Valencia Baby Shower

My mother in law Angelina had a baby shower for me a couple of weeks ago. Mando's side of the family & friends came and packed the house. It was a fun day full of food, friends, family, gifts, games & kids running around laughing.

The difference between a traditional white girls baby shower and a Mexican baby shower, is that it's a party for the entire family when you have a Mexican baby on the way. The kids come, the husbands and boyfriends come, usually theres a few cases of Bud Light & all sorts of random unfamiliar people & friends of extended family friends that the pregnant woman doesn't even know show up to celebrate. Good thing we decided to do 2 showers this time around. My 'traditional white girl' baby shower will happen in a couple more weeks (so long as Blue doesn't show up early).

If anyone is overpopulating the world, it is us, the Valencia family. Here's me at thirty-something weeks pregnant & Mando's sister Cathy at about 20 weeks (it's a boy too!).

Brothers Kiko and Rafa (Sergio Jr. & Rafael)
Baby food eating contestLucy's daughter got the left over baby food & loved itVicki & her son LazzySisters Esmeralda, Marticella (with Emmanuel) & Becky Esperanza had a great time opening gifts with me

She has even claimed a stuffed animal gift of Blue's as her ownMando's brother Tony is the only sibling of his that doesn't have his own kids. That means that he actually plays with all of his nieces & nephews. Here he is playing 'kick the ball into the rain barrel' with a few of the toddlers.
My friend Andreah & her daughter Bianca Our new nephew Estevan - Born April 19th Family PhotoI can't even begin to express the thanks I have for this family! White girl & all, they showered me with love and I'm so grateful to have them in my life and call them my family!

Mothers Day 2011

My mom and sister came over for dinner this past Sunday for Mothers Day I made enchiladas

We saw some pretty birds hanging out in my front yard. I think we decided they were a type of finch...ones I'd never seen before

Esperanza and I made a loaf of bread for my mom. She hung out on the floor for awhile watching the bread spin around in the bread maker.
When my family left, we got in the car and headed over to Mando's moms house to spend some time with her for Mothers Day too.

Here's Mando with his brother Tony, his mom Angelina and Esperanza

Painting and Potting Soil

OH...and a pretty white dress

On The Hunt

Besides coloring Easter eggs, we had a lot of fun this year hunting for Easter eggs too. On Saturday, we were blessed with the warmest day of the year so far, at least thats what it felt like. We picked up Esperanzas cousin Rafa (after the zoo trip, we decided we needed to use this kid to everyones benefit more often) and headed to an Easter Egg hunt put on by a local church. We met Val and her kids there too. After a short and entertaining instructional service inside the church, we headed to the grassy fields with hundreds of other little kids to hunt down colorful plastic eggs full of colorful candy.

They didn't make it too hard to find the eggs

Don't let that face fool you, he had fun...I thinkShe just wants to eat the candy - "Pleeeeeaaaase mama" Awww, aren't they so cute!
After the hunt, we took the kids to the park to play before taking Rafa back home. Again, Esperanza made Rafa dizzy with all the fun she had. After about 5 or 6 times of trying to get Rafa to go down the slide with her, he finally gave in. And guess what happened? He laughed! Whew, a breakthrew. Not a chance was Rafa gettin on the tire swing with Esperanza though On Easter Sunday, we stayed home all day long. Well, with the exception of walking across the lawn to the neighbors for dinner. When Esperanza got up in the morning, she found a basket full of goodies from the Easter bunny. Later, with the rain and cool weather back, Esperanza was armed with a wool hat and rain boots as she set off to the back yard to hunt down more colorful plastic easter eggs filled with colorful candy, money and little trinkets.
Last years felted eggs & a sugary, colorful 'something'.
Esperanza's Easter basket with new watercolor paints, a play cupcake for the play kitchen, a chocolate bunny, a play silk, a dalmation dog figure, a punching baloon, a pez bunny candy thing, wildflower seeds to plant outside & an egg or two with money & treats.
Happy Easter!

Dying Easter Eggs

This year was our first time dying Easter eggs. For both of Esperanza & I. I honestly have no memory of doing this as a kid. But then again, I have a bad memory. Maybe a sister or my mom can refresh my memory? Anyhow...last year I felted Easter Eggs and decided against dying. This year, I came across several articles and information on easter egg dying with foods. I had a lot of the optional ingredients already in my fridge & freezer that had met the end of their edible days. So off we were with brewing up some easter egg dying concoctions.

1) Blueberry/blackberry mixture, 2) red cabbage, 3) spinach & 4) tumeric/orange spice tea combination simmering on the stove for awhile

After simmering, we strained the food out of the water and soaked hard boiled eggs in the concoctions overnight in the fridge...

And here were our results in the morning Who would have thought red cabbage would produce such a bright blue colored egg?

That evening, we went to my moms for dinner. Esperanza had to bring her eggs to show grandma, and of course I let her. When we got there, she not only wanted to show grandma and grandpa her cool eggs...but the dogs too. And wouldn't you know it, the dogs love to eat hard boiled eggs. I decided it could just become tradition from now on to dye hard boiled easter eggs to feed to grandmas dogs.
The next day I decided to do another batch, just a little different. Same dying process, but I blew out the egg yolk/white. That way, Esperanza could carry around her eggs all day long without me thinking of how bad they would smell from rotting soon, and we can save them for next year too (and they wouldn't get eaten by the dogs). I got the idea to add some sparkles to a few of the eggs from my sister too.

Aren't they pretty!

Zoo With Rafa

Last week we picked up Esperanza's cousin Rafael and took them to the zoo together. Rafa doesn't get out much so it took a lot of persuasion on Esperanza's part to get him to let loose and have some fun with her. He did have moments of laughter and running around, but for the most part it was pretty funny watching Esperanza run circles around him, pulling on him and telling him to play with her. He's so sweet and serious. It was great for us too because having someone Esperanza's age with her at the zoo made for fewer temper tantrums and more fun for everyone.

Rafa was scared of the goats at the petting zoo. Quite the opposite for Esperanza. This was the site of temper tantrum #1 when it was time to move on
Pulling the wagon together
Train Ride - site of temper tantrum #2 when it was time to get offDucks Esperanza wanted to hold his hand the whole daySnack time Black Bear Driving the Safari jeep
Hippos
Looking for the Sea Lions

Soakers For Blue

I love wool soakers for cloth diapering! They are warm, cute, breathable, leak proof and when loved properly by lanolizing and hand washing/drying every now and then, they last forever. New ones can set you back about $30 in the stores or online. I did invest in a few pairs when Esperanza was a baby. I had more money than time back in those days. These days, time is more abundant than money...which is much more rewarding in so many ways. So I've been practicing making some wool diaper covers for Blue, with pretty good results.

The brown & white pair are toddler size and actually were intended to be 'longies' but as I began knitting the legs, I realized they are way too skinny for chubby baby/toddler thighs. So they became shorts, and the legs will likely just get unknitted and re-done a lil looser at some point. The blue pair are newborn size and I'm going to add some cuffs to the legs holes for extra absorbancy & to prevent leaks. These cost me probably around $3-$5 each plus a few hours of time.

If you gotta change diapers, you might as well make it fun and stylish right?