Mazamitla in march

Last weekend was another holiday weekend! The kids and Erik had monday off from school so we decided to do a quick getaway to Mazamitla...just for one night this time! We invited our friends Steve, Kimberlie and Nathan, the same ones that went with us to Vallarta. We headed out of town saturday morning and got to Mazamitla around noon-ish. We found a super cute neighborhood called La Canada. It was a gated community with some pretty big cabins for rent! They were adorable! I love this town, it's the cutest mountain town ever.....such a great place for us to go to get out of the city!



The first cabin they gave us was really nice but there was a bridge with water underneath that you had to walk across to get to the front door...really cool but not so safe for the kiddos! Especially little Nathan! They were kind enough to switch us to a different one...which worked out better. Halle and Costa had a blast playing in the tree house and playing soccer in the grassy area. They are so funny with their imaginations and adventures they come up with!

Our first cabin...cute but muy peligroso!

The bridge~doesn't that look cool?

Halle and Costa playing in the tree house

We literally just relaxed and were really only there for about 24 hours. Once we got settled into the cabin headed into the little town to show Kim and Steve a little bit of Mazamitla. We stopped at a little restaurant and had a snack and an afternoon drink. The weather was SO perfect! The other two times we've been there it's been rainy season...so it was always super wet and cold. This time it was sunny and beautiful!



That night we bbq'd some arrachera and burgers....it was SO yummy! The kids played until it was time for them to go night night........we had a fire and sipped on some drinks while we talked the night away. The next morning we went out for a nice breakfast and then came back to the cabin and watched the kids play in the grass for awhile. It was SO relaxing! The sun was shining and it was a perfect day! We even ended up bbq'ing our leftover meat before we headed back to guadalajara! It's always nice to get out of the city, even if it's for only 24 hours;)

The cabin we ended up renting

Our cabin

The inside of our cabin

Cumpleanos filled weekend

Every year Erik's Uncle Bob and Auntie Gloria come to Guadalajara to visit the family that lives here. Well, and us too...at least we like to think;) It's been super fun for us to be part of the fun while we're living here! They come every March for two weeks and are here for Uncle Bob's birthday.......so it's a BIG fiesta. SO much fun! He does SO much for the family here, it's amazing......so, in return they literally treat him like a KING, and wait on him and and foot while he's here. This year we had Uncle Bob's birthday party on friday night and then we had Alejandra's Quincinieta on saturday night! Muchas fiestas:) Lot's of family, Mariachi's, tequila, and dancing! TRUE mexican parties! SO much fun for us! Uncle Bob also shares his birthday with David, Alfonso's youngest so the kids had tons of fun breaking a pinata as well. It's crazy how big of a deal the quincinieta is here for mexican families. Wow. It's like a wedding, minus the groom! So fancy! This was our third one we've been to since we've lived here. I LOVE them and would love for Halle to have one someday.....and trust me, she would LOVE to have one too~she's so cute. She tells me all the time now...."Mom, I want to be a quincinieta girl too!"...the other day we were at the carwash and she was looking through a Miss Quince magazine and was telling me the color of dress she wants....she liked the pink one;) Her and Costa were so in awe of it all and absolutely LOVED the dancing part! They wanted to be on the dance floor all night long! The birthday girl put on an amazing show for everybody....she took lessons and learned the tango and the waltz....and had her cousins and her brothers dance with her. Amazing......she was SO beautiful! It was a super fun CUMPLEANOS filled weekend!

Hallers loves her Uncle Bob:)

Erik and Alfonso

Me, Betsy, Lucy, Marianela, Nelly and Auntie Gloria

Todos ninas~ALL the girls with Auntie Gloria & Uncle Bob

And, ALL the boys;)

I LOVE this little girl, she is the cutest thing ever~her name is Gabey.....so precious:)

Uncle Bob and the other birthday boy, David

Costa trying to show off some dance moves;)

The birthday boy!

The second mariachi band that showed up to Uncle Bob's fiesta

These are pictures from the quincinieta~

This was the invitation~so gorgeous!!!

My babies.....all dressed up!

The beautiful ballroom

The center pieces!

absolutely BEAUTIFUL!

The birthday girl getting ready to make her grand entrance!

Halle and Lisette

FAMILY:)

Super fun day...and night

The last friday of every month the kids have the day off of school. So, the last friday in february my friend Yari and I decided to take the kids to their all time favorite place here in mexico.....Trompo Magico! My kids LOVE it! It's a pretty cool kids museum here....even moms think it's cool! They are always asking to go, so I promised them the next friday they had off school we would go. I also told Hallers she could invite a friend to go with us since Cost has his buddy Gabriel, Yari's little boy, whom is also in his class at school. Halle decided she wanted to invite Sophie, and was SO excited after I called Sophie's mom and she said yes she could come. It was the hot topic all week long in our house....going to Trompo and Gabriel and Sophie coming with us.......Friday couldn't come soon enough!!!

On our way to Trompo we stopped at Burger King to feed the kids lunch......another favorite of Halle and Costa's~chicken nuggets and french fries:)It's lent, so I tried the fish sandwich.......I was a little scared, but it was actually pretty good! Halle and Sophie were so excited to be with each other, it was adorable. Gabriel and Costa are just crazy when they're together......cute, but crazy. TOTAL boys! Yari and I just laugh and let them be boys.....


After Burger King we headed to Trompo and played there for a few hours. The kids had a great time running around doing all the fun things they have there. Of course, when it was time to go we had some sad faces:( But, I quickly reminded Halle that the fun was going to continue because Sophie was coming back to our house to play for awhile. Both girls got giggly and were happy as clams again.......hilarious. I told Yari that she and Gabriel should come over as well and we could make some shrimp ceviche for "mariscos friday."....She thought that sounded yummy so she said they would come. So of course, Costi was a happy camper too with his buddy coming over to play as well;)



Well, the day playdate with Sophie turned into Halle's first sleepover with a friend. She's stayed the night with cousins and has had cousins stay the night with us, but this was her first real sleepover with a friend. It was pretty cute.....Sophie came up to me shortly after we were back from the museum and said...."Quiero pasar la noche." She wanted to stay the night at our house! I was kind of shocked! Of course, I thought it sounded fun for them, and I knew Halle would be super duper excited to have her stay, I just thought maybe they might be kinda young! But, I decided what the heck? Why not? And Erik thought it was ok..... Sooooooo we called her mom and asked if she could stay, and she said it was ok with her if it was ok with me! Alrighty then.......we had 2 VERY excited little girls:)


The girls had so much fun together.....playing dress up, putting make-up on each other, and watching movies in Halle's room. They stayed up way late, well for Halle anyways....10:30!!! She was SO tired and I think kinda thankful when I told her it was time for them to go to bed.....I guess Sophie doesn't go to be until around 11...like most mexican kids! I don't know what the deal is with mexican parents and keeping your kids up until you go to bed!?! Crazy. About 20 minutes after I put them to bed they both came down the stairs......uh oh, I thought. And, yep it was just what I thought. Sophie was missing her mom and wanted to go home.......I'm thinking what do I do? Call her mom already? Nope, not yet. She wasn't crying so I asked the girls if they wanted to come downstairs and fall asleep to a movie on the couch......they both shook their heads and I told them to go grab their pillows. I put the movie 3 musketeers on and within 5 minutes both were sound asleep. WHEW!!!!! By this time it was about 11PM...

Well, not so fast.........My friend Les was over that night and we were on the back patio drinking wine.......all of a sudden we hear crying, sobbing! OH NO!!! Poor baby.......she's SO sad.....I felt so bad. I had to call her mom...if this was Halle, I would want the other parents to call me so I could come get her! So I called her ....like 3 times and she didn't answer!!!!!!!!!!!! It's like 11:30 at night at this point.....I'm thinking, this is SO late she's probably asleep. What do I do? Is she going to cry off and on all night???? Pobrecita... In the mean time, Les and I decided we should take the girls upstairs to Halle's bed before Erik gets home from the neighbors house and wakes them up.....I told Sophie I called her mom and was waiting for her to call me back. She had stopped crying and seemed pretty tired now. I thought....good! Maybe she'll go to sleep for the night now! Well, about 30 minutes later Nancy(Sophie's mom) called back......she wanted to know if she should come get her.....I ran up and checked on them and they were both sound asleep. I told her I thought she was better and it should be ok( I hoped!).......

Shortly after, I headed up to bed and checked on them again......still sleeping like little angels:) Thank you God! We woke up the next morning with happy kids and made some mickey mouse pancakes and bacon.....the girls played all morning until Sophie's mom came to pick her up around noon. Halle was exhuasted by the time she left! She was ready to have a little break;) All in all, I'd have to say it was a pretty successful first sleepover........almost;)

Listones

Pobrecita Hallers~she got bit up by a mosquito in her sleep the night before this picture:(

The story of the listones.....

So a couple weeks ago, we were leaving gymnastics and Halle says to me..."Mom, we need to find out what listones are and we need to get some!" Listones? What the heck are those? I said. She said..."We need cinco listones and then we get a medal!" Well, it just so happens that our friend Pablo had stopped by our house that night......leave it to Halle to ask him what listones are! Definition ......Listones! So I told Halle...."I think you need to earn your listones and next time we're at gymnastics we'll ask your teacher how you do that".......she was too funny she thought we need to go out and buy them somewhere and bring them back with us!

The following monday we headed to gymnastics and were on a mission to find out how we get some of those listones......Well, to our surprise.....Halle and Costa both were awarded one!!!! They were SO excited and I was a super proud mama:) Halle got hers for discipline and Cost got his for Superioracion, sounds like a fancy word for super....;) They give them out the last wednesday of every month~so we're on our way now to earn those medals! GO Hallers and Costi!!!