Elena's 6th Birthday!

Elena turned 6! That's crazy for me to think about, I just can't believe she's so big now. She's so intelligent, funny, sweet, caring, and she loves princesses and fairies. So we had a princess party, complete with Rapunzel. 

Adelina did so well with Amy; she's usually won't let people hold her.

Of course she got a fairy painted on her cheek! Also, see that hole in her ear? She really wanted to get her ears pierced for her birthday. I was hesitant, but eventually agreed. She loved them, and she looked beautiful with them. But then the next day I saw a red rash around both ears, and she was itchy. Poor thing was allergic, and I took her to the doctor and we took them out. I felt terrible for her because she was so disappointed and had been so brave during the piercing. We took them out the day before the birthday party, and the rash was still bad during the birthday party, but I had applied calamine lotion, which is why it's not too visible in the picture.

Adelina and my mom

 

Pictures with Rapunzel!

Singing happy birthday

The tables were in the middle of the room, which worked out to be the perfect center of a track. It got very noisy as the kids all ran laps around the room.

Elena had so much fun, and it was great to see her celebrate with her friends. My baby's growing up!

July!

I haven't been great about taking pictures lately, partly because I'd rather soak in those moments with the kids than take a picture, and other times because I forget. I only took a few pictures of our day at the Santa Barbara Zoo, and this is the only one that came out good. The kids really liked the meerkats and giraffes. Afterward we walked down to the beach. Elena had so much fun, despite not having a bathing suit. It wasn't something we planned on doing, but just seemed too good to pass up. She was soaked, and changed into Jorge's shirt to walk back to the car. 

My girls resemble each other so much! Actually all 3 kids do.

The kids are always building. They have so much fun!

After Elena had a blast in Santa Barbara, we made another trip to the Ventura beach. Samuel had a lot of fun in the sand, and eventually he was brave enough to get his feet wet. Around the rocks he and Jorge found hermit crabs, sea slugs, and anemones. It was so much fun!

This little one hung out with me first, then went with Daddy for awhile. She wanted to stay in my arms almost the whole time, but then fell in love with the sand.

I have a lot of pictures with Adelina because she's with me all the time. She literally crawls up to me and yells "Mama!"

I just love her. Things feel complete with her in our family. And Elena and Samuel just love helping with her and playing with her. We are so blessed.

June

We've sure enjoyed our unscheduled summer. We had a break from homeschooling, a break from our regular get-togethers with school friends (we actually wanted to continue this but it's been 100 degrees pretty much daily which made running outdoors not very appealing), no Wednesday night church groups for the kids, and no school on Tuesdays for Elena. She did do Vacation Bible School for a week, which she loved and cried about when it was over. And she also continued her weekly art classes and started ballet. 

She's had a good summer. And how is she so big?! We'll be starting up first grade very soon!

And this little one sure loves her daddy.

Here Samuel is playing with a pinball machine we built from a tinkering kit we get each month. This was their favorite one so far.

 

My kids never fall asleep in random places, so I was really shocked when I found Samuel passed out on the couch.

Of course, summer means some fun times outside, when it's cool enough.

Adelina Turned 1!

How is my baby girl 1 already?! Time goes by way too fast these days. 

Adelina is so precious, sweet, affectionate, silly, and has a great sense of humor. She enjoys playing peekaboo, and can say mama, mimis (ni-night), baby, and boo! She is a good sleeper and seems to be transitioning to 1 nap a day. Her smile is contagious, which is great because she smiles a lot!

Here are pictures from when she turned 11 months.

And here she is at 12 months!

It sure is hard to get them to leave those stickers on for pictures!

With a little cake.

We got her a little baby doll for her birthday.

These two patiently waited for some cake.

They really don't stay babies for long.

Disneyland Date!

Elena and I went to Disneyland together, just the two of us. It was a special day.

Of course she had a blast!

She saw a lot of princesses. Merida is one of my favorites. The accent was spot-on.

In Pixie Hollow, waiting to meet Tinker Bell.

Face paint!