flowers

As we headed to a restaurant for lunch after church, we discovered large planters outside with a few flowers in them. S thought they were very pretty and asked to have her picture taken with them. O always wants to do what his sibs do, so he joined in on the fun. I feel like I rarely remember to take pics of the kids (this blog helps), so it's nice to have someone else suggest it, too!

rodeo time

simple time

We have a fairly busy life, that is to say, pretty normal for families of today. I have a love/hate relationship with it. I love all the activity and doing new things, but need some balance and simplicity.

The hard part is that, when we don't have something planned to do, it's sometimes hard to come up with something fun to do that doesn't end up with the kid watching a video (which they love and always want to default to).

Last night, the stars aligned. We seized one of the last opportunities to build a fire. The kids love gathering sticks and crinkling paper and helping me light the fire. We brought dinner into the living room and everyone are super pleasantly. After dinner, Rafa wanted to play chess (???) with Papi, so Papi patiently sat with him. I played the piano a little. Sylvia and Oscar mostly entertained themselves, sometimes bringing instruments to play along with me. It was lovely. We read, we relaxed, we enjoyed being together. It was lovely. It also helps that there were minimal screams and tears, for whatever reason. Like I said, the stars aligned.

love

I recently came across this picture and it makes my heart melt.  I love this man.  More than anything. 

evening walks

With all the talk about ADHD, screen time and kids' play time, I admittedly worry a little about whether the kids get out and about enough. We used to walk at least for a little every evening after dinner. Now that it's dark early (and because I'm usually wiped out tired, let's be real), we've fallen off that wagon. So, yesterday when I came home, I asked the kids if they wanted to go for a walk with me BEFORE dinner. How revolutionary!  It was wonderful. We decided to head to campus, and picked up Papi along the way. The kids preferred their scooters to walking, which actually keeps the pace up a little, a good thing. It was a lovely, early evening adventure. 

Can you see O, our runaway?  This is a benefit of campus, he can get quite far without my getting too nervous. The twins were not runners, and are very good at not going into the street, so I don't worry about them much. O, not so much. So, this was a good exercise for me in trust and for him in independence. He waved to all the passersby and I'm certain he thoroughly enjoyed his freedom. I was glad he came back without my having to chase after him. 

Unfortunately, the twilight epiphany was closed for the day. But, just a good reason to go back again!

Sibling love. That is all. 

v-day

Little brains are amazing. I taught the twins a v-day poem to share with their friends at school and it took all of 2-3 repetitions and all 3 kids had it down! I told them that they could also say it to Papi and say, 'you are my Papi and I love you' and S said, 'but he's my friend' and greeted him first thing with a sweet poem.

family hide 'n seek

So, our current favorite pastime just might be hide 'n seek. The promise of a fun game sure helps get plates cleaned, table cleared, teeth brushed, and pjs on.

R was GIDDY with joy at the prospect of escondidas after dinner. He ran upstairs and even brushed his teeth on his own!

Papi loves to startle the kiddos when they find him and they love being scared out of their wits for a moment. I love that O loves to hide with me. He's superb at staying super quiet for quite some time waiting for the seekers to find us.

The kiddos are also starting to find great hiding places themselves--rather than just being in plain view and hiding their face, which they used to consider good hiding. It's wonderful to have time to do this from time to time instead of our evenings just spent doing all the evening things to prepare for bed. Even we get to be kids for a bit every once in awhile.

stories

What a wonderful thing to share with our kiddos!

mounted patrol

The Vassariños' school was closed for the teachers to go to an early education workshop. So, the Teddy Bear room moms did a fantastic job setting up a class outing to visit the mounted patrol unit and feed the horses. 

They had a blast!

In the tack room. 

Sylvia was the bold one to go first. 

Love. 

O was a little timid and couldn't quite get close enough. 

Double love. 

We tried again together with mami. R was a great photographer!

Petting in mami's arms worked better. S captured this moment, but was more focused on the horse than mami and O. 

Triple love!

The whole gang. O isn't in the pic because he was mad that mami couldn't put him on top of this horse to 'ride'.

fireside

R has really enjoyed helping make fires in our fireplace on the chilly days this winter. The kids love looking for sticks and crinkling the paper to get it going. As we sat by the fire, D decided to read Don Quixote to the kiddos and R climbed right up in his lap. R watched the fire and listened to the strange story and seemed entranced by it all. I adored the sweet moment. Much to D's enjoyment, the next time we built a fire, R asked D to read again from the big book. And they snuggled again by the fire. These are the precious moments.

self portraits

big sis

S still loves to take care of her brothers. And now that O wants to play with his sibs all the time and do what they're doing, they've turned into quite a team.

R has shown much more interest and proclivity to reading than S. So, I was super pleased when she led her bros to listen to her 'read' a story. I mean, really. Does it get any better than this???

self portraits