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.

We Voted

Hooray for family voting!

Pre vote

Post Vote

No family picture. It came out fuzzy.

We voted last weekend.

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!

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! 

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. 

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!

Summer Surprise

I heard the best sound on this first morning of summer vacation. I could hear the kids talking as I lie in bed. I started to get up when I heard Guillermo say: "I can make you breakfast myself." After some muffled discussion, I heard "I can make cereal and sausage and sausage patties in the microwave." When I finally did get up, I discovered Guillermo had made Maya cheese toast in the microwave for breakfast. Love this! I'll have to teach them a few more morning recipes.

Barbie Birthday

Maya's Barbie birthday party was a success. Doesn't the picture below say it all?

Best picture!

Maya decided awhile ago that she wanted a Barbie Birthday party. She also decided she wanted her birthday cake from Target. I tried to talk her out of it, at least a little bit since we have so much fun making her birthday cake each year but she was adamant. "I want to take a break from baking this year," she said. She wanted to go to Target and pick out the cake from the book at the bakery. This is what she chose:

This cake made my girl so happy!

We invited eight girls over to paint finger nails, jump in the bouncy house,  hula hoop, make headbands (we ran out of time), eat pizza and cake and watch a Barbie movie. 

Making a wish

Maya was thrilled. And so were we!

Lego Maniac

Tonight was a special night, not just because it was Maya's birthday. Guillermo's teachers hosted an end-of-the-year beach party outside the classroom. The kids played volleyball and basketball, hula hooped, ran through a mist tent and then played in the resulting stream through the playground before munching on pizza.

After the outdoor play, we headed inside for an awards ceremony. Guillermo's teacher presented each student with an award that noted something special about each one of them. It was so touching. For Guillermo, she noted that every Friday when the students can play with the Legos, Guillermo not only comes up with great designs, but also gives advice and helps other students. For this, he was given the Lego Maniac award. He was so proud!

 The mist tent on a cool summer afternoon

Guillermo, the Mellor Marvels Lego Maniac

Happy birthday, Maya!

Happy birthday, Maya! I hope your next year is filled with dancing, singing, dresses, giggles, friends, books, jump ropes and tennis rackets, flour and sugar and chocolate chips, head bands, and everything else that you love (except pets, sorry no pets!). We love you. You make us laugh and smile every day. You make us glow!

Blowing out the candles on her birthday donut

Listening to her brother sing Happy birthday to her

Cupcakes for her school party

I'm 6!

The Principal's Challenge was tonight. Phew! Both kids finished!

Guillermo's project was Myths from Around the World. He made three books, researched Zeus' family tree, baked and decorated a cake like the flag of Greece and read lots of myths.

Maya's project was princesses. She wrote a report about meeting princesses at Disney, made a crown, made a princess cake and read lots of stories about princesses around the world.

For two years, Maya watched Guillermo get a trophy at the Principal's Challenge Award ceremony and this year, she was very clear that she, too, wanted to participate so she could get one. She was so proud to pick it up tonight. They both were.

Guillermo, showing off his Principal's Challenge

Maya, posing with her Principal's Challenge trophy

Jump Rope

It took a little persuading, but Maya decided early this month she wanted to take jump rope classes. There is a team that meets at her school a few days a week and lots of kids from her school participate. She was slightly nervous since she isn't a strong jumper, but by the end of the first class, she was jumping double dutch!

Look at her go!

The Coolest Night

Last night was an amazing night! Guillermo's baseball team got to run out on the field with the Durham Bulls! The amazing wife of one of Guillermo's coaches arranged for the evening.

All of the players were teamed up with a player in the position they typically played. Guillermo ran out onto the field with catcher Jose Lobaton and stood behind home plate during the National Anthem. It was quite a sight to see all those little players standing on the field.

Later, in the third inning, the team got to chase Wool E. Bull from left field to right field in a Running of the Bulls scene. They didn't catch him, but it was so fun to watch them try.

Unfortunately, it started raining before the fourth inning and we went home, but boy, was it a fun night!

My Birthday, Mother's Day

Will, Guillermo and Maya really did it up for my birthday. I woke up and went for a run and read the paper at a coffee shop and when I came home I found the house decorated with streamers, a chair decorated as a throne and a table full of gifts. The kids even put on outfits they thought I would like the most. After gifts, we went out for lunch and then on a hike and when we came back home, Maya and put the finishing touches on a beautiful and incredible chocolate sour cream cake with peanut butter frosting and topped with chocolate ganache from Sky High Irresistible Triple-Layer Cakes. Sooo good. It was a great day!

Surprise!

 

Guillermo showing me his Lego figure.

Maya and I showing off our cake.

Wedding

I can't believe I have waited this long to post about the big event of the year: Tia's Wedding. Tia and James were married last month in St. Louis. We had such a fun week, filled with pretty dresses, good food, fun family (Big Papa and Ya Ya and Grandpa!) and lots of baseball.

The wedding ceremony was beautiful, overlooking the Mississippi River in a gorgeous house. Maya had been so excited for weeks and had a ball the day of the ceremony. Guillermo was a bit more apprehensive about the idea of being in a wedding, as most 8 year olds would be, but he had a great time. Will says it was because he taught Guillermo how to order a drink at the bar. I can't imagine how many Sprites he drank that night. He loved his baseball uniform, too.

Coming down the aisle

Handsome Ring Bearer

Maya and Addy

One of my favorite pictures of the week.

Showing off his Replica World Series Ring

Guillermo's Last game of the season

Nationals finished their season. It was a good time and thanks for the great coaches!

Mother's Day Prep

Guillermo and Maya are in undercover prep mode for Mother's Day. For the past week, they've had numerous secret Mother's Day meetings that end with something like this "Mom, how long do you want go for a jog on Mother's Day and are you going to take the car?" I've been hinting that I will need a really BIG celebration because Mother's Day and my birthday are on the same day this year. It seems like they have picked up on the hints.

Today, Guillermo was listening to the radio and came to find me. "Mom, you just missed a Mother's Day commercial. You can get a GPS for Mother's Day. You can do a lot of things with it, like Twitter." "Do you want it?" Maya called from the other room.

I hope the next commercial is from Nordstrom!

School

"What did you learn at school today? I asked Maya the other day in the car.

"Nothing." She answered.

"Nothing? Are you sure?" I asked.

"The other kids may have learned something, but I didn't."