in no particular order...

Long time since I updated this blogeroo of mine...

So, this is what my Waldorf doll looks like!!! I'm still trying to find a name for her.

In any event, here she is!

Really loved the end result!

I just loved this picture of Cesar. It's one of the very rare ones that he lets me take without covering his face! This is Perla, his bird that we ended up finding out is a BOY... we didn't bother changing his name.

And this year, both Coco and Cesar finished their religious education for the sacraments of reconciliation and communion (Coco) and confirmation for Cesar. We are so proud of both of them! Papa Riordan was Cesar's sponsor, and we were happy to celebrate with his dad and family

I've been craving the days of summer, but we haven't gotten many, so we are making the most of each one we get. As every year, we had Megan's birthday. This year the theme was Superheroes... loved it!

This year all the boys in our block got together to rent a machine to dethach the lawns of all of them. Brian was in charge of getting the machine early in the morning. The super funny thing is, as soon as he came back, around 7, ALL the neighbors started coming out of their homes, coffee in hand, to see the machine. By the time they started this thing, around 8:30, they nearly had a party going on around that thing. What can I say, boys will be boys!

We went to Wild West town, which we love. Coco and Connor had a blast, and I have to say, Cesar was as nice as teenagers are rarely supposed to be! Seriosuly, I felt proud of him, he was helpful and didn't complain at all.

We are oh-so lucky that our good friend uncle Danny is a White Sox fan. He got Cubs tickets for a game, and Brian and I went. It was a nice date night completely out of the blue (thanks Noni, for babysitting!) and even though the game got called out because of the rain, we did have a good time. AND the Cubs won, which is very rare these days :(

Coco made this tie-dye shirt at school. I love that coco is getting all crafty, just like her mother!

My uncle Nathan made this necklace for Christmas a couple of years ago, and I never wore it before, because I didn't have any matching earings. So, I decided to go out and try to get the materials for a matching pair, and this is what I ended up with. I've been using them almost daily now! I really loved them!

And for Coco's birthday, I wanted to make her dress... It's almost like cheating, though, because I bought the fabric already smocked, but the rest of it, anyways... This year Coco decided to go for a Tea Party for her girlfriends, and then a water fight party at home for the boys. We certainly had a blast! I cannot believe she's 8 already!

And for her birthday, she wanted a Kit Kitridge American Girl doll. She has been wearing the matching outfit ever since for any "special" occasion... like feeding the birds and walking the dog.

Finally, for this edition of this long overdue update of the blogeroo, Cesar "graduated" from Jr. High School. He'll be a sophomore this August! We are very happy and very proud of this kid. The last picture is with Mr. Buck, the school principal... thanks, Mr. Buck!

Ok, I promise I'll start blogging like a decent blogger for a change!

About birds and TEA

Before I start my update... I just had to take a picture of Connor. He is such a BOY!!! I think boys are programmed to be goofy... If you have a boy, I'm sure you have found these kids of scenes, pretty much daily!


Anyways, this Good Friday I participated in The Way of the Cross celebrated at 3 pm in front of the Planned Parenthood clinic we have in Aurora. I was so glad to see such a large group, it kept growing as the minutes went by. It was pretty cold, and as usual, I was not wearing a sweater or jacket, but it was well worth it. We prayed for the babies being killed, for their mothers and for the doctors and nurses that assist them. May God help them all.


As I did this, Noni came to take the kids to decorate eggs. We did decorate some at home on Saturday, too, but Noni's were a lot more dramatic, especially the one with all those feathers!


Coco and Connor found some presents from the Bunny on Sunday morning. After church, we went to Noni and Papa's to celebrate with our family. Uncle Mike made the BEST shish kebabs ever!!! Everything was really delicious, and it was good to see our loved ones.


Then we come to the 15th of April... our TEA parties!!! We had a very nice response for our Naperville, IL TEA party. It was so nice to see people that think alike. Helps you feel a little bit of hope (REAL HOPE! How sad that these beautiful words have been assaulted and deformed!)


Of course, there's always the nutcase that shows up to counter protest... like they don't have MSNBC, CNN and all the other networks to do that!


In the evening, we went to the Oswego TEA party, where our state senator Chris Lauzen was one of the speakers. I loved that Cesar was able to go with me, and he helped his brother hold his sign. We like for them to get involved as early as possible!



This picture was taken last Friday... about the last decent day we had! I LOVE this family that by now feels like our own. They are such good people!

On Saturday, we went to celebrate my sister Marisa's 36th birthday. She and Hilda decided to take our kids for the weekend as a "b-day present to Marisa" (WHAAAAT????) That was very nice, but I still cannot understand why was my sister so intended on torturing herself!

It was a little bit funny that Brian and I just didn't even know what to do. We went "window shopping" to Menards, and went to see new homes... it was just odd not to have to be scolding kids for a change! (THANK YOU HILDA AND MARISA!!!!)

AND NOW, THE STORY OF THE BIRD (S):

Last Thursday, Cesar came back from track practice with a shoebox. I was coming down the stairs talking to my friend Eliza when I saw that he had a parakeet in his hands. I told my friend I had to go to buy a cage and hung up the phone. Cesar explained that he found the bird at the field, it was hurt and couldn't fly, so can we please keep it, pleeeeeaaaaaazzzzzeeeee???

Of course, I'm a total push-over so I said yes, and let's go to Petco and buy a cage and food. So here comes the whole family to get the cage, and food, and toys, and the bone for the beak, and the little branches of some sort-of-herb that they oh-so-need for their digestive system... you know how it goes. So, a couple of dollars more than we expected to spend, we get back home. We chose a name for the bird (female) on the way back, and Nina takes an official family pet status by consensus. We place the cage on top of a black table, Coco and Cesar decorate it and get it all ready. Cesar reaches out for the shoebox... and finds that Nina is now DEAD.

Oh, the humanity! Nicole was inconsolable, so, push-over as ever, I tell Brian, please take her back and get a bird NOW! And as he leaves with Coco in tow, I yell: maybe two, for company!

(the picture of Cesar kissing the bird shows NINA, R.I.P.) So now, Peach and Perla fill our days with songs. With a LOT of songs. This morning, Coco was telling me, "I think they are a little too loud, mom. Do you think we can take them to the garage while we watch Franklin???"

Oh, the joys of parenthood!