Fun with kids – Page 2

Christmas & New Year’s break – Best ever?

Christmas 2014 Fun with kids Holiday Fun New Years 2014 Parenting multiples Pregnant with Twins Strider

Thanks to Becca’s line of work and the awesome agency I work for, we were off at the same time the kids were on Christmas break from school.

This Christmas not only brought with it the joy it usually brings, but allowed us to spend some quality time with our kids, our family and with friends (both local and visiting).

Because of how far along we are in the pregnancy (33 weeks!), we had to lay low and stay in town for the entire break. Looking back, it was probably the best thing that could’ve happened to our family. We were able to make great progress on the remodeling of the kids’ rooms and setting up the twins’ nursery and we had THE best time together. Nope, we did not do anything out of the ordinary; we did not visit any theme park or anything like that. We just stayed home, went to the beach and visited 3-4 different playgrounds to let the kids burn some energy and enjoy the amazing Florida winter weather.

Sometimes less is more and this was one of those times. We are now getting back into our “normal” groove. This week will probably be challenging trying to get the kids to “re-adjust”… but as I am losing my mind arguing with them to go to bed and trying to wake them up in the morning, I will try to remind myself (and my wife) of the awesome time we had for the past two weeks.

Here are some pics to prove it. 🙂

A proud and emotional Dad – Part 2

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Although it took me longer than expected to write this post, the evening of Nati’s recital is still very vivid in my head…

A little background: Nati has been in Ballet and Tap classes for about 2 years now… for her first recital we were all very excited to see her, but she did not make it on stage! She was petrified! She was scared of all the “staring” eyes while she was on stage, so she remained offstage while the rest of her class danced- we even had the camera all ready to record only to catch a glimpse of her terrified face running off stage… The following recital, 5 months later, she performed on stage and danced and her confidence grows stronger with every performance.

Fast forward to December 15^th, 2014. Nati is taking ballet this session with her favorite teacher and she is in a small class of only 3 ballerinas. All classes are held with closed doors, including the dress rehearsal, so we have no idea what the dance is like. Her teacher had told us she was very proud and happy of all the progress they had made in the past couple of months, but we still did not know what to expect…

The only sneak peek we had was from her rehearsal day where we saw how adorable she looked in her outfit, but still had no idea about her dance…

The day of the recital came… Nati was performing to Ave Maria by Beyonce and her class was the next to last performance….

After sitting through 8-10 super cute performances from all the little dancers, it was time for Nati and her 2 friends to perform… The curtain opened and she was the first in line. My heart stopped for a few seconds– she looked so radiant, so happy, so confident. Her smile and confidence looking at the audience filled my heart with joy and pride.

Then they began to dance…. Wow… wow… wow… her lines, her rhythm, her musicality have gotten sooo good!! I am no dance expert, but I see how much progress she has made and know that her technique looked amazing for an almost 6 year old. She danced beautifully- she knew her choreography with confidence, and she even did a perfect split! :)… I was in awe the entire performance and could not stop clapping and cheering for her once the performance was over. When they came out for the final curtain… my eyes got watery… I choked a little… my baby girl had grown up right before my very eyes… Yes, her technique and dance skills have gotten so much better and we will continue to encourage her growth, but what got me the most was her confidence, seeing how much she enjoyed being on stage, no fear… she was soo happy and THAT makes ME even happier and very proud of her.

Rehearsal Day

Nati after her amazing performance. 🙂

Nati and her Ballet/Tap teacher.

Our Ballerina.

Thank you Nati for filling our hearts with joy and pride. Seeing you grow up and seeing how happy you are on stage is admirable and contagious. You continue to amaze me and I love you.

A proud and emotional Dad – Part 1

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I am always proud of the amazing individuals my kids are growing up to be. But within a spam of 3 days this past week my kids put me in an emotional rollercoaster that almost brought me to tears – the great kind of tears (I can get very emotional with my kids)…

As seen on previous posts, Nico has had a Strider for about year and a half. Every time we take it for a spin he gets better and more confident. Via email I was notified our local BMX track was hosting a Strider Clinic for kids Nico’s age to ride on the big track! So we planned on attending. After delivering some baby equipment for our business, we headed out to the track with no expectations. We knew he was good at gliding down our driveway but had no idea if he would freak out about the big ramps…. (yikes).

After a quick stretch with the coaches, they taught the kids how to come off the big ramp and take the turns… Probably 10 minutes of clinic… Then up to the ramp where they had set a starting gate!

Nico at the starting gate.

They informed Nico to put his bike against the gate. “Riders ready?, Set, Go!” And off he went!! No fear! Running and pushing with his cute tiny legs he rolled down the first huge ramp and up the hill, then down another big ramp and on to the turn, to the next, etc…

When he came around with me running around the track cheering him on, he said “I want to go again!!” and off he went back to the starting gate. Amazing. Joy filled my heart. Nico was so happy and felt so accomplished. I could not get the smile off my face… We continued to cheer him on and even after a taking a couple of spills he continued and wanted to ride over and over…. We did that for 1 hour. 🙂

Needless to say, he is getting a Strider BMX jersey for Christmas and we’ll be coming back for clinics and even races!! Can’t wait to see him on the track again. We are so proud and so happy for him. Way to go Nico!

The wheels came off… How we ended up our week…

Children Milestones Fun with kids Parenting Milestones Parenting multiples Pregnant with Twins Weekend Fun

That’s right, after a fun week that included having the kids at the office, celebrating my mom’s (nona) birthday, spending thanksgiving surrounded by loved ones and even doing some Black Friday Shopping (I know… we thought we were crazy too – shopping with 3 kids and a pregnant mom), the wheels came off on Saturday and Sunday— Nati’s bicycle training wheels that is.

Yes! After pushing it off for so many weekends, we finally committed to making it happen this weekend. Saturday afternoon we decided to take the bikes out to teach Nati how to ride without the assistance of training wheels… This was the first time I had taught someone how to ride a bike, so it was a first for both of us and I had no idea how it was going to go down…

After removing the wheels and adjusting her seat, we started off with me holding the back of her seat. After a couple of rides in front of our house and reminding her to “keep her balance” (which I read after the fact is one of the worst things you can say when trying to teach someone to ride a bike – of course…) we took a break and when we got back into it, I held less onto the seat while helping maneuver the seat to correct her balance…

After a good 20 minutes or so, I was able to let go for a second or two at a time without letting her know about it…. (all while running next to her). Little by little we both got better at it and finally I was able to let go for longer periods of time!

When I was able to let go for probably 5 seconds and then stopped the bike, I was SO happy for her! I got on my knees next to her, high fived her and gave her a huge hug for her awesome accomplishment!! She was so happy. I was so proud. She was so proud. Truthfully, I was probably more excited than she was. 🙂

I still picture that moment. The moment where she smiled back at me and we both realized she now knew how to ride a bike; it will be a moment I will never forget. It was such a great accomplishment for both of us and I will forever cherish those few seconds when we cheered and held each other in celebration.

That moment also reminds me of how awesome and rewarding it is to raise kids. The thought of so many more moments like these with Nati and our other children fills my heart with joy and anticipation for the future.

Nati will be the one that will pave the road for the other kids and the one that will fill our lives with a lot of “firsts”. She is also the one that with her life experiences will teach us how to be better parents and be better prepared for when her siblings experience similar things growing up.

So Thank You, Nati. Thanks for that amazing moment, for the many more moments to come, and for helping us weave through the parenting maze. We love you.

Our Yard Sale debacle…and the rest of the weekend.

Fun with kids Parenting multiples Weekend Fun yard sale

Sigh… where to start..

I guess, first of all this whole thing went down because since we now know that our twins are boys and we have “closed the shop”, there is no need to keep hanging on to Nati’s clothes.

This led us to look for what we had…. Which led us to find 10 full containers in the attic (always fun getting up there in a hot day… NOT) with clothes ranging from Newborn to 4T. Pants, onesies, jackets, shorts, skirts, shoes, sandals, blankets, warm PJs, light PJs, matching outfits, non-matching outfits, etc, etc, etc…

After a couple of afternoons and nights sorting through all these things and “categorizing” them, we were finally ready – or so we thought. We did not realize we had that much stuff! We had 3 tables full of pants/shorts, another one with shirts and a third one with dresses.. We also had 4 containers full of onesies, pjs, matching outfits and about 50 pairs of shoes/sandals to lay next to the tables.

I know that for most people this may sound like a piece of cake… well, let me tell you, add 3 kids and a missing wife (gone for the day at a school venue prior to pulling the tables out on the driveway) and the whole thing was not that much fun…

But wait there’s more! The day before, Becca and I decided that it would be cute to have the kids sell cupcakes and water to our visitors AND that would keep them busy while I “worked the sales floor”….

So in addition to the whole tables/containers/shoes setup, we also had to setup their sales stand.

And then we waited… and waited… A couple of go-byers here and there… after a lot of sitting around waiting for customers, we realized that our neighborhood did not really cater to young families (the average age in my neighborhood is probably 70 – and that’s because a couple of young families have moved in…:) ) and most of the people that came by were older people looking for home stuff and every now and then for stuff for their grandkids.

We did get some customers and ended selling $100+ but we still have 90% of our stuff!! Now the task continues as we try to sell these things on Facebook groups and consignment stores… sigh… I hope all the time spent on this is all worth it at the end… definitely the time spent and stress associated with this yard sale was NOT! But oh well, we live, we learn…. It was our first and more than likely our last!

P.S – the neighborhood yard sale was the whole weekend.. we woke up early, got ready to make one final push… but… when I stepped out of the house, the streets were dead and no one had set up their yard sales… So, I turned back around and went on with our day.

The “Oh so fun” and “Not so fun” weekend & Coaching.

Coaching Fun with kids Movies Parenting multiples Weekend Fun

This past weekend consisted in various fun things (mostly Saturday) and a few “not so fun but need to get done” things (mostly Sunday).

Fun things: End of soccer season with Nico, went to the movies to watch “The Book of Life”, spent time with family.

Not so fun: Had to change the oil in one of the cars, grocery shopping and going through 6/10 containers full of clothes as we get ready for our Neighborhood Yard/Garage sale this coming weekend.

If I had to rank our weekend activities, I would rank Soccer as #1 and going to the movies as #2. Coaching Nico and the 3-4 year old kids was an amazing and rewarding experience that I highly recommend to all parents if they haven’t had the chance to do so. Going into the season I was not planning on coaching but on Day 1 after I voluntarily helped passing the uniforms to the kids, I was asked if I could coach and referee the 3-4 years old game. Thinking this was a one-time deal, I agreed to do it.. The following weekend, I arrived to the fields thinking there would be another coach ready to take on the task but nope, I was asked once again…. Same thing happened on weekend 3… By the 4^th weekend, I finally approached the managing staff and made it “official” 🙂 I told them that I could certainly continue to coach the kids on the weekends but it needed to be known among parents and I needed a shirt that made me the “official coach” so parents and kids knew who their coach was and did not appear to be a random dude every weekend…

The more weekends I coached the more I got to know the kids, their strengths, weaknesses, what motivated them, etc and developed a fun coach/player relationship and made it fun for everyone. By the end of the season, it was very rewarding being approached by parents thanking me for coaching their kids and saying things like “the kids love you”. That meant a lot to me and gave me one more reason to continue coaching the kiddos in the upcoming season. The main reason? The amazing time I had with Nico and seeing his proud face knowing that his dad was his “Coach”. Feb. 2015 season, here we come!

The 2^nd most fun thing we did over the weekend was watching The Book of Life. I will not go into detail as I don’t want to spoil it for anyone but I HIGHLY recommend it. The colors in the movie are amazing and the soundtrack is great too!! We took all 3 kids (we always do) and they loved it! Santi sometimes is not as interested in the movies and walks around but this time he was very intrigued by the animation and the music and sat through the entire movie! (well, he switched seats a couple of times and ate almost a full bag of popcorn too! :)). So go check it out if you have a chance – the message in the movie is great and worth every penny.

The least fun thing we did over the weekend was start preparing for our yard sale… Given that we will have 2 more boys and we’ve decided we are “Closed for Business” after they arrive, we are now ready to sell/donate all of Nati’s clothes, shoes and toys.. We have a total of 10 bins full of clothes and not to mention all the toys and stuff we’ve been putting aside as we re-arrange the kids’ bedrooms. We only had the patience to go through 6/10 containers and will be tackling the other 4 this week one at a time…. Needless to say, going through her baby stuff brought back a lot of memories of her being a baby (our first) and realizing how much she has grown (and how fast!! :(). Who would’ve thought that preparing to receive 2 new babies could be nostalgic to see the other “babies” grow so quickly? Mixed emotions for sure.

One thing is certain. It has been a pain in the butt getting ready for the yard sale and we’ll be ecstatic once it is over with! 🙂

P.S – Today is 11.11.2014. Thank you to all the men and women that have served our Country to preserve our freedom. We respect you and appreciate you. God Bless America.

Theme Parks with 3 kids? Are you crazy?!

Fun with kids Theme Parks with kids Weekend Fun

Ever since we decided to have 3 kids (and sometimes even when we had only 2), we are often asked by other parents in a sarcastic tone… “How do you do it?” – especially if we meet at a public venue like a theme park, the beach, etc.

I know most times this question is founded on the common frustrations us parents experience when things get “a little out of hand” and the thought of it coming from more than 2 kids is baffling and overwhelming 🙂 .. Trust me, we get those moments too (some days more than we’d like), and yes, some days dealing with 3 kids (or even one at times) could be overwhelming, frustrating, helpless and just like every other parent we feel like locking ourselves in a room, removing ourselves from the situation (adult “time out”), counting to 10 or 10,000 and come back when everything is back to “normal”.

Regardless of the tough times, the moments of joy, indescribable love and happiness our kids bring into our lives, by far upset those frustrating moments and make it ALL worth it. When people asked me if we were crazy when we decided to have Santi, I responded: “If I am able to replicate the joy each one of my kids brings to our lives, why wouldn’t I do it?”

A great example is the amazing time we had at Busch Gardens a couple of weeks back – two weekends in a row. Becca was able to land some free tickets that expired at the end of October so we had to use them. With Becca not being able to ride rollercoasters, our main focus for the park visit was the kids having fun. So we headed straight to Elmo’s World on Day 1 and on Day 2 we explored other sides of the park and I even got to ride Falcon’s Fury (amazing).

As with season passes, we approached our day with a laid back attitude, not rushing anything, not trying to ride all the rides or see all the shows… if we had the chance, great – if not, oh well, there’s always next time ;). The kids had an awesome time. They loved riding little rides, going over rope bridges, playing “carnival” games, watching the animals, playing in the splash park and even watching their dad drop from 300 feet on Falcon’s Fury. A total success.

Being a family of 5 – soon to be 7 – has never stopped us from enjoying any activities, au contraire, we enjoy them even more. We kind of have a “system” and an attitude that works for us and we have amazing times together.

Keep bringing on the adventures. Will they be challenging at times? No doubt. Will it be worth it at the end? You are darn right!

Our Weekend

Fun with kids Weekend Fun

We really cherish weekends — with how hectic weekdays are, we really try to maximize our time together on our weekend by trying to do fun stuff that involves all of us. Yeah, of course errands and other pre-scheduled events “get in the way” but we always try to spend as much time together as possible.

For the past couple of weekends, on Saturday mornings, I’ve been coaching Nico’s soccer team (3 & 4 years old). It did not start as something I signed up for but more as something that fell on my lap (they needed a coach on the first day and I happened to be there. :)). At first I did not know if it was something I was going to like or be good at but it grew on me and Nico loved it! Enjoying time with Nico and coaching the other little ones was a blast and now it is something I look forward to and hope to continue to coach him and Santi and all my kids if I have a chance. This is the Soccer Club we signed up for.

After soccer, we went to Indian Rocks to do some product pick ups and had lunch at P.Js Oyster Bar and Seafood — the food was good and the kids loved it. Unfortunately it was too windy to sit outside, otherwise we would’ve loved listening to the Live Music (there were like 3 people outside… felt bad for the musician).

On our way back, we had to stop at our local library to check out some books for a project for Nati. We got lucky because the library was one of the early voting places so we went ahead and voted! Nati chose to do her project on White Tigers (chosen mostly because she just got a stuffed animal at Busch Gardens). She created a habitat and next to it described their classification and 3 interesting facts about them. It was her first project ever and she did a great job at it! 🙂

Sunday started off really lazy… we continue to declutter the house and setting up the new rooms for the kids — everyone is moving around (more on a future blog). After a semi-lazy morning, we finally got out of the house and went to Home Depot to get new paint for their rooms — I did not realize paint could be THAT expensive… we ended paying $70+ on 2 gallons of paint! I am definitely in the wrong business!! I guess the painting option is cheaper than a new house or full remodeling of our current one but darn!!!

After my shocking experience at Home Depot, we head out to Chipotle for lunch (Becca’s favorite) and then to Sports Authority to get some shin guards for Nati — she started playing soccer at school and the other day her legs were all bruised up! 🙁 So I decided it was time for some protection… hehe… I wish I would’ve thought about it earlier…

After a productive weekend, we ended up relaxing on our couch catching up on some TV and enjoying Brownie Moose Tracks ice cream thanks to Nico’s suggestion — one of my few cheats over the weekend– I am really trying to be good.