My little lovies taking turns being sick this past week. First Pooks had a fever virus that knocked her out for two days and now the little Sabsy is rockin a bit of a fever since yesterday. She feels cooler this morning so it has gone down for now and she is barely affected by it but ah i will be ready for the sick cycle to exit this casa! Here they are this morning helping Momma make banana smoothies (batidos). Sabs has a major soft spot for her sissy lately. As soon as she wakes up she starts asking for her and then when Pooks comes out in the morning she lights up with a big smile and starts calling out SISSY! Sweet angels.

My class sent me some pics they snapped on diff days (apparently im wearing the same shirt) from workout). Here is Momma getting her sweat on. Yup i jump that high.

Different day – same shirt

Off we went for our San Jose birthday adventure! On the agenda was a big birthday gift of Sophie’s choice from the toy store, mini golf, playground time, a road trip into the mountains to visit La Paz animal sanctuary, lunch at Freddo Fresas, and a mission to consume enormous amounts of noodies and butter from the hotel (sophie’s favorite so she had it every night b/c well it is her birthday weekend)! We tackled it all and had a blast. The girls were incredible during all travels. They did not fuss at all and were a blast all along the way. This was them on the way to the ferry Friday morning. They were just sitting in the back seat riding along like this when i turned around.

On to the ferry they always get to pick a junk food snack of their choice. Friday it was potato chips!

First stop was the toy store where we told Pooks she can pick out anything she wanted and can have multiple things as well. Basically we told her to go crazy and gather what her heart desires. What did she pick? This…

It was a little basket that had two little characters inside when you open it. It was $3.00. She wanted 3 of them. $9.00 total (oh and she wanted one for Sabs). This is what they look like from more of a distance. They are little things that are at the checkout as an impulse buy at the end of your splurge…not your splurge.

I said Pookie these are so small. You can pick out other things too. You can get a bunch of these in a big pack like this (see below) and then also get other things. She said “No, i just want this”. I said ok let’s walk down some more aisles b/c maybe you want some other things too. We showed her a bunch of bikes, a scooter, barbies, etc. She said no i just want this. I convinced her to walk down more aisles and i was pleading with her saying look how about this, or what about this too, etc. She wanted none of it. She was perfectly content with her little toy and my sales pitch was not convincing at all. It took me a minute to realize that i was trying to convince her to want more when she was super happy with what she had. Once i realized the situation i stopped and told her she picked out a great gift. We then went on to find a surprise gift for our neighbor who is turning 3 this month. His gift cost 3 times more than Sophie’s big birthday splurge. I am proud, confused and mainly just happy that she is so happy and doesn’t have an ounce of greediness in her bones. By the time they opened up their little baskets, Sabs ended up with equal amounts of Shopkins and Sophie didn’t even care that she was supposed to have 6 and Sabs was supposed to have 2 (they came two in a pack) She makes my heart smile.

During our shopping spree we bumped into a butterfly exhibit which was a bit sad b/c it was set up in a tent in a mall (where butterflies don’t belong). We went in but didnt stay very long and then went off to an Indian restaurant that has lemonade that Pookie loves, peacocks in the yard, and a playground for some fun!

Momma and Pooks San Jose selfie tradition

A day in the mountains! La Paz, Freddo Fresas, Hummingbird garden

I have videos that I will upload later as well. It was a super fun weekend! I didnt take any pics or video at mini golf b/c i didn’t bring my phone but it was hilarious b/c Sabs had a little plastic hockey stick golf club and she was having a blast screaming WOAH and Ooohh whenever someone missed the hole. She would walk her little butt and plop her ball in the hole each time. We also went to playground at night and played hide and seek in night…they loved it!

This was the ferry ride home. A little tica girl came behind Sophie and was watching her play her ipad. Sophie motioned for her to come sit next to her. She only spoke spanish. Sophie showed her how to play the games and they played together for the entire ferry ride (over an hour). She braided Sophie’s hair, put chapstick on her (pretending it was lipstick) and they played games on the ipad together. Sabs was trying her hardest to hang with the big girls. She handed the little girl her ipad too and the girl helped Sabs do a puzzle on her ipad. After a bit i took Sabs for a walk so Pooks could hang with her pal. At the end of the boat ride Pookie and i had the following convo:

Pookie: I thought she spoke english but she didn’t, only spanish.

Me: So what did you do?

Pookie: I spoke spanish to her.

Me: Oh really, what did you say?

Pookie: I said all the words i know…este, hola, bien, gracias, como estas, agua, ciao, and i learned leche.

Me: Oh very good pooks (secretly cracking up)

We came home to an amazing rain. The weather is cooler and horses were roaming in our yard at dinner time. Green season is here!! Oh and a bat visited us in the house last night…that was fun. Luckily she found her way back out.

Oooh these pics make my heart burst! Part of me wishes i was there to see her little face but I wanted her to have her own little special surprise and to be able to tell all of us about it later. She was so excited when she came in the car after class and told me that they all surprised her with cupcakes and singing happy birthday to her! Her two little buddies were there celebrating with her and they helped her paint her paper mache dog she made last week too.

She showed me the parts that the other girls painted and then I asked her what they all chatted about while painting (this class is like a little kids coffee hour). She said she was telling them about the nuns in italy and also about the people that dance around singing Hari Krishna and have long white beards. Oh my sweet little weirdo, i believe the other week she was informing them about Edward Scissorfingers and how he chops things. On the weirdo note (which is always the note Sophie is on) she has been talking about going to the bathroom in art class and telling the teacher she has to go to the bathroom like it is some grand event. The other day when i went to pick her up she was coming back from the bathroom outside with her two little buddies all holding hands and running. Today before class she said, “I’m going to tell the teacher I have to go to the bathroom again”. I was like Pookie you are so weird. Why do you love going to the bathroom (she likes to talk about how their toilet water is blue too). Anyway, after class i said, “So, did you ask the teacher to go to the bathroom?”. Pookie looked at me and said, “Um no, b/c you told me that is weird. So i didn’t go. I just didn’t. Just held in my pees the whole time”. Bahahahaha, sorry to hinder your freak flag! Go ahead wave it high! I told you I thought it was cute weird, not strange weird and that next time you should go as much as you want. You said ok.

Here are some pics your teacher sent me. When you arrive at class your little crew yells, Sophie!! You run up and give your teachers big hugs and then you’re off with your buds. Love you peanut!!! Oh you also told me that your friends weren’t in class last week b/c they got into a car crash. Thankfully, I think your little posse got that one wrong considering their mom told us they wouldn’t be able to make it in the morning. Unless she predicted a car crash that afternoon. Gossiping hens.

This year we didn’t end up going to San Jose before her birthday like originally planned so we decided to improvise and assemble homemade birthday decorations together. We got out the construction paper, pipe cleaners. dental floss (for hanging), balloons, coloring supplies, some scissors and tape. It was fun to do and came out great! I actually ended up preferring this over store bought decorations. We did buy one princess themed Happy Birthday sign that we found at Super Ronny.

We surprised Pookie on her birthday morning with a balloon curtain on the doorway of the bedroom 🙂

Will found long skinny balloons and looked up how to make balloon swords…which was a huge success until one popped and scared the crap out of Pooks. Sabi still loved it and ran around holding hers yelling “”HI-YA” which of course pissed Pooks off even more b/c she was terrified that Sabs was going to pop it.

My pipe cleaner heart hangings

Pooks birthday crown and necklace

Her homemade birthday card which she felt needed some more details b/c i left Happy Bear and Lovie Bear out of the family picture.

Her birthday chair which she designed (that is pookie standing on a cake and the other side not pictured is her drawing of our family)

And at last…the cake! We made a homemade vanilla cake with homemade buttercream icing and Pooks decorated it with a ton of sprinkles, I added some strawberries and the writing. It was YUM… though it turns out Sabs doesnt like the texture of sprinkles so she didnt eat any of it.

We also set up a birthday scavenger hunt! We bought a few little presents from the grocery store in town and Will went out on a long walk in the morning with Flo Bo hiding all the presents along the path to the beach and on the beach. He then found a piece of driftwood and designed a little treasure map for Pookie to follow and find the gifts. He did a killer job and it was sooooo much fun! Here is his map  (he did this all within 45 minutes, super impressed). Sophie absolutely loved it and he improvised along the way with rhyming details and clues to find. It was brilliant.

Now on to some pics throughout the day! Here is the birthday princess answering her bday phone calls and watching her bday videos in the morning

A few from in the house before the treasure hunt and waiting for Dada to give us the green light to head out

Then off to get hunting!

First stop find the boats- check!

Next up – Carambola tree – check!

Off to find the two scary faces…check!

Now the beach down the stairs…check.

To the tree with many roots…check! Now if you look very close…there lies the very first prize!! Will and I joked that we should have made a treasure map each day in Italy b/c both girls walked more during this journey than the entire time in Italy.

Glow in the dark necklaces!!

Next she had to find the path between the rocks and two skinny trees with an old ants nest…check!

Birthday Kazoos!

Then a little more walking and some more clues until she had to find a red container. Binoculars! This was def a favorite find and all other clues were searched for through these two lenses obviously.

Back to find the tallest tree where Pooks was so busy looking through her binoculars to find the prize that Sabs was actually the first one to spot it! This gift may have trumped the last one…Pooks very first pair of scissors. She is so obsessed with them she has cut almost all paper in sight and has already commented on how she could cut her hair (of which i reminded her about my hair cutting experiment as a child so i think I officially scared her enough to never attempt this, hopefully).

Off to find her last prize back up the beach stairs, and this one she really did need her binoculars for because there it is…way up there in the palm tree! She had to figure out an idea to get it down. We found a long stick and decided that was the best tool to knock down her sky high prize. The last prize was a pack of little plastic pots and beach toys to make pretend soups and things at the beach. A little snack of strawberries for all the efforts and then we headed on the journey back home :). It started pouring about a half hour after we got home and rained until the morning. Perfect timing!

Wrapped up the night with some birthday cake, singing, kazoo playing and tickles! HAPPY BIRTHDAY POOKIE!!

I’d like to thank both little peanuts for sleeping until nearly 8am so i could get this post done before we head off to San Jose for some more birthday adventure today! XOXOXOXO

Here we go…another year that went by way too fast but was full of incredible memories and joy thanks to this little angel! I know it is cliche to say but words truly can’t even describe the love and pride I have for this child. She is happiness. She is pureness. She is beauty. She is laughter. She is intelligence. She is sensitivity. She is strength. She is determination. She is comfort. She is fierceness. She is curiosity. She is adventure. She is confidence. She is compassion. She is greatness. She is LOVE. In it’s purest form…LOVE.

Pookie, keep on keeping on with your quirky self. You are perfectly imperfect and I am forever blessed to have you as my daughter. I could list all your milestones and achievements that you have conquered this past year (which are plentiful), however your sheer existence is all the matters. You make my heart happy each day, and I know you fill everyone else’s heart with love as well. You are a sparkle. A bright, shiny, glorious, sparkle. Keep shining your light on everything around you. I love you endlessly. HAPPY BIRTHDAY. FELIZ CUMPLEANOS MI AMOR!