Carlos turns 4!

On January 11th Carlos officially turned four. This year he requested a Nemo cake, which of course is not the Disney character of the moment. I was not able to purchase a new Nemo shirt for him, but I did find a Nemo costume on clearance at the Disney Store in San Marcos. He was ecstatic to wear a costume.
I was ambitious with his cake and decided to make a Nemo shaped cake. I used two circles and got to work cutting out the shape. I was quite pleased with the shape of the cake. I made some buttercream frosting and didn't get the orange bright, but overall I was quite pleased with how our Nemo homemade cake turned out. Thanks to Jules for all the help!
We were able to find a small clown fish pinata, that Julie and I tried to convert into a pullstring pinata. The pullstring part was a fail, but the kids enjoyed the candy, and Carlos has a Nemo pinata fully intacted for a souvenir. Thanks to Sammy we also found some Nemo fruit snacks.
Carlos is very lucky when it comes to presents for his birthday. A lot of toys are on clearance and he can generally fill in the rest of his christmas list. When you asked what he wanted for his birthday he would mention all the Toy Story characters, especially Buzz. He got a talking Woody for Christmas, but no Buzz. By looking at his presents you would think he had a Buzz party. His favorite presents were Buzz rocket, Pooh, rc car, kid laptop, two Buzz figures, and pocket bacs.

Birthday food for the day:
Breakfast...papas and eggs with catsup.
lunch...chicken nuggets and mac & cheese
dinner...sopa and spaghetti

Memorable quotes of the day:
Carlos woke up and I was downstairs. He came to the rail and said "Good Morning mommy! Today is my birthday, right?" I answered "yes, it is birthday boy." He got the biggest smile on his face said "yeah" and came down as quick as he could.
Sammy was upset when Carlos picked Nemo when I said they could watch a movie, and said "the birthday boy doesn't get to pick everything." John David replied "yes he does!"
Emma talked about a princess party all day...had to keep reminding her that it was Carlos' birthday and it was a Nemo party. This is her attempt to play with Carlos: Emma "I Cinderella. Nene, you prince. Dance with me"
Carlos "humph"
Emma "ok I dance by myself"
then she proceeds to tell me "Nene don't wanna dance with Cinderella."

Patience while having fun!

Patience is definitely a virtue. This past weekend we had to work on this together as a family. My brother and Simran had a Sikh wedding ceremony. We all had to work together as a family unit to get everyone dressed and ready by 9am at a hotel in Houston. Then we all patiently waited at the Guduwara for the event to begin. Then there is the actual ceremony. That was just like getting the kids to be quiet, respectful and pay attention to mass every sunday. Leave it to John David to make it clear that it was not sunday. Big thanks to Simran for having flower petals on the floor. That was enough entertainment for Carlos, Emma, Gavin and Ivanna. JP was sitting with the big boys, so do not know how they made it through. Despite all the comments about the long ceremony it was actually speedier than anticipated and must admit that thanks to the flower petals I was able to enjoy most of it, and take plenty of pictures and videos.
For dinner we left the hotel for a quick walk around downtown Houston and to pick up some food for the little ones. Emma and Carlos enjoyed a serving of ribs, while the brothers had brisket and bread. The kids were having fun, and enjoying the weekend of traveling and staying at two different hotels.
By reception time...the day had gotten long, and as parents our patience had decreased. We then turned to help from Nintendo DS, and Color Wonder. The kids enjoyed this while we waited for the reception to begin. The long day ended early for Emma. She fell asleep in my arms as we were waiting to enter the reception. She was passed around to daddy, and abuelitos for the rest of the evening. Very thankful that this wedding was attended by my whole family....hehe! Carlos was definitely not in best spirits either. After dinner he wanted me stay at the table with him so he could color. When I would go out to the dance floor, he would follow and give disapproving looks. Sammy was content dancing in his chair while he played Nintendo. The only little dancer was John David. Occassionally he would put his game down and join daddy or uncle Marcos for a quick dance.
Sometimes at a formal event it is easy to forget that kids are just that...kids. At the same time I feel a need to educate my kids on how to behave at these kinds of functions. The hard part is finding the balance for four kiddos of differing ages. I think overall the day went as smooth as it could have been considering it was an 18 hour day. Lucky for us we can continue to practice and teach patience this coming weekend at part 2.

2011...wohoo!

I have decided that it is time to get back to writing. JP always says that I can make the time for anything I want, and he is right. I am going to make the time to keep all of you updated on what's going on in our family.
2011 is off to a great start. We had family and friends over on New Year's Eve. Sammy was the first kiddo to fall asleep around 8 pm, but in his defense he was sick. Carlos and Emma asked to go to bed around 9pm, and crashed quickly even with other kids still awake and playing in the house. John David stayed up until the last guests left. He was soooo excited to be up until 3:30 am. He was awake for almost 24 hours, since he was up at 5am on New Years Eve morn. I guess it caught up to him because the boy that rarely sleeps in actually slept through lunch on the first.
After all the kiddos got baths/showers we headed over to my parents house to celebrate Julie's 20th birthday...crazy how time flies.
Today started as a pajama day, which according to Sammy and John David we have had a lot of them lately. I was the only one to get dressed since I was fortunate to get to go shopping with my mom and my sisters. Overall it was a good trip...lots of good finds at VS, and Sak's.
Have more typing and updating to do, but my hubby goes back to work tomorrow. Gotta go spend some more time with him as his 2 week vacation comes to an end.