Abby's 4th Birthday

Yes, my "baby" is four years old. Oh, and after four comes five, as Abby is very quick to point out. Why in the world would my baby want to be five years old? I want her to go back to being able to fit in my little Bjorn where I could just carry her around like a baby doll. But I'm getting off my point.

So, Abby had quite the birthday extravaganza this year. First, was cupcakes at snack time with her preschool class.

This is the poster I made for Abby's class (school tradition). They use it as a teaching tool for the day, basically helping the kids practice telling stories. All the pictures are of important events in their lives. And yes, I got a little scrapbook-y with it.

After that, we just had to have cupcakes and sing Happy Birthday with her little posse of neighborhood friends.

Here is Abby showing off her new galoshes she got as a present, and Lily with her new big girl Dora panties. Both were huge hits.

Friday night (Abby's actual birthday), I declared a new tradition of having a family birthday dinner to celebrate the girls' birthdays. We went to Ruby Tuesdays.

THEN, the birthday party really began. First, pictures of the cupcakes I made for the party.

Saturday morning, we loaded up the car to go to the birthday party. We stopped at Starbucks for a quick breakfast and the girls rocked out to the easy listening jazz. Seriously. They were practically headbanging and break dancing.

Then, (after a quick trip back to the car for an attitude adjustment), Abby's party began!  We had a "Princess Spa" party, where all of her princess friends came and got their fingernails painted at the nail salon. I had some little eye shadows that I put some makeup on them and the girls L-O-V-E-D it. (Painting fingernails is one of the things I bribe Abby with to make her behave. She's super girly girl.)

Some of the "Princess" crew.

Then we quickly ate our cupcakes and snacks, and the girls all headed to the indoor playground upstairs while I did clean up.

(Abby and her cute little friends at the playground.)

So, at the age of four, we're currently dealing "I think I'm thirteen" attitude and the of "learning to obey even when I don't feel like it" issue. Something we'll probably be fighting for quite a while! We've learned that the only thing that works on Abby is bribery and threatening to take away things she loves. Some days it's very easy, and some days we get quite the collection of toys on top of the bookcases. We've started working with a chore chart and that has helped because Abby loves getting stars on her chart. We've also graduated from all pullups this month, even at night. One day she decided that pullups were for babies and she hasn't looked back since!  Woohoo! We're down to one kid in pullups!

Abby is doing great in school and is really progressing well with both her Spanish and English and is extremely verbal (as in she never EVER stops talking). She can already write her name and does simple math in school which just amazes me. Abby's uber social and has about five "best friends" between church, her neighborhood buddies and her class at school. She's never met a stranger. She's also very loving and affectionate and is quick to say things like "Mom, I just love your clothes" when I'm in my rattiest sweats. Gotta keep her around just for that of course!

So that's our update on Abby's 4th  birthday fun!

July News from the Mendez Household

Happy July to all of you! While all of you are sweltering in the summer heat and relaxing by the pool, we're here freezing our tails off. It's flippin' cold this winter. As I write this, there is snow on every single mountain in our area, except for the "hill" that is right up against our house. Joel even had to scrape ice off our windshields this morning!

June was the month of the sickies in our house. At the beginning of June, I had some surgery which required that I be on "bedrest" for two weeks, which turned into almost three. I'm not a very patient patient, let's just say. So, I spent a great deal of time on the couch and in bed. At least the drugs made the days a little bit "floatier."

In addition to all of that, the kids and I contracted a massive respiratory virus that has been pretty difficult to kick. Can't wait til we're back in the US with clean air to breathe!

Here was my view from the couch those days:

(Lily was pouting because I wasn't allowed to pick her up. She could have climbed up in my lap herself, but  . . .)

(Isn't this just the funniest shot?)

Here is something else the girls starting doing occasionally this month:

Also in other random kid news, Abby got her first "haircut by Mommy" this month. Praise the Lord the curlies hide where it's crooked because she moved her head while I was cutting. I'm thinking this might be one of those skills I better pick up soon if we ever go live back overseas again.

By Father's Day, I was well enough to be up and around, but not well enough to throw the big shindig for Joel that I normally do. So we went out to one of our favorite restaurants, El Establo (The Stable). First of all, they serve American-stye fajitas, burgers, BBQ, etc. And also their patio area has a huge playground with a Wild Wild West theme. And on Sundays they have face painters and magicians out there entertaining the kids as well. Win win for the whole family.

(Don't worry, I know she looks cranky. She was just taking her coloring very seriously that day.)

Abby had her face painted.

The girls in the playground area:

This is what I do with my girls when they're bad. I put them in jail!

You can't see it in this picture, but there is a slide coming out of the front of the wagon.

And of course, since it was Father's Day, they had lots of activities for the Dads too. This is Joel and our neighbor getting their pants whipped by the Chileans at table soccer.

Another important thing happened at the end of this month: Lily started preschool. She was just so whiny all of the sudden - I couldn't pick her up and play with her like I used to, her favorite playmate Abby was gone all morning, and she was stuck inside so much because of the weather. After a week or so, I realized she was just bored. So I looked around and found a little "cuna" (sort of like an American version of a daycare, since official preschool doesn't start here until you are at least two years old) and negotiated with them to let us try it for a month or so until we leave Chile.

Here she is on her very first day. Her favorite part of going to "school" is her new backpack, which she actually picked out herself. It HAD to be the Barbie one. Not the Hello Kitty, Princess, or Strawberry Shortcake! You should have seen her actually turn up her nose at them, it was hilarious!

Here she is in her classroom. I was SHOCKED at how well she did. After just one morning of clinging to me non-stop in her class, the next day she let me sneak out of there without even needing emergency hugs or anything. Now she's the first one up every morning, dressed, and begging to go to school. I guess she finally was just ready. She's still completely attached to her teachers, she needs to sit by them or hold their hand, etc. But she is not-attached-to-me, and that is just monumental in our house. In fact, yesterday she threw a full-out temper tantrum when I went to go pick her up. She didn't want to leave!

Here is Lily in her classroom.

In other random family news, we're DONE with yard sales! We've got a few random things to get rid of, but we're over the whole selling process. I've got one more trip of donations of our outside toys to take to the Montessori Preschool right before we leave, but other than that we are done with the huge house purge. Woohoo! Very proud of how well we've streamlined things.

I'm also halfway through my Career Coach Certification course, and will be also completing a course to become a Twitter-Certified Career Strategist. I know, sounds crazy right? But fun and cool. And yes, this is all on top of the fact that our movers arrive in a month. And we are throwing two MAJOR birthday parties this month (I am the Queen of birthday parties, after all) and also doing the "take cupcakes to the class" thing TWICE too. When I'm not busy with those tasks, I'm sorting, organizing, packing, on the phone with mortgage lenders, trying to get some business done here and there, and throwing a little scrapbooking in on the side. Yeah, I don't sleep much. Joel seems to be working around the clock non-stop lately, trying to get work things done before we leave.

So, that's what we are up to. Our packers arrive August 2nd.

Love,

Julie, Joel, Abby, and Lily

June Mendez News

Happy June to all of you!

Our yard sale was very successful, and then we also participated in another group yard sale at the embassy where we were able to get rid of more items. Yes, we still have stuff left to get rid of, but we're down to a manageable pile now. Somewhat. Piece by piece it's slowly leaving our house, LOL!

After hosting Joel's office party (not the relaxing part), I went on a group trip to La Ligua. This is a small town several hours from Santiago that is famous for their knitted items - like sweaters, etc.  I invested some of that yard sale money into a new winter wardrobe and got tons of sweaters and shirts and scarves and things. I've decided that even I'm a stay-at-home-mom, I don't have to look like a "stay-at-home-mom." So, luckily I got some fabulous deals on very pretty sweaters, etc. I almost fit in with the chic moms when I drop Abby off at school now.

Then on Mother's Day, we had a very relaxing day. We went back down to Piedra Roja and took a walk in the sunny weather (too hot to wear my pretty sweaters, unfortunately!) and let the girls play on the playground.

The girls have had a very active social life lately. Here is one of the birthday parties that they attended, for our Chilean neighbor's son, who is six years old. He had a Star Wars theme party.

Mommy and Lily

The girls with their "light sabers"

"Obi Wan Kenobe" and "Darth Vader" in a battle

All the kids fighting and defeating Darth Vader.

Notice - the biggest "kid" in the family had a really great time too.

Another thing that happened this month: WINTER. Uggh. It came really early this year and I'm not pleased at all. Tons of rain, rain, and more rain. But up in the mountains, that rain is all snow. This is the view from our house right now.

So, that's it for our month of May. June will be full of preparing for our move. We're really down to the wire now, and have started making reservations for hotels and airplanes. Only 71 days to go, as of June 1st!

Love,

Julie, Joel, Abby and Lily