Lazy Days

(super long catch up post, be warned)

We have stayed around the house the last few days. I am trying to get caught up on bills and cleaning up. As the season comes to an end, I always deep clean and sort through our stuff and get ready for winter and start trying to use up all of our shampoo bottles and food and supplies before we move. Even if we dont move, I am going to San Diego for 1 month, so i will be taking the kids clothes that are too small and so on. 

So yeah just house stuff but that hasnt stopped us from really enjoying these last few days too. I took the kids to play park yesterday but neither of them really wanted to play on the equipment, so we did all kinds of other stuff. I taught them how to roll in the grass, and they were pushing me around, Tiago loved it. We collected flowers and then pine cones. Oh we had so much fun with the fallen pine cones. 1st we collected them, then Thais built a "sandcastle" out of them as Tiago kicked it over. Then we made a huge circle and ran around it, jump in and out and over it. And finally we made it a huge smiley face. It really was a lot of fun!
My silly girl


and then my serious girl

Tiago didnt want to play so he took break but then found a more fun way to enjoy not playing, lol!


The never ending hole, that they shoved stuff down for a long time

And begins the pine cone play, collecting them

The pine cone castle

Circle

My Mexican jumping beans



And the huge smiley face



As you know 2 of my friends who are other players wives have arrived and I wanted to get this all done so when they got here, we could all just hang out. Because not only do we all live in the same city now, but the same apartment complex. Well last night we went over to Salles's house and his wife Louisa cooked a big Brasilian dinner, as her own welcome dinner, seems backwards but hey if she wants to cook, i am all for it. We watched papa's team win in Atlanta, which moves them to 3rd place with just 2 weeks left in the season. Very exciting! 






And then today, my girlfriend Mely and her sweet baby Nela arrived. Oh and her husband too, but come on we all know when i went to their house, i went straight for that baby. I thought i would be scared of such a tiny baby again, but i wasnt. It was so natural, oh I loved it. I found myself putting Thais on the potty at Mely's house with one arm and holding Nela with the other and I didnt even think twice about till I realized, wait wheres my other arm? She was so warm and fit just perfect in there and she was asleep. All the memories of holding tiago when he was this little, while helping thais all came flooding back to me. It was such a special moment. Papa came over and took the kids to the park while me, mely and fam went to get some supplies to get them through the night. The entire time we shopped, I had the baby while they went in and out of rows. They kept asking if i was sure i didnt mind, and i just gave them that look, like "Are you crazy? of course i dont mind." I didnt realize just how big my kids were till i have a tiny 5 pound baby in my arms. So I can only imagine the next few weeks, i will have my hands all over that baby and around my girlfriends. And you can bet this weekend Denise and I's "latina wives club" will be twice as big! I cant wait! This is a pix of Nela with my phone, so you can see how tiny she is.



and now if this post isnt too long already, let me throw this in there too. In preparation for Thais going to preschool and Tiago's speech therapy and the fact that she will turn 3 and he will turn 2, we are trying some new things. We are trying to split the kids up a little bit to get them used to not always being around each other. Yesterday papa went grocery shopping with just tiago, so thais and i painted and did things we usually dont do with tiago around and neither one of them made any type of fuss. Then today, when I went to mely's i just took thais and papa brought tiago about 1 hr later. Its going well and they are really excited when they are reunited, but the two times we have done it, one of the kids was sleeping or not noticing when the other one left the house, but at least we are starting some where. This is papa and tiago coming back while thais watches through the window.

I Loved this painting pix because she did it all herself and everything was done right. She even lined the candy cane. Such a big girl!


Then the last 2 days in the house, Thais is only wearing panties and she is doing great! Only 1 accident yesterday and none today. We even left the house in undies and went to Mely's. She was afraid of their toilet, so i let her pee in the bath tub, but hey, she still held it. I am so proud of her. I just finally said ok thats enough and went to undies. She wore undies and did great in Brasil almost 1 yr ago, so I dont know why i was so scared of doing it again, but now she is almost 3, so it is just time. Thankfully she is doing great and so proud of herself. She doesnt have to be trained for pre school but it would be nice.

and lastly we are trying to just do straw cups in the house. You may wonder why i hadnt done this already. Again i was just scared of the spills especially since we dont own any of the furniture in our apartments and dont pay rent, i just hate to trash the stuff if it aint ours. The kids are old enough now though that it is also time. I know i lag on some stuff but with 2 kids in diapers and 2 kids on sippies, it was just easier. But as with every time we move, it means changes and so we begin the next set of changes.....

NY State Fair

If any of you know me, than you know I am a beach girl. I come from San Diego, I live in a bathing suit, love beach bonfires, swim with dolphins and seals in the pacific ocean. So imagine today when I found myself surrounded by rainbow colored chickens and pig racing. This girl is far far from home, lol! No really though, we had a great time and while it was a very long day with 5 kids and 2 adults, we pulled it off and had a very memorable time.

So let me start from the beginning. Some of the ladies I talk with online decided to have a regional meet up. There were 6 ladies that might have gone but in the end it was just Ajaleah and I. We hadnt hung out in about a month (click here to see our last play date), so it was about time we meet up again. This time it wasnt just a play date, we went for a full on adventure. We both were kid sitting that day for friends so that took our total number of kids up to 5 from 3. I drove to her house then we all piled into her new mini van and drove over an hour to Syracuse. I brought the dvd players and snacks and the kids did great. We finally made it and busted out the double strollers and single stroller and off we went. Little did we know what we were in for. I will let the pictures explain the rest of our day.

We start our adventure with just 3 kids in the back of my car

We meet Ajaleah, her son Easton and the neighbor's girl, Charlotte. We are all loaded up in her van and ready to go.

Syracuse here we come....

Tony the big helper

We finally made it to the famous New York Sate Fair

First place we see is a barn full of cows. They were even having a cow show for judging. But the baby cows were my fav part, while Ajaleah wanted to watch the video of the cow giving birth, i walked right on by, No thanks!

Um yeah never seen colored chickens before....

I have never seen so many animals in barns before. One barn was all chickens, rosters and what ever else. They had them in rows and as many as 4 cages on top of each other. I know this was a contest of some sort, but really how can you tell one apart from the other yet alone judge which one is better. Complete shock to me...




I was in awe of the rabbits. They had distinct markings and colors and the one tony is with had the longest fur, it didnt even look like a rabbit at all.




The scenery as we head down the main alley

We realized it may rain, so we wanted to get the kids on some rides and games before then. We let the big kids pick 3 favorite rides they wanted in case we only had time for 3 and this twister ride was #1 on the list. Tony wasnt so sure at first but later loved it.


Shark fishing was next, the 3 older kids all won prizes here

Ajaleah was so smart by just rolling the stroller up to the edge of this fishing game and letting the boys stick their hands right in. Except Tiago just liked the feel of the water and didnt know he was supposed to catch a fish.

Thais catching a fish

Tiago finally realizes he is supposed to pick the fish up out of the water

My baby boy winning his first ever fair prize, of which then dunked the prize fish into the water. The lady had to wring it out and hand it back to him.

In line waiting to ride the train, lucky me I went first to ride with the kids. And later you will see just how lucky i was, lol!




From one train to the next, on our way to the Thomas the train show. I just loved how good the older kids were with the little kids.

Tony, loves Thomas and always plays with Tiago's trains when he comes over to my house. So he was super excited to sit with Thomas.


We tried to get a group shot, but Thais was not liking Thomas. His eyes moved side to side and it freaked her out. So we got 4 out of 5, not bad!

We got there early and got front row seating

Thais was actually really into the story. I think she was the only one in the whole place, the reader was horrible and the story wasnt great. We adults were pretty disappointed to have to sit for 30 mins for this, but the kids had fun and we got Thomas pixs and certificates. So I guess it was worth it.



I love this picture, he is such a handsome little man

Some sights as we took a potty break


I see these on tv all the time, "freak shows" but didnt think they still had them. Not only that but this is only half of the sign showing what they had inside. I cant even tell you what was on the other side, but just know it had to do with deformed human babies. It was so mean and cruel. I wanted to pay the $1 to go in and see if it was for real, if society could actually be that cruel, but then again I didnt even want to know. I was afraid of what I might do or say so we just walked on by.

This is for my cousin Stacy who last week ate Fried Oreos, today she could have had fried Snickers, fried reese's, or fried Zeppoles (what ever those are).

I stayed with the little kids in strollers while it was Ajaleah's turn to take the big kids on the swings. I swear I just fed them anything i had to keep them contained, of course Thais was already getting tired, so she was easy, but the boys were a handful, but i had fun. Much rather stay on the ground then up in the air, lol!

Time for bumper cars. Tony and I went first.

This is how my kids entertained themselves while we had to take turns taking the big kids on the bumper cars.




Ajaleah and Charlotte on the bumper cars, next.

The fun house was last... an air blast got everyone right at the end. We could have sat there all day just watching people being surprised by the air.

We were just getting ready to leave when we saw a sign that said petting zoo, so we figured why not? We were beyond grateful we went.
The goats and sheep


We did not expect to see these guys here, nor do we want to think how they got them here, but we sure enjoyed them and Easton had no fear what so ever feeding them carrots.





Some more random animals in the petting zoo. Tiago was loving them and Thais was having no part in any of them.




While we did have to pay more for this, is was the best part of Thais's day. It was an unlimited amount of jumping. At one point she was the only one in there and of course she was the last one to leave. I had to drag her out of there.



Video of the kids jumping

A quick shot of the girls as for the first time all day, all the kids were occupied without us.

This was hilarious. Hollywood pig racing. Really what did this fair not have?


After all the jumping and the pigs, we started our walk back to the car, which for the first time the baby boys feel asleep. It was close to 5:45pm before either of them fell asleep for the first time all day. We were both shocked our sons stayed awake so long without a big fuss from either of them. In case you didnt know both of our boys were born same month, same year, just a few days apart.


Tractors were all over the place, I never seen so much John Deer in my life


Thais kept asking for a lollipop all day so finally as we were walking out, we stopped and got the kids some candy for the ride home.



Thais finally feel asleep for about 10 mins before we arrived back to Ajaleah's house. She has a great backyard and thankfully her husband watched all 5 of the kids as we unloaded her car and loaded back up my car. I then drove to my house, dropped off my kids, then drove Tony to his house. I finally returned home sometime like 9 or 10pm. I showered, ate real food and not fair food and fell asleep. I was so tired and sore and just drained, i slept in till 9am today, lol!

I am really grateful that I got to go experience something like this and that I got to spend quality time with Alajeah and her crew and Tony and my own kids. We saw so much more that we didnt even get pictures of, that I wont forget and while my life of traveling is hard, it is days like these that we really get to see, taste, feel and experience the local life that are worth it. While this was not what i am used to, I certainly did enjoy to it.