Getting to know my paternal family

My mom and dad divorced when I was 2 years old and even though I spend some time with his side of the family, I never really got to know my cousins very much.  I knew most of their names (not all) but I was never close to my paternal cousins.

A couple of weeks ago, one of my sister's passed and at her wake, I got to meet a lot of cousins that I didn't even know I had.  We talked about it that day and decided that a family reunion was in order.  We needed to get to know each other.

Today was THAT day.  Sadly, it was a pool party and Gaby was extremely sick to be able to go.  It was sad to keep her home but she wasn't in the condition to be exposed to a pool in such a windy day.  At the end, it was so chilly that nobody got into the pool, but the weather was still not appropriate for Gaby to be there. I'm sure we will have more reunions were she will get to meet them.

Both of my families are very large.  My mom comes from a family of 8 children and my dad from a family of 6 children.  Each one of my aunts and uncles from both sides have several kids which means that I have LOTS of cousins.  Then, my cousins have LOTS of kids themselves.  I have three bothers and only one of them was there, and only one of my two nephews.  But in all, lots of us got together including my dad who is one of the few survivors (4 of his siblings already passed, only one is alive).  


The girls had a blast with all her "new cousins".  Funny thing is that they meet ALL of them that day (except for my nephew).  Can't wait for Gaby to meet them all.


And here are a couple of pictures with my dad and one of my brothers.

Family Day at school

Today was the family day at the girls school.  They had performances prepared for the parents to see and it was a family day different to what I am used to.  Normally it is just a bunch of games and activities and everybody is on their own, but being able to have the girls perform and THEN get into those fun activities was something I liked very much.

Mia and Mimi have been practicing classical ballet since the beginning of the school year and Mia was soooo nervous that she was shaking.  She can actually see her nervous face on the pictures. On the other hand, Mimi was extremely confident and all sassy.  Even with Mia's stage fright, they both did a beautiful job and I was wearing my "proud mamma hat".  In one of the pictures, you can see Mimi with her best friend.  It's funny how you cannot tell which one is which if you are looking at both of them from their backs... They have the same height, same weight, same hair, same skin color... even the same BIG eyes!


Gaby have been practicing Baton Twirling and she is so happy with it that I think she even dreams about it. They did a presentation (pictures below) and my heart was racing. Mimi also performed a dance and below you can see a picture of her with her dance partner while enjoying some "waltz time".


Here is also a video with part of Gaby's performance. Super fun!

Grade time!

Gaby is doing great in 4th Grade.  I got her grades for the second evaluation and I am a proud mama!

Math 95 (A+)
Spanish 96 (A+)
Social Studies 97 (A+)
Science 94 (A-)
Art 97 (A+)
English 90 (A-)
Religion 97 (A+)
PE 85 (B+)
Discipline 85 (B+)
Computer 78 (C+)
Civic 95 (A+)

Funny that her two lower grades were the two ones I always excelled at.  I always got 100 at PE because I was part of mostly all the sport teams we had at school so I didn't really participated of the class per se.  There was always I game I needed to practice for.

And yes, the daughter of two computer geeks has 78 on computer. The teacher understood she is teaching 7th grade and the exam was not age appropriate... Plus she is not taking them to the lab , only theory... Gaby knows how to use the computer better than a lot of adults since she was 2 years old... The teacher WILL hear my mouth sooner than later.