Spring Break 2010 (March 15-19)

I know this is a little late but we have been busy. Ethan had his Spring Break the week of March 15-19 and since we had no plans to leave town, we planned a few events locally.

Monday, there was a birthday party for Ethan's friend, Caleb. He is part of the long standing playgroup that Claudia and the kids are part of. Caleb's mom, Jennifer, knew that all of the kids would be out on Spring Break so she planned the party for a Monday morning and all were able to attend. Unfortunately, Claudia forgot our camera but I heard they had a blast at Chuck E Cheese.

Tuesday, I took the day off work so I could go with the family to the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History. Tuesday was also our 14th wedding anniversary so I wanted to be with Claudia on that day. As a present to ourselves, we bought a new Nikon D3000 camera for our anniversary so all of the shots in this post were taken with the new camera. Claudia's brother, Daniel, was also on Spring Break so he joined us at the museum. We had lots of fun and even ran into one of Ethan's schoolmates (the little girl below in glasses controlling the ladybug). Then we went to Applebee's for dinner that night (because the kids eat free on Tuesdays at Applebees).
Wednesday was a lazy day at home for Claudia and the kids. She was going to go to the Fort Worth Zoo for half price day but decided against it because that is where the rest of Fort Worth was that day. I heard they broke a record for the most people at the zoo that day. I could see the traffic backed up on the highway from my office.

Thursday she decided it would be safe enough to go to the zoo. Daniel joined them again and they had a lot of fun and got to see the new Museum of Living Art which opened a few weeks prior.
Friday, Claudia and the kids met up with some other friends at a local park to play and have a picnic. I don't think she took the camera so there are no pictures but they still had fun.

All in all, the family was able to make the best out of our Spring Break Staycation.

Ethan's Girlfriend

As many of you know, Ethan is in Kindergarten this year. This has brought a new school and a whole batch of new kids to get to know. He is very friendly so he made good friends very quickly. After a few months, he came home telling us about his new girlfriend named Annie. They lay next to each other during nap time at school and sit near each other in class. We have met her and her parents at assorted school and church functions (he attends St. Maria Goretti Catholic School and we go to SMG church as well) and she is very nice and cute.

I thought that this was just another innocent friendship because he doesn't really understand what a girlfriend is but last week he received a few love notes from Annie.

For those who can't make out the handwriting, it says "I Heart U Ethan I will Mary You Love Annie". I think that Ethan has told me in the past that he is going to marry her so I guess he popped the question because she said yes.
I think that this is the cutest thing but it is making Claudia feel like her baby is growing up too fast. I am just glad that he is getting along so well with his classmates and enjoying school. Who knows, maybe this relationship will blossom into something more as the years pass but for now it is probably just puppy love.

You can see a photo of her in the last picture of this post. She is looking at Ethan from behind as his Abuela kisses him goodbye.

Busy But Fun & Relaxing Weekend

We had a fun and relaxing time this past weekend. Saturday was busy but Sunday was relaxing. It all started Saturday morning when I was doing the dishes after breakfast. I was washing a pan from a previous dinner when Christian walks up to me holding up his finger saying "Yucky." I stopped to see what it was and when I tried to set the pan on the edge of the sink, it fell and landed on my big toe. Talk about pain. It was a pretty large and heavy pan. Anyways, I look down to find that it had sliced the top of my toe open and it would need five stitches.

Claudia runs in to find out why I am yelling and says yep, that is going to need stitches. I tell her to see what was on Christian's finger since that is what caused this mess and it turns out to be poo from his pull-up. Apparently he went in the pull-up and proceeded to scoot down about three of the stairs (leaving a nice poop trail) before sticking his finger in it and coming to show me.

So I relaxed on the couch with my throbbing toe propped up while Claudia cleans up Christian and gives him and Ethan a full bath so she can take me to CareNow for stitches. About an hour later we are leaving CareNow with five blue stitches in my toe and a huge bandage wrapped around my foot and toe. Below is a picture of the toe from Sunday after the bruising showed up. Lovely, isn't it?
The rest of the day went pretty good. We went to a Homeowners Appreciation Picnic held by our homebuilder at their model home that is still in our neighborhood until they finish building out the neighborhood. Ethan got a shark balloon animal and a dragon painted on his face as shown below.
Claudia took Ethan to his second baseball practice while I stayed home with the napping baby. I was going to take Ethan myself until I nearly chopped off my toe.

Sunday we went to church in the morning and then spent most of the afternoon playing Rockband 2. Claudia got Ethan and I the Rockband 2 Special Edition Bundle for Valentine's Day and we love to play it all together for a few hours on the weekends, other activities permitting. Christian really enjoys the drums (mainly because he likes hitting things) and Ethan is actually partial to singing (even though he doesn't know hardly any of the words to the songs). Below are a few shots of our Little Drummer Boy and the next American Idol.
I really love the look of concentration on Christians face like he is really trying to play the game when actually he is just beating drums randomly. We put it on No Fail Mode so they can play by themselves sometimes.

P.S. Later that evening, Claudia found it photo worthy that I was helping with laundry.
I was a little offended by this because I help with laundry every once in a while (mostly putting the clothes away but that counts right?).