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

Mateo's Planet Presentation

For several weeks, Mateo has been at home rapping about the solar system and today we got to see a little more about what all of the kids in his 4th grade class have been learning about the planets. Mateo was assigned Venus.

Mateo's partner was Bryson and I have got to mention that their project looked a bit bare compared to others. Apparently, when Mateo was sick from school for 2 days, Bryson didn't really work on the project, so needless to say they were a little behind. I do have to give them credit - while their 3-dimensional component could have been a little more engaging their Power Point , presentation with accompanying music (as you can see there were headphones) "Night Begins to Shine" from Teen Titans Go, was informative and quite creative.

Best of all the Rap/Poetry at the end of the presentation. Check out their stage names.

"Play Drizzle...I'm Out!"

MLV Celebrate Milla's 4th Birthday on Mother's Day

Today was a really cool day because the Laine, Gonzalez and Shroff kids (all 9) got together to help celebrate Milla's  4th birthday.  Of course because there are lots of different plans going on today (golf, soccer, Mother's Day celebration) we made it a breakfast celebration. It is rare that we can get all of the kids together, but when we do it's lots of fun for everyone.

Quite comfortable in their surroundings, Lucia kicks off her shoes and she, Alma and Shyam (the middles) invade the kids' bedroom and help with blowing up party ballloons.

After the kids get in some playtime, we force them to sit and eat a little of the breakfast spread.

Chocolate croissant anyone?

The littles - Little Shroff (aka Annika) enjoyed the breakfast treats also.

Lucia sitting next to Little Gonzalez (aka Valentina) enjoying some juice.

And now for the celebration of the Littlest Laine - aka Milla

Happy 4th Birthday Milla!

After breakfast cupcakes the kids got to "horsing around" again...

...and of course there was a petite pinata with more sweet treats. Everyone got a swing, but Mateo managed to bust it open.

After all of that, the Middles and Bigs went out to play and the two littlest of Littles stayed in and got in some bonding time. 

"Oh Yeah" it's also Mother's Day so later we went our with Aba, Abu and Tia Lola to celebrate at a local churrasceria. The meat kept on coming and it was delicious. A very good day.

Happy Mother's Day!

Lucia at Jungle Book

A few weeks ago, Eddie took Mateo to see the Jungle Book after school and ever since Lucia (and I) have wanted a chance to go on a girl date and see the movie as well. Today we finally managed to carve out some time and it was worth it.

"It's SHOWTIME!!"

Mateo Team Chess Tournament

Mateo has been going to chess tournaments for a couple of years, but this year is different because Elysian actually has a team now that can compete against other school teams.  Today Elysian Charter School did very well.

2 Junior Champs - Ryan (who got 1st) and Mateo (4th place) ended up winning 2nd place for the Team 

The rest of the team (Evan, Adrian and Evan) had solid wins as Future Champs