I Caught a Fish

"Look at my fish!"

"I caught a fish!"

We ended our summer with a wonderful vacation to Will's uncle's house on a lake in Georgia. The last time we were there, I was pregnant with Guillermo. This time, we had both kids with us and Will's father was there too.

The kids had fun from the start. We parked on one side of the lake and Will's uncle picked us up on his boat to take us to his house. Guillermo and I swam in the lake and Maya played on the dock with Will and Big Papa. The dock itself was incredible. Will's uncle built it himself: boat lifts and built in ice maker and refrigerators. The best part is the 62-inch flat screen tv that folds down from the ceiling. When Guillermo and Maya got tired of playing, they sat on chairs and watched cartoons while we hung out. It really was cool.

The best part was after dinner when Guillermo and Maya went fishing. I don't think Maya has ever been fishing since Will and I have no interest in taking the fish off the line if we would ever catch one. Big Papa helped them, though. Guillermo went first, didn't catch anything. Maya went next and within a few minutes, her line started to pull. Her face lit up. "I caught a fish! I caught a fish! I caught a fish!" She was bouncing around and for the rest of the night she sang "I caught a fish!" Guillermo was up next again, and this time he caught one, too, and he was pretty proud.

The next day we went for a hike, took the boat out, hung out on a little island and swam. Guillermo went for a ride on the four-wheeler with his cousin and uncle and I took him out on the Jet ski. They played horseshoes and bean bag toss (I hate the other name for that game). It was great.

Maya was pretty wimpy on the way home Monday. "I wish we could stay there more days!" We promised her another trip next year.

Math and Science Night

Last night, Guillermo, Maya and I made our own mancala games, created symmetrical shapes with toothpicks and marshmallows and created our own planets made of styrofoam and cds. We went to Math and Science Night at Guillermo's school. Stations were set up all around the school and each activity focused on math and science. They also panned for gold, made their own bubble wands, shot baskets and recorded their scores, measured how high they could jump and helped the school chart which area college team had the most support (UNC won, of course!). Guillermo says his favorite part was getting a prize at the end (a deck of subtraction flash cards) but my favorite was helping them make their planets. Guillermo calls his Lava Planet. Maya's is called Fire Planet.

Chinese Dragons and Monkey Bread

I volunteered several times in Guillermo's class this week and today I substituted in Maya's class.

I helped the students in Guillermo's class make Chinese dragons. It was so fun to watch Guillermo with his classmates. And, he was pretty happy to see me. He came over to the table where I was working with a group of students to check on me and give me hugs several times the first day. He barely paid attention the second day I walked into the class, but came over later for a hug. The third day, it was finally his turn to make a dragon.

Today I substituted in Maya's room. I was one of four teachers (Friday is a big class because it combines the M-W-F class with the T-Th-F class). Maya was so excited for me to come and followed me around quite a bit at the start of the day until one of her best friends showed up. I didn't see much of her the rest of the morning. I had fun playing patient to about eight doctors for quite awhile. Some of the students also got to help one of the teachers make monkey bread for snack. Maya loved it. She told Will all about monkey bread at lunch today and tonight, I heard her tell Guillermo this:

"Guillermo, we made monkey bread for snack today. It is so good. It has chicken in it, no monkeys and cinnamon!"

I think we'll pass on that version.

"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.

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.

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.