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.

Gaby has TWO digits...

... on her age!

It seems like "the other day", however it has been 10 years since I became a mom for the very first time. Happy 10th Birthday to Gabriela Michele! 

Gaby: I am so lucky to have you as my daughter, and your sisters couldn't ask for a better big sister. Continue working hard at school and making us proud. Hope you never lose your sweetness and kindness! I LOVE YOU sooo very much!

The buds with double eyes

All three girls have been complaining non stop for headaches and I knew checking the vision was in order. Gaby is the only one that has been prescribed with eyeglasses for reading, but Mia and Mimi were supposedly fine.

After lots of testing done, Gaby got new eyeglasses (only for reading again) and Mimi got prescription for eyeglasses full time. This doesn’t surprise me because they were born early and I knew this was something that could happen. Mia was sent for a more specialized test, but so far, it looks like she won’t need them.


And here is a close up of each one of my girls with eyeglasses...

And back to school we go

The girls are back to school and they are really excited. Gaby started 5th Grade, Mia started 2nd Grade and Mimi started 1st Grade.

I'm very excited also because I was able to get them into a school that I have been trying to get them in since last school year.  It is very hard to get spots in this school and we were blessed with a lot of help to get this done.

It is also the same school that my nephew is which means that Mia and him will share the same classroom.  Of course, they are thrilled about it and I can't wait to see how that will work out.  I'm sure it will be more than perfect.

I also got tired of purchasing backpacks every single school year and ordered three new backpacks from Land's End.  Gaby has one since she was 4 years old and even though she doesn't use it for school anymore, it is still around and it gets a lot of used.  I chose their favorite colors and I honestly hope to get the most use possible out of them.

My 5th Grader


My 2nd Grader


My 1st Grader

Family day with my grandma

My grandma turned 95 years old today. All her living children where with her and she was thrilled.

Sadly, I couldn't be there because I had to work, but my girls and nephew were there. Also my brother and his wife were with them. Mimi was sleeping for a while, and she is not in the pictures.

They told me that they had a great time and my grandma was very happy.

She is extremely healthy considering her age and she doesn't really have any illness or any serious health condition. I think she's not even close to go to my grandad's side in heaven. She's staying with us for a very long time.

Weight in for the girls

I weighted the girls today and here is the verdict.....

- Mimi is 41 pounds and in 22nd percentile for her age (my peanut)
- Mia is 63 pounds and in 85th percentile for her age
- Gaby is 103 pounds and in 95th percentile for her age

If you look at the picture, even when Mia is not completely straight, she is still way taller than Mimi and she is only 13 months older.  Mimi is really petite but I'm not so worried anymore... She really eats very well, and she IS growing... just in a lower pace than usual. Maybe her metabolism is just too fast and she will be one of those ladies than eat and eat and never gets fat.