Picnik Discovery

I was talking to a few friends who have blogs and I commented on how beautiful their pictures always look. They were kind enough to share that they edit their photos using Picnik.com and Picasa. I had never heard of Picnik, so I decided to try. Here is one picture... (please note that I have a very simple camera, no SLR feature...). It took me 2 minutes to play with this picture. Picnik is very easy to use.

The transformations...

 

Bike Ride

This is something I want to remember - our bike rides throughout the neighborhood! I feel so lucky to live in such a beautiful place... it was hot, but really nice.

Arrr!!

Today we celebrated Raphael's 5th Birthday. It was a Pirate party!

I found the instructions for this cake at familyfun.com. Cute, isn't it? I added the "sand" made of graham crackers and sugar and some seashells.

Raphael was filling his lungs with as much air as possible. Those candles were hard to blow!

I came up with this cardboard box boat. Raphael loved it!

Julianna drew the pirate in the background for the game "Pin the Pirate's Eye Patch"

We decorated our own pirate hats

We walked "the plank" (empty carpet roll that I got for free at The Home Depot)

We went treasure hunting.

And we opened presents.

We also ate homemade cheese pizza, played freeze, and went "fishing". I wish I had a good picture of our fishing game. It was hilarious! The kids went one by one inside the boat and threw a fishing line in the ocean (a blue sheet with Michael under it). Sometimes the hook brought back something good (a diamong ring or a gummy fish), but other times the hook was not so lucky and brought back something silly (a dirty sock, a baby book, etc). The kids loved this game!

 And here is the crew that helped me A LOT with the party!! They rock!

Julianna's Dance Recital

It happened on June 10th and Julianna danced beautifully!! It was a huge surprise for me because I didn't watch her dance classes this year (I just dropped her off). I was so amazed that I had to make sure I was looking at the right girl dancing... she improved so much from last year!! Congratulations, Julianna!

This was her ballet costume. 

 This was her Jazz costume. These girls in the picture are also in her Girl Scout Troop.

Happy Birthday, Raphael!

Wow. This is my third post today, but I couldn't let this special day go unnoticed!! This very day, five years ago, a very wonderful boy was born. He's such a joy and blessing in our family!

At his request, he got a Baseball and a Happy Face panCAKE for breakfast.

Then we went to Toys R Us where he got a birthday hat, a ballon and where he picked a toy. He chose a Cars set (yes, another one! Yikes!). After Toys R Us, we went to Chuck E Cheese. 

Today was fun, but he'll get to celebrate his birthday all over again at his party. Here are his invitations.

Michael's Graduation and Arrow of Lights

Last days of school... I feel so sad!! I wish my kids could stay little forever.

5th Grade Walk around school to say goodbye

Awards Ceremony - he got Honor Roll and Citizenship. I thought there was third one, but I was mistaken. He should have gotten one for goodlooking, shouldn't he? :-))

Look how shy! :-) Mrs' Fox is on the microphone (his teacher) and Mrs. Motzny is the one that just hugged Michael (she's the principal)

Arrow of Lights (the Highest Award for Cub Scouts)

These are the brave and awesome boys getting the award

The "Indians" that came do a skit and award the boys

Hmmm... you should not trust boys with arrows... I'm glad nobody got hurt.

This is the plaque we got Michael and hang on his wall. We hope he'll remember the meaning of the Arrow of Lights (Leadership)

Memorial Day 2011

We met some Ward members at the beach. We came late, so most people were already packing up when we arrived. It was super windy, so we only stayed a couple hours and got tired. Marco was super spontaneous that day. I mean, SUPER spontaneous. He decided to take us on an adventure after the beach. It was worth it!!

We drove through Galveston and spotted the Travis Fort. It was beautiful!

We also drove by a lighthouse. I was surprised to see it also in this picture. It was hard to take a picture up close since it's big! Did I ever tell anyone here I love lighthouses? Why? I have no idea... I just think they are beautiful and meaningful.

After Fort Travis and the lighthouse, we rode the ferry!! I had no idea we could do that and for free! We all loved the views... too bad my camera was out of battery. Marco has pictures on his phone though.