Flamenco Princess turns 4!

We bought this in Spain because its darling and because it suits our singing dancing princess. It is the age of the princess fetish and Flamenco frills and fringe can be soo princess.
This was me being ambitious with only a few hours to work with.

I pulled it off and Jodi loved her birthday cake which is what really matters!Hooray for Fancy Nancy - someone Jodi can relate to!
We love you Jodi and we're so glad you can bring the fancy into our home

- it wouldn't be home without you!

(p.s. click on the title of this post for the rest of her bday pictures)

Singin' Time for the Pink Princess

The Europe Trip

Okay so here is a brief synopsis of our trip to Europe in July. Eric and his fellow Senor headed up a High School Spanish club trip for this summer and there were enough students who signed up to go that Eric and I were FREE chaperones! Wahoo! We got to spend 2 weeks overseas. (I feel snobby saying it that way!) We started in Spain with a side trip to Morocco and then went up to Paris and then to London. It was a BLAST and we are so fortunate to have my parents in town so they could keep the kids for us. I will keep adding more pictures as I get them organized and arranged in my albums. I also think I'll add a few online Picasa albums you can peruse so its more bang for your buck - its free so click away. Thanks for being patient.

The Great Outdoors

Cora has amazed me yet again and you are all going to hear about it. She is proving stubborn with potty training because she still has "accidents" more than I think is necessary, however she thinks she's found a solution. Enter "the great outdoors" and the rustic technique - if you gotta go then pull down your pants, take them off and proceed to go potty in the grass! Don't worry about where you are, neighbors landscaping, by the mailbox, take your pick if there's grass you're good! Sheesh girl!
In her defense when we went to go pick the grapes that we juiced yesterday (28 quarts and 12 hours worth!) there was no where handy to go potty and so we "watered" the grass so to speak. She just took that as the norm rather than the exception. At least she's learning from Mommy.

p.s. Eric says my title of the previous post was uncalled for and so if I offended any of you I do apologize, I was teasing -- but if you deserved it.....we love you anyway!

This is for you whiners!

Okay so I've had several people tell me I need to get on the ball and post the pictures I've been promising and I'm gonna give it a try today. I've got grapes in the steam juicer and while I'm waiting for the grape juice I'll come and go and get a post done. Give me a break though guys - Marcus alone is keeping me busy with his improving mobility skills (no walking yet thank goodness!) Anyhoo here is some Europe pix for you - I'll pick a few of my favorites!

This is the first leg of the trip. Malaga Spain and the Mediterranean and a ferry across the Strait of Gibraltar to Morocco.

This last picture is at our "layover" in Morocco - we waited here until it was closer to time to go back through passport control and on to our ferry back to Spain. Morocco was amazing. It was an eye opening experience. I felt like we went back in time a century or two

(I get overwhelmed when I go through 1500 pictures trying to pick the ones that will impress all of you with the fun things I got to go see and then I just don't pick so here goes.)

Last Summer Play Date

This was a recent playdate - the last before everyone was in school.

The kids got such a kick out of this! I wanted to hop on and ride too.

This is a park that is close enough that we can walk to it - Love that!