"Flap Your Flipper Once or Twice..."

We had a great time watching Isabella in her dancing debut. We weren't sure how she'd react to dancing on stage. Although she did once threaten to quit her dance class because she thought practicing in the dance studio was all she was getting. At that time she had said to me, "I don't want to dance anymore. I want to be on stage!" "Well, you don't get to go on stage unless you practice," I told her.

All the little girls did a great job out there. The school where Isabella attends dance academy was having a "block party" complete with carnival rides. The kids had lots of fun playing after the dancing was over.

Now, I just need to get that Penguin song out of my head....."You waddle you waddle you waddle you waddle..."

Lots of Extra Activities This Week

Liam's school had their Christmas program tonight. What fun it was to see the little kids singing Christmas songs. Liam really got into it on the top riser. He was singing with all his heart. That is, when he wasn't distracted picking something off of his tongue, listening to his neighbor make a comment about something, or wiping the sleepiness off of his face! It was priceless.

This weekend, we have Isabella's dance presentation. A penguin tap dance is what's on the program for her dance class. It will be her very first number performed before an audience!

Here are some pics. from this evening. I didn't take any of the actual performance because the school photographer was doing a good job. We'll get a print from him later.

Back Home....

Christmas lights on our house greeted me when I arrived from across the country last night. Edil and the kids had put them up while I was away. It was good to be back. I tried my best to wake-up Liam and Isabella to let them know I was home, but to no avail. Of course, the two of them found me in the morning and hopped into bed with me. Isabella wouldn't leave my side. It was so sweet.

I'm scrambling to get back into the routine here. I probably won't feel normal again for a few days! Here are some pics. from my mom's surprise birthday party for her 75th:

My brother and me with the birthday girl an hour after we surprised her at her doorstep to take her to her party. We took this shot right before we left for the party after getting ready to go!

Happy Birthday, Mom!

From Fake Snow to the Real Stuff

Last post, it was snow in Florida. Now snow here in Washington for my mom's surprise 75th Birthday Party (which went off w/out a hitch two nights ago. She was so surprised to see me, from Florida, and my brother, from Colorado, show-up at her doorstep without warning to bring her to "her" party!)

There are just a few snow showers here and nothing has stuck. I hope it stays that way because I want to be able to get back to my babies as scheduled with no delays because of weather.

Good Quality Family Time

Argentinian/Brazilian/American Banquet!

I love the holidays when our family can be together much and enjoy not having anything to do but spend time with each other and our friends. We had a very nice Thanksgiving with some dear old friends we know from Brazil who also live in Florida.

The day after Thanksgiving, we took the kids, along with our neighbors and their two boys, to the Science and Discovery Museum where they had 25 tons of snow to play in! The kids were very excited to get to play in some snow here in Florida.

After we got home from our trip to the snow, we had a second Thanksgiving meal (leftovers) with the same neighbors and one other neighbor at our house.

Here are some pictures from the past couple of days:

On the menu...

In typical Thanksgiving-Eve fashion, I spent all afternoon and into early evening in the kitchen, preparing for a feast. We are spending Thanksgiving Day tomorrow at the home of some old friends. We will go bringing some traditions from my family. I prepared New England stuffing (a delicious mashed potato based stuffing also containing bread crumbs, onion, eggs, butter, sage, and seasonings), frozen salad (a delicious frozen side dish that is absolute heaven. Among its ingredients: mashed bananas, cream cheese, whipped cream, crushed pineapple, lemon juice, mini-marshmallows, walnuts, mixed and frozen into a gelatin mold) , and a chocolate cream pie (I'm not a fan of pumpkin so always substitute with a favorite!) We'll also bring along some cranberry sauce, wine and flowers.

What I'll be missing is spending Thanksgiving at my mom's. This year, she turns 75 on Thanksgiving Day. It's hard to be far from her on such a special occasion.

I had a little help in the kitchen (I admit, I have my own personal slicer and chopper named Edilberto!) My son got hold of the camera and took some pics. Some of him helping too.:

Giving Thanks

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(From: Merriam-Webster)

Thankful:
1 : conscious of benefit received 2 : expressive of thanks 3 : well pleased : glad
— thank·ful·ness noun

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Conscious of benefit received. Thanksgiving should be a time when we consciously reflect on all the things we have to be thankful for. This of course, should be a daily occurrence. But it is significant that we have a day set aside to collectively recognize all the blessings in our lives, as well as express our gratitude for them.

I am thankful for our family and the precious moments we spend together:

For the Lord's mercies being new every morning. For freedom. For food on the table. For good health. For the ability to laugh and love. For the beauty of God's creation that we get to enjoy. For the gift of friendship with so many cherished people. For sharing burdens. For celebrations. For being loved. For being forgiven. For life and for living. For fellowship with our Creator. For hope for Eternity. For every breath we take...

Every day, every moment, every breath is a gift.

We are truly thankful.

Feasting at School

We just returned from celebrating Thanksgiving with Liam and his classmates. The kids were so cute in their costumes. The mashed potatoes came out wonderfully. Phew! All worried for nothing. Everyone ate them except for my son! You'd think with a name like Liam (Irish), he'd like mashed potatoes. He'd eat rice over mashed potatoes. His taste buds must be predominately Brazilian!

Here are some pictures:

Mashed Potatoes and Thanksgiving Costumes

I like how at school, they spring things on you at the last minutes. I was volunteered to do mashed potatoes for 20 tomorrow. I know this would be easy for most, more adept cooks and homemakers. I almost break out in hives with the responsibility. I can make mashed potatoes, but food on a large scale always intimidates me. Even after having worked in kitchens to feed dozens at a time. I never liked it. So, I am thinking up ways of how to keep the mashed potatoes hot and yummy before they're served to the little Thanksgiving revelers.

Then, I have to come up with a costume for the kids for school tomorrow. Isabella will be coming with me for the Thanksgiving feast at Liam's school. Therefore, I have two pilgrims or Indians to dress, depending on what they're wanting to go as.

I won 4 tickets to see Dennis Miller tomorrow night. My neighbor is going with me. I have two other tickets, but I don't know who else would want to or could go. Edil's staying home with the kids. My neighbor took me to see a play at a local church theater a couple of nights ago. It was a play about a modern day Job (from the Old Testament). It was a tragedy, but with a good message. The high school kids who performed it did wonderfully. Dennis Miller will be quite different than the play we saw earlier in the week. My neighbor is leary about going thinking Dennis Miller might swear. Heaven forbid! She cracks me up. She's really loosened-up since she met me. I think I've had a good influence on her! ; )

Trip to Children's Museum

Liam had Veteran's Day off from school. I took the kids to the Hands-On Children's Museum that focuses on art for kids. They have a recycle emphasis exhibit. We brought recycled material to donate. I had no idea I'd be bringing in our recycled items, only to have to lug home three times more of it. They had bins filled with the stuff for kids to make "art projects" out of! Junk looks a lot better under the black light they had in the room where you did the artwork (which isn't evident with flash photography)! Here's some pics. from our day:

Yes, we're still here!

Thanks for checking-in. I promise to try and write more. Lord knows I've needed the outlet. I just don't have the words (nice words anyway!) to describe all that's been happening in our lives the past few weeks. We are having a rough time in having to make a change of plans from the reason we first came to Florida. We try and maintain things as normal as possible for the kids' sake. I honestly can't let myself think about the whole situation. I only allow myself some moments of that, but mostly have to keep my mind set on the day's activities in order to be able to function as a mother and keep things rolling.

Yesterday, there occurred a huge and heavy distraction from my own piddly (in comparison) problems. Another police officer was shot and killed (the third in as many months) here in South Florida. In fact, it happened very close to where we live (from our home we heard the endless sirens screaming right after it happened. We turned on the television to see what it was all about. We found it happened right on a street where we were to be driving down the next hour. We made plans to take an alternate route).

It was a morning of police and news helicopters, police cars, all hovering and scanning looking for the cop killer. He had nothing to lose with living under two life sentences already. He was armed and very dangerous. Soon, all the schools in our county were on lock down. That meant Liam's school too.

I got together with Isabella to pray for them to find and capture this person they were looking for. In fact, we prayed specifically for him to be caught within the half hour. Much to Isabella's delight (she was giving God hugs!), we found our prayers were answered within 10 minutes. He was caught.

When I picked him up from school, Liam described lock down as fun and as scary. He told me that someone had killed a policeman. The kids had to sit together in one corner of their classroom on the floor.

Soon after all of this happened, the Space Shuttle landed safely. Isabella and I went outside to see if we could see it returning or hear the sonic boom like we could last time. We didn't see or hear anything even though it was a beautiful clear day outside. At least the bad guy was caught, and the Shuttle returned without exploding. But sadly, one family is in mourning for yet another murdered police officer.

This evening, there was an ambulance outside at our next door neighbor's house. Their oldest son (7 yrs. old) has a cancerous brain tumor. We love this family dearly. Their boy is one of the sweetest little guys I've ever known. We immediately thought it might be him having some sort of crises. One of my good friends and neighbor phoned to tell me there was something happening next door. I went out front to see. Their other next door neighbor came outside very concerned as well. It turned out to be their younger son. He had had a bad asthma attack, but he was fine. They were taking him in as a precaution. His young mother went with him. She's been through a lot with her older son's illness. I felt for her with all that they've gone through. I wasn't able to talk with her before the ambulance left, but I gave the dad a hug, and a hug to our other neighbor who has become a very concerned "grandma" to this dear family.

Our problems sure are small in light of all of these things.

Saturday

I do have a lot to update on, but don't have time right now. I'm posting some photos of Isabella at her dance class (pictured here with a fellow student, teacher, and teacher's helper). She usually goes every Saturday morning, but had to miss today because Liam had to sing with his class at a Craft Fair at school at the same hour.

Bad Blogger, Bad Blogger

I admit it. It's true. I've been really really really really bad at blogging lately. I love to write, but haven't been inspired to do so lately. In fact, I'm feeling uninspired in general. I don't know what it is. I think we're all in a bit of a funk around here these days. We're trying to figure-out what life is supposed to look like for us. And we just haven't been able to see it yet. We're not satisfied with where we're at, what we're doing. We want to be more effective, more relevant, and more fulfilled. Not to mention, able to survive here in South Florida where the cost of living is astronomical.

I guess that's why I haven't had the creative mind to sit down and write anything interesting for anyone to want to read. It's sad because writing has always been so important to me. I used to keep a journal (started when I was 19 and wrote EVERYDAY until I was in my early 30's or so). I still jot down some things we've done in my agenda to keep track of time and events. But nothing compared to the writing I used to do.

I apologize for those who have checked-in, hoping for something more interesting to read. I will come up with something to stir my creative juices soon. I'm sure!

Party Photos...

Isabella with her party guests.