City Place

On Saturday we went to City Place in West Palm Beach and found a wonderful bakery/candy/ice cream shop. Carlos and Titi went crazy when they saw all the sweets they had. I went crazy with all the bright colors and the way it was decorated.

Carlos loved this picture

We all had fun with the see through glass into the girls bathroom. When you locked the door, the glass became white and you could not see through anymore. There was a wonderful pink chandelier in there. I want it....

I shared ice cream with Don and Carlos. Carlos chose "Circus", a blue ice cream with gummy bears. It was good!

Don had a delicious sandwich from an Italian deli.

This is the gelato they had in that shop!

This is the reason we went to Palm Beach. A coin show at the WPB Convention Center. The kids loved it and wanted to come back the next day.

Fort Lauderdale Beach

We finally went to the beach. I wanted to go to a place where I could feel like I was on vacation so we went to Fort Lauderdale. We had not been there in a long time and it did feel like we were away for a while.

We parked by the Elbo Room and the kids swam for a while and Don and I just relaxed on the beach. It was late in the day and the weather was perfect, not hot at all. After the kids changed we walked around and went to Beach Place and Carlos and Titi had ice cream. Very relaxing.....

Fourth of July

We had a really nice weekend. We spent a relaxing morning on Fourth of July and then left the house to do something. We could not decide if we should go to the beach in Delray Beach or Wellington or the Amphitheatre in West Boca. Lot of people from school and Cub Scouts were going to be at the Amphitheatre but there was not really much to do there. We wanted to see the sand sculptures but did not want to get stuck in traffic coming back from Delray.

We decided to go to Wellington but on the way there finally decided to go to Flagler St. in downtown West Palm Beach. It was the best decision. They always have a big festival with 3 or 4 stages, music, kids crafts and other entertaiment. We arrived early and found a good free parking spot and had a lot of fun. Titi made some crafts and we listened to music, watched the firefighters water fights and then the kids played in the water fountains for a loooong time. They had great fireworks.
The kids wanted to buy lots of fireworks.

Titi tried to get money from people while Don "played" his guitar.

Little Amarillis

I was so sad to read on the Mayan Families website that little Amarillis had passed away. She had been brought by her parents to MF last week because she was very weak and was not eating. The parents could not afford to seek medical attention for her and by the time they brought her to Sharon at Mayan Families it was too late. Many wonderful people donated money for her medical care but she could not be saved. It is so sad when a baby dies because of lack of resources when there is so much wealth and waste in this world.

I met little Amarillis last year, when she was only a few weeks old. Her mother and siblings had come to MF to see if they had shoes for them. I knew them already because I had met them in 2007. Their shoes were in really bad shape. I gave her sister Micaela some shoes I had but I did not have small sizes for the brothers and little sisters. The kids were so cute. I took a picture of Amarillis for Micaela's sponsor. She was a beautiful baby.
These are the "shoes" that Micaela was wearing. She has to walk long distances on dirt roads.

She was happy to receive new shoes.


Getting ready to go back home

Videos on YouTube

I was looking at some of the videos that we have posted in YouTube and I could not believe that one of them had more than 1,000 views. It was from 2007 when we went to the market in Panajachel and met Chabeli, the lady that we are trying to help connect electricity to her house in Tierra Linda. The kids look so young!



There is also the one we took in San Pedro and the fireworks.



But the one that has more views is the one of Carlos and the beginning of his kooky pen collection.



Here is the link to the rest of the videos: YouTube/carmiewest

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.