"I Don't Want to See Ramses"

Maya, getting a lesson from the UNC women's tennis coach.

Guillermo with a strong forehand.

Guillermo and Ramses.

The UNC Women's Tennis team hosted the UNC faculty-staff family day on Saturday. Guillermo and Maya had never seen a real tennis match and Guillermo seemed to really get into it.

We arrived in time to watch the doubles matches first. Guillermo took a break to pose with Ramses but Maya didn't want anything to do with him.

Between the doubles and the singles matches, UNC set up prizes on one side of two courts and invited the kids to come down and play. They stood on the opposite side of the court as the prizes and hit their ball over the net. If the ball landed on a prize, they could claim it. I'm not sure either of my kids hit any prizes, but we came home with three UNC hats and two pairs of sunglasses. The head coach even helped Guillermo and Maya hit the ball over. After all of that, they even served us pizza.

The whole time, Maya was careful not to look at Ramses or go near him. "I don't want to see him," she said many times. This was the first time she said she was scared of characters. Good thing Disney isn't among our vacation plans this year.

After Guillermo showed so much interest in the game, and really paid attention to the matches, I offered to take him to play sometime. I was quickly denied. Rats.

Super Girl

Maya sang this song tonight while she danced around her room in her Supergirl pjs and cape.

"I love to dance."

"I love to fly."

"I love to fly high."

"I love to save the day."

Snow Days

Snowflakes started falling Friday and by the time we woke up Saturday the ground was covered in snow. I wish I could say we spent the entire weekend (plus two snow days) playing in the snow, but that isn't true.

Saturday was cold. Really cold. Guillermo went out shortly after 7 a.m., before we were ready to go, but he didn't last long. I was still getting my coat and gloves on when he came back in a few minutes later because it was too cold. Both kids went a few more times in the morning, but only for 10 minutes or so each time. After lunch, we tried to go sledding. I went with Guillermo but used my feet as brakes, causing snow to blow into his face the whole way down the hill. He wanted to go home right away after that.

We played outside a bit more on Sunday, but by Monday, when it was warm enough that I was fine in a light jacket and a sweater, they were ready. We built a snow fort and had a snowball fight. Yesterday, it rained most of the day and rained away a lot of the snow, but we still built a tiny snowman. The snow was pretty icy by then but we managed to stick a few chocolate chips in the snowman's head for eyes.

Today, Guillermo went back to school and by the time school finished, most of the snow was gone. Lucky for both kids, more is expected this weekend.

Friday Speaker

Posing pretty.

Last week, I was the Friday Speaker at Maya's school. Every Friday, the school asks a parent to come and talk to the kids about anything they want. The parents can read books or do an activity. One parent this year talked to the kids about airplanes and then invited the class to see his airplane at the airport. It was pretty cool.

I gave Maya's class a Spanish lesson. On colors. I'm sure I wasn't among the most exciting speaker, but the kids were good and listened and participated and when I picked Maya up, she handed me a rainbow that said thank you and had quotes from a few of the kids about what their favorite parts were. Here are a few:

Maya: "My pink and purple one."

Allegra: "Pink, purple and red."

Sydney: "Teaching us colors in Spanish."

Antonia: "Speaking Blue."

I'm already thinking about my next Friday speaker gig. Any suggestions?

Birthday Party

Trying on the 3-D glasses for his Star Wars pin the blast on the ship game.

We've finally reached a close to Guillermo's birthday posts.

Yesterday we hosted his birthday party at our house. Six kids, all boys, all 5-7 year olds. I'll say up front, this was not our finest two hours.

The party started off well, we played a few games. For the first, I taped a picture of a Star Wars character on the back of one kid. The kid then had to ask questions to the partygoers, who had seen the picture, and then try to guess the characters. They liked that game well enough. Then, we played some sort of Star Was pin the laser blast on the ship game. That was good. But the next game, a balloon game Will led, made guillermo break down into tears and he didn't really recover until it was time to break the Darth Vader pinata. That actually went well because he took a few swings at it and broke it open right away. (Other games included light saber training and Jedis and droids, our take on sharks and minnows.)

Next up was cake and then presents and then they were out. Whew! Next year, I'm hoping for a small sleepover or a party somewhere other than my house.

(Of course, the day started off well. We got to see Gustafter Yellowgold at the ArtsCenter!)

Not my prettiest cake, but they liked it. Well, actually they didn't eat much of it. Instead they loved Yoda Soda, a mixture of green sherbert and Sprite. They asked for seconds and thirds.

BINGO

Bingo!

The PTA at Guillermo's school hosted Bingo night yesterday.

At first, Guillermo didn't want to go because "they only have one winner." When we play Bingo or Zingo at our house, the rest of the players continue with the game even after the first winner has emerged. We convinced him that even if there is just one winner per game at his school, a lot of people win throughout the night. He decided to give it a shot.

And guess what. Guillermo won the first game. He picked a school water bottle for his prize.

Picking out his prize.

P.E. Class

Last week was "Take Your Parents to P.E. Week" at Guillermo's school. Will and I both had the chance to go.

Will went to the first class and did astronaut drills for warm up and then played PacMan tag. I haven't been able to get the details from them about the games.

I went on Friday and our warm up involved two large dice. Guillermo and I both rolled one and whoever rolled the highest number got to take a lap around the gym while the other exercised in place. Guillermo mostly rollled high and ran laps. After that, we played sharks and minnows. I ended up being seaweed in both games. Rats.