Photo Dump

I'm not really sure what else to title this post.  I have written about twenty posts in my head, full of family updates, cute stories about the kids, and of course, pictures, but they never make it on to the computer, so I may as well just upload the pictures and get this thing up to date.

We spend a lot of time walking in the woods, or "the forest" as Juan Pablo calls it.  When he grows up he wants to work in a forest, saving animals. Our little environmentalist, making us proud.  This summer, with the heat, our walks in "the forest" usually ended (or began...or both) with a dip in the river.  Even Teresita joined in.  I think this is my favorite picture of her.  It was taken by a friend with a much nicer camera than ours, and I think captured her expression better than the hundreds of blurry pictures that I take and then have to erase off the memory card.

This is why kids need dads.  One summer morning, Jeff rigged up the hose to the branch of a tree in the backyard, put a tarp underneath it, and the kids were entertained all morning.  They used moss, dirt, leaves and sticks to make habitats for their plastic animals amidst the little rivers and waterfalls on the tarp.  Teresita splashed around like a tiny crazy person.  It would have never occurred to me to do this.

Juan Pablo turned five at the beginning of August.  To prepare him for a career in the forest, Abuelo and Abuela got him the world's most awesome explorer vest.  It has pretty much anything you need in the forest either attached to or in the pocket of the vest- binoculars, compass, field guide, tweezers (for picking up bugs), and several other things that I can't remember but I'm sure he could tell you about.  Tia Chu got him a little bug box on a string that he can wear around his neck to have a handy place to store his finds, so now he's all set.  Although last weekend on our walk in a local nature area he found two great bugs and did not have his bug box, so he put them in his pocket.  They were still there this morning, six day later.

Our little fashionita. This girl loves to dress up, and her fashion philosophy can be summed up as "more is more".  Sparkles, ruffles, lots of bright colors, sequins, bows...pile it on.  She got this swimsuit for her third birthday back in April, from Abuelo and Abuela, it it totally fit the bill.  While Juan Pablo says he is going to work in the forest when he grows up, she says she is going to work at the mall.  In fact, she is going to have two jobs, one at the pretzel store, and another in a store that sells lip gloss.  Watching her get ready to go to the mall last week was about the preschool equivalent of getting ready for prom night.  She changed her outfit about three times,  made sure to wear her sparkly shoes with lights, had a very definite idea of how she wanted her hair done, bemoaned the fact that she did not have a sparkly lip gloss like her friend Gianna's to wear, and even made me change Teresita's outfit because it was not fancy enough for the mall.  She is hilarious.

The kids thought it would be funny one day to switch clothes (and identities).  It was.  Until Ana Luisa's girly size 2T/3T underwear started to feel uncomfortable on Juan Pablo and he couldn't take it anymore and changed back.

Papa with his princesses.  Teresita's favorite time of day is when he comes home from work.  She squeals, giggles, moves in his direction as fast as she can, and when he picks her up, she throws her little arms around his neck and covers him with slobbery baby kisses.  

One of our neighbors gave us a swingset this summer, and all three kids love it.  One Sunday morning after Mass we put Teresita in the baby swing and Juan Pablo offered to take over pushing it, and Jeff and I got about 10 quiet minutes enjoying our coffee on the deck.  Not too shabby.

One night as he was falling asleep, Juan Pablo told Jeff he wanted to make a flag for his island.  True to his word, he woke up the next morning and immediate pulled together this flag.

It says "La isla de Juamps i Bobu."  I love that he can write, and all his cute misspellings.  Though "Juamps" is not a misspelling- it's a nickname he came up with for himself.  He even came up with the spelling.  And "Bobu" is Ana Luisa's nickname.  The best part about this, besides his cute writing, was watching him draw Ana Luisa.  He started making loops for her hair, then looked at her and drew bigger loops, looked again, decided they were not big enough, and then drew more and more until they were tall enough to really capture her spectacular morning hair.

Her morning hair truly is spectacular.  And because Juan Pablo was making a flag, she had to make one too.  And make a funny face for the camera, which came out looking like a grumpy face.  Still funny though.  I recently told her that she was the craziest of my children, and to prove my point, she replied right back with "And the poopiest!"  Yes dear, that's exactly what I was thinking too.

The little artists, working away in their backyard studio during school one day.  The picture makes it look really calm and peaceful, but trying to keep Teresita from getting into the paint or diving off the deck, which she decided were the two best ways to use this time, made the whole experience a bit stressful for me.  I think the big kids enjoyed it though, which is the important part.   Teresita continues to look for openings to try to crawl down the steps of the deck headfirst whenever she gets a chance.

And this little girl love pasta.  LOVES pasta.  Juan Pablo helped me make homemade pasta one day and she ate more in one sitting that we've ever seen her eat.  I thought it was because Juan Pablo made it and he's her favorite big brother, but then she did the same thing with pasta from a box that I made all by myself, so I guess she just loves pasta. And of course, loves to make a giant mess with it.  She's growing too...finally wearing size 12 month clothes, up from size 3 month clothes when she came home in June!  Apparently Sophia Loren once said, "Everything you see, I owe to spaghetti."  Soon Teresita will be able to say the same thing.

And so that brings us up to date...for now.  Never a dull moment around here!