Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Best Day Ever

Maya declared today to be the "best day ever."

I think she might be right. The day included a field trip to the zoo followed by an awards ceremony with cupcakes decorated with frosting in every color of the rainbow.

The kids rode to the zoo in charter buses and watched a movie for part of the 90-minute trip. They were thrilled.

Our first stop at the zoo was to see the gorillas. They were adorable. There were several mama gorillas and two babies. One was so playful, rolling around in the straw and jumping up on the others. The other snuggled up his mom's arms, fast asleep. He even stayed asleep when she moved him to her back, piggy back style, so she could move. We also saw chimps, elephants, zebras, ostriches and rhinos. Each student had to take notes about two animals. Maya chose gorillas and ostriches.

After lunch, we toured the rest of the zoo and found bison, elk, bears who walked over for a close-up view of us, seals, and lots of snakes.

The second part of her big day was that evening. Maya was a state winner in a young author's contest for her story, "All About Tennis Baseball." Tennis  baseball is a game Will and the kids made up to incorporate Guillermo's favorite sport (baseball) and Maya's (tennis) into one game. The theme of the competition was "Play that Game."

We went to a state award's ceremony over the weekend with my parents and on Tuesday we went to a regional celebration, which included lots of students from her school. Her teacher even came. Maya played with her friends and ate a bright pink cupcake. She was beaming.

Outside the award ceremony over the weekend. 

We thought she'd be exhausted but when we came home, she was up for a family game of tag in the cul de sac. She went to bed so happy tonight.



Saturday, November 17, 2012

His Own Baseball Card




Tia Jen and Uncle James surprised Guillermo and Maya with gifts they made from pictures from the wedding. Guillermo opened up a packet of baseball cards only to find a card of himself in the package. He was thrilled. Another pack was filled with cards just of him. 

The card was made from a picture of him in his St. Louis Cardinal's uniform and the card is awesome. You can see from his smile how much he liked it! Maya was hysterical to listen to. She was ass surprised as Guillermo and kept saying "I can't believe Guillermo's baseball card was smack in the middle of the pack!"

Jen made a beautiful photo album of wedding pictures for Maya.

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

We Voted

Hooray for family voting!
Pre vote

Post Vote

No family picture. It came out fuzzy.

We voted last weekend.

Friday, November 2, 2012

Building Owls


In a moment of madness, I came home from work around the start of the school year, picked up the kids and we drove to Raleigh for a special Lego night: Build your own Lego Owl night! Owls are among our favorite things!
So silly!

So proud!

So happy!

Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween from a Fairy Baker & a Skeleton!


And their mom!


The best part of Halloween: they stuck together the entire night of trick or treating! 

Sunday, September 2, 2012

Summer is winding down. I wish I had written more about here and I'll try to be better about it going forward. But, here are a few pictures that show some of the fun things we did.

We climbed mountains

watched and played A LOT of baseball

built 

and built 

and built some more (this one is Maya's)

visited with Ya Ya and grandpa (2x!)

and spent some time with Big Papa, too!

The kids went to Myrtle Beach and each went to summer camp (Guillermo had baseball and Lego camp while Maya had pottery) and they both swam a lot. Guillermo has great form on freestyle now and even jumped off the high dive. Maya is swimming now, too! 
I went back to work in July, which was a big shakeup for all of us, but we had a wonderful babysitter who took great care of G and Maya. 
And now, the summer is over and both kids are in school and seem to be pretty happy. While I'm glad for the routine, I do miss our fun summer days. 

Friday, August 31, 2012

Back to School

Sorry for our absence. We had a fun summer filled with trips, visits, pool time, transitions, babysitters, and fun. I'll write more on that later.

Right now, I want to post pictures of G and M heading back to school. They started this week. Guillermo is in third and Maya is in first. Wow!

Take a look!

Too fast to stop for a photo.

A true McDougle dolphin!