Teresa & Oscar's 25th Aniversary

Armando's sister Teresa and her husband Oscar celebrated their 25th year wedding aniversary last weekend by renewing their vows and having a party...pretty much another wedding.

Tony walked Teresa down the isleThe same pastor that married them 25 years ago. Also the same pastor that married Armando and I.Good for another 25+ yearsTeresa had just turned 17 when she got married 25 years ago. This is her now. I didn't know her 25 years ago, but I don't think she's aged much! She looks so youthful. Reception These are all the Padrinos (friends and family who contributed to the wedding and party). Armando and I were the padrinos for their limo. Somehow we missed the memo that said we were supposed to wear purple and black (oops) so we avoided this line up. Armando's sister Aurelia holding Ezra I gave Esperanza her very own disposable camera to keep her entertained. She had so much fun running around taking pictures of peopleI didn't have high expectations for the pictures Esperanza was taking. I was however disappointed that I had turned the flash on for her cause every picture is overexposed. They may have had a chance if it wasn't on. Here are some of the 'best' pictures. After looking at the cost of the camera plus the cost of getting the pictures developed, I am so thankful for digital cameras now. Film is spendy! Especially when it turns out like this. And then there was cake Twirlin in another Mexican dressThese 3 are Trouble Marissa & Ezra Bride and Groom of 25 years

Spinning Dizzy

Esperanza likes dresses again, at least for the moment. She went a little over a month refusing to wear dresses. Now, she not only will wear her normal every day casual dresses, she loves all the fun 'dress-up', not so casual and Mexican dresses that fill her tiny closet. So much she wants to wear them to bed and to school. Maybe school, but to bed, I don't think so. Last night she was wearing the skirt/top outfit Eva brought her back from Mexico like 3 years ago. She's worn it a lot since then but it actually fits her perfect right now. It's also perfect for twirling and spinning in, which she did a lot of last night.Ezra watched her with such awe! I think if he didn't have that darn binky in in his mouth, his jaw would have been dropped & drooling while watching her. He couldn't take his eyes off of her and that skirt!Here is a video of her about 20 or 30 minutes into her spinning frenzy. I had taken a couple videos with my phone which are actually cuter than this one, but I had the phone flipped the wrong way so the videos are sideways and I can't turn them (darn-it). By this time, in this video, she is super dizzy ~ I should have actually kept it going because a few seconds after I stopped she crashed into the wooden toy boxes because she was so dizzy. Silly girl.

Halloween Apples

I read somewhere that kids in Canada used to go door to door saying 'Halloween Apples' instead of 'Trick-or-Treat' and they'd get an apple. I'd trade in our tradition of candy giving/getting for apples in a heart beat! Until then, sugary treats it is. I told Esperanza from the beginning that any chocolate she collected that night was automatically mine.

During the day on Halloween, Esperanza got to dress up for school. We never did find a blue colored costume for Esperanza so we used costumes and dress up attire we already had around the house this year. Fortunately, she was in a happy fairy princess mood Halloween morning. So Fairy Princess she was for school.

Don't let that face fool you, she loved her outfit...just not sure if she should be Grumpy Fairy Princess...Or Happy Fairy Princess.Princess Fairy brushing her Brother Boo's hairMy BooLater in the day, we headed over to a friends house for dinner then some trick-or-treating adventures. Since being a princess isn't very warm, Esperanza wore a Carebear costume we dug out of a bin in the garage. I think Val gave it to me a couple of years ago, and this year it fit Esperanza perfect! There were a few other kids Esperanza's age that went out with us, as well as some older kids too.

Sunshine Bear wearing Daddy's hat, ready to go out on the town.

Pirate Gavn - AaRrrggKisses Ezra in his tiger costume...he wore it for about 5 minutes before he got too hot.
We tried to teach Sunshine proper trick-or-treating etiquette (don't run threw lawns, take only one piece of candy, no cutting in line, etc), but it might take a few years before we see any results.About an hour into our door to door adventures, Esperanza said she was done. Armando tried to convince her she wasn't done, there was still alot of candy to be had! He's a kid at heart with a sweet tooth. But if Esperanza says we're done, then I say we're done...so we we're done. We went back to our friends' house before all the others and relaxed for a bit. Esperanza was happy with her little pile of candy (which is still big, but nothing compared to the other kids').

Esperanza's First Hair Cut

We had to cut Esperanza's hair. The hair from the pigtail that got caught in the mixer the other night really got mixed up. I spent hours trying to untangle it. It was a massive swirl of tangles, dreaded basically. It was a small section of hair, but significant enough that I couldn't just cut it out and hope it blended in. After tons of conditioner, peanut butter, coconut oil, various different brushes, combs and techniques...not to mention a lot of tears shed from Esperanza, I gave up. As I've mentioned before, Esperanza has wanted her hair cut. I, on the other hand, couldn't bear to let go of her long ringlets of hair. I'd been defeated though. Over the past few weeks she has gotten gum and silly putty in her hair but I desperately managed and was able to avoid cutting it. The longer her hair got, the curlier it got, and I love it (loved...sigh). When I gave up and asked her if we should go get it cut, she said yes. I cried. Maybe not at that exact same moment, but I did cry. I wanted to be happy while we were at the salon getting her hair cut, so I got it out before we left. And, I'm seriously fighting back tears as I write this. When her teacher saw her hair for the first time after the hair cut, her mouth dropped, then she softly asked in a very sad voice, 'Whyyyy Mami'. I almost burst into tears again. I miss those locks so much. That whole mixer event is definately a lesson for me more than it is for Esperanza.

Before After

We went to a hair place just for little ones. She got to pick a car to sit in while she got her hair cut and chose the Barbi Jeep. She also could have picked her own movie to watch while getting her hair cut too, but she said she didn't want to watch one. She did however end up watching her neighbors Winnie The Pooh movie.

Snip, snip - snivel, snivelNo more long, beautiful ringlets They gave us a keepsake First Haircut Certificate as well as a lock of hair, and I requested to keep the big dreaded lock of hair too.Long day I guess...and look, there's one lil' ringlet left! The rest of it is pretty straight with a little bit of a curl on the bottom. Esperanza doesn't really have much to say about her hair being short now. She had no attachment to it like the rest of us did. Now she can easily run a brush threw it herself, and when I brush it, it takes seconds rather than forever. She looks so much older now too for some reason. I guess it fits her new big sister role.