Archive for the ‘family’ Tag

We are family – February 2014

Tuesday, February 11th, 2014 by Jen

Celia, Jordi, Josie, Ewan and Jen

Compare to last years shot.

Christmas in Miami (part 4 – the end)

Tuesday, January 28th, 2014 by Jen

Our goal for this trip was to spend a lot of time seeing people. Not doing anything in particular, just visiting, getting the kids to get reacquainted with everyone and hang out. So we did a lot of hanging out, and thankfully people came to us to hang out as getting three kids in the car at any particular time when everyone’s so off schedule is tough. Some day we won’t have any more nappers and it should be easier. That’s my theory anyway. So what did we do? First off, the girls did a lot of puzzles. Josie would easily do six a morning. We got everyone into it!

Gilbert, Celia and Tere doing a puzzle
Another major attraction were the pets. It’s always a small zoo at their house with a dog and at least one cat, often two.

Simba

Mister

Jasmin

One of the highlights for the girls on every visit is taking Simba for a walk. Josie is finally old enough to hold the leash and actually not let go. She still needs to learn a more gentle touch, but once we got the hang of which voice commands to use and got some practice, she and Simba were enjoying those walks together. Celia actually bowed out of taking the dog at all surprisingly, and walked her baby around the block with us each time in her stroller.

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Walking the dog

 

We had a lot of time and attention from Javi as he got to meet his nephew and hang out with the girls.

Ewan and Javi

Jordi’s friend Arturo even came over to visit. Josie asked where was his wife? ah, marriage pressure from a 5 year old.

Arturo Jordi and Ewan

And in the following picture please kindly replace Arturo with Gilbert in your mind, as Gilbert was napping, so Arturo jumped in to round out the group shot. And give several of us bunny ears in other shots.

The family, if you replace Arturo with Gilbert Vani and my kids DSC_8236

 

Christmas in Miami (part 3)

Tuesday, January 28th, 2014 by Jen

On Christmas day itself, we woke up at our usual early time and we all went downstairs. The girls jumped on their stockings and enjoyed the small presents like socks, stickers, candy, sticker-your-own-toothbrushes, and gift cards to panera. Ewan got a book and a new winter hat. We had some breakfast and after what I’m sure seemed like an eternity to the kids we had everyone together and got to enjoy opening presents.

This year Josie got really into making gifts from ‘Santa’, she found it hilarious to write question marks instead of our names in the from to be coy. She had fun playing the game with us all, and Celia is still not quite clear on the whole thing. She recently told me she wished she had gotten some presents from Santa (that someone else had gotten her), but couldn’t quite explain why. Santa brought them dress up dresses this year.

After a fun morning we headed over to Jordi’s aunt and uncles house, Ana and Carlos. They had the whole family over and cooked us a great big meal.

Espinoza family!

Celia, Ewan, Josie, Emma and Ben

Ita-mami and all the great grand-children. Yep three of them are ours, Jordi is the second oldest of the grandchildren.

Tia Vani and Ewan

After our nice meal we went outside and hung out at the playground just across the street from our house and I hounded people for pictures and tried to take some nice family shots. It was a very relaxing way to spend Christmas day and get to see everyone and reconnect.

Ben and Carlos

Mylin and Danny

Eric, Luis, Thylma and Sabrina
Gilbert and Ewan

Carlos, Ben, Ewan and Ana

Christmas 2013 (part 2)

Saturday, January 18th, 2014 by Jen

Christmas Eve is always a big party at Tere and Gilberts house. Vanessa was in charge of most of the cooking but I wanted the girls to help out too. We now reveal that child labor was used to make dinner! The girls snapped the beans.

Javi supervising the green beans

Green beans and pasta

Vani cooking dinner

Because I had brought a cooler down to Florida, we took the opportunity to bring some cookie dough with us. Josie helped bake and roll it out the day before.

Josie making sandtarts

Christmas eve itself got dark very quickly and so I didn’t get to take many pictures. A few of the girls in their special outfits plus Ewan and Ben!

Josie, Ewan and Ben in their suits

Josie in her Christmas dress Celia giving me limited opportunity for a photo

We had a very enjoyable evening, dining and opening far too many generous gifts for the kids! Celia was not fond of eating in the dark so I had to bring her inside to eat dinner where there was light to see.

Christmas 2013 (part 1)

Saturday, January 11th, 2014 by Jen

This year for Christmas we were down in Miami, away from the snow and cold. I am still having to adjust to a non-cold Christmas even after eight(?) years of doing it!

the stockings

We spent pretty much our entire visit just trying to soak up time with the loved ones so everyone got to meet Ewan and hang out together. The newest members of the family, cousin Ben only 9 months old, and Ewan spent a lot of time together, sharing toys. You get lots of pictures because what’s more cute than one baby? two babies!

Ben hey look, grass Who are those people? Tio javi is sooo funny!

We had a very short photo session with the two of them outside and it was hilariously ineffective. Ewan was easy, because he can’t move and just sits there, he has no choice. Ben is constantly on the move though. We’d put him on the blanket and he’d crawl the wrong way, no matter where we put him, he’d crawl a different direction, immediately. Finally once we put them on the grass they were both very curious about what it was that they were sitting on that they sat still to examine it. And then laugh at us making funny faces at them.

It was also warm enough that we went swimming! Well those of us from Boston did, plus Ben and Sonya.

Ben, Sonya, Celia, Jen, Josie and Ewan

And we weren’t even the only ones in the pool! Ewan liked swimming and didn’t seem to mind the chilly water. Josie is tall enough to walk around the shallow end just barely now and Celia enjoyed being carried around the pool.

We are family: December 2013

Friday, December 27th, 2013 by Jen

December 2013

“Comedy, love, and a bit with a dog. That’s what they want.”

Happy Hanukah!

Wednesday, November 27th, 2013 by Jen

Had a nice evening together with my parents. I made Latkes, proved myself wrong when I said this morning, I can’t hold a baby and fry things at the same time (safely).

Latkes

Here’s where Ewan was while I cooked. The foreground is my shoulder. I took this picture.

Ewan on my back

And if you could be so kind as to merge the next two photos in your head since I’m not quite talented to do it on screen, you’ll get a picture with everyone looking! Because that was the only photo that had Ewan looking at the camera.

Ewan looking at the camera
Everyone else looking at the camera

I made out like a bandit with a new lens! A nifty fifty that opens all the way to 1.4!

Ewan with the lens wide open

The girls had a great time playing driedel, opening their gifts and eating fried foods. Celia trounced us in a game of Sequence for kids. Gotta get Josie to slow down and actually play Blokus with me sometime by the rules. And I got them all shirts with their names embroidered on it, for fun, and to help my grandmother  with Alzheimers maybe remember who is who.

We are family: November 2013

Sunday, November 17th, 2013 by Jen

Sorta a cheat, as my dad took it, but it’s got us all!

The five of us

This was all of us at the MFA to reinforce Josie’s learning about Eygpt these days in school, we took her to see the real mummy and writing on the wall!

Snuggles on the couch!

Monday, November 11th, 2013 by Jen

My loves

Fred and George

The two of them are regulars on the couch at night now, literally spooning and kissing each other.

Apple Picking 2013

Sunday, October 20th, 2013 by Jen

We celebrated fall with our usual activity, apple picking. This year we were even on the ball enough to go almost in September! Usually we’re a bit later in the season. I remember going three years ago waiting and waiting for Celia to arrive while we went. We went again to Honeypot hill orchards and picked lots of great apples. Josie decided she likes the honey crisp ones the best for eating out of hand. The rest were mostly baking apples so I definitely agreed with her. They were sweet and all the apples were very juicy. Both girls were great at picking this year and following proper picking etiquette. Celia’s favorite part may have been throwing the half eaten apples under a tree once she was done trying them.

We started off our day having a picnic breakfast of dunkin donuts on my parents front lawn. It was the fastest way to get us moving on the way out to picking.

Papa Celia and Josie picnicing

Then we all headed out in our minivan, me and Ewan in the back row, which thankfully made him a much happier traveler. We got there and headed out to pick apples first.

Walkin in

Entering the orchard, the only one that would pose

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And then I handed Ewan to my dad so I could take pictures and pick apples and he could get some quality baby time in.

Celia picking an apple

Josie picking an apple

Pictures are of course the point of apple picking. And it was a very lovely day for it all.

Karen, Mike and Ewan

snuggling the baby

Sampling the offerings

On the way out there was a gorgeous tree in full fall transition and so I had everyone pose in front of it for new pictures for my walls.

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After picking the apples Jordi brought them back to the car so we could go to the hayride and all the other amusements.

Josie and Celia do a funny dance

Then we got to go on the hayride.

Josie on the hay ride

Ewan on the hay ride

We saw the three little pigs, the goats, the chickens and bunnys. We ate donuts and veggie burgers before heading back home.

Those apples made their way into a yummy crisp and applesauce, both of which were devoured quickly. The girls helped me do the chopping withe some butter knives. Josie’s got a real technique.