Esperanza's Fourth Birthday

Esperanza turned 4 years old today! A few days ago I asked her what she wanted to do on her birthday. Not her birthday party day, but her birthday day. I suggested going to a movie and she said no. Pool? No. Beach? No. Zoo? Nope. I began running out of ideas and worried that I'd already set her standards too high, and only 4 years into it! Then I suggested the park. She perked up. But still not super enthusiastic. Then I suggested spending the day with her cousin Rafa. She screamed with delight! So it became, the day would be spent with Rafa, and we'd all go to the park.

This morning Armando drove all the way out to Rafa's house and picked him and his sister Celeste up. They got back to the house around 10 and Esperanza was still asleep. She did wake pretty soon after though and she dug right into her surprise gifts that were awaiting her. There was one gift saved for last and inside of it was an Ariel mermaid doll. With her was a little note. The note instructed Esperanza to search throughout the house for Ariel's mermaid sisters and friends. The hunt was on and over the course of a couple of hours, and in between doing other things, Esperanza found over a dozen mermaid dolls hiding. In between mermaid findings, the kids colored in coloring books, played with a spelling game that was one of Esperanza's gifts and took pictures with the kid digital camera she also got

 Mermaids hiding next to the rice and lentils

I told Esperanza to go potty and guess what she found in the bathroom? A purple haired mermaid!

 Esperanza has a thing for mermaids. Not just Arial - which is pretty much the only mermaid you can find if one were to go look for mermaid things. So, when I stumbled upon a Craigslist ad with all these mermaids for sale for dirt cheap, I couldn't pass it up. Sure, a little overboard in numbers, but so what.

While Ezra napped, the kids and I made Esperanza's birthday cake. This year, we picked a quick and easy recipe, a basic yellow cake with cream cheese frosting. Esperanza decided she wanted cupcakes instead of one big cake. 

By the time Ezra woke up, the cupcakes were all cooked and we headed off to the park for some play and picnicking. The kids ran around the fields, laughed and chased each other, went down the slides several dozen times, swung on the swings, pushed each other dizzy on the spinning thing, ate pb/jelly sandwiches along with some grapes and gram crackers and had a ton of fun! I even went down the big slide with Ezra several times.

 This is probably the coolest slide in Camas. And, it's been at Goot Park since I was a kid. 

After the fun started dying down, we packed up and headed back home. My mom stopped by to wish happy birthday to Esperanza and visit for a bit (dang-it, I didn't take any pictures while my mom was over). She gave Esperanza a cute summer dress and a bright tie-dyed top and striped leggings outfit. Clothes always win Esperanza over. I made the frosting, frosted the cupcakes and we ate dinner. My mom had to leave to get back to George before Armando got home from work. When he did get there, we sang happy birthday, ate a cupcake and enjoyed the rest of the evening with all the kids playing in the front yard together. 

Happy Fourth Birthday Esperanza!

Jenny's Weekend

A couple of weekends ago my friend Jenny, who I met and became friends with during our very first year of college many years ago, came into town. She's and her fiance Matt are getting married in September. To celebrate, her good friend Aimee and her sister in law Desiree planned a fun filled weekend for her and all of her friends. Jenny, who is a flight attendant and currently living in Florida, has friends in all parts of the country that flew in to celebrate. On Saturday early afternoon, we all met at Jenny's dads house where we started off her bachelorette party. After mingling for a bit at the house, we were chauffeured off by a beautiful white hummer stretch limo which took us on a wine tour. We visited 5 different wineries in Clark County within 5 hours and tasted dozens of different wines. After the wine tastings, we were dropped back off at Jenny's dads house where we ate dinner and mingled some more. A few girls, including myself, had to leave the party by early evening. I went home to put the kids to bed (this was the longest I had been away from Ezra since...well, conception. Plus, both my kids depend on my presence in order to fall asleep at night). Jenny and the other girls took their celebration downtown Portland for a few more hours.

This poster of LL Cool J made a special appearance for Jenny's party - She is in love with him (Matt's okay with it)

Limo picking us up in front of Jenny's dad house

Wedding party

I think this was all of us

Me and Jenny

In the limo

We pretty much took over each of the wineries we showed up at

Another group shot

Wine!

Pretty view from one of the wineries

On Sunday, Jenny's bridal shower was at her sister in laws house. Jenny was spoiled by all of her friends as we showered her with love, hugs wonderful food and special gifts.

While I was out with the girls all day on Saturday, Armando took the kids to The International Food Festival and then to the Gay Pride Event at Esther Short Park. They came home with these 2 huge rainbow balloons.

Berry Picking

Last week we went berry picking at a local no spray berry farm called Philbrook Farm. We actually went twice in one week. The first time we went to pick blueberries and met Armando's brother Chili's wife Lily and her kids. My kids loved picking the berries, putting them in their bucket, then eating them all. They had a great time. For about 10 minutes. Then it was non-stop whining and crying. Despite their efforts to get me to pack up and head home, Armando and I stuck it out and we came home with half a 5 gallon bucket of blueberries. We will need more to freeze and last us the next 11 months, but it's a good starts.

A few days later, we returned to the same farm, but a different area of it to pick the last of the raspberries for the season. Armando had a job, so the kids and I went and met my friend Eryn and her family there. Again, like clockwork, the kids were only happy for the first short part of our visit there, then began to whine and cry. Oh the joys. Again, I did my best to stick it out as long as possible before we all lost our berries. We sat and took a little break, nursed Ezra and I listened to Esperanza whine about how much she wanted to go home - thinking that might buy me a few extra minutes of berry picking. It did. Then, as we were ready to pack it up and leave when they began to fuss again, Armando showed up by surprise. He had had a job in the area, and no further calls for work, so he stopped to help us pick berries, and help with the kids. Good thing, otherwise we'd have gone home almost empty handed. 

That smile was not for me, but for Eryn.

This is the look I get