In early August we celebrated Mario Ariel's 4th birthday. It was a fun pool party at Luke and Mimi's. The theme was Sponge Bob and the kids and I helped decorate the area.

Summer vacation is ending

Time has gone really fast! I can't believe school is already here. Carlos and Titi will meet their new teachers tomorrow and will have their first day of school on Tuesday. They are not happy about it and I am not looking forward to getting up early and homework and all the pressures of school. I cannot say I have enjoyed every minute of summer vacation but I am going to miss it.

We tried to enjoy this weekend as much as possible. On Saturday Don took the kids ice skating with the Cub Scouts. They had a lot of fun. Carlos fell and he did not skate much but Titi loved it. She wanted to go again today.

Today we went to Deerfield Beach. At the beginning the kids did not want to go and once they were there they loved it. We always say we should go to the beach more often but we get lazy and we don't do it. The weather was great and it was a great way to enjoy the last day of summer vacation.

Our wonderful son is 10!!!!

We can hardly believe it. Carlos is 10!!!! I still call him "baby", sometimes in front of other kids, and he still lets me do it. Don and I are so happy to be his parents and we love him so much. He is such a wonderful and affectionate child. He has a happy body and loves to move and talk a lot and he has a caring heart. We are so lucky to have him in our lives.

Another trip to Orlando! (I know.....)

The plan was to go to Disney for some days and then drive to South Carolina but we never made it past Orlando. We spent a total of 14 days there!

The first days we stayed at the BoardWalk and we enjoyed it so much. We loved being so close to Epcot and not having to use the car. The kids took a picture of us in the same spot as our wedding picture and then Titi said she was going to marry us again and she performed a ceremony while Carlos took pictures. We got to say "I do" again!

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