Costume contest winner

We have a winner! Today was Halle and Costa's halloween costume party for their school. Halle was Arial and Costa was spiderman, and Halle won!!! There was only 4 winners for the school and she was one of them. This is a pretty big deal because they go all out for costumes here in mexico, which is funny because they don't really celebrate halloween, they celebrate Dia de la Muerte (Day of the dead) on November 1st. The last 2 years I've gone and seen some pretty outrageous costumes! They are all so creative and beautifully made~Last year Halle was in dance here in mexico and her class wore the mermaid costumes, so I figured this would be perfect for halloween, all we needed was an Arial wig and tiara~perfect! Each class got up and modeled their costumes and then the parents and the teachers voted on the winners. The kids all ate pizza and they also got to break 4 huge pinantas! Lots of fun...

Decorations for Dia de la Muerte

Arial taking her walk

The costume contest winners

Mommy and Arial

Spidey with his buddies

Arial with her buddies

Arial and Spiderman

Saturday

Well, another weekend came along and we were feeling "antsy" to get out of the house.... We have had a lot of time to spend together this semester since Erik hasn't had to study as much as he has had to the last 2 yrs on the weekends. We love it, we're just ready to have a little break with our family and friends in arizona, especially Erik since he hasn't really had a break in almost a year! We like mexico, but when we're ready to come home, we're SO READY:) So, to shake us a little from our funk, we decided to take the kids the new mall they have here called Andares. It's a brand new, beautiful outside mall. We like it to get out and walk around because they weather here is so nice right now, very similar to arizona. We let the kids play at the play area they have, visited the pet shop, and then we ate dinner at Outback...yes it's the same as the states:) We were happy we got out and had a nice afternoon together!

The play area where the kids played

A litte view of the mall

Some more pictures of the mall

Halle and the turtles at the pet shop (there were SO many in the same tank!)

My LiTtLe ARTIST

My little Halle, you have become quite the artist at 5 years old! Recently you have been bringing home these drawings that are very detailed. I especially love the noses and fingers on your people, and your getting really good at flowers too. You are so sweet, Halle, you always have one for me, daddy and Costa. I love how thoughtful you are! I just wanted to remember these drawings, so I took a picture of one...I love you!~Mommy

BREAKTHROUGH

Last saturday we went and visited with Erik's family that lives here in Guadalajara. They are the most amazing people, so sweet and always serving us meals and trying to make us as comfortable as possible, we love them! It's SO nice to know you have family to visit, it can get kind of lonely! God blessed us with them... They have been so great and we are so very thankful to have got the chance to get to know them while living here. This time was such a breakthrough for us with our spanish! Usually Erik's cousin, Alfonso is there with us when we visit and he's the only one who knows english, so he helps us translate for the the others if we get stuck, etc. This time, he was only there for a short amount of time so we were on our own! Erik is getting really good at speaking because he is now immersed in it at the hospital everyday. But me on the otherhand, I don't get the opportunity to practice like I need to! Halle is pretty much fluent from being in school here for 2 yrs so it's so awesome for us to hear her speak with the kids... So cute! And Costi is learning too! We really surprised ourselves this time being able to carry on conversation, it felt SO good! We had a great time, of course they made awesome food and we even drank a little tequila with them:)

Betsy and her daughter Betsabee

From left to right~Marinela,Besty, Betsabee, Nelly, Lucy and me

A few of the kids~Costa, Halle, Jessica, David & Enrique

Halle & Marife

Baby Taytm

We are so excited to welcome Tatym Elyse Mulder into our family.....congrats to Mark, my sister Lindsey and Xander. She was 7 lbs. 3 oz. 20 1/2 inches long and was born today, October 23rd. Although we wish we were in arizona right now to meet her, we will be home early december! Can't wait to hold the little princess:)

Gyma Kids

Well, it took a little convincing, but Halle and Costa are now little gymnasts, and what do you know? They LOVE it! I was so excited for them to try gymnastics, but they were a litte funny about the whole thing. The day that I took them to try it, Costa was all for it, but Halle all of a sudden started saying she didn't want to do it. When we got out of the car to go into the place and she said "mom, I'm really nervous"...I said "why honey? You don't have anything to be nervous or scared of, it's a fun thing!" She said, "well dad showed me a picture of kids doing gymnastics on his computer and they were doing flips and stuff, I don't know how to do that stuff".....I hugged her and kind of chuckled to myself and said "Oh Hallers, those girls have been doing gymnastics for lots and lots of years with a lot of practice, you don't have to know how to do that to start out.....the teachers will teach you how to do all that stuff" Even after our little talk, she wasn't trying that day, she wanted to sit right by me and watch. Costa did great, and really seemed to like it.....so I thought.
Wednesday comes along and we're getting ready for gymnastics, big first day! Got the video camera, the regular camera and daddy is even going to come watch!!! So off we go.....and what do you know? We pull up to the place and Costa says "I'm not doing it" ....I said "what?!?!?" And then Halle says "me either"...I was SO frustrated, I can't even tell you. I said...."well then, let's go"......and we left. Who wants to argue with a 3 and 5 year old about wanting to do gymnastics? I mean come on, I was so excited that this was something FUN for them!!!! To get out of the house in afternoon 2 days a week! And it was SO perfect because they had both their age groups at the same time, AND I could watch both of them at the same time......
Monday comes and my friend Yari asks me about gymnastics classes and says she wants to take her little boy, Gabriel to try it out. I told her my story about my kids and told her I thought our gymnastics days were over before they began, but told her I would tell them Gabriel was going to try it. So monday when I picked them up from school I told them Gabriel was going to gymnastics, and Costa says "and us too mom?" And I asked....."I don't know, are you?" ......And Halle said "yes, mom we want to do it to!"....I said "are you sure???????"........And they both said "YES!!" ..............So, afer all the craziness they are in gymnastics! And I am a happy mom to get out with them twice a week:)

Friday day "dates"

I have been in absolute heaven having my husband "back" after taking the USMLE step 1. We have had so much time to spend together and with the kids, I LOVE it!!! It's been really nice since the kids started school we've made a routine of friday "days" being our "date" days. We have been going to the gym together and then we go to our new favorite lunch spot, Restaurant Shawarma and maybe hit starbucks on our way to pick up the kiddos. Sometimes he even drives me in the jeep:) It's really something I've started to look forward to each week.......I love you babe! The restaurant we go to is lebanese food, another new thing I've tried since living in mexico~so much culture! And judging from the outside, you might be a little skeptical your first time, but trust me, it's absolutely delicious! And you will be so hooked, you will crave it:) We get either hummus, or what they call "jocoque" which is like a yogurt dip and pita chips, for starters..... And then our favorite wrap is called "shishtaouk", which is grilled chicken with a special garlic sauce, that is made from potatoes....interesting, but SO good! I LOVE fridays:)

School pictures fall 2009

Costa 3 yrs

Halle 5 yrs

Jardin De Ninos
Gasparin
Guadalajara, Mexico

Field trip to the "Teatro"

Costa and his teacher Lucky

Julia and Payne

Halle and her teacher Malou and friend Sophie

Yari and Gabriel

We were SO very happy that Halle woke up on Wednesday morning feeling better! Yeah! So we all got ready for school and headed out for the field trip with the kids school. The kids were so excited to go to the theatre and watch a play on stage. Costa was especially excited to take the BIG bus there! It was fun because 2 of my friends, Yari and Julia have kids that go to the same school so they were on the field trip as well. The play was super cute, even in spanish:) The characters were dressed up as fruits, vegetables, trees and fairies and did a lot of singing and dancing, so even Costa was entertained even though he doesn't really understand a lot of spanish yet. I feel so blessed that I get the opportunity to do things like this with my kids! They're only little for a short time!

Costa in line with his class waiting for the bus

Is there a doctor in the house?

Today was day #2 of Halle with a fever and not feeling well..........so the Dr. in the house came to the rescue! Before Erik left for school today he got out his Dr. kit and checked on our little patient. Looks like the ears and throat are clear......except for a little wax! Hopefully she's better tomorrow!

Getting crafty...

The finished project~Leaf print placemats

Monday morning we woke up to Halle not feeling well.......pobrecita:( So we spent the day unpacking from our trip, Halle helped me put up some halloween decorations(when she was feeling Ok from medicine), I did some laundry, and Erik put some carnitas in the crockpot for dinner. Just a relaxing day at home, catching up on things......and trying to make our little princess feel better~

Costa was starting to feel a little "cooped" being in the house all day, so I decided to be a little creative. After talking on the phone with my sister in law, Nise the other day about her creativity and the project she was doing with her kids....I decided I could try and be a "crafty" mom too.....lol~thanks Nise:) I wanted to make something with leaves for a "fall" theme and found a supercute craft, that looked pretty easy~I told the kids before dinner that they needed to go on a hunt for 7 leaves each~and off they went super eager to know what they were going to do with them.........they love making things so I knew they would think this was pretty cool!

We had another delicious dinner, props to my hubby!!!! Carnitas, and we made chili flo ho(is that how you spell it?) and guacamole... .....it was SO good!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YUM! After the kitchen was cleaned up, we did our project~and it was a success! Any ideas for another one?????

A new found love.......Mazamitla

The kids and I in front of a flower swan at the center of town

The view from our cabin deck

My ALL boy~found a worm to play with.....eeeeewwwww!

The kids with the Jesus statue at our hotel

Jump time!!!

All of us at breakfast at the waffle garden

Outside our hotel at nighttime~these stars are everywhere in the trees

Well, another 3 day weekend was coming up and we were SO jealous of our friends that were returning to the states for the weekend so we knew we had to do something to get out of town for a few days....while everyone else in the states had a holiday on monday for Columbus Day we had a holiday for Dia de la Virgen de Zapopan (no idea).....So we decided Mazamitla would be a fun~so we packed up again and headed for the mountains. We went there for the first time about a month ago and LOVED it. For us, it's a feeling of being in pinetop, arizona~an "escape"! Mazamitla is only a 2 hr drive for us from Guadalajara, and it's in the mountains, surrounded by green and the weather is "cooler".....the feeling when you're there is unexplainable, so peaceful and romantic!!!!! The cabins they have for rent are SO cute and perfect..... We were so amazed we'd found such a place in mexico!!! Who would have thought? Definitely a new found love...

When Erik called to book our room they told him that this weekend was the "Festival de Flores (flowers)" so were anxious to see what this was all about! On the drive, about 1/2 way there we started to see beautiful yellow sunflowers and wild purple flowers along the road....they were everywhere!!!!!! SO pretty! The drive is already beautiful so to see these flowers all along the road was a plus~
We arrived and checked into our room and went to get something to eat........after that it was only about 6, so we decided to head to the center of the town and see if anything exciting was going on. They had a stage set up for live music and the kids were in awe.......people were on stage giving away free stuff. The highlight was Halle and Costa each getting a glass cup (Halle was on Erik's shoulders and Costa on mine) They felt SO special, so cute.....it's the little things:) There's a beautiful cathedral in the center of the square and I wanted to see what it looked like on the inside, I was amazed at what I saw! They actually had a figure of Jesus in glass case. It was a very spiritual moment for me, and I got down on my knees and said a prayer and thanked him for all the gifts he has blessed us with!!!

We stopped in at a little restaurant that has a balcony where you can see all the action that's going on in the center of the town....Erik had a beer and I had a butterscotch latte:) They had Torani syrup! As most of you know, I am a coffee connesuir and Torani is a big name for flavored syrups for gourmet coffees~so for them to have it in this small, tiny little town was pretty crazy for me.......so I truly enjoyed that hot butterscotch latte, and the fact that it was actually a little "chilly" outside:) After that we headed back to our cabin to start a fire and put the kids to bed.

Our little cabin at nighttime

Yummy churros!!!

The cathedral at the center of town

What I saw inside the cathedral...amazing

Inside the church...I'd never seen anything like this before, so I had to take a picture!

Butterscotch latte~YUM!

HUGE bottle of tequila

The next morning Erik let me sleep in:) It was SO nice.........after everybody was dressed and ready we decided to venture out for a breakfast spot.......we headed back towards the center of the town and saw a guy handing out cards for a little waffle house~it was the same place we had breakfast last time we were there so we decided to go back because we knew it was good! It's a little garden spot, all outdoor seating, surrounded by beautiful greenery and flowers everywhere! And, they have awesome waffles:) It was great.......

After breakfast, it was getting time for Costi's nap....so we headed back to our cabin, but first we promised the kids they could jump on the trampoline they have at the hotel. They love this thing! It was SO fun because Erik and I decided to jump with them~they got the biggest kick out of it. Lots of fun!

The rest of the day we relaxed and watched movies........later that afternoon we headed to the restaurant at the hotel for some dinner and tequila:) Another thing that I have "broadened" since moving here.....sipping tequila! I don't usually like it but tequila is a big thing here in mexico so I've branched out and tried a few new things......after going to Tequila(the town) when Nise and Jeff visited us and trying the Jose Cuervo Reserva Familia~I've become a fan....what can I say? It's like butter.......delicioso!

We had a chill night and headed back to Guadalajara the next morning.........we stopped along the way and took a picture of the kids with some flowers on the side of the road, and then we also stopped at the outlet mall they have here that we haven't ventured to yet. The mall wasn't that great, but I did get some new workout shoes!!!!! A great ending to a super fun weekend:)

OH and very SPECIAL thanks to my friend Yari~who let us borrow her camera for this trip, mine is broken!!!!!!.......THANK YOU!!!!!!! XOXO

Tequila shot~Jose Cuervo Reserva Familia

The kids with the wild flowers on the drive home