Happy Easter Weekend!

GWOF part II and III

GWOF continued on Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday we headed to Nana and Grandpa's house. Maria had fun playing with Griffin and splashing her hands in the pool water (and one of her feet, with her shoe still on - my bad!). We enjoyed some tasty tri-tip and Maria thoroughly enjoyed the b-day cake made by Nana as you can see in the pics below.

Today we had Greg's in-laws (my family) over for lunch. Everyone loved the homemade salsa, taco soup, and chocolate cake with ice cream.

Maria and the birthday boy enjoying their beverages of choice...

Maria loved having her cousins over. Here's the only group shot we got of them today! They are playing in the box that Greg's gift came in. Unfortunately, Maria wasn't a fan of being squished in there, so we don't have a better shot of them!Here are some pics of her playing ring-around-rosie with Aidan (anyone got new words to this song, since the original version is pretty morbid?!)

Abuelo had fun playing horse-y with them (you can kinda see part of his head in the first pic!) and he and Abuela helped tire Aidan out by having him run back and forth into their arms :)

Aidan liked looking through one of my picture books of Latin America. Unfortunately for Maria (who also likes the book), Aidan was not as willing to share the book, as he was to play ring-around-the rosie. I'm sure that Maria laughing at Aidan's refusal to share the book with her was not the response Aidan was expecting to get!

So, GWOF 2009 has come to a close. Hope you enjoyed every minute of it, Greg!

GWOF has begun!

Greg's Weekend of Fun (GWOF) has begun! Years ago my friend Melissa Y. started Melissa's Day of Fun to celebrate her b-day, which soon transitioned to Melissa's Weekend of Fun and eventually (in some years) to Melissa's Week of Fun. I adopted this lovely tradition for my own b-day (although now with kids I'm sure Melissa can agree that it's back down to Day of Fun) and often got teased by Greg. Well surprise, surprise, Greg has now adopted this idea and was looking forward to his own GWOF to celebrate his b-day this year :)

Today is his b-day and he is kicking of GWOF with a guys-night-in with his buddies in the man cave. They've got the craps table set up, Mexican food, brownies, cookies, and even home brew compliments of Patrick. Here's a shot of them, early in the night, before the craziness began.

Here is an update with some action shots a couple of hours into the night...

Happy Birthday Greggy - have a fun time! Love, Alina and Maria :)

I'm not Irish...

...but kiss me anyway! :)

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Kite Festival

On Sunday we spent the day at the Kite Festival. I think it was Maria's first time seeing kites and she really enjoyed it. Our biggest challenge was avoiding novice kite flyers and their kites falling from the sky. It was a beautiful day at the beach - and Mommy got to enjoy a yummy churro at the pier - yummmm.

Cousin Isabella, Auntie Yaya, and Uncle Billy joined us too.

Here Maria explores the beach with Daddy. She hadn't seen sand since Maui last August, so that took some getting used to!

Not too sure what she's up to here, but with her tongue out like her Daddy, she's up to no good!

Laugh on command

After some gentle prodding from our fellow blogger Sarah, we are finally putting in a new post.

About a month ago Maria started laughing on command. It's the funniest, from the gut laugh that just cracks us up. Her abuelos got a good video of it (mainly the first 40 seconds) when they babysat her...

Our Christmas Album

We hope that everyone had a great Christmas! We enjoyed Christmas in our new home and are thankful for the many blessings we've had this past year. Maria really enjoyed her second Christmas - even more so than her first! However, she is still not a fan of Santa. Maybe next year?!We recently moved to our new home and were very excited to decorate for Christmas. Greg stocked up on lights and Maria gave Daddy a peanuts lawn decoration to add to the mix.

Maria also got to help Daddy hammer in the tree base. Well she helped Daddy with tree base #1 until he got so frustrated (luckily Maria was inside already before the curse words began!) because the tree tilted 1/10 of 1 degree, that he literally hammered apart the base and headed back to the Christmas tree lot for a new one! This is of course after dragging the tree in an out of the house, leaving many a pine needles behind. Ahhh the perfection required by an engineer!

Later that day, we waited 2 hours to get into Sleepy Hollow to see the Christmas decorations. We got out of the car and walked the neighborhoods, enjoying popcorn, hot chocolate and music by live quartets. Maria was a trooper and stayed up to see the lights even though she was obviously pooped! It was in the mid-40's (cold for us!), so she was very bundled up to the point where she couldn't move her limbs!

Christmas Eve finally arrived! We went to the Children's Mass together and Maria and her cousin Aidan were definitely the loudest kids in church. Luckily they entertained each other, although there were still a few screams here and there from them. We'll definitely stick with going to morning mass and not late afternoon mass during naptime for our regular Sunday mass!

Afterwards we headed to the Abuelos house for "Noche Buena" celebrations, filled with Cuban pork, rice, black beans, plantains, and yucca - it was delicious! Maria got to enjoy the Cuban food and loved it. Here are Maria and her cousin Bella in their pretty gowns after dinner waiting to open gifts!

Aidan joined in on the fun, but wouldn't sit with his cousins. Maria knew it was too good to be true when he squatted next to her!

When it came time to open up the kids' gifts, it turned into chaos (as any Cuban gathering should and would!)!

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The Abuelos attempt to take yet another group shot. This is as good a shot as we could get

The night was chaotic, but fun!

Maria and her abuelos :) She's a bit dishelved, but it's 2 hours after bedtime and she's been opening gifts all night - what can you expect?

Maria with her Auntie Evie and Uncle Don

Christmas Day! Fireplace courtesy of KOST 103.5/KCAL 9. Works for me!

Here are some pics of Maria enjoying what Santa brought her...

Mommy and Daddy still in their PJs opening gifts with Maria

Maria enjoyed reading one of her new books with Abuela.

We all headed off to Nana and Grandpa's house for Christmas Day and enjoyed some yummy food - spaghetti, ham, green beans, double baked potatoes - yummm!

Maria can't wait to cruise the strand in her shiny red wagon! Too bad it was so rainy and cold outside on Christmas Day!!

Below, Grandpa tries to get the perfect shot with his camera (top of the line Pentax - circa 1970). The all-manual settings on G'Pa's camera make it a challenge on stills - let alone mobile toddlers

Uncle Matt introducing Sammy the Snowman to Maria....and Nana and G'pa with Maria.

Merry Christmas Everyone and Happy New Year!