was promoted to a Webelo and he will wear a new uniform next August. He is a big kid now! He will need to be a webelo for 2 years and then he will be able to become a boy scout. We hope he will make it. I am not sure if I want to be a Den Leader next year and I am praying somebody will volunteer to do it.


Prepared to celebrate Titi's birthday. I made rainbow cupcakes for her.

She loved all the attention she got at school.


Attended "Tea with the Poets" at Carlos' class. He read one poem to the class but did not want us to take his picture. We were very proud of him.

Went to Chuck E. Cheese and to see the movie Up with Mimi, Eli and Mario Ariel. Carlos and Titi love spending time with him.