Our Little Graduate!

Carolina is our youngest and last to graduate from kindergarten. The past six years have flown by like a cloud of dust. I can't believe how fast she has grown.....right before our eyes! Even though at the time I felt bad that she would miss an entire year of school because of one day, I have come to realize that this only helped her. She undoubtedly made a smooth transition from day care to school. I was not worried about her at all. Carolina has always been very precocious. At a very young age, she was always two steps ahead of her brother and sister.

Throughout her first year, she made new friends and reunited with old ones from her home day care. She was the Student and Reader of the Month. She was recommended for the GT Program and made it on the first try. Where as Charlie and Cristina took more opportunities for them to make it. Her reading ability also impresses me all the time. She finds it so easy to make out some words and her vocabulary is so advanced that she never ceases to amaze me. We know she is ready to start 1st grade next year. We are so proud of all her accomplishments.

With her diploma and Outstanding Student trophy!

With me
With Charlie and Cristina

With Daddy

This was a very special day for her. On a more somber note, it was also a very sad day as Charlie's Grandmother's funeral was also held this day. Charlie was sad that he wouldn't be able to attend her graduation since he was serving as pallbearer for the funeral. I took this picture before he left to the funeral and we left for school. It was both a celebration of life for Charlie's Grandmother and Caro's Graduation.

Locks of Love

I am no stranger to cancer and the effects it has had on my family or Charlie's side of the family. My older brother, Rafa, lost his battle to Leukemia when he was only 16 years old. And more recently, Charlie's Grandmother to Lung Cancer. So when both my young daughter's told me that they wanted to donate their long, curly, and beautiful hair to Locks of Love, I was not only proud, but captivated by their generous and selfless decision. I can't believe that at such a young age they understand how important it is to an individual to have their hair and the meaning of giving without expecting anything in return. Charlie and I are so proud of them! Here are some before and after pictures.

Before






After

Notice how happy they are for giving their hair to someone in need.

Fourth of July Camping Trip

We love going camping with the family! After we came back from our trip two years ago, I started to download all the pictures from the memory card and accidentally erased ALL my pictures including these!!!! If this has ever happened to you and you're anything like me, you cried your heart out for this unintentional mishap. Needless to say, I was upset at myself and heartbroken at the same time. I couldn't believe what I had done and I was not about to let it go. Pictures are an extension of my life. So I made some calls and they referred me to the Geek Squad at Best Buy. After explaining what had happened, the technician still didn't guarantee that my pictures would be recovered. Luckily, they were!!! Of course I paid a pretty penny for them and in the end I had the pictures backed up into a CD. I was so relieved and got to work right away. Here are some images of the album. Can't wait for August to go camping again!

Easter 2010

We had wanted to celebrate Easter at our house like we've done for the past two years, but due to Charlie's grandmother delicate condition, they decided to celebrate it at my In-laws. Take a peek at what we did!!

Another scrapbook by Smilebox

Cristina's First Holy Communion invitation

I can't believe Charlie made his last year and now my daughter, Cristina is making her First Holy Communion in five weeks. In the tradition of personalizing their things, here is a "prototype" of Cristina's invitation. I really liked the outcome of it. I only visualized it in my head while I purchased the supplies on Saturday. I have to admit that when I get inspired, I can't stop. I have to follow through or it escapes me and I take the chance of loosing the thought. So here it is. Now to make them...thank goodness I have Spring break coming up!!
The outside cover

The invitation

CCD Christmas Choir

The Religious Education Department did something different this year with the CCD students. From my past experience, they hadn't done this before, but I was very happy to hear that they were going to hold a Christmas Concert for the parents. Cristina took part in their 1st Annual Christmas Choir. I think they didn't anticipate such a good turn out because it was a full house. I think the church exceeded their occupancy limit that evening! Either way, it was nice to see the reenactment of the Christmas Story the way I used to remember seeing it at my church when I was growing up. We were so proud of our little girl for participating in such a blessed event.

Special Guest from Honduras!!

I was very excited when my cousin from Honduras sent me a message to inform me that he and my Tia Pili were coming to Texas during the Christmas break. Luis Guillermo was going to spend the holidays with his wife's family and Tia Pili was coming to Laredo to spend it with her side of the family. The last time she had been here (and by chance) was when I was delivering, Carolina at the hospital...that was six years ago! So on Friday-New Year's day, we picked her up and took her to Johnny Carino's to have a nice lunch. While there we talked and reminisced about my childhood and got reaquainted with each other. After spending some time at my house we took a stroll down the mall. I almost didn't capture these pictures because I thought I had lost my new camera there!! Luckily, when we went back to see if it was at the last store we went to, they had kept it for me. I was so lucky. I just wish her trip would've been for a longer stay. We also spoke about us making a trip to Honduras in the future. I hope that is sooner than I hope. I would love to go back to my roots and for my children to experience the beautiful country that Honduras really is.


Tia Pili and I with the kids

Tia Pili with the kids

Happy 2010!!

More of what they say...

***Cristina

"Can you scratch my cheek becasue I can't because they (shaking her arms) are sleepy?"

*****
The kids are talking about the planets in our car on our way home yesterday. This is what their conversation was like(if I remember correctly...)

Charlie: What would happen if earth was real close to the sun? How close is it now?

Me: It is close, but not hot enough not to live on earth.

Charlie: Since pluto is not a planet anymore, it's really cold.

Carolina: How cold?

Cristina: Like two Alaska's cold.

I love their over generalizations! I can't get enough of them!

The effects of being hungry...

So Caro says this morning: "My tummy hurts 'cuz I'm not eating."

Young Meditator

After coming back from our trip in Houston, I turned around and heard Carolina making a humming sound. When I asked what she was doing (and to my surprise) she responded "I'm meditating...aaaummm". Luckily, I was also able to capture her in action as well!!

Our Vacation

11 days; 264 hours; 15,840 minutes; 950,400 seconds; 1,226 miles; 775 photos; 3 children; 2 states; 7 cities; 2 weddings; 1 speeding ticket; 1 broken toe; 1 family and lots of patience. Yep-that's what it took for us to have our vacation this year!

Fourth of July 2009

Don't Talk to Strangers

So my youngest, Carolina (5 yrs.), is listening to this song by Rick Springfield and the chorus starts "Don't talk to strangers."...Then I hear her tell Cristina (7 yrs.), "You know that's true...you're not supposed to talk to strangers." That little girl never ceases to AMAZE me - EVERYDAY!!

Vacation with a "Bang"

After a long and roller coaster ride of a school year, we are finally taking our much anticipated vacation this summer. Once summer school ends we will be going to Dallas, San Marcos(hopefully), San Antonio, New Braunfels, Corpus Christi, and Rockport.

During our vacation, we will be attending two weddings! On the 4th of July we will be going to Charlie's cousin, Kenny, and on the 11th to Carolina's day care teacher, Ms. Medina, at the beach in Rockport.

We are looking forward to spending time with family and friends on both events. We will be taking the kids to several attractions and parks. Can't wait!!! And that's just me!

Take a look at last year's Smilebox scrapbook: 4th of July Camping Trip .

CM designs

Here it is...my very own "Hall of fame"-if you will. I've been wanting to display my creations for a very long time somewhere I just didn't know where or how (yes, it's true; I didn't know!). At the same time, I've also given my creations a personal touch by adding "CM designs" to them when completed just as a professional artist signs their work of art. CM Designs basically devired by putting my first and last name initials together and since all of our names also begin with "C", I thought it was the perfect name.

I've taken pictures of some of the gifts, cards or just stuff I've created and didn't know what to do with them until now. Although I already have a personal blog, It hadn't occured to me to do the same in Blogger! After much anticipation, it is finally up! I am so excited and can't wait for you to leave me any comments or suggestions. I want to thank you for visisting and taking the time to read my blog. Check it out by clicking on the title for this blog. *Don't forget to bookmark it!! :)

See you around Blogger!
Carmen

Japenese Tea Garden

We took the kids to a Japenese Tea Garden located right before the San Antonio Zoo. It's so close that I didn't know it was there! We had never noticed it before!! The place is beautiful and mesmerizing. Aesthetically pleasing to the eye especially if you appreciate nature and its natural surroundings. The kids loved it and enjoyed watching the coy fish, turtles, and a family (with their mother) of ducklings. Walking through the garden was so soothing. The beautiful waterfall at the middle of the garden was breathtaking. After reading a little about its history I was compelled to learn more about it. So I researched it in the internet after our trip. It's things like this that shows us that we need to be more appreciative of what we have and our family. This is a perfect example of taking care of our earth and "going green".

Capturing plant life Taking a nature walk & Cooling off A mesmerizing waterfall
The beautiful Coy Fish

Downtown Aquarium

After our short stay in San Antonio we headed to Houston where our hosts, Manuel & Judy Gonzalez (family friends), took us to the Downtown Aquarium in central Houston. It was another fun adventure for the kids. Like at the Tea Garden in San Antonio, the kids encountered many animals such a Macaw bird, Poison Dart Frog, various fish, sting rays, a 20 ft. long snake, and even an incredibly beautiful White Tiger!
Awesome picture with "Reef" the white tiger! It was as if he had posed for us.


After the Aquarium, it was time for the Diving Bell (like a ferris wheel) without the men because they are afraid of heights. Finally, we went to the Galleria. Even though the girls' and Charlie's hearts were set on ice skating, we didn't do that. I felt they were still too young and would have gotten hurt just trying to stay on their two feet! We enjoyed the rink just as spectators this time around. Petting the sting rays who were very friendly
Under the sting rays!
Our shark voyage
We were told by Judy that Charlie got scared of the popping shark, but he was such a good sport

Above the Diving Bell
After having breakfast at IHOP, we were back on the road to Laredo. We'd like to thank the Gonzalez's for a great weekend at their home and for being great hosts. We had so fun much in such little time. It's amazing how much you actually get done when you have limited days to do it in. I guess it's true when they say that things come out better when they are not planned. All this took place on a three day- and much needed weekend!