MLV Memorial Day BBQ

It wouldn't be Memorial Day Weekend without a BBQ and of course Aba is always in the mood for barbecuing, so we headed to her house to kick-off the unofficial start to summer.

A while back, Aba bought this car for Lucia, but now Miss V has taken to it. Luckily she can't really reach the pedals yet.

Mateo is more interested in hoops than he is in hot dogs

Speaking of hoops, Lucia really dug this hula hoop and did little tricks to keep it going.

Now back to the car, V convinced the older ones to take her for a ride.

Since there is no pool, the kids cooled off the old fashion way - a hose and sprinkler.

"Yes!"

Even V changed into her swimsuit to get in on the action

I love this shot because it shows how the two of them can be totally engrossed in their own thing, while still wanting to be next to one another.

Valentina really got into chalk art

More cousins, more fun. V is missing, but Lucia and cousins Genesis and Melanie decided it was there time to take this thing for a spin. As you can see it is really built for the 5 and under crowd.

MLV Celebrate Grandma Cons' 85th Birthday

Memorial Day Weekend is kicking off great. We have a just-right-amount of activities planned and it all mainly revolves around family which means good times! Today's event is Grandma Cons' 85th Birthday.

The celebration was held at a nice hall and had a nice turnout of family and friends.

I was thrilled to see Tuere again and my Uncle John

The older kids missed last week's graduation party, but they were all present at this function.

My girls!

And my boys!

And of course the guest of honor, my Grandma Cons. During her speech, she revealed to all of us that this was the first birthday party she had ever had. I just couldn't believe it and it made me so happy that her niece, Joan (pictured here) decided to put together this special day for her.

And all the way from Hotlanta, Auntie Tibs came to represent the Atlanta crew

Framily came out strong to celebrate

Beautiful family - Cousin Narda (second from left) and her kiddies Joezanne, Tuere, Drew, Makai, and Kimani. Auntie Tibs, Eddie, Me and our 3.

It is rare that we are all dressed nice and in one place so I had to take advantage.

And of course I couldn't pass up the opportunity to get in a picture with the guest of honor.

"We love you Grandma Cons! Happy Birthday!"

Sister-Sister

Not much going on today. Just school and a pre-gymnastics play date...

...made up of little sisters and big sisters 

Red Nose Day

Well last year I don't remember there being such a big event made out of Red Nose Day, but this year the kids' school got really behind and lucky for them their cousin Yolaisy gave them all red noses when she cam to visit a few months back. I think it is a fun and great way to have fun and celebrate giving to charity.

Although I do hate clowns, I love these two jokers.

"Happy Red Nose Day!"

Lucia's March in the Memorial Day Parade

Today was a great day of new adventures. Lucia was lucky enough to get the opportunity to march in the Hoboken Memorial Day Parade with her Daisy troop. She was very excited and I was looking forward to participating as well.

Every legitimate parade has several marching bands of course

Lucia and buddies Vivy and Amelia were ready to go.

And there off!

They were required to walk from 1st street all the way up to 10th. There were times when they were dragging, but...

...in the end they kept their patriotic spirits up.

"Happy Memorial Day to All!"

MLV - Meets & Parties

Today was full of lots of cool activities. In the morning, Lucia had her second track meet of the season and in the evening Mateo had a birthday party, Lucia had a sleepover birthday party and the rest of us had a graduation party to go to. We are all very busy people.

To be completely transparent, this photo and the next few were from Lucia's 1st track meet which took place last weekend. I wasn't lucky enough to go, so I had to get these photos and videos from Papi which is a struggle. Anyway, there were 3 races starting from longest to shortest and then some fun runs at the end. Lucia apparently could have won the first one, but she didn't really understand the purpose of the finish line tape, so slowed down so she wouldn't have to touch it. After that Papi explained to her that there was no need to slow down and once she knew that...the game was on!

First race, you can see she slows down at the end which put her in 3rd place

Now the 2nd race, she took the lead quite easily and kept it all the way through.

This race and the 3rd race Lucia won 1st place

Nicely done for her first track meet. 

We are very proud of her.

Now for this week. We were back on the track. This time her teammate from school was there and she is also quite fast. Lucia didn't get 1st place, but did get three 2nd place awards.

Nice!

You can see that Lucia was able to closely track Keira (her friend from school). They were both happy to be the lead and have a good showing from ECS.

After the real races were the fun runs again. Lucia participated in the relay and it was a great time.

After all of the running and such in the morning we all went home, relaxed and got ready to go to our events. Lucia was off to Alma's sleepover birthday party - gift in hand. Mateo was heading to a minor league baseball game for Jared's birthday party - with gift in hand. And Valentina was coming with us to Tuere's graduation party - giraffe in hand (don't worry I have the gift).

Guest-of-honor, Tuere was a proud pretty graduate.

Cousin Narda got in some snuggles with Valentina

We were happily surprised to also hang with cousins Tayla, Nneka, Ariana, Narda, Tuere and Joezanne

Meanwhile, at another location, Mate was having a great time hanging with birthday boy  Jared (upper right corner) and friends.

Lucia is probably still up having fun with Alma

It was a great day and night for everyone.

Baby Play

With all of the Amazon and Diapers.com ordering we do, we get at least one massive box a week and big empty box means loads of fun and imagination. As V approaches 2 years old she is becoming her own little person with her own funny and quirky personality. She loves to play with and mimic her family.

Today's big box accommodated both Lucia and Valentina. They pretended this was a ship. Her favorite part was having the flaps folded down over them until they were covered and having me knock until they sprung open and surprised me.

V has also taken to using really anything as a phone and saying 

"Hello, how are you?" 

She is getting to be such a big girl.

Mommy Goes to a Boozy Brunch

Last year was my time to celebrate fabulous and 40, but I have several friends who were "lucky" enough to celebrate this year.  Kelly, one of my friends from Book Club, has a series of events planned. It kicked off with a club night last night, today is a boozy brunch at BTH and later this year South Africa. Well I have too many commitments and such so there is no way I can sign up for "all of the above", but I was able to squeeze in time to help her celebrate at brunch.

What can I say she does look fabulous (especially after a night of partying). This place was hopping. I walked into a full on dj party blasting Drake and there were even people up and dancing. Clearly I have not been to brunch in years. It's a whole new ball game.

Another newly 40 also came out to play. 

"Hey Christine!"

All of those bicentennial babies, and you know who you are,...welcome to 40!

Mateo Goes to PEEC

Mateo has probably been waiting for this trip since he heard it existed. He found out in 3rd grade that the 4th graders got to go on an overnight trip and since starting 4th grade he has been waiting for it. Today was the day they finally got to go on their overnight trip to PEEC. I have to say I felt a little nervous, I mean he has gone to sleepovers before, but never on a school trip and never to another state, but things like this are good for us to get used to the idea I guess. Lucia was a bit upset because she is so used to sleeping with her brother, so I guess it's something we all have to get used to.

At morning drop-off Mateo (in orange hat) tried to play it cool while hanging with the guys and I didn't want to bust his cover so I took this picture from afar, until...

...later when I saw a couple of other parents taking up, close and personal pix so it gave me an opportunity to get one too.

"Bye, bye little man see you tomorrow"

Luckily, the teachers were kind enough to document a lot of of the trip so we could catch a glimpse of some of the things they did. Here is Megan's class at arrival to PEEC (Pocono Environmental Education Center). Mateo is in the back behind the boy with the yellow hat.

Time to mix-it up...

...and have fun! Good Luck Megan!

One of their first activities - canoeing. Mateo's rowing buddies were Taiki and Nico. Where's Mateo's oar?

I guess he was the caller

After canoeing, the boys with rain boots went wading in the water. Micah and Mateo seemed to be finding some interesting items.

Mateo and Peter also appear to be having fun.

But why let the fun stop there, why not go in almost all the way?! Oh, I know why, because that would mean wetting all of your clothes. 

So after, Mateo wet all of his clothes, he didn't realize that he had a change of clothes for the next day he could have worn, so he changed into his PJs and wore those to bed and then all of the next day.

Yes, take a good look folks Yankees PJ bottoms with sporty PJ top.

Yep that's my son

Thank goodness, it's only one day