Date night

Tonight we headed to Mass Ave to chaperone a date night. Alexander and Gracie had so much fun. We walked to the Global Store after we had pizza and beer, and bought the kids some cool toys from Kenya.

Easter with an edge

This year, like last, we spent the Easter weekend hanging out without Ricardo since he was in Vegas. My family came over on Saturday and stayed the night. Sunday we got up, ate cinnamon roles and sat around and drank coffee and enjoyed watching Alexander with all of the fun stuff the Easter Bunny brought. I've spent the past few weeks trying to explain Easter to Alexander. My rendition included talking about Jesus and how he flew up to heaven. I mean, how do you explain the Crucifixion and Resurrection to a 2 1/2 year old and have them understand it? We spent the day coloring Easter eggs and watching Alexander "wash dishes". Mel's girlfriend said it looked like child labor...the first picture of his face (what a hoot). Aunt MeMe concluded the dish washing with a shoulder skull and cross bones tattoo to go with his pirate eggs. Dispite the fact that it was rainy and daddy was gone, we had a great time laughing and spending time with our family. And, most importantly, I got the opportunity to pray over lunch and thank the Lord for his wonderful gift so that we may all one day be together in heaven. What an awesome day!

Las Vegas

This weekend was the Junior Olympics and US Open in Las Vegas. Ricardo and 5 of his students competed. Ricardo gave it a great shot but the competition was fierce and as usual...he got paired up with one of the best in the world. Not that he isn't in the same class but he's had some injuries and didn't get to practice the way he liked. But, his students were able to pull it off...no doubt due to great coaching! He had 2 students place in the Junior Olympics on Friday and 2 students place yesterday at the US Open. In fact, his adult student Waseem placed first last night in forms. We are just so excited. Nicole competes again today in sparring. I'm sure she's going to knock em out. (well, hopefully not really but you get my drift)

Zoo with the fam...

We took a couple of hours today to head to the zoo. Grammy had to buy Alexander a new monkey. Coconut will be a welcomed addition to his already large animal family. And, P had to have a characature of him and Alexander done. Its so cute!

Fun at the children's museum

Today, Alexander and I headed to breakfast with our friends Trevor and Nathan then spent the morning at the Children's Museum. Since Ricardo is in Vegas and Kelly had to work Trevor and I met up for a "date" for the morning. We know someone is going to call either Kelly or Ricardo and tell them we were togther...little do they know our spouses were a-ok with ditching us for the day. Afterwards Nathan came to our house for the day to play...he deserves some hazard pay after dealing with Alexander. He's been in rare form today for some reason.

Race Day

Komen Indy 2011 was a special day. We walked in honor of our friend Esther's Grandma Helen who is battling breast cancer. She's doing great but still has a long road ahead dealing with Chemo and surgery. We're praying for Helen and are sure she'll make a great recovery! Go Helen!!

Blog updates

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Spring has sprung...

Spent nearly the whole weekend outside enjoying the gorgeous weather. Alexander got to wach his buddy Nate play baseball on Friday which was super fun. Saturday we walked the canal and let Alexander run off some of his energy (not that it worked). Thanks to all our great friends for a fun Sunday picnic at the park. We even had overnight guests on Sunday night which Alexander just loved. Thanks Aunt Lowlie (Lori) and Uncle Tim for spending time with little manny...he definately loved that.

Jammin in my sleep!

This might seem a little cruel but in all honesty we filmed him doing this because we can't believe even in his sleep he tries to find the rhythm. It really gets good about 35 seconds in...

Meeting Chase

We met our new cousin today, Chase Michael. He's a cutie!

Future Indy Car Driver

It's not bad enough that he already wants to drive but that he looks totally natural doing it is not good. He has his hand on the seatbelt like a gun in a holster and when the car stops, he's in the front seat driving. Yesterday, he even pushed the lock down on the door thinking that would keep me in so he could stay in the front and drive. He has control of the radio and whatever he wants has to stay on or he gets angry. We're going to have to hide the keys!

New baby

Here' a pic of our newest family member Chase. Such a cutie!

Another day of karate...

Today was our spring internal tournament. All of the kids and adults did a fabulous job. Our friend Chris and I were running the show at the scoring table trying to keep things straight. Non one ever said working for your husband was easy. Chris and I were having a lot of fun mouthing off to Ricardo and Cha Chi behind their backs. hehe. Quite a few of the students received their official Green Belt certificates which is a huge accomplishment. In June, Ricardo's Sensei will be here to sign all of them which will be a huge honor. Everything went really well and we had a great turn out which of course included some family members...Aunt Meme, Grammy, P, Mitch and Angie all showed up to support the school and kids. Afterwards we went out to eat with a large crew...table for 24 please! Mel, Mom and Steve headed back to our house for coffee and to relax a bit after lunch. Alexander was putting on our shoes and walking around the house being silly. Aunt Meme taught him how to mimick the buzzer on the score board which was a total hoot. Next post, I'll have to video that one and show everyone.