In-House

We started a gourmet style dinner (open to the public) at our house this Saturday. It was a lot of work to prepare everything and then also during the actual evening, but it was a total success! More people than were expected showed up and it went pretty well for a first-time venture.

Doing some repairs before the event:

All ready:

The chefs: Mom and Grandma


Dad with some of the guests:

Mom and Grandma busy in the kitchen:

It's the Fat One's 7-month Birthday!

And she is no longer a toothless wonder! 

Yep, her first tooth came in today and she is so proud of it. Well, I'm sure she would be if she knew what was happening. And on this special day she managed to stay in a crawling position for longer than one second and actually rock in it.

Another bit of progress is that she got the whole swallowing food thing down and she can now munch on cheesesticks, crackers, toast, etc., without choking on each "bite".

She's growing so quickly. Time is just flying by with her. When I had Alina, each stage of development was a wonder and her first year seemed like an eternity. I can't believe that she's already 7 months old ... and I'm almost 25! Not like that has anything to do with anything, heh.

A couple of days ago, Alina remarked how nice it would be to have another sister. She loves Laura to pieces and I guess she thinks that having another sister would be like having two Lauras, without realizing that the first one would no longer be this fat little thing that she can squeeze. She also said it would be nice to have a brother after the second sister to "just to see what one would look like". 

Uh, yes Alina, how about if we wait on those, aherm.

Anyway, I don't have any pics of the monkey because the tooth isn't really visible, but I'll be sure to post some as soon as her tooth gets a little bigger.

Talent Night

This last Saturday we had our annual "Talent Night". Almost everyone participated and there were a couple of hilarious numbers. Unfortunately, I didn't get any of them on video.

Alina sang Psalm 23 in Portuguese for her talent. She did a great job even though she was super shy. I sang a song with my sister, which is always the easiest thing to do due to my lack of real talent. 

Alina asked to write something, so here goes: Gabriel did a skit of Frank Sem-nada and everybody liked it and I liked it, too. It was so funny.




Alina with her prize (a bag of home-made chocolate-chip cookies):

Alina dancing -- her favorite thing to do. And Paula liked it and I liked it, too. (She wrote this caption.)



Gabriel doing his thing:




La-di-da...

Mangabeiras Park

My sister and I took the kids to a municipal park in the morning. It was the perfect day for such an outing. It was sunny yet fresh so no one got all sweaty and stinky and there was a lovely breeze. While my sister oversaw the kids scampering around chasing coatis, eating corn on the cob, climbing on rocks, and enjoying nature, I planned their school.

They had a good time and before going home we stopped at a cool place that overlooks the city to enjoy the view and take a few pics. Alina was impressed with the size and kept asking if everything we could see was our city.


She thought the water lilies were sooooo pretty:


A coati:




Overlooking Belo Horizonte:

With my sister Marina:

The Laurabee

Being that it has been a while since I've posted photos only of her, they've accumulated and now I've got a zillion to post. So for those of you who don't care to see a bunch of pics of this fat monkey and her latest trips and faces, just skip this post.

These are from the last month or so. She's six months old and getting naughtier with each passing day. Gee, I wonder why.

"Don't take pictures of me, Mom. I'm not fully awake yet."


"Ready, set, go!" ... getting into the crawling position ... uh, trying to, that is:
I had put a sheet on the rug for her to play on and left the room for a sec to get something. But in the short time that I was gone, she scooted herself backwards and off her rolly thing, off the sheet, and was halfway on the floor all ready to continue her adventure to God-knows-where.


Playing:


Trying to crawl:


Back on the rug:

"Ooooh, what fun in a drawer!"

"Now, to get out of this thing ..."

On the rug once again, this time intently watching the cat:

Playing peek-a-boo:


Being silly:

With Miche after a bath:

Taking a bath:


Trying to get the water:

"Who's that cute girl?"

What joy!

Trying to stand in her crib. She was successful ...
... for a few seconds :)



Her first cracker:



Notice her intently trying to munch on it with her toothless gums:


This was her trip a short while ago (scrunching up her nose like a bunny). Yes, I was on the phone and forgot that I was filming.

Friday Night Outing

No, we didn't go out to see cows. A few of us went out for a beer, but we came across these creatures on our way back home and the guys wanted to scare them. Very naughty. Luckily for us, Laura slept the whole time we were out ... which wasn't for long, heh.





Oh yes, and last night my siblings and I went to the movies to watch "Slumdog Millionaire". Very good movie (albeit quite disgusting). Wow! I actually went on two outings in the space of four days. Such progress. :D

School Days Are Happy Days

Yay! The kids' first school bimester is almost over. Alina started 1st grade this year and she just looooves learning ... makes me so proud. 

Her English books arrived in January and she has been zipping through them. The plan is for her to do two grades this year (just of Language Arts, Spelling, and Science). Her Portuguese books arrived in March and being that Brazilian 1st grade is the equivalent of American 2nd grade, she'll be on the same grade in both languages next year.

I was talking to someone about tests and Alina overheard the conversation and asked if they were for her. I wasn't planning on making any for her since she's only five, but she enthusiastically asked me to please make some because, and I quote, "That way I'll learn more"!


With her English books:

With her Portuguese books:

Doing her schoolwork:

Excursion to the circus a couple of weeks ago:


Reading -- one of her favorite things to do: