Videos Past

I stumbled upon a cache of old videos on my hard drive taken with our webcam over the years. There are some really good ones - I can't believe they were every this little!

Fire Safety Week

We went to our local firestation over the weekend since they were having an Open House for Fire Safety week. Alexa was still fascinated by everything - driving the ambulance and firetruck, asking the fire fighters lots of questions - just like when she was 2!

Sleepy Girl

It's very strange - Tessa sleeps pretty well at night (getting up only to eat) but does NOT sleep well during the day. We are baffled by her - despite the fact that by #3, you'd think we knew what we were doing!

Has it been 1 month already?

It's hard to believe that a month has already gone by. In some ways, it's flown by, in others... not so much.

Emma and Alexa helped me decorate the commemorative "cupcakes and crown" - and did quite a fine job!

The finished product. Tessa's cupcake is the mini cupcake in the middle!

Little T did NOT enjoy her birthday celebration. In fact, she pretty much screamed through most of it.

New Big Sister

Bento Update

After obsessing about Bento for so long, my plans took a slight detour given that Tessa decided to arrive one day before the first day of school! I had to let that go for a while, but I think I'm back on the Bento Bandwagon now. Arturo thinks it's a waste of time, but I have to say that I'm having fun with it... Here's what the girls ate for lunch this week:

Monday - Little Person Sandwich, Grapes, Babybel cheese, and Carrot Flowers:

Tuesday - Cucumber Heart Cutouts, Homemade Fruit Jello, Turkey and Cheese Rollups, Grapes

Wednesday - Hardboiled Egg (shaped like a star), Dried Mango, Triscuits and Cheese, Broccoli

Thursday - Canteloupe Hearts, Grape Tomatoes, and Rice (with Lox and Cream Cheese tucked in the middle)

A Day in the Life

A day in our lives... Emma and Alexa playing together while Tessa sleeps nearby:

Love My Girls

Another reason...

...why Arturo is an awesome Dad. (Besides the fact that he clipped the nails of all my children from birth until about 1 month ago)

Arturo has taken on the task of sewing/ironing on all of the patches that Emma has earned from Daisy Scouts. Here he is, adding on the latest one!

Bath Time

The honeymoon stage isn't quite over yet - Emma and Alexa are still asking to help us with various baby chores, such as giving Tessa a bath. Unfortunately, Tessa doesn't have quite the patience required and she hates getting a bath!

Sweet Times!!!

After Emma's party at the bakery finished, we decided to take home a handful of bags of icing, leftovers from the cupcake decoration part, in assorted colors.

As the girls insisted on eating the icing I suggested the idea of painting themselves with it, trying to avoid having them consume all that sugar. They loved the idea and one day right before bath time, we let them free...

In the beginning, they took it slowly, squeezing a little at a time and trying to create some designs.
When they got confident with the task at hand, they went all out with the icing, covering themselves completely and the tub became a canvas to express their art.

Needless to say I can only post a few and resized pictures of the mess they created as this is a "family blog".

They loved it all except the part when we had to clean up, which by the way, took a while to do.

Big Sisters

Emma and Alexa really are embracing their "big sister" title. They keep asking to help us with Tessa.

Alexa finally got to change her first diaper, she was really careful and thorough; we'll see how she does when she has to change one of the "explosive" ones.


Everyday Emma insists on holding Tessa, she is sweet and tender. She loves talking to Tessa to soothe her when she is cranky.

Off to school

This year we decided it was time for a change and enrolled Alexa in a Montessori school. So far she's really liked it.

Here she is on her first day of school...

Emma's 6th Birthday Party

For Emma's birthday party we headed to Amphora bakery in Herndon, where the children get to become pastry chefs.

First things first, get a chef's hat and decorate it. You need to look good!

Next item in the agenda, cookie decoration: use markers, glitter or paint (all edible) to create your masterpiece.

The problem is, many of those ingredients, never made it to the cookies...

To change the pace a little bit, they got an aerial overview of the bakery, where they got an explanation of how things work

The master chef, gave the kids some tips on cake decoration and finished decorating Emma's cake in front of all of them.

But Alexa was the one that got the most out of it as she had the best view of all!

Emma is so proud of her finished cake.

Now it's cupcake decorating time, choose your icing color and let imagination fly!

Cake time!!!

Little did we know when Emma was blowing her candles of all the chaos that ensued when the first slice of the cake was cut!! It was a chocolate cake, a bakery error! Emma just happens to hate chocolate cake.

In order to make it better the chef brought a vanilla cake, just as she had requested, and decorated it in front of her.

Which she got to enjoy at home the next day... (Note the candles 5+1, as the #6 candle was somehow lost in the confusion)

Piñata time!!!, we couldn't do it the day of her party as the ground was wet and soggy, so one day after school, we just had the neighborhood kids come and finish the birthday festivities by helping her break the piñata.

Now I need to think of some ways to slow down some of the little baseball players as it's becoming too easy for them to break it, we'll see what happens next party.

Even Tessa took a turn swinging the piñata stick!