Merry Christmas

Titi had fun editing this picture of us

Halloween classroom parties

I feel so lucky to be able to attend Carlos and Titi's school parties.  I know a lot of parents cannot miss work to be there so I really appreciate the chance to do it.  This was Carlos' last Halloween at SPE and I know he will miss all the people there.  Everybody knows him by now.  There are close to 1,000 students but most of the teachers know him as well as the principal and assistant principal. 
The parties were at the same time so I kept going from one to the other.  Carlos and Titi had a lot of fun and they got to play games, ate lots of sweets and took home some more.

A very cool candy cake that was made by one of the mothers in Carlos' class. They kids got to choose what they wanted.

Carlos with the assistant principal, Ms. Phillips and the principal.  They were dressed as the pink ladies from Grease. 

 Titi in a contest to see who could blow the first bubble after eating some whip cream.  It made the bubble gum cold so it was difficult to do it but she did it.

Halloween 2010

Carlos absolutely loves Halloween.  He has been thinking about it and planning for this Halloween for months.  He wanted a hunted house in the garage and we made one.  Don and I have lots of work and things to do at home but we know Carlos will grow up too soon and one day he won't be interested in things the way he does now.  Titi loves it too but not like Carlos.  She is more into the costumes than the decorations.  Carlos loves both.


We already had some things and got lucky and found lots of things on sale. I made a couple of scary creatures with $1 masks, plastic tableclothes and hangers.  Thanks to Ely and Tere, we found inflatables on clearance at Walgreens.  Carlos was ecstatic. Then Mimi and I found black fabric and sheets at Goodwill and I was able to saw curtains to divide the garage in 3 parts.  Carlos decorated, put lights, his smoke machine and then Don came with the best surprise ever, black light bulbs!  Everything looks so great with this light.

Today Carlos and Titi had a costume contest and party for the kids in the cul de sac.  They had been organizing it for weeks and made invitations, put a table for the judges and set the rules.  I am glad they did not invite other friends because it would have been even crazier. I made them dinner and cupcakes and Don arrived from work with dry ice.  The boys loved it and could not stop "playing" with it.  They threw things in there to see what would happen, the blew the smoke, they put food coloring.....  I was glad when the last boy left..... 

Pictures from May

Once again I have not updated the blog. The days go by way too fast for me. Here are some pictures from May.

These are from Titi's birthday party. She had a lot of fun. We had 22 kids at the party!

Titi became a Junior Girl Scout in a nice ceremony.

Our sweet girl is 9!!!

Today we celebrated Titi's 9th birthday. She has been talking about it and planning her party for months and months. She is so excited about turning 9. She has grown a lot and we are very proud of her. She is so much fun to be around.

She woke up very early this morning and came downstairs to see the table. We always decorate the kitchen table for birthdays and holidays and Carlos and Titi always look forward to waking up and seeing how it looks. Don and I worked late to decorate and wrap presents. I think Titi was happy with her presents. We got her a snow cone machine and some craft materials. She also wants more silly bands. That is the new thing to collect and trade.

Don went to have lunch with her at school and he brought some snacks for her to share with her class. She was very happy about it. She thought I was going to go but was surprised by daddy.

Linda, from the office, made her a delicious chocolate cake. Titi loved it! (we did too)

We are going to have a Hawaiian party for her on Sunday and tomorrow I need to finish cleaning and I will start decorating and preparing food. It is going to be a busy day!

April

These past weeks have gone so fast. We had a wonderful Easter at Luke and Mimi's, celebrated Rodrigo's birthday and we went to Jupiter to celebrate Don's birthday. I can't believe it is almost a month ago! We absolutely loved a place called Blowing Rocks. We spent hours looking at the little fish, crabs, shells and other little surprises we found among the rocks and in the little pools of sea water. We want to go back soon. Don really enjoyed being by the sea. I think he had a great time.

Very thankful

This week was a very stressful one. CRJ was supposed to come out of bankruptcy and Don, Steven, Larry and Ricky worked very hard to finish all the details. Thank God, everything worked out well and they were confirmed by the court without objections! We are very grateful for this second chance. We all have learned a lot from this experience and we are determined to work harder to bring CRJ to a new level.

The most important thing now is to get new merchandise and to buy more gold from customers since sales are still slow. Don is using a new company called Email to Zip for advertising and he is very excited about it. He is able to email people within 5-15 miles of the stores! We have always struggled with advertising since CRJ has stores in different states but with this email program, it is less expensive and more effective. He is getting great results.

February

We did lots of things in February. Some happy like Titi's soccer games and some sad like attending uncle Izzy's funeral. We are going to miss him a lot.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day! We had a nice day. We got to see Mema, grandpa, Izzy, Mary, Larry, Keri, Laura, Ron, Maria and Jenna. Ron and Maria invited us to brunch at their condo and it was great to see everybody.

We love the Valentine's Heart we got from Guatemala! Mayan Families is doing a fundraiser to raise funds to put cement floors in a school in Guatemala. It is called Nueva Esperanza and it is in the town of San Andres Semetebaj (We have been there). The school needs a lot of help but the first thing they need to do is to put cement floors in the classrooms. Right now they have dirt floors and it gets very dusty in the dry season and it turns into mud in the raining season. The children at the school colored hearts to thank the donors and they will be putting the hearts in the classrooms. We made a donation in honor of the whole Weinberg Family and we hope they will like the heart as much as we did.

Norman Rockwell and the Super Bowl

We made it to the Normal Rockwell exhibit at the Museum of Art in Fort Lauderdale. We went the day before it was going to close and it was very crowded. We had to wait in line for 45 minutes and once we had the tickets we had to wait some more inside because it was too crowded. Carlos and Titi are going to think that going to the museum is always a big event. It was even more crowded at the Frida Kahlo exhibit in Philadelphia.

We thought we were going to like the exhibit more but this was the third time Don and I had seen it, once at the Rockwell museum in Massachussets and once in Chicago. The kids liked it but they only listened to the explanation of the most famous pictures, then they rushed through the rest. The highlight of the visit was seeing the war posters that we have framed in our living room.

After the museum we went to Fort Lauderdale beach. It was also very crowded because there was going to be a free concert as part of the Super Bowl celebrations. I did not think we were going to find parking but we got lucky and we found a great place for only $10!!! We were happy about that. We just sat on the wall and watched people go by.

Since the restaurants were very crowded we had junk food for dinner.

We had gone to the museum, right from Titi's soccer game and when we got there we realized we never put her shoes in the car. Fortunately, we found a pair of Don's sandals and Titi wore them all day. She walked, ran, jumped on them and never fell! She tried sandals at the beach but did not like any and decided to finish the day with these.