The Final Days of Summer

We are really gearing up for school now!  Only one week left of summer vacation!  I can't even believe how fast this summer has gone!  Papa turned 30, Max turned 5, Mama turned 29, Nico's well on his way with potty training, and Belle is ready to crawl!  It won't be long for her now!  We've had a Sea World vacation, SMA summer camp, Religious Education marathon, swimming, a nice long visit with Cousin Jack, Firefighter appreciation, birthday party after birthday party, our own family Olympics, Science Day at a friend's house, visits to the library, play dates, not to mention some of the best times spending time together at home.  And that's only a little of what we did.  Phew I'm exhausted!  Our goal this summer was to make it the best that we possibly could, especially since last summer was pretty much a bust for the boys with me being preggers and sick EVERY DAY ALL DAY!  I'm proud of us for doing most everything we wanted to do and much much more!  I'm thankful that the Science day worked out at a friend's house because that was the one thing we wanted to host but were unable to find a good time.  We will be blogging on a limited basis for an indefinite amount of time while we get adjusted to our new school schedule.  We've got Max starting his Pre-K 5 class, Nico getting ready for his 2's class, and Belle excited about attending her first class with the Babies at St. Michael Academy.  I've been blessed with a teaching position at their preschool so I will get to spend Max's final year with him and Belle's first year with her.  Even more of a blessing, I was hired to teach Belle's class!  We have three kids in Preschool.  THREE!  I just can't believe it.  The past six years of my life have been the most joyous with this past 6 months being the fastest.  I guess it is true what they say, "Time flies when you are having fun!"  This reminds me of something Max said one evening this week when finding out it was already dinner time.  "Mama, why do the days go so fast?  I just want it to go slow!"  I took it as one of the highest complements I could receive from my kid.

I wanted to highlight a few of the things that we did this week.  The biggest highlight of the week was my trip to the dentist, of course!  Okay, no not really.  I actually dread that every time I have to go, but the people are very nice there so that makes it a more pleasurable experience.  The actual biggest thing that happened this week goes to Nico.  His first poo in the potty!!!  Whoop Whoop!  I won't dwell on the details, but we are proud of him.  I've been doing a LOT of sewing for That's Sew Belle, which always brings me joy.  Fer's taken on the blog job of creating picture collages, making my life a little bit easier, and he's been excited about the idea.  Max has been, well Max, with his awesome imaginative personality, creating never a dull moment.  Belle's been working on her crawling muscles.  She's almost there (not that I want her too.)

Tuesday we decided to get out of the house and go outdoors.  Even though it was rather toasty, we just couldn't stay couped up and we didn't really have any special place we wanted to go.  Since I'm using the garage clothesline for drying our large laundry items, I needed to be out there to hang a load anyway.  I moved out the minivan, brought out the toys , large rolls of plotter paper, markers, crayons, race cars,etc. and had a grand ole' time.  We are "forced" into using our garage as our backyard since we do not have a backyard.  We do have an alley, but with the two hyper boys and a baby to keep track of, sometimes it is best to get out my trusty little orange cones to block off a space for them to play.  I don't know what it is about those orange cones, but they usually stay within the perimeters.  Of course, it isn't a day in the life of the Castaneda Clan without a little bit of drama.  So Nico decides that he wants me to change his diaper (he's still not completely potty trained), but Belle was playing contently on our lovely "race track" we had created on plotter paper attached to the garage floor.  I asked Max if he would please run inside to get a diaper and some wipes for me to use on his brother so that I wouldn't have to move everybody inside.  Max being the awesome kid he is did so willingly, only he told me that I better not tell anyone that I was changing his brothers' diaper in the garage (where no one could see).  He told me that he didn't want me to get arrested....Anyway, I guess his hands were a little too full when he came back outside.  He was carrying toys in one hand and the diaper and wipes in the other.  I suppose when he pulled the door closed he accidentally moved the lock.  And guess what?  Thirty minutes later when it was time for me to start making their lunch, I couldn't get the door open.  Yes, we were locked out!  No, we didn't have a spare key...Thankfully I had my cell phone on me, which is not always the case when we go outside.  The poor hubby had to spend his lunch break driving all the way home and letting us inside.  Of course, we had to wait for him to finish a meeting, and then I still had to fix lunch when we got inside, but nonetheless, we were not outside the entire day baking.  We may have been hot and hungry by the time we got inside, but the boys were still insistent that we have the picnic I had planned for us (before getting locked out).  So no cooling off for us.  I quickly prepared lunch and we all trekked back outside for a picnic.  By the time we made it back in we were all pretty much done for the day...well I know I was.  I learned a very valuable lesson though.  NEVER GO OUTSIDE WITHOUT KEYS!  Also, I think it would be wise for someone close by to have a spare so we don't have to bake so long next time.  Because who am I kidding, I'm prone to make little mistakes like this. 

Wednesday we spent some time at the library and attending Mass for the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  We had only a little time between the library and Mass so the boys thought it was "super cool" when I picked them up some lunch, parked the minivan  in the church parking lot, and had a picnic in the car with our windows rolled down.  The day was overcast and rather pleasant.  


Their personalities are very apparent in this photo!  Our session was interesting.  Max with his sweet seriousness, Nico with his hilarious pretend distressed look, and Belle with her beautiful happy smiles.


Thursday I got to work in my classroom while the kiddos went to the church nursery.  I'm getting so excited about teaching!  I'm a little nervous and a tiny bit scared too, but overall just really happy for this opportunity!  In the afternoon we played all kinds of things, but one of the things that stands out the most with me was when we were playing "Mario pirates".  I got to be Mario Pirate (per Max's instructions) while Max was Luigi Pirate.  Nico was going about the room as if he was a bad guy, so in my best pirate voice I said to him, "Arrrrr, are ye the scoundrel?"  Nico's response in the best pirate imitation this 2 1/2 year old could do (which was really rather good), "No, I'm not a scoundrel!!!  I'm just an angry boy!!!"  All the while he's smiling from ear to ear.  He then continued to thrust his glowing rainbow Skittles wand into the air as if it was his pirate sword.  Maybe you had to be there to really get the full effect, but it was greatness. 

Friday we had a wonderful adventure outside in our neighborhood.  I will be blogging about this adventure in another post coming later this week:  The Quest for the Fountain of Red and Blue.  It was somewhat inspired by our newest found form of entertainment "Where's Waldo?"  We have spent hours looking at this one book that we checked out from the library.  When I was younger I would look at these books while waiting on my sister at the Orthodontist's office and then later when I was a patient there myself.  Fer actually did the same thing when he was younger, looking at them at his dentist's office.  I LOVE these books.  I had forgotten about them and then as we were headed out of the library on Wednesday, I caught sight of a group of them out of the corner of my eye.  I was ecstatic!  The boys probably thought I was nuts, but what's new there?  We've been looking through it ever since.  We can't wait to pick up another book the next time we go back! 

This weekend provided for some much needed family time.  We miss Papa so much during the week when he's at work.  It's so nice when we can all spend time together.  Well...I did get to sneak out one day for fabric shopping and the next day for some school clothes shopping, but other than those few hours, we got to spend some awesome quality time.  Saturday evening we were blessed with a downpour (or as my Dad always called it when I was a kid, "downburst").  The kids were so fascinated by the heavy rains that they sat mesmerized by our storm door watching for a long time.  I taught the kids the song "Rain Rain Go Away" which they thought was quite humorous for some reason.  I guess I should have been teaching them "It's Raining, It's Pouring" instead since we really didn't want the rain to go away.  And then in the song, little Johnny wanted to play outside so he wanted to rain to go away, but in our case, because it was raining Fer let the boys go out back and run around in the rain!  While I was giving the baby her bath I heard some very loud happy squealing coming from behind the house.  When I looked outside I was surprised (only a little) that it was coming from my boys who were half dressed playing in the rain.  I think they will always remember doing that.  Belle and I brought the boys some towels to dry off and we heading back upstairs so I could put her to bed, only to hear the boys run back outside for more excitement.  How great it must be to be a kid.  And the sad part is, when we are kids we just want to be grown up.  Go figure.


We aren't slacking off these final days of summer, and we hope to continue with fun family adventures even with school in session.  My boys are at the age where school is fun anyway! They can't wait to go back, see their friends, and make new ones.  Continue to look for our adventures throughout the school year.  We'll be making new memories every day and we are hoping to share them with you!

BEST last DAYS of Summer EVER! 

Playing with their laptops

Batman and Lefty decided they  needed to do some quick coloring before bedtime.

Our princess loves to play with hair. 

Belle was such a trooper while I did a mini photo session with the kids on Friday.

Just some light reading..."It wasn't me!"

The Greatest Show on Earth

Hi there…today you may notice some changes in the writing style of this amazing blog “The Castaneda Kids and the Best Day Ever”.  As we are getting closer to the end of the summer, the time to spice things up has come! I mean really hot, like with those jalapeños from the hot dog stand at the American Airlines center (LOL). Today it’s time for Fernando to delight you with the amazing story of the “Greatest Show on Earth”.

We had a good start in the morning.  As always, it started with some coffee and there was some toast for Jen and me. The kids enjoyed their cereal and fresh fruit. Since I don’t get to feed Belle so often during the week because she is either still asleep before I go to work, or she has already eaten her dinner when I come back from work, I took the opportunity to do so.  She enjoyed her cereal and I enjoyed feeding her as I have gotten to do for the last two weekends. It is amazing how she hums on every bite.

After eating enough food, we started getting ready for the “Greatest Show on Earth”, aka, the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus at the AA center. The soccer Olympics game between Mexico and Brazil for the gold medal started that morning. As you may know, I am huge Mexico soccer fan and especially loyal to my hometown team Santos Laguna. Unfortunately I had to record it so I could focus on the kids and finish getting ready. Not a big a deal I thought. 

We learned from last year going to the circus that the food was not good for the kids. The AA center was super expensive and after buying all the food, they did not even want to taste it. So this time we decided to get their lunch packed so they could eat on the car ride to the AA Center. It worked just fine; they had some edemames from Sam’s club and some turkey pepperonis. FYI for all parents, Edemames are super good for kids (and for you). These soy beans are loaded with protein and antioxidants. If your kids do not eat vegetables, get some of these steamable bags at the store and let your kids try it. We have successfully introduced edemames to our nephew and to some of our friends’ kids. So there, no more excuses.

For dessert we had to smuggle some peanuts with M&Ms for the boys. For Belle we had her baby stuff, so she was all set. However, for us the food situation was looking unfavorable. Jen and I decided we would eat lunch at the AA center, and guess what?  We ended up paying for it twice! The first time went to the credit card and the second time went to el baño! =(…. We shared a “Big D” package which is basically a 1 foot long hot dog and a large tray of nachos loaded with lots of jalapeños and a large soda. Since I am allergic to the fake cheese of the nachos, I just ate the chips with jalapeños. Anyway, afterwards we did not feel very well. As I remember last year, we did the exact same thing and unfortunately I had the exact same results. But because Jen was pregnant I believe she could have had more.  So I guess as an adult it is harder to learn new lessons. I am sure you may recall some of these =).

Other than the food being no so good, the show was great, we had really good seats, however we also learned this time that aisle seats would work much better for our family. When we take our kids to events like this, I really want them to enjoy themselves and I love to treat them with things. This time it was so hard to even take them to the bathroom because we were in the middle of a row and there were a lot of people both ways. But going back to the show, the coolest thing we enjoyed was a guy that was lit on fire and then was shot through the air in a big catapult…which reminds me of the time I thought I was spontaneously combusting…but that is for another time.  There was a pretty cool elephant show, as well as “the jumping guys”, as Nico called them.  Both were pretty cool.  They had a very colorful show and very kid friendly environment. I think the kids loved it.  Although Belle ended up sleeping through the entire thing.

Another highlight of the day was the snow cones. The boys really love snow cones. Last year at the circus we were a little smarter, we let the boys share one elephant head snow cone and it worked just fine. This time they had ended up with a clown head snow cone for each one. Nico spilled half of it and Max only ate half of his. However, they still seemed very happy with it so I was happy too.

After the “Greatest Show on Earth” was over we came back home to finish watching the soccer game which was turned out to be the real “greatest show”! I managed to stay away from the media and Facebook during the day so I didn’t know who had won.   We watched the game at home as a family, however most of time I just stood in front of the TV supporting the team and yelling at it. It was an epic game. Through the entire game I felt so nervous, but Mexico did a GREAT job and managed to defeat Brazil!! The score ended 2-1. This was, and still is, a BIG BIG deal. I mean when the referee ended the game and Mexico had won the gold medal, I felt a big knot on my throat and pressure in my eyes. I ALMOST CRIED!! I am serious; I really could not believe it. I have supported Mexico’s team since I was a little kid and Mexico always plays like “never before”, but ends up always  losing. But not today, not this Saturday. Today everything changed. Mexico made history in the books and in my heart! Mexico won its first International Soccer Championship. They won the GOLD!  This was the real “Greatest Show on Earth” and the BEST DAY EVER for a circus fan and Mexico fan.

Simply Amazing Science Day

We've been wanting to host a Science day for quite some time now.  In fact, it was one of our summer bucket list activities.  However, the summer is just slipping by so quickly and it has not worked out yet at our home.  So when we were invited to a Science day by a family friend, we could NOT pass it up!  I've had the 80's song "She Blinded me with Science" by Thomas Dolby in my head all day long.  I realize that it doesn't exactly have anything to do with actual science experiments, but it's a classic nonetheless...well to my 80's rockin' family anyway.  Our friend is a high school Pre-AP chemistry teacher, so I knew that my kids would not only get the experiments, but a wonderfully educated explanation of what was going on as well.  I couldn't have asked for better.  It was awesome!  I'm not sure I would have had the answers for the kids if I would have done them myself.  The kids were able to enjoy an erupting volcano (baking soda and vinegar).  Our friend and her boys (the same ages as mine) had made a paper mache volcano earlier in the summer.  It was set up out in the back yard ready to go when we got there.  Each child got to use food coloring of their choice to tint their very own plastic cup of vinegar.  

Sonya adding the baking soda

After the baking soda was in place inside of the volcano, the kids got to take turns pouring their cup of vinegar inside to see the reaction.  The "volcano" erupted "lava"!  The bubbles are created by the carbon dioxide escaping the water solution.  (I so hope I said this right because my nerdy self took chemistry way too many years ago and although I LOVE LOVE LOVE chemistry, it doesn't mean I retained much).  I tried to listen to the Teach today, but I did have three kids I was juggling (plus a swarm of bees I was fighting).

Max already poured his vinegar inside and is watching the reaction



Nico's supposed to be pouring in his vinegar...only he just poured it on top

 

Erupting volcano experiment.

 

Sonya, if you read this and any of my Scientific explanations are incorrect, please comment or send me a message and I will fix immediately.  Thanks so much!

We then headed out front (to try to escape the swarm of bees) for the kids to create their own Alka-Seltzer film canister rocket.  The kids put half a tablet of Alka-Seltzer into a film canister, added water, put on the lid, quickly set it on the ground (and backed away for safety), and watched the "rocket" shoot into the air.  The kids then tried to catch their rocket on its way back down.  The carbon dioxide gas produced from the Alka-Seltzer in the water builds up so much pressure that it "launches".  Awesome!  Except I just about missed Nico's turn because I was trying to fight off bees from my baby!  I really think those bees could smell fear.  No one else was really bothered too much by them, but I guess I've discovered a new phobia.  I haven't been this way around bees before, but my kids have not been stung and I really did NOT want to EXPERIMENT with that!  

Nico doing the "rocket" experiment



Max getting ready to launch his "rocket"



We then went inside for some cooler play time.  The kids had so much fun playing with anything and everything.  They would blow in and out of each room with something new each time.  It's always so nice to take the kids somewhere they haven't been in a while so that they can experience a different environment and different toys.  It had been a long time since these kids had gotten together, but they played so well!  I was completely impressed with them.  There was no shyness and limited fighting.  I would say that is awesome for these boys!  After lunch the experimenting continued with "Elephant toothpaste".  I am not even going to try to explain this one except that the reaction creates what looks like a giant stream of toothpaste.  Google search "elephant toothpaste" for a detailed explanation.  My baby girl had fallen asleep after lunch while I was holding her.  Since it was loud in the house from all the kids I stood clear of the experiment.  However, I did sneak a peak and it looked awesome!!!  I just missed the explanation of it.  After that some of the kids made ice cream in a plastic bag (which I missed the "recipe" and explanation on this also).  My boys didn't want to participate in this, but of course after the ice cream was complete and the chocolate syrup was brought out, they just happened to decide they would like to join in on the activity.  In fact, when we got home and we were discussing the awesomeness of the day, Nico revealed to me that his favorite scientific experiment today was "eating ice cream!" with Max chipping in with "yeah! with lots and lots of chocolate syrup!"  Gotta love kids!

You know, seeing my kids learning about science and enjoying it brings me way back to when I was young.  My brother and I would watch Bill Nye the Science Guy and Beakman's World (back in the 90's).  Good times, good times.  They made science so much fun!  And contrary to popular belief, Bill Nye is still alive and kicking, although he's been subject to several death rumors over the years.  I don't know if anyone remembers Beakman's World, but kids would write in with questions and each episode would focus on a few of those questions.  During the episode Beakman and his team would give the scientific explanations.  I'll always remember the episode of Beakman's World when they explained flatulence, including singing a very elaborate song that could only be titled "Flatulence, man-made Turbulence".  I know, I know, why do I remember that?  I guess it was just too funny at the time. I did my trusty little Google searching and found out that the name of the episode is "Fingerprints, Beakmania and Flatulence" from Season 4, Episode 26, Aired Mar 17, 1995.  Crazy that of all things, this sticks out in my mind.  I Googled it because I wanted to make sure I wasn't just making things up in my mind.     Maybe the song was catchy....perhaps I'll search YouTube next.  Come to think of it, Bill Nye the Science Guy had a pretty catchy theme song as well.  Anything that can bring me back to the simpler times of my childhood is welcomed.     

After such a wonderful, fun filled day of Science, it makes me very eager to hunt down more that we can do.  Maybe I'll even get around to that Science day I've been wanting to host myself.  But if not, I'm sure the boys and I will be experimenting around the house on our own.  I'm hoping my "engineer-brained" Max will be intrigued by Chemistry too.  If anyone has some really cool science experiment ideas for kids, please send them our way.  We would LOVE to test them out.  Thanks to the Loughrans for a truly awesome day.  We had a blast and hope to do it again soon!

Aunt Lisa and Cousin Lucy joined in on the fun too!

BEST Science DAY EVER!

An "Oatmeal in my hair", "Chances", potty training, Cheerios Day

I had an "Oatmeal in my hair" kind of morning.  You know (or maybe you don't know) when you are finally finding that second in the morning to kinda maybe brush your hair (if you're lucky), and then your kid calls out to you for something so instead of brushing your hair you just get a ponytail holder and throw it up as fast as you can with the intentions of coming back to it in your next spare minute?  Only when that next spare minute arrived,oh maybe, an hour or so later, you just so happen to glance in the mirror and notice that you had your breakfast in it!  I DO!  I will say, oatmeal is NOT easy to get out of unbrushed, disastrously frizzy, curly hair.  So I just picked it out as best I could while another kid was calling out to me and I just moved on.  Sigh.  Yes, this was how the morning went.  I took a couple of phone calls to a bathroom and locked myself in because of loud out-of-control temper tantrums.  And I don't seem to be alone.  I heard of several accounts of crazy, unfortunate mornings.  Anyone know if a full moon is coming?  Or it could just be a bad case of the summer-is-coming-to-a-close-soons?  Well, whatever it is, our house had it pretty bad this morning.  But as chaotic and annoying as the first 3 1/2 hours of our day was, before lunch we were successful in turning it around.  That miracle came out of no where, but I gladly accepted it.  I really don't even know what flipped the switch.  It was like one moment, insanity, the next, we were all co-existing beautifully.  And then we had a very limited number of pathetic meltdowns the rest of the day!  All three of the kids were in chipper moods, and we were all able to play peacefully!  Well, as peacefully as three kids 5 years and under can do.  Whoop whoop!  
Today, I discovered yet another way to easily get chores completed by my five year old.  I guess his Papa had a talk with him about earning and losing "chances" for things a week or so ago because he's been questioning me on how he can earn chances to do things.  Mostly he is wanting chances to play his Super Mario Bros. video game.  I'm SO SO SO glad that I have been very strict on limiting his game play to every once in a while and not even every week because it has come in handy as a "chance getter".  As we implement this system, he may be playing the game more often, but I'll still limit the amount of time (but it will NOT be every day).  I have to keep it special in order for it to work.  Anyway, he keeps asking me how many chances he has until he can play the game.  I had just been telling him to be good, play nice, follow the rules, etc. and I would let him know when he had enough.  That didn't work for him.  He's the type that needs a number.  So I just threw a number out there.  I said you need 6 chances.  That got a lot of whining and I instantly said, "Uh oh...we're about to lose a chance!" and he immediately ceased!  It was magic!  He told me that he understood the things that made him lose a chance, so he asked me what he could do to gain chances.  I gave him a quick list of things, for instance, clean his room, help with laundry, share his toys, etc.  He turned around and did everything he could on the list.  He even called down the stairs to me to ask if he could have an extra chance if he picked up his sister's toys in her room.  I couldn't turn that down so of course I accepted that.  I want him to know that I'm serious about him following rules and behaving so I gave him as many opportunities as I could today to gain his "chances".  I wanted him to succeed so that he would feel confident with this new reward system  He succeeded beautifully, and my house ended up really neat!  We also had a wonderful time working in his preschool activity learning book which gained him a "chance" as well.  He is getting so smart!  He also told me that even though he had thought that six chances was an unreachable number, he decided in the end that it was so easy to do!  (He might have made a mistake there, if I was a smart Mama I'd increase the number now before it becomes a set number and the plan backfires on me.)  The timing worked out perfectly to where Belle went down for nap, Nico got tired so he decided to rest with a movie, and Max and I were able to play the game together.  I think a lot of the reward (for both of us) was the special time we got to spend playing a game that he loves (and a game I loved as a kid).  He even told me, "Mama, I want you to be Mario because you said that you were Luigi a lot when you were little because Uncle Jon was always Mario."  My kid is so thoughtful and has such a big heart.  He doesn't need to know that I enjoyed being Luigi when I was younger.

We did a lot of other things today too.  Max decided that the outside would be "inside" and the inside was really "outside".  They crawled under the dining room table (I obviously swept the floor really good first).  They brought along a flashlight, radio, markers, paper, and a book.  They played under there for quite some time pretending it was their camp.  Max flipped through the book, "I'm a Big Brother", flashing his light across the words, but making up his own story aloud while Nico colored with markers. 

Belle did something big today.  She practiced eating Cheerios for the first time.  She hasn't ever had anything other than her rice or oatmeal cereals and a few different vegetables, but I wanted to see how she would do.  She really enjoyed playing with the Cheerios.  She needs more practice, but was able to pick up a couple of them.  I'm not sure if she was ever successful in putting them in her mouth herself, but the ones I tried to feed her, she thought were interesting.  She gummed them to death, and then either spit it out or made the cutest little face and swallowed it.  She has a little more growing up to do before she gets foods like that all the time, but it was a good practice day for her.  I also used it as a learning opportunity for teaching the boys about the things that can go in her mouth and things that can't.  I'm getting really nervous about her getting mobile and the boys' small toys being at her reach.  I really hope that Nico understood the lesson because he was having the best time feeding her the cereal.  Although that ended very quickly when I  discovered he was putting more than one in her mouth at once.  I think it is important for the boys to be involved with their sister and to understand that as she gets older and grows, she discovers new things and is capable of much more, but at the same time, I have to watch them like a hawk!  Sometimes they are a little too eager to help teach her things.  They are fascinated by her and I really hope it stays that way.  I want her to always have her two really awesome big brothers looking out for her.  I think she will though.  My kids are pretty amazing if I don't say so myself! 

Nico was A-W-E-S-O-M-E today with potty training!  As you may recall in a past post I mentioned that we had begun potty training by taking him at his bath time before bed.  Today for the very first time ever, he told me that he needed to "pause" what he was doing because he needed to use the potty.  I got excited and stood up to take him, but he told me to "sit down", he could go by himself.  I really really really wanted to believe him, but I told him that I would like to join him and surprisingly he let me without a fuss.  We went inside the bathroom, I got his diaper off, sat him on the big potty and he just went like he does it all the time!!!  I couldn't contain my excitement for him.  I was jumping up and down and hugging him like crazy.  I was so proud and I could tell he was so proud of himself too.  I rewarded him by letting him wear a Woody and Buzz Lightyear pull-up.  It has a symbol on the front that will signal if the pull-up is getting wet.  I had every intention of checking on it from time to time, but I didn't have to.  Nico came to me and told me that he thought that he was "messing up" the picture on the front and that he better go to the bathroom.  When we got there and on the potty, he successfully went again!!!!  Another proud moment.  This time he asked for a blue prize.  I'm not sure where that came from, but I wanted to honor that choice.  I found him a Ring Pop with a blue ring for him to enjoy.  He and I were so happy, and we couldn't stop grinning.

The three kids and I went on a "Bear Hunt" today.  I have no clue where the idea came from, but I decided to google the lyrics for the song "We're Going on a Bear Hunt" and the kids and I acted it out a couple of times.  It's a great song because the kids would repeat a line that I would say first and we were able to make up some movements with it.  Add in a little acting and goofing around and we had a great time!  They said they wanted to do it again when Papa got home (oops, we forgot) and again on another day.  Of course, when we were finished, I must have gotten distracted (probably I had to get something for the boys from the kitchen) and I left the print-outs on the floor beside the baby.  I came back just seconds later and one of the pages had been ripped to shreds.  Baby girl works fast!  Guess I'll be printing that off again! 

Overall the "Oatmeal in my hair" kind of morning had no effect on how the rest of the day played out.  You know, some of that oatmeal may very well still be in there somewhere, but we didn't let that or any of the other "messy" moments spoil our day.  In fact, this afternoon was one the BEST we've had yet this Summer!

Max built this trophy with nothing more than his imagination.

Then he decided to improve on it!  Gotta love the wheels!

  

The original Matching game.
Anyone else hate matching socks with the passion that I do?
This was part of the blahness of our morning, but when it was
complete it added to the greatness the rest of the day became.



Little Bits of Awesomeness...

This might surprise you (NOT!) but I can get pumped up about the smallest things.  Anything that can make my life a little easier can put a smile on my face and make my heart do a little dance.  I'm so excited because finally I took myself into the Home Depot (would have preferred Lowes but they didn't carry any in-store) and got myself a retractable clothesline.  Fernando installed it yesterday evening.  All weekend I had decided I couldn't stand the slow clothes dryer any longer.  Oh my gosh I just can not get laundry done.  That thing drives me batty.  Anyway, this weekend because it's been so hot and I've had a TON of "big" laundry items like fabric, blankets, sheets, and towels, I'd been draping them off of chairs and anything else that's clean in the garage so that they can get dry from the summer heat.  I could not believe how fast things were drying!  They do not even have to be in direct sunlight and they dry a little faster than the washer.  Whoop whoop!  Once Fernando had it hung into place, I just couldn't wait to get my latest wet load of laundry together and downstairs.  I even did a little experiment to see which approach was the most time efficient.  Certain items do, in fact, dry more quickly hanging to dry than they do wadded up in the dryer.  After some trials I've realized that to maximize my success in the laundry experience I divide the wet load of clothes in half (whether it's a large load or small) and put the half that consists mostly of small items like socks, bibs, baby clothes, etc. into the dryer.  The other items like towels, blankets, jeans, etc. are going to be hung on the line.  I had to promise not to hang unmentionables out there.  I think it embarrasses Fernando enough as it is that I'm hanging clothes out there.  There is no need to completely torture the poor guy.  Hey, it's going to save $$$ on electricity I'm sure.  And if not, I'm hoping it saves me a little time so that I can get more loads accomplished in a shorter period of time.  I feel like my life is taking care of my kids and husband...and doing laundry.  I'm sure it will continue to be that way since I'll just be adding another little extra laundry chore, but at least I won't be waiting 100 years for a load to dry in that dag nab machine. 

I discovered something that is pure awesomeness today.  I found a way that my kids will do chores with little to NO complaining.  You ask what this miracle approach might be?  I'll tell you!  First of all I'd like to say that I am doubtful this will work on every kid, but perhaps just possibly it will work for another one???  My 5 year old is obsessed...seriously OBSESSED with Super Mario Bros.  It's not like he plays it all the time or watches someone play all the time or even reads stories about it.  And I'm not really certain why he has such a fascination with it.  Maybe it is all of the different scenarios that get played out on Mario, Luigi, and their friends' adventures?  Not sure, but every day we have to discuss these guys.  So today I attempted to swing it towards my advantage.  I WAS SUCCESSFUL!!!  Max makes me choose a character to be EVERY SINGLE DAY!  My choices are always the same:  Mario, Luigi, Blue Toad, or Yellow Toad.  And it never fails that when I choose one, he already has which one I should be in his mind, so he changes my decision.  Hmmm...reminds me of someone else I know *Cough *Fer*Cough*.  Today I was told I was going to be Mario.  This just happens to mean that I'm in charge of how the "game" is played.  Excellent.....So I tell Max that we have different levels that we have to play and we have to complete each level before we can get to the next.  Level One: collect all laundry around the house and deposit into the laundry room.  When it was complete we hummed a little song that the game uses to signify a completed level.  Max would shout, "MARIO TIME!" (or use the name of whatever character he was in the moment) and throw his little arm in the air.  See, it's awesomeness.  Level Two: sort the laundry.  And a repeat of the previous hum and arm action.  Level Three:  put the laundry in the wash....and so forth and so forth.  My very favorite level was when we had to collect "keys" to "unlock" the special door to a haunted castle (garage) where we would need to successfully hang the clothes to free the princess.  We loaded up all our gadgets (clothespins that we clipped to our shirts) before heading down the green pipe (stairs).  Luigi (Nico) was in charge of taking care of the bad guys for us.  I think that's always Nico's job.  If he's not Luigi doing it, he's blue toad, Gutsy Smurf, Batman, etc.  He does a great job!  And Max does a great job being the mastermind behind all of the play most times.  I feel as if I gave him a run for his money today!  I don't just use this approach on laundry.  I've used it to get assistance with his sister. For example, "Yellow Toad, Blue Toad (Belle) needs her pacifier to help her get the powers she needs to defeat Koopa Troopa!"  He will immediately make a run for it, defending himself against the bad guys along the way.  Very rarely does Belle get to just be the Princess held up in a castle.  She has to actively be involved in these scenarios which gets exhausting!!!!  I've been trying to play it with him while she's asleep.  That way we get a LOT of chores done and he's satisfied with his play time.  Oh and I can't forget to mention the most used level in our home, the one where we have to clean up our room as fast as we can to beat our last time.  Of course I am very lax on the exact timing of it, and no matter how long it takes he makes his best time every time. 

Now during all of this, Nico is usually just tagging along, doing whatever it is that Max tells him to do, but every now and then he breaks off from us to do his own quiet play.  His imagination is enormous too, but he's so different in his play from his brother.  Max uses things that he's seen or heard stories about, latches on to them, and won't let them go to create the perfect playtime adventures.  He elaborates on them and creates his own special circumstances for them, but he needs those already created things to get him going.  Nico, however, dances to the beat of his own drum.  He just makes up things right on the spot and goes with it.  Today he had a combination of a race car, bug catching net handle (minus the net because it had been torn off), mini ninja, and many more objects that he used so deep in play that I couldn't get his attention.  I really have no clue what was going on with them, but I do know that one of those items was missing its Grandma.  I heard him say with his toy, "I miss you Grandma."  When I asked him about it he just shushed me and said his toy was on the phone.  AWESOMENESS.  At one point Max must have tired of the Super Mario Bros. theme and switched for a very brief period to Smurfs.  I suggested that we make up our own Smurf names based on the things we like to do instead of always using the Smurf characters from the movie or cartoon.  That did not fly with Max, but I guess Nico thought it was a brilliant idea.  Max, like usual, had assigned us all a character, and also, like usual, he kept switching it up on us.  I couldn't keep my character or theirs straight.  Finally I just heard Nico call me "Fabric Smurf".  This made me laugh.  I had been working on cutting out some fabric for a blanket I'm making while the boys and I played out a Smurf adventure.  Nico couldn't remember who I was so he just called me by something he could remember.

Also today I finally took the time to clean out Belle's closet.  There are so many things that she's outgrown and also so many things we don't need in there anymore as she is getting older.  The closet was a complete disaster, but I pushed through and got a task completed in one day!  I'm afraid that I'm a little scatter brained and I usually get what I think is a good idea, and then it takes me a couple of days to complete some tasks.  I was so proud!  And Belle really enjoyed seeing all of the crazy things that I had to pull out of the closet.  We found some fun things for her to play with, too, that I had been holding onto from the boys for when she got a little older.  I just can not even believe that it's that time now!  She turns 7 months old today.  I told Max that in 5 months, Belle would be one and he was sincerely shocked.  I don't think he really believed that she could already be growing that quickly.  He looked at me with big eyes and said, "ALREADY?!" 

My baby Max is now a little man.  My baby Nico is now a little kid.  And my baby, Belle, is not even close to being my little newborn anymore.  She'll be a toddler before we know it!  She's already showing interest in wanting to make a move for it!  Watching my children grow has been the greatest adventure of my life this far.  It is amazing and awesome and beautiful and I'm so thankful for these three miracles.  We had a wonderful day together today, and I'm praying for another day like today, tomorrow!  We were so busy that I did not get a single picture today.  So I'm taking the day to post some super cute pics of baby girl from this past weekend. 

My gorgeous princess, Belle, excited to have the new toy
that I purchased for an amazing price at the JBF (Just Between Friends) sale
on Saturday.  The BFF and I went on a whim and I found some great stuff for her.
I got this Fitness Care Bear for less than $10!  The cost I found on Amazon goes up to $89 for a new one! 
The boys even enjoy it.  I caught Max doing the little exercise routine along with it!

Check out those her first two teeth right in the middle on the bottom.

She was just hanging out on the dining table during breakfast on Sunday morning.
Yes, we still have our Team USA banner hanging!

Tired of my photo session.  "Leave me alone already, Mama!"

Saturday afternoon wanting so badly to crawl to her toys!

BEST DAY living mostly in a Super Mario World EVER!

First EVER Castañeda Family Olympics

 

Olympic rings (please forgive the use of orange instead of black.
Black did not come in our stacker set)

We have had a very exciting week with our first EVER Castañeda Family Olympics!  I'm going to let the pictures tell most of the story today since we have so many, but I'll give you a little overview first. 

Creating our "Team USA" banner

We're ready to go!

We spent Tuesday prepping for our activities and kicking off the event with our opening ceremony including running with the "torch" and lighting up our Olympic lamp.  We concluded the afternoon with our first Olympic event, swimming.  Afterwards, one of our champions had a new exciting experience.  Nico had his first tinkle in the potty!!!!  He's been showing some interest for a few months now, but every time he got on the potty he would sit for only a few minutes and give up.  I've learned from my mistakes my first time around, and I'm going with the "no pressure, let the child decide" approach to potty training.  I had thought I was doing that with Max, but I see now that I wasn't.  I had listened to way too many outside sources instead of going with my gut instincts, so we're going with my gut this time.  Anyway, he was a champ and Fernando decided to sit with him for as long as it took.  We kept giving him water and juice, and finally he succeeded!!!  He still hasn't done it during the day, and only two nights in a row in the evening, but he's on his way.  Leading up to his success he had been telling me when he was ready for a diaper change.  Sometimes he'd even take off his diaper and put it in the trash himself.  I think he's about ready!  Gold medal for Nico!

Wednesday morning was our second Olympic event, Men's Gymnastics.  It was their final day at their classes and the parents were allowed to watch.  My BFF, Ashlie, joined us for the day of "Olympic"games.  Both my boys did such a good job!  I was very proud of them for trying so hard and most importantly, enjoying themselves.  After the gym, the kids "carbed" up with lunch to prepare themselves for an afternoon of games!  There were traditional games including high jump and long jump, as well as not-so-traditional events including Sequence playing, Guess Who? playing, and the least popular event, balance the pillow with your legs.  I let Max make up a game and that last one is what he chose.  He enjoyed it for only a couple of seconds until his pillow kept falling.  Then he just became frustrated.  And when it was Nico's turn, well forget it.  Nico didn't have a care for balancing the pillow.  He just wanted to kick it out of our hands when we tried to place it on his legs.  Nico would giggle, Max would scowl.  As much as we enjoyed our time doing our Olympic events, the boys could only handle so many organized events at a time.  We had every intention of picking up more events today, but we just played all kinds of random things instead.  We really should have gotten out of the house today, but it's just so hot that I HATE (with a passion) juggling all three kids to go anywhere in it.  I don't like that they are stuck in the house a lot of the time, especially with no backyard, but for my sanity and our health we stay inside.  But we do keep busy with all kinds of things.  Nico helped me make meatballs for dinner.  Batman came for a visit and so did Mario.  Both helped me with a load of laundry and so forth.  I have discovered that Nico is the sneakiest of the sneaky lately becoming my Ninja child.  I'm telling you, I think he's been monitoring his past 2 1/2 years where all of the flaws are in our child proofing and he's been testing me so much lately.  I mean this is serious stuff here.  Today I found him proudly showing off a meat thermometer to his brother.  He had the biggest grin and was holding it up like it was a trophy.  I've also found him snooping around my bathroom taking wrappers off bars of soap and just carrying them around.  He's also been known to get ahold of my wooden spoons and measuring spoons.  I found him using a wooden spoon today on a set of bongos.  This evening I had Fer install a safety latch on a drawer in our kitchen that I guess got missed back in the day when we first child proofed.  We are going gate shopping ASAP to keep Nico out of certain rooms (only hope the gates stop him) and of course because the baby will be crawling before we know it.  I need the boys to practice learning where their toys need to stay and where they are not allowed.  Especially the teeny tiny ones. 

But I digress.  Today we didn't really have any particular Olympic event, but tomorrow morning will be our Soccer finals.  I'm really hoping for some basketball in there somewhere.  Today we were going to play basketball, but Belle got ahold of the ball and we did a fun game of roll the ball back and forth instead.  It was a basketball so I suppose that could count!  I thought we'd have our closing ceremonies by now, but we're having a lot of fun randomly deciding on a new event.  Perhaps we'll let this go on until the real Olympics end.  Who knows what we'll come up with next. 

Olympic torch runner, Maximiliano Castañeda

 

The lighting of our Olympic lamp



We sang the our National Anthem while the torch was "lit".
Max was so proud.  Nico refused to participate.  I think he already
knows we're crazy.

 

The two boys originally wanted to ride in on a boat like
David Beckham (aka empty diaper box)



Our first events were swimming events. 
Here is Nico's back float which he just mastered!

Nico helping Papa with his back float.



On their marks...



I think Max is winning this race. 



The ultimate underwater handstand event. 
Fer won the gold by default.
He was the only participant.




The guys' biggest fan

 

Gymnastics was the following morning.  Nico's back bend

Max's back bend

 



Max's crab crawl



Nico's bear crawl

Max and his balance beam routine

 

Cheerleaders Belle and Ashlie

Tumbling Max

Tumbling Nico

Nico working his upper body strength

Max rockin' the high jump event

Max's long jump

Nico didn't quite get the concept and kept jumping up and down,
but he was having so much fun doing it!

Nico and his interpretation of the long jump

Nico getting a little help "balancing" the pillow.  Didn't you know it's a brand
new "olympic" event!

Max took his signature event very seriously!  He brought home the gold!

The Guess Who? "Olympic" event.  He played Ashlie for a long time!

She's so happy after her nap! 

Batman came for a visit today!

He rescued us from all sorts of jams.

Belle, you've got a little something on your nose.





He says he's Captain America. 
Only he's carrying a pirate sword and a tamborine. 
Love him!


  

The family got a new camera and Max wanted to be one of the first shots

Look at that handsome devil



Our precious Isabel

 



Belle, our sweet little chunky monkey



Two headed monster Nico and Papa sharing the same shirt.