Snow Day With The Biggi's

We met my sister Cyndi and her little family up on the mountain for some snow fun recently. We really thought the day was going to be a ton of fun. It was sunny, without a cloud in the sky and we felt we got off to a good start that morning. We drove to a free snow park just south of Hood River called Little John Snow Park. It was a great little snow park. Cyndi and Tony brought sleds. We had lots of food, snacks and goodies packed for the kids. I brought several changes of clothes and extra layers to keep everyone warm and toasty. Despite our efforts though, the kids, at least mine, had fun for a very short period of time before their smiles turned upside down. No matter what I did - they were permanently cold and uncomfortable, hungry and tired. I don't think Ezra had one bit of fun, and wouldn't even touch the snow or let us put him down. He just was not having it. We still pushed through the day up until the sun went down, trying relentlessly to convince them that the snow was really fun to play in. We talked Esperanza into going down the hill on the sled a few times, but still she wasn't having fun. We took Ezra sledding down a couple times too. Still no smile. 

I was consumed with my own kids' issues so I'm not real sure how Roman was in comparison to my kids, but I'm guessing he was in better spirits.

Some days, that's just the way it is. We'll try it again another day. 

pictures are not in order

 Sunshine

 Looks fun to me! We mostly stayed on the mini-slope opposite this one though

 She really did not want to sled! 

 Poor Ezra, he was miserable

 I think that is a smile on her face...this was part of the first 20 minutes or so of snow play

 Roman and Tony

 Roman and Esperanza - smiles!

Now that was a true smile! Wish it would have lasted longer.

Christmas Home Videos

Christmas Eve - we let them pick one gift each to open

Opening their two gifts they picked to open (they picked the ones they had from Eva) on Christmas Eve

Ezra riding his new bike on Christmas morning, with my assistance

Romans 4th Birthday At The Children's Museum

My nephew Roman turned 4 the week before Christmas. The picture above is his preschool picture from a month or two before his 4th birthday. His birthday party was held at the Portland Children's Museum. We were super stoked to go celebrate and play with Roman!

 We gathered in a room with a close group of family and friends to eat lunch and cake before heading out into the museum. 

 Cyndi and Roman - Cake Time!

 the kids colored and doodled while snacking

 this little cupcake face was born on the same day as Ezra.

Aaaaand then we were off! We had never been to the museum before so this was new territory for us. Territory we were fully prepared to enjoy and soak up. 

Magna-Tiles are SOOO cool! We have to get them for home one day!

A HUGE LightBrite!

 Wish we had a table with a light in it. They just seem to make everything on them that much more fun to play with.

 Face painting

Water play!

birthday boy getting all wet!

 

 Construction zone!

 Grocery Store. We spent at least an hour here - gathering groceries, putting them in the mini shopping cart, scanning each item at the check out, etc. Super awesome!

Kid size toilet seat

 Sitting in the ambulance

Train table

Not sure what this was but it was cool

 Esperanza rock climbing

The place was gigantic, and from what I understand, we only saw and played in a small portion of all that was there. We lost Roman and Cyndi and the rest of the group towards the end of our visit as we followed the lead of the little kids where they wanted to go. Eventually, Ezra and Esperanza both reached their limit -screaming and crying quickly escalated and we exited the building as swiftly as we could to avoid too big of a scene. They had soooo much fun! We will be back!

Happy 4th Birthday Roman!

Book Worms

My kids love books. Each of them differently.

Esperanza loves to look at books. She likes the 'novelty' of having a book with pictures of princesses, unicorns, a movie or character she's familiar with, etc. She likes to sit by herself and look through books. I'll listen to her reading softly to herself, or even to Ezra at times. She creates her own stories, sometimes in Spanish. Often, we'll go to the library and check out half a dozen books for her, yet all she does with them is put them on the book shelf when we get home, enjoying the fact that they are there. Most often, only one or two actually gets opened. But if I ask her is we should return it, she objects. I ask her if she wants me to read a book to her and she ALWAYS says no. It's very, very rare that she wants to sit down with me to actually read a book. I still have high hopes that this is just a phase she's going through and eventually she will enjoy being read to more often. Part of the reason I think that? Because of Ezra.

Ezra loves me to read to him. He will often grab a book and climb up on my lap with a desire to be read to. He enjoys all books. Especially Esperanza's princess books and any animal books. Being the loving siblings that they are, Esperanza and Ezra are constantly at battle to get me to themselves, and become jealous if one is getting attention while the other is not. Because of this, Esperanza has decided she likes to be read to as well. Not as often, but more than before.

Esperanza and Rafa reading books together

Christmas Eve - reading books

One of Ezra's favorite books is this hard page animal book. He loved it so much, it's in pieces now.

 Of course she'll let other people read to her.

I'm currently reading a few different books myself...one of them is this one. I'm researching and playing with the idea of homeschooling. It's a little overwhelming as far as where to start with my research. I decided this book was as a good start as any. Bet you can't guess which child of mine prompted this great read...

Countdown To Christmas

Last year, I remembered Esperanza had no way to grasp how far away it would be before Christmas Day arrived. This year, I decided, I had to come up with some sort of an advent calendar that would cost me little to no money. After gathering ideas via Facebook friends and crafty internet websites, I quickly settled on an easy do-it-yourself craft making a sock advent calendar. I gathered 25 little baby/toddler size socks of various solid colors. I cut a long piece of string which I hung on the wall in our kitchen. I used miniature colorful clothes pins and hung each sock with a number tag to the string. I did this all on the the evening of the last day of November after the kids went to bed - just in time to open the first one on the morning of December 1st!

Every morning, from December 1st to December 25th, the kids found a little surprise of some sort in each sock. They had to eat and finish breakfast first. I can't tell you how wonderful this made our morning during the month of December. Truly amazing!

I struggled with what to put into each sock. I didn't want candy or cheap toys. I had to get creative and put 2 of the same thing in each sock - 1 for each kid - for 25 day! There were 2 times we had Esperanza's cousin over to stay the night so I had to come up with 3 of the same thing to put in the sock for those mornings. Some days, it was just a little coin. Somehow, even a shiny quarter put the biggest grin on the kids' faces! Every day I came up with new ideas: mini buubbles that had been hidden away in a craft bin, punching balloons left over from a birthday party and forgotten about, chewable vitamin C's, a note card that said 'We Will Decorate For Christmas Today', another note that said 'Visit Rafa Today', two small Christmas tree ornaments, individual kid size packages of Nori, toothbrushes we got for free from the dentist a few months ago that they had forgotten about, individual packs of kids emergenc, cool craft buttons and yes - a couple of times there were little treats of some sort. It was so much fun for all of us and every day they were SO excited to find out what little surprise awaited them.

Doing this again next year for sure, with maybe a few sparkles and twists of some sort!