weekend fun

Our Easter Weekend

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By now I should probably re-name this blog “the week after blog”… given the fact that I NEVER post when I really plan to or want to… oh well, something for me to work on.

Here’s a quick snapshot and ton of photos of our Easter Weekend. Our first as a Party of 7! 🙂

FRIDAY

We had a long weekend as a family thanks to my awesome agency that closed on Good Friday. The day off allowed me to spend some great quality time with the fam plus run some pending errands like sending my car for a much needed tune up!

With time to spare after dropping off the car, we went Bicycle shopping for Nico. His birthday was coming up and although he loves riding his Strider, he has been seeing some kiddos around his age riding bikes with pedals and he had been asking for one….

After a good amount of research from Becca and a couple of phone calls, we were able to find out the bike we wanted was at a local bike shop. After checking it out, we decided to buy it.. It was more than what we originally were willing to pay for it but we ended up getting a nice solid bike he can grow into it for a couple of years and of course depending on the condition he can hand it down to Santi or Emi or Ale… God knows we have options! 🙂

Here’s Nico’s new bike! And of course now I got Nati asking for a new one for her…

After riding bikes and scooters, we went to pick up my car and headed to the Strider BMX track where they were hosting a fundraiser for a 4 year old kid who is fighting cancer! – Hearing stories like this is one of the saddest things for us. In many occasions we’ve discussed with Becca how no one is “safe”… you think that delivering healthy babies will get you to the other side but that is not true.. that is just the beginning.. Unfortunately, many things can happen down the road. Kids from all ages have been born 100% healthy and are being diagnosed with life changing diseases, conditions, etc. I certainly pray every night to God to thank him for our kids’ health and to ask him for continuous health throughout their lives. I know something like that will devastate me.

The night was a success.. I am not sure how much money they raised but there were a good amount of people and they had a 2^nd event scheduled for Saturday. We met our good friends there and the kiddos once again had a great time racing on their Striders.

SATURDAY

Saturday was Party Time! We took the kids to one of our friend’s 3 year old birthday party! It was a super cool party at a reservation that involved a presentation of animals that live in their habitat. The kiddos got to see snakes, birds, spiders and some reptiles! I was crazy impressed at Nati… she held not 1 but 2 snakes!!! That’s 2 more than I am willing to hold! Nico was more like me and did not want any part of it.. Santi did not want any part of it either but the snake gave him no choice… (I would’ve freaked out and screamed… Santi simply froze and keep an eye on that thing that was crawling on him… yikes!).

From the party we went to our friend’s house. They recently bought it and did some awesome renovations to the house and it looks amazing! We had a beer, I got peed on by Emilio (or Santiago… fyi, they look alike.. ), we hung out for a bit and then headed out to run errands to prepare for our Easter Sunday with Family.

EASTER SUNDAY

Family events are always fun for us. We love entertaining and having people over whether it is friends or family. This year we had my mom and dad (who was visiting from Colombia), my sister and her kiddos and some of my sister’s friends stopped by later in the day.

Our day started off with an Easter Egg hunt around the house… The Easter Bunny came in, ate some carrots and left clues that led to other clues to find the “hidden treasure”. The kids loved it. This year was special because Nati has been reading so well so she got to read ALL the clues! Nico was in charge of cracking the egg open and Nati would read the clues. They had a great time reading and finding them. The Easter Bunny brought Nati a new swim suit (which she wore later that day at the pool), Nico a Lego Movie and Santi a Word World movie. The babies got some new toys. Everyone was happy.

For lunch we grilled out some steaks, brats and had them with salad and rice. It was yum! We purchased the meat from a local meat shop and we are definitely going back!

Our lunch was followed by pool time! The weather was amazing. The water was still not hot enough for my liking but the kids did not seem to mind. It was the first time they got in this year and had a great time. Previous to Easter Sunday we had already declared this coming Summer “The Summer of Nico”. Our goal is to have Nico swimming before the summer is over! We’ll see how it goes…

And of course, before the day was over, we did the “official” Easter egg hunt. We had prepared 40+ eggs with some candy and small toys. We hid them around our yard and had the kids find all the eggs. It is always fun to see their excitement when looking for these eggs and opening what they got. Shortly after, we wrapped it up — everyone went home to prepare for the week ahead.

It was a blessed weekend. We are thankful we got to spend it together as a family. We hope everyone had a blessed and fun weekend as well.

HAPPY EASTER 2015!

Our weekend

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As complex as our life has gotten with the addition of two new babies to our family, our lives seem to be full of joy, great times as a family and very fun weekends.

The weather has been amazing in Florida for the past couple of weeks so we love being outside with the kids. They love it too. Our weekend started on Friday night with Nico’s BMX Strider race. The night consists of about 15 minutes of riding their striders in the big track followed by 3 heats by age. The first 2 heats “qualify” them (although everyone moves on) and the 3rd heat is the heat/motto for placement…

Happy rider. I can’t ask for anything more.

Our Saturday began with Nico’s soccer game. This is the second season I coach the U4 team and once again I am loving it! The kids are so sweet and seem to be having a lot of fun with my silly games. Their smiles and hugs are a great reward at the end of every game and every practice. Right here we are “stretching” before our game. Go Chargers!

The future of U.S Soccer.

Soccer was followed by scooters, dress up, bike riding and Dad playing tag with the kids… Well.. it was more like Dad chasing the kids and them singing “you can’t catch me!”…. They love it!

It took us a while to become “beach people”… the amount of stuff we need to take to the beach, the mess in the car and the hassle to get to the beach prevented us to get to the beach in the past but for about 2 years now, we’ve been going to the beach with friends. We try to meet every other Sunday. It is awesome. Not only do the kids absolutely love it, but it is a lot of fun for us too! It has become an opportunity to enjoy the outdoors, enjoy Florida’s weather and beaches, have the kids enjoy time with their friends and us to enjoy time with ours! Is a win-win for everyone. It is the “takes a village” concept in full motion :).

This past weekend was no different. We arrived at the beach around 10:30am and did not leave until almost 4pm! Time flew! And we had some super tired kiddos that night. Mission accomplished.

P.S – we are beginning to master the art of taking 5 kids to the beach. It looks like it will be an insanely fun summer!

OUR WEEK – A BALANCING ACT

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Throughout our six years of parenting, we’ve never been a family committed to a “structured routine”. We have been more a “go with the flow” type and that has worked for us. Yes, of course, there is a “loose” routine that we try to adhere to, but we are very flexible since every day brings on new challenges.

With Emi and Ale, things have been more structured, and although we still don’t follow a strict schedule, we do make sure they are doing things like eating and “sleeping” at the same time… otherwise Becca would be feeding a kid every hour on the hour… but that’s a whole other post.

Since Becca’s family left, we’ve been working on returning to our normal routines and making sure everyone is able to participate in their extracurricular activities. Nati attends modern dance, ballet and gymnastics, Nico rides BMX strider every other week (or we try to) and he started his soccer season once again and Dad plays Ultimate Frisbee with the Florida Masters team (33+ years of age).

I am not going to lie.. it has been hard for Becca to haul all 5 kids to dance and gymnastics, but luckily I’ve been able to take off early 2 days of the week so I can attend Nati’s gymnastics and coach Nico’s soccer team. In addition, we juggled this weekend so I could run errands for our business on Saturday morning, and then I headed out to Gainesville for our team’s practice/tryouts… Plus it doesn’t end with just their activities… we then rush home to prep/eat dinner, get lunches ready, do homework, put kids to bed, etc etc.

Last week, Nati was also asked to participate in her school’s Open House event. She and other kids from her kindergarten class showcased a few of the awesome things they’ve learned this year, and some of her art was even featured! She was so proud, and deservingly so.

Nati’s Art featured at the Open House

Nico and Santi helping get Emi and Ale to the Open House. 🙂

I mention the above because Becca told me Nati wanted to participate and asked me if we could make it. I said: “If it is important to her and she wants to do it, we’ll make it happen”, and so we did. And we always do. We believe it is important for everyone to be able to do what they want (within reason) and feel the support of the family (all of us).

I know it was hard on Becca this weekend when I left her with all 5 kids so I could go practice (Nico was supposed to come with me but bailed last minute because the weather was crappy… smart man). We knew it would be difficult, but Becca understands how important it is to me and it had been on our calendars for quite some time now. She was a champ and I was SO appreciative of her sacrifice so I could enjoy what I love.

Due to so many accidents on the interstate, I was re-routed through the country roads. So relaxing.

Horse farms in Ocala, FL on my way to Gainesville.

This past week was a great learning week for us. It taught us that although it will not be easy, we can still manage to fit in what everyone loves to do and do it with everyone’s support. Yes, there are sacrifices being made, but that’s what we do for the people we love. After this week we feel ready, very ready. Bring it on life.

This picture sums up the crazyness levels at home. LOL.

Strike a pose. Policemen version.

Some of our favorite pics from the week/weekend.

NOTE TO SELF: LET THEM BE KIDS.

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This weekend I had to remind myself to let my kids be kids….

Sometimes as parents we try to control situations, most of the time for our kids’ safety, but too often we try to control them to make things more convenient for us… avoiding situations that could disrupt our day, cause a little chaos, etc…

On Sunday, we went outside to ride bikes and scooters; however my kids changed their mind and decided they wanted to play in our backyard instead… We have what I think is a pretty cool backyard with a pool, a nice treehouse with a slide, and some swings in the back…a pretty fun area for a kid. My first thoughts were…. “Hmm… if we go back, I am going to have to clean up the swings… also, I may have to go back inside to get mosquito repellent (they get bad at times), this may be a pain….”

After a couple of failed attempts trying to convince the kids to stay out front and ride their bikes, I gave up. We swung for a bit and then went to the treehouse to slide… This meant I had to wipe the slide clean (had to go get Lysol and a towel)…

While the kids played in the treehouse, I took advantage of the time, cracked open a beer and proceeded to clean our pool. Since it needed some water I opened up the hose and dropped it in the pool. This was their queue to play with water!! My first reaction was “Guys, please don’t play with the water– you are going to get wet, we are going to have to get new clothes, you are going to get cold, yadda yadda yadda”… After they were initially careful due to my annoying directions, they later began to be more careless with the water… I caught myself wanting to tell them to stop but then I thought “what the heck!, what’s the worst that can happen?? They get wet. So what?!! Let them be kids. Let them have fun!”

They had a blast! They got soaked! They got a ton of things wet and even ended up without their bottoms on the shallow end of the pool (which is freezing based on my “I am a baby with cold water” standards). I had a great time watching them be kids- they couldn’t stop laughing and played wonderfully together. It was a great wake up call for me to relax and to let the kids be kids. It was a win-win for all of us and an awesome way to spend our Sunday as a family.

Thank you kiddos for continuing to teach me how to be your dad; I love you.

A great reminder to myself to let my kids be kids!

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…

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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.

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

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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?!

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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

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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.