not eternal

"No Sophie Summer is not eternal" were my words while driving to school as Sophie was voicing her concerns yesterday. The lazy days of summer are over for my kids only to start a new school year.  Just on Sunday they came back all pumped up from Borrego Springs a tourist village nestled between a desert and the foothills of mountains.  My brother took them as he always does during the summer to their annual road trip.  Then that same Sunday afternoon we had to run to Xavi's baseball picnic to get his trophy...not much time to unwind so just like that summer came to an abrupt end.  "No Sophie Summer is not eternal"... 

Xavi is going to 4th grade and Sophie to 8th grade.  How did this happen?  I am still trying to figure it out :/ 

I remember how nervous and uneasy I felt starting a new school year...even in college every semester ughh!  that feeling you get in your stomach not fun.  Xavi had concerns of his own "I've heard nasty rumors about that teacher!"  Oh that look in his face, yup he was worried.  Luckily he came back home happy and relieve that the teacher is not that "bad".

Sophie was able to  photobomb Xavi's picture. But God forgive the hour when I told her I needed to take a picture of her at her school,  NOT!! she's way too old for that! It's embarrassing she told me!  she just took a selfie. :/   She came home with the #problems because she had been placed in the wrong lunch period.  She said she liked all her teachers so far rating them 4 out of 10 and 5 out of 10 the ones she liked the least the rest ranked higher on her scale.  She said if OJ got away with murder she could handle 8th grade!  my kids are growing up way too fast. What does Sophie know about OJ anyways?? :/ sigh.

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star gazing

Summer vacation is almost gone everybody is getting that feeling of oh no!  school is about to start :(  Registration process is imminent and back to school is just around the corner. When this summer break started the kids wrote a list of things they wanted to do and one of them was star gazing.  Well, one item on my 45 by 45 list was to learn about the constellations and I thought why not do it together? One item off my list ;) To be honest I am not much of a star  person. I mean I took astronomy in college, I aced the class but that's what long term memory is for right??  

I did a bit or research, just ask Google and you will get an answer.  So, with the help of this page tonightssky.com I was able to plan our observing session it was a super easy way to find out "what was going on in the sky."  I did have to find out Hemet's latitude and longitude on this page. Earthsky was also a very helpful.  Our session was on Friday July 24th, we had smores, hot dogs and pickles the whole shebang you know or shall I say the whole enchilada?  It was just captivating seeing little bright lights appearing in the dusking sky.

While researching I learned that when when the moon is more than half lighted but less than half full it's called a waxing gibbous moon.  So we had to spot the moon in between two star like points. The star spica to the right or west and Saturn to the left or east.  Piece of cake visible to the naked eye.  We were to also look for the Northern Cross or Cygnus the Swan.  Sophia was the one who saw it first. I also showed Javier and the kids this page I came across 26 pictures that will make you re-evaluate your entire existence. It was an engaging and intriguing evening undeniable. All sorts of topics came out such as life in other planets, aliens, black holes, the sun dying out on us, the extinctions of dinosaurs and the funny jokes obviously came out "What if a black hole leads to Uranus and is that a constellation or a constipation?"  oh boy...

I also realized out how difficult it is to take pictures at night so I gave up pretty quickly...only a few to show you the rest should be pinterest fail

I should also mention that Friday was our 16th wedding anniversary.  Friday was a good one.  Oh and that moment when you find a 20 that you washed and put away in a skirt last summer happened on Friday as well!  Amen. 

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hello summer

Hi guys how is your summer going?  Wait summer just started right? the kids have been out of school for three weeks now so we're practically 1/3 down of our summer break.  The heat hit us hard this past week and will continue like that all next week.  Why sun why??  yep we hit the three digits and wildfires started oh boy I hate I really hate those they're scary.
 Let me share some of the things that we've been up to the past few weeks

 I've been wearing my baby, we vacuum, sweep and mop the floor together; doing dishes is a little harder.  Notice that we both are wearing the same outfits as in this post dated March 12.  But do not be fooled her pj in that picture is a size 0-3 months.  The pj she is wearing in this one is a size 3-6 months.  That's right this child of mine is growing too quickly.  She goes to sleep at 8 pm and wakes up at 5 or 6 am to have a bottle and stretches her beauty sleep a little more.  At her two month old checkup I was worried about her weight.  Everybody was telling me she is chubby and fat, her double chin and thick legs *sigh...I worry too much I know if she was to be skinny there I would be worrying about her weight. 

We celebrated Javier's Birthday early in the month! 

Later that evening we drove to San Diego and Valeria joined us for the family picture, although Emma was not a happy camper I love this picture.

We don't have any big plans for summer but to enjoy it.  Puzzle time!  Sophia, Xavi and I worked on this 500 piece coke puzzle we finished it in two days. We probably could have done in one day but why push it?  Two straight movies we watched while we worked on it the first day We really needed to clear our heads and start fresh on day 2.

Baseball and more baseball!  I really dream of Xavi going into major leagues.  I remember as a child watching the world series I would daydream that my husband was a star player, me being pregnant and going into labor while he was playing the series so he would have to leave the game and take me to the hospital to deliver our child.  One can dream right?

Family gatherings are always fun and if they have a trampoline even better!  This was a 35 anniversary party. Oh to be a child again!  Maybe if no one was looking I'd bounce once or twice...maybe.

Celebrating my dad's 68 Birthday was fun with the kiddos.  Emma reminds me of him when he had hair (I get my curls from him)  she wakes up in the morning with this sort of curvy hair on the crown of her head and some curves of her sides 

The traditional picture under my mom's guava tree!  These are 8 out of 9 of my parents grand kids.  It was so funny because after seeing two of Sophia's cousin who are brother and sister she asked me: 


"mom when Xavi and I fight do we sound like Isaac and Ailani?"

YES, YES YOU DO! bold and capitals!!
double sigh!

 A few years back I bought Javier a set of three key chain pennies from etsy shop The Copper Fox
pennies are stamped with the kids' names and birth year.  I found nothing more appropriate this year than to add another penny this Father's Day.

Emma just had her 4 month baby check up and is doing great!
Let's just say doctor said she definitely is not starving!
I am currently so in love with this little one.  She is currently learning to hold her bottle, her
favorite toy is mamas thumb or finger.

So you see I really have not been doing much but just enough to have fun.
How have you been?

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two questions

Hey there!  How are you guys?? I trust you've been all right I know life is busy, there is no stopping time.  It seems like time goes by fast when you are having fun and it goes sooo slow when you are waiting for something.  I have been busy but actually haven't done a whole lot.  In this post I will attempt to answer two questions:

1.  Where the heck have I been?

2.  What the heck have I been up too?

Let me start by saying that we've been spending a lot of time in San Diego and we've gone to the beach a great deal.  You know I am not a beach person but I do enjoy sitting and reading.  I checked out a book about green beauty, very interesting but as I read along it's scary to find out all the things we put into our bodies via shampoo, creams, lotions, deodorants you name it  lots of chemicals and harmful substances.  To be honest I didn't read the whole book and mostly browsed through the DIY recipes for natural beauty after all natural is the best and we all know that.

We celebrated my hubby's 41 Birthday, he is a young cub.  That is my mom right in between Sophia and I and my father in law is to my left.  The cake was delicious if you must know a little too sweet but nothing that milk can't fix.

We attended Valeria's graduation.  Yay she did it.! I remember my own graduation a few years back :)  Congratulations class of 2014! Welcome to the real world!

I've been admiring my twinkly lights on my backyard.  Well, they don't really twinkle but I love them and I also love it when my husband calls them my 'New York lights' :)

I cannot forget my shop and lately I've been going crazy wrapping tons of pencils .

When we go to San Diego the whole family goes!

Some more beach.  This is the pier at Imperial Beach California.

We've become beach bums.

We've enjoyed the dog park after Javier is off work.  There is Lucky and my dog niece.  Her name is also Lola apparently a popular name for dogs.

Soccer fever is at it highest and we can't help but root for Mexico!

I've been able to squeeze my early bike rides on the weekends.  Gotta beat the heat!  I like breezy mornings!

More handwrapped pencils!

My sister and her kids spent a few days at my mom's just like we did.

We had a blast on the second match Mexico vs. Brazil.  Very intense moments!

We also celebrated my dad's Birthday he turned 67, went out to a buffet for lunch wow six kids that was a task in itself!

This weekend Sophia wanted to watch Grease, she's never watched it before.  We started watching it on Netflix.  I got up to go to the kitchen and when I came back the song Summer Nights was playing and started signing and humming it and both kids were like 'You know the song??' of course I know it...in Spanish though!  Xavi noted how different the cheerleaders dressed with the sweaters and the long skirts.  Sophia enjoyed the movie but thought it was cheesy.  I was happy we watched it because nowadays everybody watches their own thing on their own device.  That is one thing the kids hate my mom does not have internet so we have to make trips to the library so they can connect for a little while!

That's it for now!  Enjoy Summer that just started but as always my request is not too hot pleaseeee!!!!

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summer

This is the last day of school for the kids  It has been a busy week, awards assembly, family picnics, book fairs, puzzle and movie days, patriotic program...I gotta remember each one of the events!!

so I really join the kids on the feeling of free at last!!

Time  to brag now  Xavi got two medals! a gold one for his reading scores and another one for perfect attendance plus a certificate!  Hey don't I deserve a medal as well?  After all I made him read all year long and took him to school on time every single day.  I am just kidding of course, the fact is that the best reward of all is seeing him kiss his medals as he received them. 

Last year as we headed for summer I had lots of plans...this time I have none.

I will just plan to wake up and see what the day brings about! Go where the wind takes me! I sound like a hippie ah??  No, not really I do have a family to tend to but I really don't have any plans. 

I will be taking a blogging break during this time and do plan to pop up by your blogs to catch up with you guys. I might also post here and there.

I am not a social butterfly.  Although I am on instagram,  I am not very active on it at the time but might just might take up on it during this time just to stay connected but I repeat just might!  I am not one to take pictures of everything I eat or let the world know that I run out of toilet paper :/

If you are on instagram let me know so that I can follow you and if you'd like to follow me you can do that under the name of moncy3

Enjoy your Summer and see you soon my friends.

Love,

Claudia

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On the weekend

We had a quick trip  to our favorite and closest lake this Saturday.  We had been, meaning to go for some weeks now and finally did it.  

Who wants to go the lake today? my husband asked 

MEEEE a choir answered.  

Our routine is quick, grab the canopy, some chairs and the cooler, make some sandwiches and grab the snacks...don't forget the floatie and the camera

The view is great and the kids had fun, the rest of us just relaxed.  A few hours for the kids in the water is enough, no water for me you know that I just got my feet wet.  We came back home washed up and still had the whole Saturday afternoon to do nothing. Sometimes doing nothing is fun too.  I hope you had a fun and relaxing weekend.

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Off to Summer

I took this picture Monday morning.  Xavi was on his pj's because it was pajama day.  I truly hope the neighbors didn't see me setting the timer and telling the kids 'I don't want to photograph faces, I want only our backs, don't pose and act normal...' They probably don't have a blog so they don't understand.

Today is the last day of school and marks the beginning of summer break...10 weeks yay and wow!  We really don't have big plans for this Summer.  Unfortunately we don't have money to travel the world and the 7 seas.  But we do have a free schedule and I plan go to San Diego America's finest city and visit my mom often. As every summer I  schedule doctor's and dentist's appointments  :/  The kids like visiting the Public Library, but besides that it is really hard to get them out of the house unless they get out something out of it.   So I already know that my trips to thrift shops will be limited during the summer.  

I am planning to let loose and schedule a few pajama and movie days (you know that is out of my comfort zone), the kids don't complain about that one.  I plan to tackle my bike.  I am too planning a giveaway in this little blog of mine.  I want to wear my camera this Summer and take more pictures and possibly make a slide show (confession I want to be in the pictures :/)  Lastly regarding my shops of course I want to keep listing new things and perhaps work on some Christmas stuff.  

Now you tell what are your plans for this summer?

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Fun under the sun

We had a nice five day weekend as my husband had 

Friday, Monday and Tuesday off. 

Well on Monday we took off for Lake Elsinore. We had been here before.  But this time we were better prepared!!

 One of my all time concerns when we are out of the house 

is the bathrooms.  Luckily the porta-potties were freshly clean and well stocked with toilet paper :)

 This time we got our own shade...life saver!!!

 We had transportation to and from the shore,

 also we had a cooler to keep drinks and food cool.

We just sat and relaxed.  I am just amazed at how people are not afraid to show their bodies, so I got the idea that next time I go to a beach or to the lake it is my goal to wear a bathing suit with one of those cover ups dresses or shorts...hey baby steps right??  Last time I wore a bathing suit was like 20 yrs ago!!

You know the kids can't get enough water play.  Valeria was the first one to bail out of the water.  She just sat and listened to her iPod the rest of the day. But the other two literally spent the whole time in there!

 

 It was fun to see the 'surfers'

So this is my family having fun under the sun!

I can't believe in less than a month the kids will be back at school.  Time really flies when you are having fun!

I can only hope you had a fun weekend too.

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