St. Patrick's Day and A Nice Weekend

Last week, Esperanza School had their annual St. Patrick's Day parade, and this year Natalie and Owen were both in it (last year, Owen had to watch from the sidelines). Henry watched from a wagon this year, and Natalie and Owen had fun marching. Natalie was giving her princess wave to everyone, and Owen was blowing a little toy horn. That was a nice mid-morning break and fun to see the kids. The weather over the weekend was beautiful. We did some work outside, and Saturday night, Nat, Owen, & Henry went to Rainbow Kids - yes, Henry is finally old enough! Ike and I had tickets to see the Roy Hargrove Quintet - it was awesome! Sunday, Natalie and Owen did some bike/trike riding and checked out the new bike path that's going in by our house. Owen is ready for a big bike - he's a speed demon on that tricycle! We're starting to prepare Natalie for taking the training wheels off. It will be time soon. Henry just ran around. He's not quite ready for biking - I put him on the little bike and he wasn't interested in using the pedals. So it was a nice way to finish off the weekend. Ike has a trip to New York this week and I'm going to New Orleans next week, so it'll be busy around here.

Birthday Weekend

It's been a time of birthday celebrations around here. Last weekend Natalie had birthday parties to go to on Saturday and Sunday afternoon. Also last weekend, Natalie, Owen, and Henry had a night-time playdate at our friends' house (they have two girls, one Nat's age and one Owen's age) while Ike & I went to the ballet. The kids all had a blast, and the report was that Nat, Owen, & Henry were all really good. Henry went to sleep in the play-yard with no problems and slept like a log until we got back. Friday (the 13th!!) was my birthday. It was a great day (aside from the cold, rainy weather - nice, considering it was 80 degrees earlier in the week!) - Ike took off work and we spent the day together. We all went to dinner with Karien & Kevin and the girls. Natalie made sure to tell the waitress (about 5 times) that it was my birthday. So I did not get out of there without the big sombrero and singing. We all enjoyed my dessert though! After dinner we came home and put Henry to bed, then I opened my presents. I got some really cool stuff!! Saturday was a normal Saturday - Natalie to ballet, errands, house stuff, sneaking in a quick afternoon nap... Saturday night Natalie and I went to the ballet. It was a nice evening for both of us. Sunday we had a birthday cookout. Of course it was pouring down rain, so we were all cooped up in the house. But we had a lot of fun anyway. And compliments and thanks to Ike for grilling in the rain. And my cake was awesome!! So I had a great birthday weekend. This week the kids have a St. Patrick's Day parade at school, so we're looking forward to that.

Mexico!

We went on our vacation to Ixtapa, Mexico last week and we had a wonderful time! We went with our really good friends Karien and Kevin and their girls, Allison and Natalie. The weather was gorgeous everyday and we had lots of time by the pool and at the beach. Natalie, Owen, and Henry all went to the kids' program for some part of each day, so Ike and I also had some time to go kayaking, do yoga or fitness, go to the circus school (and try out the flying trapeze), or just lay by the pool. Ike did a triathalon on the beach one day, and I tried out the dance classes too. Ike & I ventured out on our own one day - we took a water taxi out to the island and had an excellent seafood lunch. Natalie had a blast at her camp - she had plenty of activities to choose from: circus school (she did the trapeze a bunch of times and was able to do the whole trick!), yoga, hip hop dancing, golf, soccer, tennis, beach time, and she had a great kids' pool to swim in. She made a lot of new friends and enjoyed seeing them outside of the camp at the pool and at the restaurants. She also befriended an older boy that she was always excited to see (we're in big trouble!). Owen also had lots of activities like golf, soccer, tennis and swimming, and he even won the miniature golf tournament one day. Allison was in the same group as Owen, so they had a really good time together. Henry went to play with all the other babies, and he was able to go in the baby pool every day. And they had toy phones for him to play with so he was happy. We also had fun all going to the big pool together and going down to the beach. There was a band at sunset every evening, and the kids would all dance while the adults had cocktails. Owen was cracking us up - he likes to pretend he is playing guitar (left-handed) and close his eyes - like he's so into the music. He also has learned to cross his eyes and he does it a lot, especially when he gets in trouble and we discipline him (he makes it hard not to laugh, what a clown!). Henry is really blossoming - learning new words and communicating with us. He's always on the go and he does not like to be kept in one place (making the plane rides interesting). We went out to some of the nightly activities, and Natalie enjoyed bossing all the other kids around while they danced and played. Natalie and Owen were in a hip hop show one night, and Natalie was also in the circus show the final night. The food was excellent and we all ate way too much. We are now in food-detox here. We had such a great time, we hated to have to come home.