A Staycation

On Monday I told you all about my horrible honeymoon and yesterday I explained how I had to give up my dream of a fabulous vacation to make way for bigger dreams. 


Today, I'll share with you how even though we didn't share a 2 week vacation through the Mediterranean or a week long drive up the Californian coast, we still had a blast. 


Why?


Because it's not about where you go... it's about who you're with. 


And I love my husband...
He's awesome...
And hot. 


So for weeks before the momentous 5 year anniversary, I had been moping around and sighing and rolling my eyes, making passive aggressive comments towards my husband...
"You don't really love me"
"Yeah, we're getting a house, but I want ALONE time"
"Ugh, I never have a chance to relax"
"You never do anything thoughtful for me"


Can you hear the WAAAAmbulance?  Yeah, that was me.


And all he would do is smile and say, "You're gonna look real dumb in a few weeks".


The day finally came... I've been waiting for 2 years... and he told me that we were going to spend the night in a hotel... he had already arranged for his parents to take care of the kids and take them to church with them in the morning! 


WOOOHOOOOO... 
Aside from Jonas' birth and a hospital stay when I had pneumonia, this was the first time we'd been away from the children.  Ever.  That's in over 3 years.


So we went to a lovely outdoor shopping mall and walked around sneaking in and out of designer furniture and decorating shops, dreaming of how we could enhance our new home.  We were just dreaming... not buying.


Then we went to eat at a trendy little outdoor restaurant that had a little of everything and I got to have sushi!  (This is a rare treat, as Mauricio doesn't like it). 


We stopped by Publix and picked up a bottle of champagne and headed to our hotel to toast our 5 years together there. 


And I slept.  
Soundly.
With no crying children.
No pee-pee wake up call.
No shouts of "MAMA!"


Unfortunately my body is still accustomed to my 7:45 wake up call, that I did in fact wake up, looked at my phone, noted the time, cried out "DANG IT" and went to sleep for another hour and a half.


It's funny because I thought I'd really sleep in... like the days before kids.  You know, wake up at 11:30, roll around for half an hour and finally get out of bed around noon.  But no.  By 9 I couldn't take it anymore... I had to get up.  
Ahh, adulthood.


We headed downstairs and had breakfast in the lobby, which was delish.  I'm always up for a good omelet station.  And Belgian waffles? Yes please!


Once we checked out, it was only 10:30 and the kids were at church, so we wanted to take advantage of our freedom and go to the beach, but on our way there, it began to pour.  At that time, we noticed a church that was about to begin, so we decided to check it out.


Not only did we like the church, the atmosphere, the pastor, the music... but they also gave first time guests FREE movie tickets!  YES!  So when church let out, we figured the kids were going to be on their way to have their nap, so again we took advantage of our freedom and went to the movies!  (This is also a rare treat... we never go to the movies anymore).


We saw Moonrise Kingdom.  We liked it.  When we got out, we figured the kids were probably still sleeping (ok, maybe not but hey) and took advantage by watching a second movie!  Yes, we did just go to church and now we were sneaking in to a movie... shame shame... whatever.  We saw Spiderman.  


So after sneaking away for almost two whole days, we now knew it was time to go back to reality.  Plus I missed my babies. 


When we got home and saw our kids, this was the welcome:
To Mauricio from Marco:
"Papai!!! I've MISSED you, I LOVE you".


To me from Marco:
"Mom!  We went to TARGET". 


Great.  I can feel the love.  Thanks a lot.  So a day is long enough to miss Dad but not long enough to miss Mom.  I see.  


So that was it.  Our Staycation.  And it was so fun!  
Maybe not quite as fun as a weekend trip to New York, but it'll have to do.
For now...

A Pirate Pool PARRRRty

On Saturday we celebrated Marco's 3rd birthday.  (His birthday isn't until the 20th.)  We had the party at our house (in-laws' house) and invited all our family, family friends and playmate friends... all in all, about 50 people!  We had such an amazing time, celebrating with all our loved ones!  This was the first year that Marco actually grasped the concept of a "Birthday party" and he was over-the-moon excited about it.  He kept on saying, "is THIS my party?!"... sweet boy.

 Personalized baggies for each child with eye patch, gold coins, bandanas, bracelets and beaded necklaces.

 Dad is busy on the grill!

 Can't forget the sunscreen! 

Delicious fruit skewers!  So refreshing!

 Lunch is served!

 Cake and cupcakes by Cupcake Boutique in Miami.  So cute and yummy!

 Jonas singing, "Haaaaa..."

 Make a wish!

A few funny stories about the party:

The eye patch.  Every time I would tell a child to go get their eye patch, an adult would question me as to what I was talking about... apparently, they were all thinking I was saying an iPatch... the latest Apple product!  They wanted to know what it was and where they could get one!  Obsessed much?

Marco... POLO!  Ok, so obviously we KNEW that if we named our child "Marco", we would encounter the Marco Polo game.  We know it, we're ok with it.  But Marco doesn't know it.  So, naturally, at a pool party, it was an inevitability that some of the older children would begin the game.  Poor Marco... every time one of the boys would yell "MARCO", my Marco would turn and say, "WHAT?!  I'm right HERE!"  he would chase them around the pool, trying to see what they wanted... this happened for about 15 minutes!  Finally, in between laughs, I tole him that they weren't talking to him and tried to distract him from the calls.

Overall, wee had a wonderful party... we were so blessed to have everyone surround us with so much love for our son.  He's so excited to be THREE!!!  We can't be prouder of our BIG boy!

Day at Disney

We did it! We made it through our second Disney trip with two small children.

Last June we took the kids to Animal Kingdom and while we had a good time, Marco doesn't remember it at all. And Jonas, well he was only 9 months old at the time so he basically slept through the day.

This time we chose to go to Disney's Hollywood Studios, previously known as MGM. We decided to go here because it has all of Marco's favorites; Cars, Toy Story, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Jake and the Neverland Pirates. Plus, being that it isn't the most popular park, we'd have enough time to see more and have less people around. It was a good choice!

We downloaded an app that had the map of the park as well as show times and ride wait times. We were able to notice that the longest wait and most desirable ride was the Toy Story ride. Of course we HAD to go on this too do the first thing we did upon entering the park was to go there and get a fast pass for later. By the time we got there the only passes left were for 6-7 pm! We just decided to make that our last thing.

Then we headed to The Great Movie ride which takes you through a history of movies. All was well until the gangster movie era... We were in the middle of a gang war! And the boys thought it was real! Within minutes we had two crying children. Then to make matters worse, after the gangs, came the aliens! We didn't realize that ride was going to be scary until we were in the middle of it!
We dries up their tears and pealed them off our bodies and headed over to the Beauty and the Beast show. All was well. Belle had a beautiful voice and the dancers were great. Marco was a bit on edge already from our previous excursion, so he said the "kill the beast" part was scary... But it wasn't... He was being wimpy! Jonas loved the whole thing!

Then Mau and I left the kids with the in-laws while they took them for a snack and we went to ride the rougher rides. Fortunately both the Tower of Terror and the Rockin' Roller-coaster had only 20 minute lines so we were back with the group within the hour!

We caught up with them right when they were getting to The Little Mermaid show. Jonas was napping already and he continued to nap throughout the show. This show was horrible. So outdated, ugly and boring. And the girl that played Ariel was just awful. Her singing made me want to cry... And not in a good way! We were happy it was short!

Then we gave the in-laws a break while they went to another ride and we took the boys to watch the Disney Junior show! It was truly great! It was the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse show that incorporated Handy Manny, Little Einsteins and Jake. It was all done with puppets and they had all the songs and even Toodles was there! Both kids were thrilled!

Since the kids were already excited, we decided to keep it up and head over to meet some of the most beloved characters: Buzz and Woody. The line was looooooong. But hey, that's what we were there for! Both of their little faces were amazed at seeing these characters in real life!

Then we found more faves, Lightning McQueen and Mater!

After all that activity, we were quite hungry... So we headed over to Toy Story's famous Pizza Planet for an early dinner. And then we were on our way back to the Toy Story ride to end the night. It was really fun and try let us ride twice!
We left by 7:15 and the kids were dead tired but happy and excited about all the things they saw!
We probably won't be back to Disney for some time because now when Marco turns 3, his ticket will be $79!!! Hello! Anyone else think that's over the top expensive?! So we'll be back when the boys are 7 or 8 and can really remember it and we'll get our money's worth! Unless somehow we get free tickets again... But for now, these pictures will have to suffice!

The Tree on Our Street

Living with my in-laws has it's perks... aside from not paying rent! haha.

We live on a beautiful street... we're the first house on a cult-a-sac.  In the center of the cult-a-sac is a beautiful, enormous tree and green grass surrounding it.  It's a little piece of paradise.

There's a basketball hoop that the neighborhood kids play at on weekends.  There are also three swings hanging from the tree.  We never really go over there just because since we're at the end of the street, we don't really feel like it's our territory.

But all that has changed recently.

One day while Jonas was taking an extra long nap, I decided to head on down over there with Marco.  It was early enough that most of the houses were still empty.  We had the baby monitor on the ground and ended up playing there for over an hour!

The tree is beautiful, and under it's shade it's breezy and delightful!  I pushed Marco on the swing and then he pushed me.  I taught him how to climb up into the tree and he played with sticks and rocks.  We swung together and tried to touch toes.  It was a great day!

And since that day, we've been back several times.  I no longer feel like it's not "my territory".  Really, who's going to say something to a kid that's just playing nicely?  And if anyone ever does, I'll just play dumb... "oh, I thought this was for ALL the neighborhood kids".

We really love hanging out under that tree.  It's like having a quaint little park in our front yard.

Happy {valentines} Mail

Ever since seeing THIS BLOG via Pinterest, I've been dying to send my own "Happy Mail".  I decided that Valentines day would be the perfect unexpected holiday to surprise my friends's daughters with a little love.

This was so fun and inexpensive and I think it really brought a smile to their faces!  Who doesn't love receiving mail?  But add to it a bottle FILLED with fun goodies... now that's awesome!

And, not many people know you can just put stamps on an empty water bottle and toss it in the mail... I know I didn't until reading the Giverslog.  So fun.  Imagine opening your mailbox and finding "happy mail"... ahhh, so exciting!

Here's what I bought.  All from Target dollar bins.
~ Pencils
~ Heart erasers
~ Jelly stickers
~ foamy word stickers (love, hugs, kiss)
~ glittery heart stickers
~ those bracelets that are shaped like things (I forget the name).
~ poms

Then I shoved it all into a water bottle, slapped a cute label on it and *voila*.  We have "happy mail".

I weighed them and they came in at just about 3oz... according to USPS, that's 5 stamps.

All in all, I spent under $10 to make both these gifts and hopefully I made two little ladies very happy on Valentines day.

Did you notice that these gifts are actually from Marco and Jonas?  My little casanovas.  I had nothing to do with it... really.

Yo Gabba Gabba LIVE

On Saturday, Marco's aunt, Tia Mi, took him to go see Yo Gabba Gabba Live.  She took me and my mother-in-law along too.  She is in the race for "favorite aunt" and doing everything in her power to be #1!

Marco has loved Gabba for some time now.  And, honestly we like it too.  I didn't always like it though... at first I found it to be so annoying.  But, after watching a few episodes, thanks to Netflix instant, I too got hooked.  I mean, the music is so awesome!  It's such a cool kids show... unlike some of the other favorites around here... ahem, Barney.

So when Tia Mi called to tell us about the show and even offered to buy our tickets, we were SO in!  I decided to leave Jonas out on this one, since he's so young.  He didn't care... he got to hang with dad, solo style.

On the way to the show, we kept trying to explain to Marco what we were doing.  We would tell him we were going to see Yo Gabba Gabba... but not on the tv... for real.  I tried to explain to him that it'll be real, like when we saw Mickey Mouse back in June, but he didn't remember or understand.  He had NO idea what he was getting in to.

As we got to the theatre, he saw all the children with their Gabba Gear.  He was so excited to see all of "his friends" with their Brobee's, Muno's and Foofa's.  As they walked into the theatre, Tia Mi bought Marco a light stick... and he was ready to go!

As the show started, he was a bit in shock.  It was overwhelming for him to see all those people, plus the loud music, plus the lights, plus the Gabba clan in REAL LIFE!  He just sat there and chewed on his light stick.

Marco was kinda hypnotized by it all.  I basically had to drag him out of his seat and get him moving, dancing and clapping.  I kept telling him that it was ok to have fun... it was PARTY TIME!  But he was still cautious.

Finally during intermission he got the hang of it!  Tia Mi, still working hard to be favorite aunt, bought Marco a little Brobee doll... which he now calls his "REAL Brobee". (He already had one, but that one isn't the "real one" so it's not as good... in fact, he gave it to Jonas.  Hey, one man's trash is another man's treasure, eh?)  

Say "Yooooo Gabba Gabba!!!"

As an adult spectator, I thought it was super well done.  It was pleasing even for me!  The ACTUAL characters were there... DJ Lance Rock and even Biz Markie doing his beat-box-bit.  It was great.  I, of course, knew all the songs and danced and sang along.  Because, "Singing and dancing to music is... AAAWESOME!".

So all in all I thought it was an fantastic experience!  Marco loved it.  I think he's still a little too young to have actually gotten into in the same way the older kids did, but that didn't make it any less enjoyable for him.  He still talks about it and every day he says, "I wanna watch Gabba... but not on the T.D (tv)... For Reeeeeeeal".

Thanks Tia Mi!  You ROCK!

My Little Monsters 1st Bday Party

Disclaimer:  You are about to experience the largest photo dump I've ever done... hope you enjoy! 


On Saturday we celebrated Jonas' First Birthday.  We had a great party at my dad's house with lots of food, kids in the pool and it was so much fun!

I got a ton of help from my friends over at Mint Blossom Studio... they took care of all the decorations, the snack bar and all the cutie monster things.  I think they out did themselves!

The snack bar had Rice Crispy Treats, Fruit Snacks, Granola Bars, Goldfish Crackers, Oreos and Popcorn.  YUM! 

We made these monster faces... each one unique!

Baggies to take home some snacks.

Then the Birthday Boy arrived!  He didn't know what was going on!

Some Grandma love!

Tell me Marco doesn't look a little like SuperMan in this picture?! ha!

Grandpa's grillin' out

 Marco enjoying a Monster Treat!

 Birthday Boy getting his Mama Love

While Jonas was walking around...

And visiting with his Titia Mi...

Marco was livin' it up in the pool!

With Grandpa!

 And still others were fishing in the lake...

And actually catching! 

 Cupcakes were made by my friends at The Cupcake Boutique (like them on FaceBook).  A big monster smash cake (which we'll use on his actual birthday... the 28th) and mini cupcakes for everyone!

This is my attempt to get everyone singing together... "HAAAAA"

The mandatory "family picture"... with the Grandparents.

I think he enjoyed his cupcake... sugar coma coming on. 

 How do you know you had a successful party?

Tired boys.