It's Christmas Time again!

It is THAT time my girls look forward the most. No birthday or holiday is as important as this date. I may have said this before, but they start making her list for Santa every December 26th. Those items on the lists change a lot during the year, but the line "I want this from Santa next Christmas" is something I hear ALL YEAR long.

There was a leftover cake in the house, and that is what Santa got this year.  I know he was very thankful because he ate it all.  cake from Lila's birthday and he was very thankful... In this picture on the right you can also see the tags Santa had done for the girls.... Also the "Happy Jar 2015" were they will put pieces of papers during the whole year with notes of good moments so we can all read together next Christmas.  I got the idea from Pinterest and I may do a separate post about it.

At 6:25am they were already on my bedside SCREAMING for me to wake up... They are well trained to know they cannot open their presents without me and before taking a picture... They know better...


This year they also got cupcakes... I did the decor after we picked up all the gifts and mess.  They also got cookies and milk... They ate like little pigs...


We had LOTS and LOTS of fun opening the gifts and I'm happy to say that I didn't have to struggle much with childproof packaging... Most of the things where things that they were able to open by themselves. As usual, they spent the day playing with their new toys.

Mexican for one day

Today was my dad's birthday and his wife decided to throw him a Mexican Themed party. Serving tacos for dinner not only is cost effective, but it's also way less stressful than any other dinner you can offer. People also get to fix their own tacos and most people eat like there is no tomorrow (I know I did, lol).

It was an "adults only" party with lots of drinks, tacos and dominoes, so the girls were not there. I'm sad I didn't get any good pictures but at least I have some crappy cell phone pictures to keep for the memory lane.

One thing that made me extremely happy was to see my favorite uncle there.  My parents have been divorced for 30+ years and my uncles (my mom's brothers) still keep a good relationship with my dad. I think I'm the daughter of the best divorce of the century... Even my mom has a genuine good relationship with my stepmom... And of course, here is a picture with my two of favorite men... And in case you are wondering, my uncle is not as huge as he looks on the picture... He's very tall, that's true... but the truth is I'm very petite and my dad is shorter than average...


This is a picture of the cake and MY tacos (can't begin to explain how yummy they were)...


And here is a picture with my lil bro...

Gaby's Spa Slumber Party

I have to say that this is one of the parties that I have enjoyed the most. Gaby's actual birthday was a month ago, but the best timing to do a party with a sleepover was this weekend.

I'm thankful that my daughters have always understand when I need to do the parties later on... either because of the budget or because of other factors, and they are always ok with my decisions. They simply get happy and thankful that I do something special for them, regardless of when I do it.

As it was a sleepover and only one mom was staying with me, I decided to have only three guests... That means 6 girls including my girls. Here is the invitation I made for her...


As it was a sleepover, I did a decoration for the night and another for the morning. For the night decor it was more focused on the Spa part.  Then, the morning decor was more focused on their breakfast.  It was already set up when they woke up in the morning. They were all thrilled!


The biggest hit of the night was taking a picture with every hour. The first picture was taken at 7pm and the last one was taken at 3am. They were all still awake at 4am, and I was dead! I was still able to hear their voices but I was unable to move to take the picture!


At every hour they were doing something different. The picture just above on the left was the 10pm picture when they were eating hot dogs and mini pizzas. I lost count of how many times they repeated! Then, the picture next to it is the midnight picture... They were showing off the spa dolls they did for arts and crafts..

Here is the 1am picture while they were eating pop corn and watching a movie. Then, the picture at 3am when I asked them to go to sleep but it took them over an hour to fall asleep.


They really had a blast and they are already making plans for the next sleepover. Here is the thank you note I made...


I will be posting pictures of all the designs on my business blog.  I will update this post as soon as they are up.

Happy 11th Birthday Gaby

I know I always say the same thing, but it really feels like it was just the other day, but it has been already 11 years since I became a mom.

Believe it or not, Gaby was the first baby I ever held in my life, and it was like having my very own "live doll".

She was the one that teach me how to feed a baby, change a diaper, how to comfort a crying a baby, how to take care of a little person who is little by little becoming a little lady...

She teach me how to love unconditionally and how to be a mom. There are sooo many things that I need to thank her for. After all, she was the one that had to endure my mistakes in order for me to do it better with her sisters.

Gaby, I love you to the moon and back! Happy 11th Birthday!!

Her party will be next month, and we are all looking forward to it. Here is a mini collage I made for her because of her birthday...

My nephew is 8

Today is the 8th birthday of my oldest nephew/godson. He is this gorgeous and smart little boy than can be a little rascal one second, and then the most polite boy at the next second. He adores my girls and I love all the memories that they are creating together. Happy 8th Birthday, big boy!

Local Father's Day...

... That's today!

The way it works is that God decides who you children are, and you are supposed to love them.

However, when God gives you the opportunity to CHOOSE to be a daddy to someone else's children, and you take that role because of love... THAT is taking love to a whole new level.

Big bro, thanks for taking over the role of loving and caring for my daughters as if they were your own. They love you with all their heart, not just because they have to, but because you earn it every single of their life!

Happy Father's Day!

I also think this is a great day to post this picture. It should be almost 30 years old. I can't really tell my age, I may need to ask my mom... This is me with my daddy!

This way to Floresdalle

As I mentioned before, I organized a joined party for Mia and Mimi as they were both too crazy about Frozen.  My original plan was to celebrate it in the middle of both birthdays (at some point in May), but the girls and the other kids were in the middle of exams and all the rush to end the school year, so I decided to celebrate it after the school year was over.

The girls couldn't wait and when the day came, they were so excited that it was funny to see.

I always try to keep the amount of kids to an amount that I can handle. This time I had 11 kids (including the girls), and I got some adults too. I got a "snow" look all around. This is how the goodies corned looked...


Of course, they wanted to watch Frozen... On the first picture below, you can see Luca's face... He was sooo into the movie, LMAO!!



Each one got to blow their own cnadles...


Here is the thank you note I made to thank everyone!


I haven't post the designs I made for this party on my business blog.  Once I do, I will update this post with the link.

Mimi is really 7

Mimi is this amazing miniature version of a lady who turns 7 years old today. She has such a BIG mouth with such a tiny size. I never get tired of repeating how she excels in just about anything and everything!

She never ever ceases to amaze me and I am very proud of her. I love you sooooooo much that it hurts!!

Happy Birthday, little princess!

For memory lane, here is a collage of her growing up. She's the only one of my girls that I can still hold on my arms... and I love it!

Mia is 8

8 years ago I became a mom for the second time. It was the most difficult pregnancy of all three, and she was a high demand baby that needed to have her mama on her sight 24/7.

It was ALL worth it because she is now this sweet little lady that would go out of her way just to see a smile on people's faces.

She remembers details, and she's very sensitive and smart. She's doing great on second grade and she's growing non-stop. Tonight she's wearing a pj in size "Woman, size small" and the flip flops are "Woman, size 6"!!

I love you sooooooooooo very much my Cami-Cami!! Happy 8th birthday, Mia!

We spent the whole weekend doing lots of things to celebrate her birthday... Her party will be a joined party with Mimi as they both insisted on the same theme.

We still got her a yellow cake (she still LOVES yellow) and even my grandma sang happy birthday to her.


We also ate ice cream and pizza. My favorite uncle passed by and they were thrilled to see him as usual...


We went to watch Rio 2 and we all loved it. Awesome movie!! And of course, Gaby wanted her sisters to go to the ride simulator I took her a couple of weeks ago, and they loved it.

My 33's are here

I turned 33 last Monday and keeping up with my promise of celebrating my birthday every year, I did a small get together at a friend's restaurant.  Lots of people that I love was there, but I was so busy with everything that I hardly took pictures.

As I finally went to the eye doctor a couple of weeks ago to get new eyeglasses, I decided to have the an "eyewear" theme and it was really fun.  I have been procrastinating so much about this, and I thought this was a cute way for me to have a "cheer me up" to actually USE them this time.

I kinda mixed up the theme with Minions because they ALL have eyeglasses! I got cookies made colorful faces with eyeglasses and when I picked them up, they remind me of them.

Not that I really decorated, but I used some cupcake liners that I still had from Gaby's 10th birthday back in October.  Only thing I did was buy some plastic eyeglasses from a party store and they were a hit.


Here I am with just a few of the guests showing off their glasses...

Big 35 for my big bro

To honor my big bro's birthday, here is a picture from memory lane.  I think we were 3 and 1, but I'm just guessing.

He's more than a brother to me and more than an uncle for my girls... We love you!

Santa came to town...

... and the girls got spoiled once again!

It looks like Santa Claus was very pleased with the grape soda and cookies (yes, that is what I suggested the girls to leave out for him). I am sure it was a very good booster for him for all that work he had to do in the middle of the night.

They got a lot of things and in all honesty, I have no idea how Santa managed it.  I know Santa likes to spoil all kids, but sometimes he just doesn't have enough resources for all the things he would want to get.

I know that he worked extra hard this year to be able to make my girls happy.  The girls know that I am the one that gives the gift suggestions to Santa and I am happy that he listened to my suggestions and was able to get them most of the things I asked him for.

Here is a picture of how the tree looked after Santa passed by our house...

They were awake since 3:30am... I managed to make them wait until 6:00am when they just couldn't wait any longer! My cell was almost out of batteries and I am really sad that I had to take this picture without flash because it was still very dark :(


Playing with the gifts...

All girls for Christmas Eve

We didn't plan anything big for Christmas Eve because, after all, it was a Tuesday. The girls are on Christmas break, but my job doesn't stop because of the holidays, if any, it increases. As an interpreter, we take 911 calls and hospital calls and people don't stop having emergencies during the holidays (they should, though).

Even when it was just us with my mom and grandma, the girls wanted to dress up and they did.  They got dresses, their Santa hats and they were thrilled.

The girls don't get to dress up frequently because they normally get invited to a kids party where they can just use an informal dress or even jeans.  Mia and Mimi have a lot of dresses that they haven't been able to wear, especially dresses that used to belong to Gaby.

Gaby was extra happy because I allowed her to wear a dress that I would not allow her to wear to go any other place.  It was given to her as a gift and I'm sure it would still fit her when she is actually old enough to use it.

She looks like a teenager in that dress and she is only 10.  I want her to stay within each stage and I'm not in any hurry for her to grow up.  I want her to enjoy being a child for now, and then take care of being a teenager when she reach that age. She was also wearing some heels she got off my mom's closet (something else that she won't be allowed to use for a while).

We all sat at the big table and my mom did a beautiful prayer. We are light eaters at night, but tonight we ATE... A LOT.  I honestly can't handle eating heavy at night, but I knew I had a LONG night ahead, so it was not going to be so bad for me eating all that rice so late.

It was nice to have my grandma with us for dinner, because she normally eats in her room as she doesn't move around much... After all, she is already 95 years old.


One thing that was due to be done today was set up the Christmas Tree.  We did the decor a couple of weeks ago, however we wanted to set the tree together and we arranged to do it today.

Gaby's Barbie Candy Shop

Gaby's 10th birthday was at the beginning of the month and I was trying to come up with a theme (I still like to surprise them with the theme) as I had already used mostly all the themes for the things she likes. One of the few themes of the things she likes that I haven’t use is Barbie.

Even though some people thought that she was too old for Barbies, I decided this was going to be the perfect way to close this stage of her life. As a treat (and because she likes sweets so much), I came up with Barbie's Candy Shop. I also decided to have to have the candies arranged by color and then have the goodie bags empty for them to put the sweets in there to take home.

I had a LOT of fun planning and decorating the party and here is the invitation I made for her...


As the candies were arranged by colors, here is a picture of each area.  One area was Pink with Orange... Another Green with Yellow... another Purple and Turquoise... and the last one was Red and brown.



I have always preferred Arts and Crafts instead of games at birthday parties.  That minimizes that amount of accidents and sweating.  We did a DIY project with Wood Treasure Boxes and it was so fun.  I set up everything on the floor with a cardboard for each child.  They had paint, paint brushes and self-adhesive jewels.


The birthday girl blowing her candles...


And here is the thank you note for all the people that helped me to make this day a reality.