Balloons!

I think the trick to keeping up with my blog is to immediately journal events as they happen. Don't know if it's possible but here's a post at the beginning of the month which has been rare these days. I've always wanted to go to a hot air balloon festival. Apparently they have a balloon lift of here near Lake Travis in August at sunrise. Not a festival, and maybe only 6 balloons total, but we were close enough to feel the heat of the fire and the crowd was manageable. Learning that this event was at sunrise and 20 minutes away seemed daunting at first, but once I told the girls about it they were excited. In the morning Elena said, "this is going to be the best day ever!" Omar is on his way home from a work trip in Buenos Aires and we were sad he missed it but on the other hand I didn't have to convince him or any other adult for that matter that waking up little kids to see large balloons at 5am was a smart idea. He may have made me change my mind and it turned out well and totally worth the drive and the early wake up. We'll see how the rest of the day goes. Karina was scared of the loud noises that were coming from the flame, but she calmed down on my back with my still trusty SSC and then quickly fell asleep despite the noise. She woke up in time for the lift offs and waved, "bye, bye, globo" as they took off one by one. My sister Yvette and her husbandcousins

E's first sleepover

She had her first sleepover!! How is she a big girl already? She did great and I had no doubt she wouldn't miss us overnight. Of course now she's planning her next sleepover party at our house. I don't even know how to plan one!

Camp Josie

So I had the bright idea of inviting my nieces and nephews over for 5 days and decided to call their stay, "Camp Josie." With 9 people including 7 children and then later one more adult and one more child, I have to say that it was a really enjoyable week full of new memories. I didn't doubt that it would be fun. My childhood consisted of this exact amount of members in my family and I always loved having a busy, noisy household, full of life. I have to give a lot of credit to my MIL who helped out a lot too. Many of our excursions around town were possible because she willingly stayed behind with Karina while I took all the kids out. I got a glimpse of what life would be like with older mostly self sufficient children and I loved it! For once I began to look beyond the baby/preschool years and not feel a sad loss for those sweet young years. I have so much to look forward to! For reference the kids ages including my own kids were--2,5,7,8,12,13,17. I now understand why some mothers of multiple children say it is easier with more children. It really felt that way! I was more motivated to implement true structure. I posted rules and a chore chart and everyone pulled their weight with no fuss. Just like in the classroom the power of peer pressure worked wonders. The older kids reminded the little kids of things they missed, but they guided them too. What I also loved was enjoying trips out with everyone and seeing things through their eyes, remembering the excitement of summer and how exciting new experiences were. Isn't that the joy of having children?

End of School, Start of summer

Since I haven't been able to catch up on my posts since December, I've decided to just keep blogging and get back to those other months slowly...The thought of filling in 5 months was getting intimidating so I just wouldn't blog but I LOVE reading all my past posts when the girls were babies, when we lived in various places and I know I'll regret not recording our lives so I'm going to continue even though there's still a gap to fill in at some point. So here's June so far: Summer has officially began! I'm so looking forward to spending these next few months with all my girls exploring the town! We have already been out and about and I'm realizing how it's getting easier to get out with them now that they are a little older and I'm falling more in love with this city too. Here's what we've been up to. Last day of school goodbyes. (The girls are moving to a closer school next school year so it was a bit emotional more so for me it seemed) So proud of Marisa! She received the "most thoughtful" award in her class! Marisa's grade level had a splash party at the splash pad after school.

Wordless Wednesday