my cat ate my calla lilies

Hope everyone is having a great start to the week--it's almost May and my birthday! 

Just wanted to share some pics of the boys. 

// The boys wore their ninja shirts -- they love those shirts \\

// My kids hair rocks. That is all. \\

// Moomie sends packages for the boys full of goodies and makes

their dreams come true with Pez dispensers and candy necklaces \\

sharing, but not like on Facebook or anything

Went to the Farmer's Market last week, and besides getting organic greens, I also got organic goat cheese.

When I tried a sample, it had a strong taste and I wasn't too sure of it. The guy who sold it to me said it was decadent. That it was a dessert. I didn't believe him until a few days later when I actually tried it. 

With apricot and pecan, holy guacamole--he was right! 

I ate the whole thing by myself, and I am not ashamed. it's all gone now. 

yum

One afternoon, we went to take family photographs, and we ended up being called on by the cops.
No, I kid. But one bitter old lady called her landlord and we were short of being escorted by a little old lady driving a Buick. Hilarious. What? It's not like we were doing something illegal horrible...just taking pictures.

None of the pictures came out good. The husband was rushing me. The kids uncooperative. And I have no shutter remote, which means lots of getting up and getting down into position. 

These four were the best ones. But I love how Jonah pinches his cheek because Andrew was doing it first.

Our weather lately has been like my moods. Gloomy & rainy or bright & hot. 

I enjoy this weather now though...

The 4 year old has been busily trying to begin to read. And I love his writing. When he makes an ugly letter, I look at him, give him the frown, and he promptly growls at me and forcefully erases it. 

We call it an ugly letter. And he knows better than to make one. 

Daddy has been leaving the iPad at home (he usually takes it to work with him), which is awesome because we can do part of our school on there too. Montessori apps and counting apps and building word apps. 

Pretty soon I will sign him up for his first year of Kindergarten *tears* I am enjoying my last year with him at home but I know he will enjoy Kindergarten so much more in a public school. 

I am willing to see what happens and we will go from there. 

If I feel like God is calling me to homeschool him, I will do it wholeheartedly again.

And the 2 year old? Well, this week I made him a race track on our carpet. Gave him stickers. Let him paint and color. Let him play with flour again, drew a mustache, did countless puzzles, gave him books and let him do online school (educational youtube videos and starfall). He's a mess of smartness. 

the boys do school in their chones {underwear}...i don't. i don't think i explained that well. 

We took the family out to somewhat recover from our workout that day, and also because we were going to see a possible new place to move into, that has lots more space! 

They are Dr. Pepper-holics, just like their father and ordered a Dr. Pepper.

And oh my gosh you guys!!! 

Been wanting to do a post full of Andrew's drawings, but every time I get some together, he makes 20 more!! Every day. It's ridiculous the amounts of paper he uses, he's on his third (small) sketchbook. And how wacky the kids imagination is!!! 

But my heart, oh, it fills up with love. So we keep all his drawings in his 'notebook' 

which essentially is all of his papers gathered with clips. That way we can keep adding and adding and adding...and you get the picture. This is not all of his drawings. 

The kid draws maps, quests, dreams, guns, swords, dragons, jumping shoes, other dimensions, words that don't make sense, essay-like scribbles that all start with "Dear God" when you ask him what it says and he begins his almost never-ending spiel of imaginative impossibilities. I love it. I love him. I don't love how these papers spewed all over our living room make me so crazy, my eye twitches sometimes.

And every once in a while, I'll log onto Pinterest and see what kid fun I'm missing out on.

This week was Octo-weenies! 

The boys loved them and I allowed them to play with their food, cause I rock.

Our neighbors have been coming outside to play 'baseball' in the evenings and guess who wants to butt in and play with them? Luckily, they really don't mind the boys running wild. 

I do, because I can't catch them with my camera. Ha! 

As for me and my craft this week? Husband's been making paper like crazy.

And I have been assembling sketchbooks and painting on our homemade paper. 

This week I will hopefully get a new shelf painted for the boys room. Frames painted and assembled and hung. I ordered a super cool print from Straw Castle Designs on etsy and can't wait to thrift a frame for that thing to hang up on my wall! I am starting a small art collection. I know my sister's jaw will drop when and ever she clicks on this. click on it. now.

Oooh Oooh! We also bought our first Bountiful Basket! It was like two laundry baskets full of vegetables.

It's awesome. Except I ran out of salad dressing for my salads and have been wondering what to do with those chilies. 

Thank you to my friend Brooke who totally let me in on this awesomeness.

the boys thought green cauliflower was broccoli. they said broccoli tasted weird and didn't eat it all.

Oh, and this picture below? That's me eating a mango from our basket. It was so tempting one morning, I didn't even bother to cut it up like we Mexicans do and sprinkle Tajin on it. I just ate it like a banana. And it was so good! But my face was not. So here's a funny picture. 

Have you ever eaten a mango like this? I bet Carl, my brother who often visits Brazil (he's there right now lucky man), does it like this...

Oh, did I forget something? Oh yeah! My flowers!
This time you were spared the flower/garden pictures. I felt like I was overwhelming the blog with them. But alas, my flowers and garden are doing fine, thank you for the concern!
just kiddin....added petunias to my family!

my new petunias. every time i say that, i am reminded of aunt petunia from harry potter. which i'm currently marathon-ing 

simple moments: sun, ow-ies & toads

Jonah had a rough time at one of our workouts this week...Kids will be kids and act like puppies. They chase each other around with weight bands around their necks and then trip and fall and hit their cheeks on hard metal in the weight room. What? Yours never did that? What can I say? 

Our Witty heads weigh a lot...Have you seen my lop-sided forehead?!?!

So he got babied {quite much} and was given Skittles and Hot Wheels to take the pain away. It was really awful how he managed to fall and hit his face, so I felt it necessary to try to make him smile.

I love snapping pictures of his cute little lips. His gorgeous eyes and pudgy cheeks. 

Oh, JoJo, you melt my heart...

And Andrew. Oh Andrew, how we love you. He finally allowed me to snap some photographs of him.

I love the shadows and the light from our 5 o'clock living room window. I loved how he pretended to be 'asleep' while I took his pictures. I loved that he smiled and stayed still for half a second.

And  guess what I found in our back patio?

I wish I would have caught Jonah shrieking because the toad was jumping out of his 'bathtub' after I stopped filming. Yeah, Jonah requested we gave the poor toad a bath because he peed inside the container. 

ahhhh! I already have my prince charming, so no I didn't kiss the frog. It was mostly scaredy-cat-nerves of what he would do to me {tongue me?} But this guy was amazing! He was so calm. He didn't pee on me. Just himself. He remained so cool while Jonah blew on him to dry him off after his bath, and then Andrew came over and poked his eyeball--twice. He was so squishy and warm. 

We let him go at the request of the husband. Wish I could have kept him. He seemed like a cool toad.

Linking up to Simple Moments with Brooke.

simple moments is about finding the small things that make up our everyday, things we want to remember and be thankful for. it's the little bits of our lives that might not be remembered when we are gray and old. so we document it, on paper, with a photo, in a journal, through a blog.

simple moments: found in the morning

Ahhhh the simple moments. Moments in the morning. 
When I come down the stairs after waking up, I literally stop to smell the {roses} flowers. 
Never mind the mess the kitty cats make, never mind that there are dishes in the sink. Never mind that I feel crumbs on the bottoms of my feet from last nights failure to sweep. What I love most is opening my door to 'check' on my garden and plants outside. I love seeing these new geranium blooms. I feel like most flowers I love have a Mexican tie to them. One memory of geraniums that I can remember, was back in my home country Mexico. Our car garage in the house was lined with huge geraniums. I hazily remember my mother showing me that their petals were edible, bending down and picking off a few, then sticking them in her mouth. Now, I can't help but pick a couple and stick them in my mouth. They're tangy and fiber-y. It was something quirky, that I now treasure. I'm sure most people don't eat geranium petals. But I loved them. I think I bought my first geranium last spring, and then I abandoned it during out move across Texas. And now, I have it back. Oh how it makes my heart happy!

this morning was extra special for me. I made a licuado de mango, a mango smoothie

and added strawberries to it. I wanted a pretty swirl of both of them mixing together, but it didn't work. 

So I settled on a blend of the two beautiful colors.

I loved it, even without adding extra sugar. My kitty cat, Prim, did too. 

 And {squishy bear} Jonah woke up and came stomping down the stairs and took over.

So I made him his own little smoothie. 

And then we took an impromptu photo of us (for this post). With Rue, our other kitty cat, photo-bombing us. This is how we look after we wake up. Messy hair, raw, and wack-job of {sans} clothes.

And guess what I found in my back patio again? Mushrooms! 

Andrew's little grass he got from church keeps getting invaded by mushrooms! 

This time 5 umbrella-like mushrooms and of course, I had to photograph them. 

They grow and go away so fast.

 Simple moments. 

I am an observer of things. I love to watch.

So I've been noticing how these tiny little plants have been making my heart so happy lately. I could stare at them and my garden all day, making sure they grow. Measuring them. Criticizing them. Taking care of them.

It's kinda silly, really. Since the other people in my home (three boys, 2 little, 1 big) could care less about the details in growing plants except 'wow! that has grown!'

But I'm not complaining. 

I think it's a phase of mine. I hope it sticks. I hope to get more space and greens in the near future. 

I'm participating in Brooke's blog series, Simple Moments.

simple moments is about finding the small things that make up our everyday, things we want to remember and be thankful for. it's the little bits of our lives that might not be remembered when we are gray and old. so we document it, on paper, with a photo, in a journal, through a blog.  

Happy Thursday errrbody!