Row, row...

Congratulations Hubby!!!

Omar defended his thesis yesterday and is now "unofficially" Dr. Omar Gutierrez. Congratulations honey! I'm so proud of all your hard work.

Aquarium trip

I took the T (train) with a couple of friends and their daughter's to the New England Aquarium. Elena enjoyed having her two friends for the experience and Marisa loved pointing at all the animals. As I took pictures of them I couldn't help but realize that I officially have friends here or at least Elena does anyway. :)




I think she was pointing at the penguins. This was her favorite part, touching the starfish.

Easter pics

We spent our Easter with Omar's family who visited for a few days. It was ridiculously cold considering it was up to 60 only 2 days prior. I even brought my thermals out again, but it was sunny and nice nonetheless and we were happy to spend it with family.


With the Easter Bunny at the church egg hunt

Breaking cascarones


They insisted on blowing their Easter basket bubbles despite the freezing weather.
Posing with Grandma F.

Easter traditions

My neighbor invited us to dye Easter eggs. Thank you Jamie! The girls had so much fun! It's so nice having a mom and toddler pair as friends and neighbors upstairs. We really live in the same house so it's nice to get out without actually having to leave the house. This works out perfect on bad weather days. We go to each others houses in socks or slippers and the girls in pj's sometimes. The best part is when we trade for babysitting. Although we do babysit at the others person's house it's nice to know I can quickly run downstairs (my place) if I'm desperately needed.

Anyway, I remember dying Easter eggs only once with a friend in 3rd grade. We didn't grow up with this tradition and I have yet to learn exactly what to do besides the painting of course. What do you do with the boiled eggs when you're done? Do you hide them with the plastic ones? Do you give them to the Easter Bunny? Do you eat them right after painting them? As with any tradition I know there are variations within families so please do share your Easter egg tradition with me! You can see the Easter egg tradition we grew up with here and here.

Keeping busy

Omar is off to College Station in two weeks for his defense. He's been working quite diligently during the the last few weekends finishing up the last bits of his dissertation so I've been trying to keep the girls and myself entertained outside of the house now that it's warming up and we're finally ALL better. Lots of pictures below of our recent fun around town.







I recently discovered the park in the above pics while walking less than a mile from our house. I was surprised to come across it because there are already 3 parks that I know of that are within a mile from the house. I have to say that is my favorite part about living here. I can walk for a mile and find restaurants, shops, parks, walk to our Dr. appointments, the grocery store, Omar's work and Elena's school.

And you've seen the scenery below. It's the Charles River which separates Cambridge and Boston. This is my favorite nearby activity. I love walking by the river on sunny days and then taking the girls to the park right next to the river when I'm done. They love watching the runners, cyclists, kids on trikes and bikes, and most of all the furry friends they get to pet.








And just for fun a picture of the girls' favorite pasttime. Can't you tell?