Lucia Celebrates Lally's 6th Birthday

Lucia is definitely growing up. Some of her friends have moved on from MyGym to Mani-Pedis. Today her friend Lally was celebrating her 6th birthday by hosting a princess party where the girls had Mani-Pedis and pizza...OH Boy!

Whenever Lucia has gotten a professional pedicure (all two times) she puts on a very serious face

She picked a nice light silver for her manicure

Looks like the birthday girl, Lally and Lucia had a great time.

M&L First Day of School

So yesterday was the grand opening of their new school location and today is FINALLY the first day of school. I feel like they were the last ones in the United States to start.

And let's see who they are wearing. Mateo is dressed in a Real Madrid Tshirt with matching backpack and darling Little Lucia is wearing a Monster High outfit complete with Monster High bookback

So we don't forget, Mateo is going into the 4th Grade (Ms. Megan) and Lucia is entering the 1st Grade (Ms. Joanna)

This year he let me take a quick pic of him in the classroom...

...and Lucia never minds a nice pic next to her new cubby.

Good luck today my two sweet peas!

Love you

MLV Celebrate Elysian's New Pad

According to the calendar, technically we have a few more weeks of summer, but now that Labor Day is behind us it marks the unofficial end of summer. School will soon be starting and this year will be extra special because the kids school will now be in a brand new, state of the art location. Today was the ribbon cutting and the kids and parents were all so excited.

Elysian Eagles, Lucia and Mateo are excited to see the new school and their friends

Lucia found her 1st Grade classroom and found her special pocket (center-right)

Another special edition to this school year? One of her OXO friends, Amelia. She gets to come to Elysian this year because she got in through the lotto...two lucky girls

And now for the entertainment part of the opening ceremonies. Favorite teacher and music extraordinaire, Aram, got the kids singing "Meet Me at Elysian!"

Mateo - waiting for the speeches to continue while hanging with the 6th graders

Board President (aka Papi) takes the stage to welcome everyone and get the speeches rolling.

Papi along with the Director, past board members and city officials help cut the ceremonial ribbon

The City also presented Elysian with an award.

All in all a very good day.

We are so grateful to be in the new school.

Tomorrow's the first day of school.

Last Day in Aruba

Today was bittersweet. I was happy to get home and see the kiddos, but very sad that my beautiful, warm relaxing vacation was coming to an end.

"Goodbye beautiful balcony!"

"And goodbye beautiful Aruba"

Aruba - Day 3

Woke up (late or at least after 9AM ) to another warm beautiful day in Aruba. 

So...what to do, what to do what to do? 

Sit by the pool and play on the phone...

...sit by the pool and sleep...

...sit by the pool and read.

And after all of that tiresome hanging out by the pool, we decided to have a nice romantic dinner at the lighthouse restaurant

Another gorgeous view

Great time together

And there is the famous Lighthouse

Aruba - Day 2

Day 2 in the beautiful Dutch-land of Aruba was just as nice as Day 1. Today we relaxed and took in the sights of the city. Pretty much perfect.

I fell in love with these hanging mini bungalows on the hotel grounds

We headed into town to go on a fun underwater excursion. We were going to take a real old school submarine and explore the reef life on the island.

To get to the appropriate depth we had to take a boat to the submarine

Here is the top of the submarine

And here are the tight quarters we were going to be trapped in for the next 90 minutes

We saw a lot of really cool things on the ocean floor, including this shipwreck

Once we got back to the hotel we decided that we would take a break from the pool and give the hotel beach a try

We also tried these pina coladas

Eddie's cell phone also enjoyed the beach

We ended the evening at the hotel restaurant where we enjoyed a seafood buffet.

"All you can eat lobster...what?!?"

Mommy's Birthday Trip to Aruba - Day 1

Although my actual birthday was pretty standard, I was super excited about my gift from the hubby. A wonderful kid-free trip to the beautiful Aruba

View from our window at the magnificent Marriott hotel

Couple's Therapy - After a magical massage we hung out by the pool

And after lounging at the pool, we took in the scenic sunset on the Aruban beach

We later went to this traditional Aruban restaurant. "Bon Bini" means "Welcome"

"Welcome fruity martini!"

Great start to our mini vacation