Lee County Fair - La Feria!

We're always looking for affordable ways to have some fun. So when I heard the fair was scheduled, we jumped to the opportunity. And in fact, the first day the fair opened you could get in for free if you brought 2 cans of food to donate to the food bank. We gathered enough cans for all three of us to get in, plus a couple of extra ones and were off to have some fun.

I have been working weird hours (for a change), still traveling between Fort Lauderdale and Cape Coral, working until 11:00PM or 1:00AM some times, so I take every opportunity I can to do something fun with my fam. So that day, I made it a point to leave on time from work and off we were.

The second we got there, all the lights and smells and people just reminded me of how fun fairs are! It's all tacky and greasy food but it just doesn't get old. It brings the child in you out to play.

We had some roasted corn on the cob, some elephant ears (which Gabriela refused to eat at first because she thought it was actually made out of elephant ears). Gabriela got to ride a camel, spent some time at the petting zoo and played some games. When it came to the rides, I am petrified of heights, so it was Jay's turn to ride the Ferris Wheel while I sat that one out, but we all got on the bumper cars and THAT was a lot of fun. By the end of the ride people were afraid of me!

Unfortunately, that was also the night my foot started acting up with an injured ligament and a bone spur, so the night was cut a bit short. But we still enjoyed the whole experience.

Nosotros siempre andamos buscando maneras de divertirnos que sean economicas. La semana pasada habrieron la feria anual y decidimos ir un rato. Aun mejor, la entrada era gratis si llevabas comida para donar (en lata). Asi que nos fuimos con latas en mano. Al llegar, por supuesto la cultura entera de la feria te rodea, la gente, la comida grasosa, las luces, los peluches!

Comimos jojoto ahumado (choclo asado en palito), orejas de elefante (Gabriela creia que en realidad eran de elefantes) y de ahi a la seccion de animales y a montarse en los aparatos. Yo como le tengo miedo a las alturas no me monte en La Rueda, pero cuando llegamos a los carritos chocones me desquite! Cuando termino mi turno, todos me tenian miedo Ja Ja Ja!

A rasta sheep with dreadlocks

The camel ride



The Easter Bunny is having a bad hair day.



Ferris Wheel! La Rueda!

Tampa Aquarium

A couple of weeks ago Gabriela had a swim meet in Clear Water, FL, and it was an overnight event. She ended up doing well and it was a fun meet. But since we were in the area, we decided to take some of our free time and pay a visit to the Tampa Aquarium. We'd never been there before, so it wa sa fun little experience.

We got to see otters, penguins (yes, my favorite part), sharks. We touched mantarays (very slimey), live starfish and saw all sorts of fun creatures.

Ooh! Look at those!





Cute little penguin



We found Nemo! Encontramos a Nemo!



Birthdays and more birthdays!

We have been very busy celebrating birthdays these past couple of weeks! February 21st was my dear husband's 35th birthday! Gabriela and I took him to P.F. Changs for dinner to celebrate, which we all love. Gabriela told me she wanted to buy daddy a present. So, I decided to make it into a little lesson and I said "OK, I'll take you to the store but you have to use your own money for it" to which she answered "but mommy! I only have $1, I'll only be able to buy him gum with that! But, wait! I think I have a $20 gift card for Target that I haven't used!" and off we were to Target to buy daddy his birthday present. The whole ride to the store she was telling me that she knew exactly what to buy him for his birthday. It was this board game that looked like dominoes but it wasn't dominoes and ....

As we arrive at Target, she practically dragged me to the Toys section to find the board game. Her face lit up and she was about to grab it when she saw the price: $21.99... "Oh, mannnnn... I can't buy him this game. Bummer!" So she starts looking for other options, until finally she settled for a $1.99 deck of cards. "Mommy, this is perfect! OK, now I need to buy something for ME!" Spoken like a true woman honey... "Ooh, mommy, look this is what I want!" Then she looks at the price of her future toy on one hand, and looks at daddy's present on the other hand. I look at her and tell her "Yep, and then you have to add taxes to that" Her shoulders drop, her face is deflated, she looks at me and says "Oh, mommy, I hate taxes!" And I respond "I do too, sweety... I do too"

She ended up finding a more reasonable "I bought daddy a present so now it's my turn" toy and still ended up with extra money on her card.

On Friday March 4th was my 34th birthday! WOW... I can't believe I'm this old already... although my baggy eyes and gray hair definitely remind me every day. Hahaha! I totally look at those 20 minute infomercials with the magical melon extract that will make me look like Cindy Crawford in a whole new light. Hmm, let me google that melon... I do have some wrinkles here... she really looks awesome at forty-something! Oh, the joy of getting older.

But wrinkles aside, I had a wonderful birthday. I got tons of love from my two munchkins at home, they took me out to dinner and got me a mini-massage since I've been working such long hours. I received lots of phone calls and birthday wishes. It was great!

Estas ultimas semanas hemos estado bien ocupados celebrando cumplea#os por aqui! El 21 de febrero mi esposito cumplio sus 35 primaveras! Para celebrar lo sacamos a cenar a uno de nuestros restaurantes favoritos. Le cantamos y lo dejamos que tubiera la razon todo el dia! Ja ja ja! Unos dias despues, el 4 de marzo fue mi turno. Me toco celebrar mis 15 de nuevo Ja ja ja! De verdad que no puedo creer que tan rapido pasa el tiempo, pero las arruguitas en los ojos y las canitas me lo recuerdan todo los dias. Pero gracias a la tecnologia de hoy en dia, para todo hay una cremita!

Mommy's Birthday Dinner. We're not so great with the self-portraits.
El cumple de mami. Obviamente nos falto apuntar mejor!

At Daddy's birthday. En el cumple de papi

Happy Birthday! Feliz Cumplea#os!

Home away from home

Some of you may know that the last few months I have been traveling back and forth between my home office in Ft Myers and our office on the East Coast in Ft Lauderdale. Besides the loooong drive along Alligator Alley (yes, that's the name of a highway in Florida), the hardest thing is leaving my family behind every week. I'm only traveling for a couple of nights a week, so it's not a very extreme situation. I do get to spend most of my nights at home :-) But it's still hard, especially when your little girl begs you not to go :-(

Of course Jay and I are super grateful that we're blessed with a job that allows us to have all our needs met as well as the amazing opportunity for Jay to be able to continue studying so he can get his degree. We would not be able to do all those things without it. But I have to say, I am soooo over this recession!!! Yep, I am ready for the Country to come back!

Oh well, one day at the time is the name of the game. This experience has definitely made us stronger, closer and appreciate the time we DO spend together. Because they too are a blessing!

In the meantime, I get to accrue points for some future vacation :o)

Happy Valentine's Day!

I hope everyone had a great Valentine's Day!!! We had a little party at Gabriela's school. We got to see all the classroom decorations, all the candy-grams Gabriela received from her classmates and of course, eat some heart shaped cookies!

At home, Jay and I cooked some lamb with a shallot vinaigrette which came out AMAZING! And then Gabriela helped me make a red velvet cake, which wasn't too bad for our first time. Gabriela was then commenting about her bright red bowl movements. She was amused!

My dear hubby got Gabriela some yummy bon-bons and a really cute card that gives you kisses as soon as you open it. He got me a beautiful arrangement of red roses and a fun big balloon! Thanks love! It was fun.

Some red wine and it was a special but simple V-Day!

And of course we had to decorate the cake with sprinkles:

Here is the final product (you can't really make it out but that says H V D):

My beautiful roses:

The Toys are in timeout!

I had reached that point where I would come into Gabriela's room with the blinders on because I didn't want to see the mess. But the truth was that I couldn't blame it on her. The room wasn't really set up in a way that she could maintain some order or hide her mess (which, let's be honest... we all have that messy drawer somewhere!). So, last weekend we went on an adventure to figure out a way that would make it easier for her to tuck her toys away.

I'm not a big magazine reader but I have to admit that I'm a bit obsessed with Real Simple magazine. Because it is exactly that, SIMPLE! I don't like reading literature that's overwhelming with pictures and advertising because I get the sense of being confused and over-saturated with information. Well, they always show organizing ideas and tips. One of the things they emphasize is that as long as you have a place to put things then it's much easier to keep your home or office organized. I'm sure this isn't news to a lot of you but sometimes it takes a while to find the right place for everything in your house.

Ya yo entraba al cuarto de Gabriela sin mirar a los lados, porque no queria ver el desastre. Pero a decir verdad, no era ni culpa de la pobre porque el cuarto no estaba organizado de una manera para que ella pudiese guardar (o esconder) sus juguetes y desastricos. Entonces el fin de semana pasado decidimos hacer algunas modificaciones para poder organizarle su cuarto mejor. Una de las cosas que he leido es que mientras le tengas un lugar a cada cosa se te hace mas facil mantener el orden! Asi que manos a la obra!

Here are Gabriela's toys before:

Aqui estan los juguetes de Gabriela antes:

And here they are now! Much better:

Y aqui estan ahora! Mucho mejor:

We also decided to embrace a bit our American side, put some American Football on (note, we didn't necessarily watch it), made some hot dogs and ate a laid back meal!
Tambien decidimos conectar un poco con nuestro lado Americano y pusimos el canal de Futbol Americano (pero no necesariamente vimos el juego), hicimos unos perro calientes y tubimos un almuerzo relajado!

Life skills

One of the many awesome presents that Gabriela received for her birthday (thanks y'all!) was this Bear Making Kit. It consisted of felt cutouts, some stuffing, color coordinated thread and a very dull needle. It's meant to teach young kids the essential life skill of sewing while making it fun. I'm sure most of you know that my Venezuelan mom is an amazing seamstress (as a hobby on the side). She has made all of my cousins' wedding gowns and mine as well. I always got all my clothes custom made to my size. Imagine how expensive that would be now? Having exclusive garments that fit perfectly! Of course, as a young teenager I didn't think it was all that cool. Go figure! But I did love when I had Barbie clothes that matched mine. I know, I'm a nerd.

Well, later on in life I realized that I took that skill for granted and I never got to learn how to properly sew. I've made some not so straight (but cute) aprons, and some pillows but I definitely haven't graduated to clothes or anything like that. So, when aunt Sara sent this kit I was really excited. Granted it's a long way to making a wedding gown, but hey, you gotta start somewhere.

Uno de los muchos regalos que Gabriela recibio para su cumpleaños (gracias a todos!), fue un Set para hacer un osito. El Set consistia de fieltro cortado en las partes necesarias, relleno, hilo en colores coordinados y una aguja sin punta (una medida de seguridad que hizo el trabajo muy dificil). La intencion de esta actividad es de enseñalres a los niños la destreza de cocer pero de una manera divertida. Como muchos de ustedes sabran, mi mama es una costurera increible (y lo hace para pasar el tiempo en sus ratos libres). Mi mama le ha hecho los vestidos de novia a casi todas mis primas y a mi tambien! Cuando yo estaba mas pequeña la mayoria de mi ropa era hecha particularmente para mi y a mi medida! Que tal?! Muy haute couture! Imaginense que exquisito y costoso seria eso aqui! Por supuesto que de chama no me gustaba mucho la cosa. Aunque lo que si me gustaba era cuando mis Barbies tenian ropa que combinaba conmigo. Si, lo se, un poco cursi yo. 

 

Bueno, mas adelante me di cuenta de que no habia apreciado mucho esa destreza y en realidad nunca aprendi como cocer bien. Si he hecho varios delanatales, que aunque lindos no me salieron muy derechitos que digamos, y algunos cojines de decoracion pero definitivamente no me he graduado para hacer ropa ni nada asi. Asi que cuando la tia Sara le mando ese set me emocione mucho. Claro, que de ahi a hacer vestidos de novia es un largo trecho, pero por ahi se comienza!

The kit says it's a Bear Making Kit, but both Gabriela and I agreed that it looks more like a cat. Either way it's really cute:

El set decia que era un Set para hacer un Oso, pero Gabriela y yo acordamos que se parece mas a una gatica. Bueno, sea lo que sea, esta muy cuchi:

It obviously took a lot of concentration! Y la cosa tomo mucha concentracion!

And the end product... Y el producto final...

She clipped it to her bookbag and is very proud of little project. Thank you aunt Sara!

Se lo pego a su bulto del colegio y estaba muy orgullosa de su proyecto. Gracias tia Sara!