The BBQ Mobile!

The BBQ Mobile comes alive!

This is such a funny story.......I have been wanting to get rid of our 11 year old bbq since last summer. Well, it was still sitting out on our back deck this past weekend, when I told Martin (again) that I wanted it gone. I didn't care how he did it, but it had to go. It was old, dirty, gross, and yucky -- and I did not want to go into another bbq season with it. In typical Martin fashion, he spent the better part of Saturday taking it apart, piece by piece, screw by screw, and so on and so on. He wanted to recycle every bit that he could - plus keep the nuts and bolts and other odds and ends that he wanted. Well, he loaded it up into the back of the car and drove it to the recyle place. Goodbye BBQ! I thought that was the end of it -- I was so happy that it was finally gone! But, (you won't beleive this) the recycle place was closed, so he came back home with it! Ugh! Well, his wheels got to turning, and with Audriana's help, the two of them hatched a plan to make a go-cart of sorts out of the bbq pieces! Oh my gosh! So.....tonight I got home from work, and the 3 of them had been working on it. Our neightbors, the Kiki's came over, brought pizza, and joined in on the fun. Kelly brought his power tools and helped Martin finish assembling it, and Dawn (who is a phenominal artist) brought her paints over so she could officially brand it the "BBQ MOBILE". Here's a few pictues from the afternoon and evening.....

Here's how it all began.........

Dawn painting .......
Martin and Kelly with the finished product.....
Sofia ready to begin the maiden voyage.....

Now Audriana takes a turn...and of course, she goes up the hill a ways to really get the thing going....

Justus loved it, too! He was so full of smiles when his turn came up.....and so full of tears when his turn was over. :-) Poor little guy! But he's such a cutie!!!!!

Here's Caitlynn getting ready to go!

Press the button to watch a cute video of the action! So funny!

Totally cute Sofia

She added the orange flower in her hair all by herself.

Lemonade and Car Washing!

The girls had their first Lemonade stand of the summer season -- but this time, they added in a car wash! The weather was about 75 degrees, which was just perfect. Maria joined us, as well as little Justus Kiki from across the street. Dawn and Kelly Kiki came over too, and we really called it a party when Dawn brought over some yummy finger sandwiches and chips for all of us. What a fun day to be out with our neighbors enjoying the warmth, and watching the girls go through this elementary school right of passage! :-)

Sofia and Justus were in charge of the lemonade -- 25 cents on a hot day is a great deal!

Audriana made all the signs -- "We wash your car and sell lemonade. Lemonade is 25 cents and a car wash is $1.00. Or best offer." She even made a glass of lemonade out of yellow construction paper and white paper for the ice. Adorable.

Audriana had given me a coupon for a free car wash in my Mother's Day Coupon Book, which of course I had to redeem! :-)

The Kiki's needed their van washed too!

Audriana scores a goal!

Go Red Tigers! Still undefeated......!

Mother's Day 2010

I am so lucky! Today was such a grand-slam for me. First, I got to sleep in until 8 (which is virtually unheard of for me), then I was treated to a Thomas Hammer Hazelnut Latte, then breakfast in bed, then more relaxing! My day of indulgence got even better when the girls gave me their Mother's Day gifts! Sofia had painted a baby jar lid pink, then chose some pink bath salts to put inside the jar. It was very cute. Audriana gift was a bit more elaborate and detailed -- after all, she is 7 you know! :-) She had a homemade envelope and inside was a card in the shape of a teapot. Inside that was a cute little poem and a bag of tea -- so cute! She also gave me a "coupon book" with coupons redeamable for a car wash, dusting, sweeping, and other fun things. Very cute and I will treasure these things forever!

Here is my breakfast burrito and chips that Martin and the girls made me. Martin was so sweet and gave me a bouquet of flowers, too. They are so beatiful!

Here is the inside of the sweet tea-pot card that Audriana made me at school. Notice that she wrote her name with a different color for every letter.

Here is Sofia's sweet gift of the pink bath salts. She was so excited to give it to me that she woke up at 5am and got her dad out of bed to get the gift out of hiding so she could give it to me. I was so touched about the excitement on her face when she said "Happy Mothers Day, Mommy" and handed me her little sweet gift. I love her spirit so much! Then I told her that she needed to go back to bed because it was too early for mommy to get up! She did, thank goodness!

Oh yah, Audriana also gave me a post-it note pad that they made at school - I can't wait to take it to work and have it for my desk. She drew the ladybug on the front and her teacher laminated and then glued it over the post it note pad. Love it!

Also, take a look at how much detail went into coloring her tea-pot card! What a sweet envelope, too -- she put WSU on the backside! So cute!

I love my family so much and they made this day truly special and memorable for me. Thanks guys!

An unexpected date with my honey!

Martin and I were pleasantly surprised this past Saturday afternoon when both the girls decided that they wanted to have a slumber party at Aunt Krisit's house -- actually, Audriana was already planning on staying with Kristi because they were doing Bloomsday the next day and they wanted to get ready together. When Sofia and I took Audriana over to Kristi's, Sofia decided that she didn't want to miss out on any of the fun. Even though we hadn't even packed a suitcase for her, she decided that she would wear her t-shirt for pajamas and stay. Thank goodness that I had brought her beloved "colchita" in the car, so we did have that!

So, with both the girls taken care of for the afternoon and evening, Martin and I decided to go to the MAC and attend the opening of Rueben Trejo's art exhibit. It was such a nice and pleasant surprise! We were able to take our time and really enjoy the exhibit -- and because it was the opening of the show, we also got to share in some wonderful Mexican food, as well as a fun (and loud!) Mariachi band.

Love you babe!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Audriana and Aunt Kristi do Bloomsday 2010!

Oh my gosh ~ my baby is doing her very first Bloomsday race this morning! I'm so proud of her! Thank goodness Aunt Kristi has been training and will be doing it with her. Maybe next year the whole family will give it a shot! :-) Thank you Kristi for taking Audriana today and crossing this amazing milestone with her! This was also Kristi's first Bloomsday, and I bet it won't be her last! (doesn't she look good?)!

This is a 12K race = 7.46 miles! Are you kidding me?!??! She's ready! I guess because she's 7, and because she gets lots of exercise through soccer games and soccer practice, that she is ready to do this.......

Right after I took this picture, Audriana came over to me and whispered "Are you proud of me, Mom"? I gave her the biggest hug (complete with tears in my eyes) and told her I was so so so so proud of her.........what a moment! :-)

Team Alfaro, Team Schurra, and Team Wilhite! Go for it! Good luck!!!! Audriana and Kristi were walking the race with Chad and Patty, too! Their daughter Marissa was running it with her friends.

DOOMSDAY HILL! GOOD LUCK EVERYONE!

Sofia and I drove to Aunt Virginia's house and watched a good portion of the race in her backyard. What a beautiful view she has!! By the way, my Aunt Virginia is 77 and was somewhere in the mass of people doing Bloomsday! What an inspiration she is! She does it every year and typically finishes a little under 2 hours! Geez that's plain amazing!!!!

Here are Audriana and Jacob, Chad and Patty Wilhite, Kristi and Jacob's mom.


Audriana, Jake, Mrs. Nickel and Kristi walking up Doomsday Hill.

Here is Sofia on the lookout for Audriana and Aunt Kristi. We were in Aunt Virginia's backyard, which looks right on to Doomsday Hill.....

There's my baby! She made it up to the top of Doomsday hill with no problem at all! Aunt Kristi, too!

Jacob Nickel and Audriana at mile 7 -- almost there guys! :-)

CONGRATULATIONS AUDRIANA! WE ARE SO INCREDIBLY PROUD OF YOU!

Audriana's official time was: __2 hours 11 minutes 40 seconds_

Another win today by the Red Tigers!

Coach Mike Ackerman and his Red Tiger team!

Top (left to right): Carley, Audriana, Anna, Avery, Coach

Bottom (left to right): Peyton, Belin, Anna, and McKenna

What a great group of girls!

Audriana is our soccer star of the family! LOL!

Sofia has decided that she wants to play next season....she actually decided she wanted to play this season, but it was too late to sign up. She's got a great kick -- she'll be a natural, just like her sister!

Who are these two good looking people??!?!

Coming through the tunnel at the end of the game is always so fun and the girls really look forward to it!

Spring 2010 is here!

Audriana is VIP this week at school. She has waited all school year for this honor! Each child in Mrs. Soderquists class gets this distinction for a week, and they get the VIP board decorated with their pictures and information about them. She also got to take "Froggy" home and since it was Spring Break, Audriana got to have Froggy for a whole week! All the other kids got him for just a weekend, so she felt pretty special. She got pretty attached to that stuffed animal, too! : )

With the onset of Spring, comes the onset of soccer practices and soccer games. Today was the Red Tigers first game since last Fall. Same team, same coach, and same players continue on in the Spring which is really nice. Coach Mike is a wonderful coach...very supportive, very positive and very kind to all the girls. Players are: Anna, Audriana, Avery, Carlie, McKenna, Belin, Payton, and Anna (from Audriana's 1st grade class). They are a really good team...everyone gets along and they really play well together. Audriana scored 7 of 13 goals that the team scored today. She was on fire! The girls did so much running today, I know they were all exhausted after the game! Thankfully, the weather cooperated -- no rain, no snow...just sunshine and some pretty cold temps!

Easter 2010

Our day began with a wonderful service at St. Mary's with Kristi, Mom and Jay. The girls were very patient and good during the mass, even though they knew that the Easter Bunny was probably at Grandma's at that very moment hiding eggs for them -- and he was! After Church we all headed to mom's -- we parked and headed up to the front door and were met with a note from the Easter Bunny taped to the door. It said that he appreciated how good the girls have been all year long, and that he hid lots of eggs and wanted Audriana to leave the eggs that were down low and easy to find for Sofia. He went on to say that now that Audriana was seven, that she was going to have to find the eggs that were more difficult to find. What a smart bunny to lay down a few rules before the hunt began! Our beautiful girls in their Easter dresses.

Ready for the hunt! Thankfully the sun was out for the majority of the day!

WOW -- Sofia found a lot of hidden eggs!

Audriana's basket is bigger and deeper, so you can't see the eggs....but they are in there!

Uncle Mike always likes to help out with the hunt each year...it's a great tradition! He always helps the girls color the eggs each year, too!

Aunt Kristi is never too far away! The girls were very sweet and both of them wanted to sit by her in church. We are so lucky to have Aunt Kristi in our lives!

Why are all the boys huddled around the end of the table? Look closely....that's shrimp and they all wanted to make sure they got their fair share! : ) We had a nice brunch at Mom's -- bagels, lox and cream cheese, lots of fruit, tortilla chips and salsa, OJ and coffee. Mom had some hard boiled eggs that the girls had colored the night before, but we forgot to bring them out of the refrigerator!

That afternoon, we all headed over to Patty and Chad Wilhite's house for Easter dinner. They were perfect hosts! Their beautiful and talented daughter, Marissa, had prepared a really fun Easter egg hunt in their backyard and the girls had a blast. They found eggs that had lots of little surprises in them -- baskin and robbins gift certificates, a watch, candy, packets of flowers seeds, and a cool pen with a pad of paper! How cool was that!?!? It's been fun connecting with cousin Patty again after all these years! : ) Their daughter Marissa is 17 and is a wonderful pianist! We coaxed her into playing a few songs for us.

Marissa made this bunny cake -- the girls loved it! Mighty tasty, too!

Having fun checking out the fun surprises hidden in the eggs they found in the backyard.

What a happy day -- one filled with family, and making good memories!