Gaby's baby shower

Today we attended my friend Gaby's baby shower and we had such a great time...

Gaby was my next door neighbor in Venezuela and we have been friends for over 20 years.  She is expecting a little girl, Alanis, due in early June...

Her baby shower was so much fun... I won 3 of 5 games so it was especially fun for me!

Gaby really enjoyed her special day and we are all eagerly waiting for the arrival of baby Alanis...she will make a great addition to the Garcia family....

Can't wait 'til you're here, baby girl!

Barcelona

Barcelona was one of the cities we visited during our recent trip to Europe. It is such a beautiful and diverse city and we thoroughly enjoyed our stay there.  We were in Barcelona for 5 days and had a wonderful time with my cousin Renato who lives there. 

I have been to Spain before, but Barcelona is definitely different from other places in that country.  

Some of my observations were:

1.Spanish is NOT the primary language that is spoken in Barcelona; most people speak "Catalan" or catalonian, which is a dialect that combines Spanish, French and Italian; it is very difficult to understand and I had a hard time getting my point across in some occasions.  

2. Catalonians are NOT nice people.. for a city that is as touristic as Barcelona one would think people are kind and receptive, but that wasn't my experience...I found myself very disappointed with the customer service and people in general...

3. The streets of Barcelona are beautiful.. there are tons of trees and old buildings that make for a very picturesque view.  People really enjoy being outside and Spring time is absolutely beautiful in the city

4. People get around by metro, bus and scooters... lots of scooters... Many people have cars but they are very tiny as parking spaces are limited and gas is VERY expensive...the roads are filled with little Smart cars and other kinds of tiny cars..

5. Walking is one of the primary methods of transportation.. people like to walk.. A LOT!

This is a picture of one of the streets in Barcelona... 

 During our stay in Barcelona, we also visited the Camp Nou, which is the stadium where the Barcelona soccer team plays.. it was very good knowing I was at the camp where the world's best soccer team plays.. and of course Iggy really enjoyed that visit...

On our second day, we took a short trip to Tossa de Mar, which is a little town in Costa Brava near the frontier of Spain and France.  Tossa de Mar was such a beautiful place to see.  It was our first time at the Mediterranean sea.. so neat!

 ... while in Barcelona, we visited some of Gaudi's famous buildings...Here's a picture of "La Pedrera", one of the most iconic buildings in the city of Barcelona... so neat!

...in this picture we were at Parc Guell, a beautiful park in the city, filled with Gaudi buildings and designs... this park was so relaxing and had such a good vibe.. we really enjoyed our day there..

                                                   

 
   ...and this picture is at "Sagrada Familia", another iconic building in Barcelona... it is such a huge church designed by Gaudi and a very touristic place... very beautiful...

I have so many more observations of the city but I can't write them all because I don't want to make this post so long... all in all, we really enjoyed our time in Barcelona... We were able to visit some friends and get to know tons of new places... After Barcelona we headed to Rome...now.. THAT was quite the experience.. that will be by next post!

..and we're back!

We just got back from Europe last night and let's just start by saying that I have ALOT to blog about...
The trip was awesome.. we saw so many different things, fun cultures, historic places...such a great experience....
Needless to say I'm super exhausted from the 10+ hour flight back, so this week will be all about getting back into the routine and all the fun stuff of our "normal" life...

I will blog some more later today!

Hello!...from the "Old Continent"

Me @ Plaza Spain in Barcelona

Hello from the "Old Continent", such an awesome place to be...

Well.. Iggy and I are traveling around Europe and I must say we are thoroughly enjoying this experience...
We have been to Barcelona and a few towns around the city and we just got to Rome today...
Europe is quite the place to visit.. so different from our way of life in the States.. it is so much fun...
I will have so much to blog about when I get back and so many pictures to post...
Finding a "hot spot" and internet connection has been a bit of a challenge, but we have managed to keep in touch with the girls, whom we miss terribly...
This is fun but I can't wait to get back to my babies!
I'll blog more when I get a chance....

Gaby is 32 months!

Little Gaby is 32 months already! 4 more months and she will officially be full blown pre-schooler... wow! Where did time go?
Let me start by saying that it is so much fun to be Gaby's mom; she is funny, witty and very sassy.. I think here pictures say it all...
She is so smart and very interested in learning new things very day.. She has so much admiration for her sister Olivia and they are very close and loving...they have to be the cutest pair of sisters ever!
Gaby loves cartoons and is in love with Tinkerbell and Belle from Beauty and the Beast.. she could watch that movie a million times if I let her.. it's cute...
As I said last month, she is fully potty trained and hasn't had any accidents ever since she said bye-bye to diapers.. it was rather easy when the time came, despite all my potty training frustration posts.. I think I underestimated her abilities...
I am in full party planning mode already... the party will be on July 21st, which is still months away but I really love planning and all the fun stuff related to kid's parties.. This year's theme will be "The Smurfs" since it's the only thing both girls could agree on...
When Gaby turns 3, I will no longer do monthly updates, so this is one of the last few...
Happy 32 months, Gaby!

Featured blog

I obviously love writing a blog, but there's nothing better than READING a blog...
I love to follow interesting people, who have interesting stories and topics to share...
So today I'm going to refer you all to an awesome blog which is about one of my favorite things... FOOD!
The blog is called THE FIT COOK and it features tons of yummy AND healthy recipes...
It happens to be written by the little sister of one of my good friends but that isn't the only reason why this blog is so awesome... the whole thing is just... well.. AWESOME...
Check it for yourselves...
Please visit www.thefitcook.net.  I promise you will love it!

This is Luisana...the "fit cook"

Afternoon at the park

We are blessed to be able to live in a place where the weather is *always* nice... Despite the crazy hot summers, I really enjoy the fact that we can be in shorts and flip flops all year round, especially when other people are battling snow storms and crazy weather....
Well.. today was one of those days when the weather was so perfect that we could have spent all day outside... So.. I took the girls to the park for a while and we let loose!
They had an awesome time running around and enjoying the playground.. so much fun!
I wish every day was as nice as this one!

My "little lady"...not so "little" anymore! :(

My Olivia, my "little lady" will be FIVE YEARS OLD soon...time is just creeping up and I get so emotional when I think about how fast it all has happened...
Olivia is SUCH an amazing little girl.. she is so incredibly smart and so much fun to be around...She absolutely loves attention and definitely knows how to get her way..
She has developed a big interest in arts and crafts as well as books and readings... She enjoys dancing and exercising and always tells me she wants to "get muscles".. it's really cute...
She is currently in gymnastics and piano lessons and she really enjoys both activities...
Olivia has her good days and bad days...some days she is the most fun child to be around..and some other days, well...let's not go there...
She inspires me to be a better mother every day and teaches me so many valuable lessons about what being a parent is all about... I love her to the moon and back and I feel so blessed to be her mother!

Blog neglect...

I have been such a horrible blogger lately; I've totally neglected this little world and have failed to share some of the most fun anecdotes of my life in the past few weeks...
Posting once a week is not my style and it definitely isn't going to help my plan of eventually printing out this blog for my girls...
The truth is, I have been super busy with school work and other things...
The girls have been needing me so much lately and I've been trying to be "super mom" for them..
We've had so many wonderful family days and have been enjoying each other's company...
Iggy and I will be going on a 10-day trip to Europe as of this coming Friday, so we've been fixing things for that..
I'm on my last three weeks of Winter semester and the work is just insane... I will be finishing my degree this coming July so that keeps me going...
Either way.. in a nutshell, that's what has been happening lately.. fun stuff, right??
I will be back to blogging full time soon! I hope my readers don't abandon me because of my neglect!.. that would be really..REALLY sad!
Happy Blogging!

Movie review: "The Lorax"

Kids movies are usually fun and cute, and "The Lorax" wasn't the exception...
We had a wonderful family date yesterday and thoroughly enjoyed this film...
The film is about a kid from Thneedville, a city made of plastic, who is looking for a real tree.. In his journey, he comes to find out how all trees were destroyed and has the outstanding job of saving the last seed...
He meets the "Once-ler", who is the one to blame for the destruction of all trees and also the one who tells him about "The Lorax", who is the guardian of all trees...
In the end, the kid is able to show everyone the meaning and importance of trees and gets to plant the last seed in the middle of the plastic city...
The message of the story has to do with the excessive damage that us humans do to the environment and shows how this excessive damage can potentially destroy our whole world...
The story is well told, the movies is very colorful and rather entertaining... It was really good...
I give it 5 out of 5 stars!  Very refreshing... and the girls loved it.. which is what matters the most to us!

Week in review

Last week was hectic and not all that fun...so I was away from my blog for the most part...

On Monday both girls got sick... really sick... Gaby had a bad ear infection AND strep throat and Olivia had a horrible cough... both ended up on antibiotics and thankfully got better after a couple of days...

Olivia had to go through Kindergarden testing for her new school and I was swamped with work...

I had my annual check up at my ob/gyn and Iggy had tons of meetings at work, which made for some late nights!

On Thursday my in-laws came into town and stayed with us for the weekend... it was nice to hang out with them and the girls had a great time.. their visit was like fresh air..

On Saturday we spent the day at City Place in West Palm Beach.. the weather was great so we were able to enjoy some time outdoors...

This week will be just as busy, considering I need to get a lot of stuff done before our Europe trip on the 16th... School is keeping me crazy as well and the girls keep me on my toes for sure!

Happy blogging!