Category: Holiday

We had a low-key Father’s Day for Jorge, which is what he wanted 🙂 . I started his day off by letting him sleep in and making him a good hearty, fatherly breakfast 😀 .

We gave him his gifts as well and then we lounged around. Well, he lounged around, as he should on his day. I puttered around the rest of the day being awesome and doing laundry (though, I admit, not as good as he does it!)

My kiddos were picked up by Mario the night before to celebrate Father’s Day with them, but he brought them back by 3pm Sunday, just in time for the botana from Espi’s for lunch.

The girls gave my love his gifts (letters and drawings) they made for him.

And then Emily went straight into Mommy mode and made everyone giant chocolate and sprinkles-covered marshmallows.

Then she made Jorge a Funfetti cake, all on her own, I just supervised and took the pans in and out of the oven.

She mixed, baked, iced, sprinkled and served it, all on her own. Brings a tear to my eye!

The girls (and sometimes the boys) take turns helping in the kitchen.

We watched Finding Dory, which made us all pretty emotional at the end. Emily and I actually clutched each other, in tears, and Alaethia ran to the bathroom, heh. It was a good, cute movie, though!

Eenan had an appointment Wednesday afternoon so I quickly finished my to-do list at work and was out by 3pm. I went to pick up Eenan and Emily, who wanted to tag along (my little shadow!) 

I love that that little lady wants to follow me everywhere! Since she’s my “last” baby, I embrace it, as once she stops following me around, that’s it! No more babies to follow me! 😥 Anyway. That was depressing!

While we waited, we took Snapchat selfies.

After the appointment, we went next door to Stripes because Eenan and Emmos wanted Flamin’ Hot Cheetos. And then I threw in some Butterfinger Cups, sour watermelon gummies and a Snapple, because they were on sale. Oh. Em. Gee. Someone must stop me 🙁 .

We visited Gramma right after and spent some time with her. Then I got home to make dinner.

I managed to go walking at the park 3 times out of the week and even asked the boys to go, but of course they had more important things to do, like play Playstation, or Xbox, or sleep (*cough* Eenan *cough*). 

Right after I had my surgery, they kept asking to go running, which of course, I couldn’t. But now that I can walk briskly/run in intervals, they don’t want to go 😐 .

Wednesday night after I’d come back from jogging, Jorge accompanied me to HEB to get some water and milk. We ended up with a bunch of brownie mixes (they were buy one get one free!) and we already had free cookie dough.

So Emily jumped on the counter to mix the brownie mix and Jorgie and Alaethia pressed the raw cookie dough into the bottom of the muffin pans. The end result was rich and delicious and probably extremely unhealthy!

We ate them while we watched a movie–I lie, I immediately passed out during the starting credits!

Oh Thursday, the day the other parents and us “switch” the kids, I had a doctor’s appointment and then I rushed home to pick up Jaylen, Alaethia and Emily so I could take them to Sky Park’s ribbon cutting. Eenan didn’t want to go so he stayed with Mom (typical) and Jorgie, Justin and Jules had already been picked up by their mother. Our work was specially invited to take our kids. Little did I know that jeans weren’t allowed, so poor Jaylen didn’t get to play, but he said it was worth the trip for the food alone 😆 .

The kids are on summer break, of course, but since I no longer have a job that allows me time off during the summer with them (well, since 2009 lol) I have to make do with the little time off I have, so we make the best of it!

Since the girls don’t have phones yet (and yes, at 7 and 9, they have already asked!) we communicate throughout the day on Pinterest messages 😆 . Love these kiddos! I need to make time to come up with activities to do with them and make some memories!

My Mother’s Day weekend started a bit early on Friday, with Emmos presenting me with a beautiful magnet frame for my fridge .

We had movie night that night, and I managed to fall asleep during the latest Star Wars movie. The parts I saw were great tho!

I skipped yoga the next day (after much rolling around in my sheets debating how long to “sleep in”) but I eventually got up and got ready…only to sit at the kitchen table drinking coffee 😆 .

I took Emmos with me and we searched all over for the small Peppa plushes for Charlee. They were out everywhere. But we did find this:

For $1.00!! We couldn’t believe it. We searched the isles for more, but again, nothing 😕 .

We did all our shopping and errands and then we got home and I got the 3 little ones ready to go to Charlee’s party. Before we got ready to leave, Julien runs to me and says, “Happy Mother’s Day!!”:

I immediately choked up; I felt overwhelmed and just surprised! I put it on the fridge proudly, next to Emmos’. He brought me a little poem, too, with handprints and a painting of a vase with flowers in it (the buds were his little hands!), but I told him it should be for his 1st Mom. I didn’t know how to take his reaction; I didn’t want to offend him, but I figured she should have something, too, from him. I know I would want to. I did take pictures of him with the poem and painting and I said, “There! Now we’ll both have one!”

So after adjusting my mascara and swallowing down the lump in my throat, we were off 🙂 .

They had so much fun at Sally’s! She always comes up with cute games for them and they love it. And Charlee looked adorable, of course!

I had a great time, too, catching up with Sally. I love spending time with her!

We got home and just as I changed into my lazy clothes, I get a message on Facebook stating that I won a Mother’s Day contest pack from Xquinkles Snack Land!! I never win those social media contests so I was thrilled, and hello?! Who wouldn’t be thrilled over this:

I took half the brood with me; the others stayed home playing video games with Dad 🙂 .

Then we got home and watched The Jungle Book–which I passed out during as well.

The next morning was officially Mother’s Day 🙂 . Jorge woke me up with smooches and told me to stay in bed, so I obliged 😆 . Then he and the girls woke me up and I was greeted by these beautiful, drowsy faces:

My love and the kiddos didn’t make breakfast that morning, but he did bring the next best thing: menudo and barbacoa!!

So we ate, and then I was allowed to lounge around all morning until we got ready to return some stuff (can you believe the tunic I’m wearing in the photo was $5??) and then we went to visit Gramma:

She was doing good, thank God :). She’s recently moved to a new facility, per her request, which shocked us all. So that only means she really didn’t like it at the previous place before 🙁 .

We got home and Aunt Nora and Linda came to visit. Then we lazied around the rest of the day. It was just awesome, and low-key with all the kids, Mom and my love. John was around for a bit, but disappeared to study. We watched Grey’s Anatomy with the kids the rest of the evening until I passed out on the sofa.

As for gifts, I did a satisfying amount of clothes shopping 🙂 . Plus my love got me this:

I had such a great day yesterday, that I actually didn’t mind having to wake up at 5am this morning 🙂 . And dropping the kids off was a piece of cake on our way to school/work and the day went by fast and was a breeze! I even applied for a grant (with my co-worker’s advice, of course!)

Our Easter this year was pretty low-key, and considering how chaotic work, and in turn, my mind, had been, it was a welcome change. Don’t get me wrong, I adore our wild family, but my in-laws weren’t coming down this time so we opted for celebrating at home.

The tiny ones and I started our Good Friday by going to a celebration at Gramma’s nursing home. We met Linda there. She texted me that they still hadn’t started. By the time we got there and found the location of the party, the egg hunt was over. Still, it was nice to see Gramma having fun 🙂 .

Jorge, Justin and Jules got picked up on Saturday afternoon by their mother so they could spend some time with her for the holiday. When I finally stopped being lazy, I gathered all of the egg-decorating supplies I got a great deal on last Easter and set the kids up on the back porch. Eenan, of course, was taking a teenager nap, heh.

There was a melted crayon kit, but it made no sense so we did it our way: by melting a crayon with a lighter 😆 .

I made lunch afterwards and then Mario picked up the kiddos. Jorge got home from work and we reluctantly did some shopping for our BBQ the next day. Then we decided we wanted a Michelada, but couldn’t figure out where to go other than Palmview, so we ended up at El Huachinango restaurant. I couldn’t complian about the food (a botana for 2 serves at least 3-4!), or the drink.

We woke up the next day, had breakfast and then I worked on the kids’ baskets. I already had all the candies and goodies separated, but hadn’t actually put the baskets together. And Mom wouldn’t let me forget it 🙄 .

I was prepping a few things for our BBQ and made a Banoffee pie, and Jorge and Mom cleaned the porch before Jorge and I showered and picked up the kids. We picked them up about 2 hours after we had originally set, but we still ended up waiting a good while longer for Jorge’s boys. But, at least we were on our own schedule.

We got home and prepped the food and veggies. We’d be having burgers, hotdogs and sausages.

The little ones opened their baskets and the big ones opened their giftbags.

Then the big boys, who graduated into Egg Hiders, hid the eggs for the little ones.

And then the 3-hour egg hunt and cracking began!

It got so crazy Jorgie ended up in a tree 😆 .

It was a great day! Everyone went in to start showering before The Walking Dead and then we readied ourselves to begin the week!