Soaking Up The Sun

We were having awful weather here, but yesterday the sun came out and it was just a beautiful day to play outside.

Julianna decided to teach Raphael how to swing himself on the swings.

Jack also loved playing outside.

Michael was the only one that didn't want to play outside. He wanted to read instead (no surprise here). I threw him out the door though, and before long he was playing tag with Julianna and Raphael. They played for a very long time until they started fighting (no surprise here either. :-))

Book Club Today

I'm excited to go discuss "I Capture The Castle" by Dodie Smith. It was such a good book!!  I love book club!!

It's Early and It's Cold...

...and it's Saturday. So what am I doing up? Little Jack woke up at 7:40 like he does during school days. How do I teach a baby about Saturdays?

Yesterday was my last Sacred Heart diet day. I faithfully did the plan for 7 days, except last night, when I ate one enchilada and one bite of Coxinha de Galinha (a Brazilian appetizer). I was really hungry and needed energy to finish cleaning the house. Marco came home last night.

Results:

I lost 5 lbs (not the 10-17 they said I would, but I'm happy)
14 inches all over (now this is amazing, isn't it? I'm glad I measured myself)


I feel so much better! This was a great birthday gift I gave myself. :-) I am also really happy to have my husband back in town. :-)

My Blog Can Now Be Read in Portuguese

I am so excited about this. I added a Google translator widget to this blog and now my Brazilian friends can read this page in Portuguese by clicking on the flag to the right. So cool! For anyone interested in doing this, I followed the instructions on the website http://www.bloggersentral.com/2009/07/google-translator-widget-with-flags.html
Fancy, huh?

Today

I had the funnest time teaching preschool. The theme was dinosaurs and I think the kids really enjoyed it. I know I did. :-)

Here is a dinosaur paw print they made using homemade salt dough. We pretended the dough was mud and that a dinosaur (toy plastic one) left a paw print. It was fun to explain that scientists have found real dinosaur paw prints and those have been really helpful in telling them dinosaur size, etc. We baked this paw prints so now they are hard.

We also made dinosaur skeletons with pasta.

Besides crafts, we sang a dinosaur song, read a couple cute dinosaur books (fiction) and we talked about some dinosaur facts. I was afraid the kids would be bored with this part, but to my surprise, they were very interested. They participated and asked questions just like big kids. It was fun!

Look how beautiful my flowers look today. They are really brightening up my day. :-)

Good Day

Today is my birthday. I wasn't too excited to start my day for a few reasons. First, Marco is not here (he's been on a business trip for two weeks), Second, I am getting older and don't like it. Third, I am on a very strict diet this week (Sacred Heart Soup Diet), so no cake and no yummy food today. Just vegetable soup, fat free milk and bananas. Blah. However, my day has been really, really nice. I had my dear family call me, I had many e-mails and Facebook birthday wishes (I haven't checked Orkut yet). My kids gave me homemade drawings and cards. I taught Preschool at my house and I like teaching preschool. I also received this at my door.

Marco sent this huge flower vase to me through 1800flowers. They are still opening up. This morning when they arrived they were totally closed. Pretty, huh? He also gave me a cell phone car charger.

My in-laws sent this gift to me and it arrived on Saturday.

Raphael told me that this purse will make me look Spanish. I asked "Why?" He answered, "because all Spanish girls have a yellow purse." Hahahaha He's so cute! I told him, "Good! I like looking Spanish."

I also lost three pounds. Not the 5-7 that the diet said I'd lose after the third day, but I'll take it. I'm still on this diet until Friday. After that I'll start Weight Watchers again, but probably not until February.

Here is a picture of the "Yummy" soup I've been eating all week.

I Think I Just Bought...

...the best baby gear in the world. For now at least. :-) I bought it used for a bargain from someone in my neighborhood. Now I can go to the bathroom without worrying that Jack is doing something dangerous.

Because this sweet little angel needs all the protection in the world. 

Catching Up

We've been up to a lot of things lately.

Book Of Mormon Reading:

We finished our Book Of Mormon challenge found here http://lds.org/friend/2008/01/i-will-read-the-book-of-mormon?lang=eng (the magazine actually had a picture of an arch and cut out keystones to place in the arch when a section is read).

We started a new Book of Mormon challenge, which is reading all the pages! We read one page a day. We printed a little booklet to check off each page read. This will probably take us a couple years to complete.


New Sports Classes:

Michael started a Sports class (every week is a different sport) at the YMCA. He hated it, but we'll try it for longer and see if he changes his mind. Hopefully he will!

Raphael is starting Soccer in February. He's enrolled and ready to go!

Julianna is still in dance and every week she loves it more.


My Projects:

Marco is out of town and I've been trying to distract myself so time will go quickly. :-( I miss him.
So my plans are:
-Seal all the grout in my house (I have a lot of tiled areas that were never sealed).
-Read "I Capture the Castle" by Dotie Smith (bookclub book of the month).
-Sell some books on ebay (have listed them already, hope they'll sell).
-Lose some weight (ugh I hate this one, but have to face it eventually)
-Take a nap (ha! This one is impossible)

I'm tired now. The kids have just gone off to bed. Today I drove them to their enrichment classes, Preschool, Library, Costco, Eye Glasses store, and after feeding them dinner, we read, and I studied science with Julianna. Jack is still up. He just ate two jars of baby food and I think he now wants a bottle and to go to bed. Off I go!

Important for record (since this is my journal and I print it off regularly): Today I fixed the time in my posts. It was set up in a different time zone before (2 hours earlier). Now it's correct.

Arrivederci Beloved Piano

Today I sold my old piano. Although it was as old as me and not as good as my new one, I feel sad! I loved playing it for 13 years and it was a gift from my parents. In this piano I learned how to play some of my favorite songs, composed my own pieces, and improved my skills... and it was my kids' first piano...  Julianna is especially sad. I remember my fist piano in Brazil. It was a German older upright of the brand Fritz Dobbert. It had real ivory keys and the wood work was fully refinished before we bought it. It was a beauty! We left it behind with my sister when we moved to the United States, and she later sold it.
I'm sad to lose this piano, but happy that a great family bought it. :-) I hope it will bring this family as much joy as it brought me.