Marci's Village

Birthday ladies

The five birthday ladies and I - the Brazilianmoms (about 15 of us) celebrated at Pita Jungle -- and what a jungle it was! We were loud and happy to be together!

A Mother's Day to remember

I have to say I've worked more often than not on Mother's Day. So, when I am off on Mother's Day, it is a really extra special day!

Bruce jumped out of bed at the wee hours of seven something (not usual for him) and got right to work. When I walked into the kitchen, I was pleasantly surprised by the action: Bruce cooking, Maya stirring the eggs, and Phillip dishing out strawberries that had already been carefully washed and cut (maybe Bruce added a little sugar? He does that sometimes when I'm not looking).

flowers (some of them handpicked by the boy in our backyard), cards, oh my....

Maya sets the table

Later Maya helped me make bread for dinner

Kids played with the neighbor while I watched basketball

Maya and I decorated her box for Gymnastics (it's not really dirty, just smeared with chalk).

Maya helped Grandmother fill out her "Grandmother Remembers" book.

We finished our day with a simple homemade (mostly) dinner and lots of basketball talk (did you know Grandma was a good basketball player in her youth?).

I am very thankful for these moments with our family.

Mother's Day could not have been any better, if you ask for my humble opinion.

Easter 2012 - Morning and Evening

We did our traditional Easter Egg Scavenger Hunt and the kids loved it again! They hunt for clues hidden inside the eggs until they find a small basket filled with a little chocolate and some items. Phillip got a blue basketball and Maya got some cute pink headphones for her MP3 player along with the "Marley and Me" movie. She loves any animal movies and often cries watching them.

Happy kids

Grandma and Grandpa treated us to Bucca de Peppo for Easter Dinner. It was great not having to do all the cooking (we came back to the house for dessert only). The kids enjoyed the decor and I loved looking at the all the old photos.

Isn't this a fun picture?

Easter 2012 (1)

Love the bright colors!

 

The concentration

 

The colorful fingers

The final product. Beautiful job, kids!

This is why...

a birthday NEEDS to be celebrated! No, not the gifts... that's just a small part of it. The expression of pure joy on your child's face.

....

The idea for a scrapbooking party came from this blogger (check out her website and jewelry -- meaningful gifts for a reasonable price!). Thank you SosoBella!

I told a friend from work I was planning to do albums as our "craft" and she showed me a purse-shaped album she had received as a gift. Maya loved the idea and we implemented with the help of our little glue gun. And a few trips to Michaels. And a husband who fixed our printer just in time to print words for the project.

Crafting + Celebrating = Fun!

I can't wait for next time.

Cake time!

Ice cream cake, of course!

 

Ah... and one more picture of most of the girls together:

Friends

During the party, when the girls were not scrapbooking:

they jumped

and jumped some more

 

... and who said my kids have outgrown this colorful playground structure? Everytime I think about getting rid of it...

not sure whose bubbles those are

the happy girl...

has some really good friends. That makes me happy.

 

A crafty fun afternoon

We had a birthday to celebrate and the weather cooperated. Spring has sprung in Arizona!

It all started with brown paper bag albums that I transformed into purse-shaped scrapbooking albums.  

I printed pictures of twelve of Maya's lovely friends and set up two long tables with all the stickers, embelishments, markers, glue, flowers, and other little things I thought the girls would like. The theme for the albums was "Friendship".



The girls checked the pictures...

and could not wait to get started!

A couple of my dear friends helped enormously! 

Isn't this something? Friends make the world go around! 

Look at these "purses"! I wish I had a picture of every single one.

There are too many great memories of that day to write in one single post. More later.

More eating and celebrating

Last week our Brazilianmoms group celebrated Cristina's birthday at Benihana, a japanese-style restaurant where (again!) the food is cooked at the table. Miss frantic busy mom here forgot the camera but here is picture the birthday girl sent us:

Thank you girls for a great evening together. Happy birthday Cristina -- your energy is contagious. And nice to meet you, Priscila (Cris'  younger sister).

Our life right now

It's been a little busy with birthday parties to attend, events at school, and just the usual (sports, homework, etc). Also, we've been preparing for a girls-only get together/scrapbooking party/birthday party for Miss Maya. She is turning seven (!) next Sunday and asked if she could do a "craft" with friends on her birthday. Because I love pictures and she loves crafts, I thought that scrapbooking would be fun. It takes a lot of preparation, though, so I'll be a busy queen bee this week.

Now, back to a few events of these past weeks:

Core Knowledge presentation at school. The first grade kids sang Yankee Doodle and Billy Boy. We can't really see Maya in the picture but I thought their group looked cute together.

I couldn't get a picture of Phillip and his project but here is part of it (map of Cortez' Route from Cuba to Mexico). I am so impressed with the Core Knowledge Curriculum!

Third-graders playing the sticks. Phillip is in the back row.

....

Maya and friends from Gymnastics at a birthday celebration.

Have you been to Flip Dunk? If not, you should! And be ready for a fun jumping time!

....

I went from flipping and dunking to a pleasant evening with the husband at this restaurant.

In case you're wondering, this is La Potence "the hanging man": steak cooked in whiskey right at the table. Due to a camera malfunction I ended up with a picture of the meat already cooked (minus the fire the made heads turn at the restaurant). Ah, I got a picture of the dessert too!

The place came highly recommended and we loved it! Happy anniversary to us again! The embarrassing part? No picture of us together -- just the food.

Oh, wait... I found a picture of me -- and the hangman right in front of my face.

If you are still with me reading the most "all over the place" post of all times, thank you!

I promise a more coherent post next time -- preferably not after a twelve-hour shift. Good night!