L. A. Arboretum

I believe it was last week we met up with auntie Jodi and uncle Dan at the L.A. Arboretum to give them some things for the wedding...and since we were already there...and I've always wanted to see the place we decided to pay the $5 and $7 to get in. It was a gorgeous day and we got to see multiple wedding parties taking pictures in the beautiful sceneries available at the garden! It is a low key place...has awful bathrooms...but oh well. I really like the old cottage by the lake and barn....sometimes I wish I lived in those days with the beautiful dresses, tea time etc. Of coarse one never knows what class I would belong to so it does not necessarily mean that I would have all that....I guess what I meant to say is: I wish that I lived back then and was rich :o) The house had several 'living rooms' and one of them was the music room...there was a harp, four upright pianos, a baby grand, harpsichord and I don't remember what else. It was a fun change of pace for an otherwise typically uneventfull Saturday.

California Adenture with Grandpa

In March we went to Disneyland to celebrate Grandma's birthday and Papa joined us with a 2fer ticket. He had a month to visit California Adventure so right before it expired we went there to hang out. It was a super hot day but because of it we got to discover the Bug's Life area that has tons of water...and other fun stuff. We got the baby and us soaked and the heat became surprisingly more bearable :o) We actually got to do quite a bit because the crowds were smaller than Disneyland and the we finished our day with some dinner at the Rainforest Cafe....GZ for the second time in a row that we go there slept through....the storm and the screaming gorillas and elephants!!! Well there is always next time...

Easter Video

Gabriela Zoe had fun cracking the eggs and getting her hands red from the dye (I added some american food coloring which proved not a good idea because it got everyone's hands red!) Oh well...I'll know next year :o)

Mailbox

One of Gabriela Zoe's favorite (almost) daily activities is getting the mail. To sidetrack a little I say 'almost daily' because like I said to a friend recently we have a routine...breakfast lunch, dinner at some point we'll take a nap and most of the days GZ will be in bed by 7:30 :o) Routine rules us...j/k.
So GZ likes going down the stairs walking over the grass crossing the street...holding mommy's hand and playing with the little rocks while mommy gets the mail. By the way we always have to take one little rock for each hand in order to be satisfied in returning home, one can find little rocks at the most random places...now I have to take them back or they will take over ;o) A while back I showed her how you can write on the cement with the rocks and she not only tries to write on the cement but on our wood floor too!
The day I took these pictures we had just gotten home and daddy got home as we were checking for the mail. GZ recognized the car and was super excited!

Visiting Great Papa and Great Grandma

Yaya like the girls like to call her had invited us to visit them....hmmm a long long time ago!!! Finally we decided we've had it with the 'let's plan it' and actually called and set up the date :o) It was a Saturday and Stephen was working in the morning and stayed to work a little...or a lot later than we expected so we were not able to have lunch together...we still had to eat our lunch at 2. We had fun hanging out talking about everything and anything. Gabriela Zoe enjoyed her great grandparents and all the attention she was getting. At dinner time we went to Marie Callendars and from there we dressed the bambina for sleep and headed home. I believe I can claim for everyone that we all had good fun :o)

A Day in Disneyland

So we went to Disneyland today and I thought...I might share how we roughly spend our day when we do go to Disneyland...which has been quite a bit since Christmas.
Today we were going to meet up with a family-friends, and spend the day together..however, they were sick so they were not able to come. That meant that could take the day a little slower...we got there around 12:30 p.m. and had our lunch-homemade tuna sandwiches-in the car. As a side, I gave something to GZ to eat every 1/2 hour to an hour. It worked well and she ate all the food that I had hoped she would eat. In the past if I simply kept a 3 meals mindset she would hardly eat anything...so this new approach worked.
We first went to the Mark Twain's Steamboat but since we had 25 min I went to ride Big Thunder Mountain and got a pass for Stephen and he did not have to wait in line. Turns out though that we had to wait for yet another round before we got on the steamboat. GZ really enjoyed that, her papou will like to know that...his favorite ride, looking at the passing ducks, horses, goats, etc. After that we went to ride Winnie the Pooh, a ride that the baby enjoys, and we don't have a bad time either, and lastly we went to the Jungle Cruise. By the time we finished with Jungle Cruise, if you add also potty breaks it was around 3:30 p.m. meaning that 3 hours had passed since we entered the park.
Stephen and I were really hungry so we sat down to eat our PBJ which proved not enough so Stephen went to get us a hot dog and a pretzel (our two expenses for the day!) With full tummies we decided to head over to California Adventure for Toy Story...baby in the stroller hoping she would fall asleep. At CalAd we were greeted by their huge Food and Wine Festival banner so Stephen against my reservations inquired how much it would cost to sit in the food demonstration. FREE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Tickets were sold out so we had to wait...to make things a little more compllicated GZ had finally dozed off. They told us we could not take the stroller in with us but eventually they made an allowance because our preciosa was sleeping and they let us get in. The food that was going to be demonstrated...Turkish Baklava! I did get some good ideas, as well as a small boost that it is not as complicated as it has always been in my head. It was not exactly the traditional dessert as I know it but the twist made it more enjoyable to the palette. I am not sharing the 'secret', hopefully one day or another I'll be able to serve it to you :o)
When the show was over the baby woke up and by the time the diaper change was done the parade started only to realize at the end of it that the park was closing...6p.m....already?
We decided to head home at that time so by 7 we were in the car baby in her pjs and ready for bed. And that's how this Disneyland adventure ended :o)

Party Time

Makenna trying out the harmonica...the harmonica
was a hit with the older kids :o) If fact it was Delaney
who was the blues queen that day.
Tolu showing Grandma Chris how to play the Maracas
Yummy strawberry cake!!!! Mommy was stealing
some for herself
Opening presents with the help of her cousins :o)
'I like uncle Dan!'
She picked the flute which means (whatever its in
God's hands) that she will become a musician...she
picked the one I wanted her to pick ;o)
Trying out the African Drum
Grandpa tickling her again!
With uncle Nikos, thia Sylvia and Tanya

We did do a birthday party for GZ and even though 90% of our guests were family we were so many we decided to do it at the club house. As a hostess...while a little frustrating when having to go to the house to get something we forgot...it was awesome first to get things out of the house, made it feel more complete and second when it was over Stephen and Dan cleaned up I went dress shopping with Jodi and when we got back we got back to a clean house. NOW THAT WAS AWESOME! The theme of the party was loosely musical which meant we had musical theme for favors, musical themed game, lots of instruments for the kids to play with. Other than that the colors coordinated with the dress GZ wore which was designed by her auntie Vasilia Luz. Towards the end of the party we also brought out a cake and celebrated my mother-in-law's birthday which was going to be three days later. Also it was a timed party...something I have never done before because it's pretty much impossible for me to start on time so what's the point...and because I don't like having the feeling that I am rushing people. However, because GZ is only ONE year old and needs a nap I just had to make sure we ended at a decent time. Everything went great especially with all the help we got for the final stretch. I am excited and looking forward for all the other parties we'll do for our preciosa.

Temperature

Gabriela Zoe had a fever last week so we checked her temperature often to make sure that everything was under control. After a couple of days she had the whole routine down and she wanted to check her temperature herself and check mommy and daddy's temperature :o) So on Monday we were able to take a picture of her doing it....proof that we are not just babbling...our child is smart!

Disneyland

On Tuesday was mom's birthday so we headed out to Disneyland for a fun day. It was super crowded...and we are not used to that since every time we went before there were hardly any lines. I guess the people crowd when the warm weather hits. There was a pleasant surprise for mom and dad because aunt Sherryl, Kristin, Cyndi, Delaney, Makenna, Reagan, Camden and Owen all joined us for the momentous occasion! Even Stephen came down and joined us for a couple of hours after work! We had a ton ton ton of fun and here is a clip of GZ walking along with grandma.

Celebrating 1st Bday in Disneyland

Disneyland with Mommy and cousins

This pic was taken when we joined the Shaw clan to celebrate aunt Sherryl's
birthday. We have had fun one more time with them in Disneyland. It is a lot of fun to be able to hang out with our cousins.
The following pictures were when baby and I went together. We did not get to do all that much but it was a nice day spent out in the sun :o) That specific day in fact I forgot where I parked the car and had not recorded it. Nice thing to know is that everyone that works there can give you a ballpark of where the car is located based on what time you came to the park!

Cousin Delaney's Bday

Delaney is her eldest cousin from this side of the family and she really enjoys Gabriela Zoe! As you can see she took her with her everywhere she went...well GZ did not oppose to it...she enjoys her company also :o) That birthday party was so fun...I have not been to too many pj parties but they sure are fun!

Yaya Evangelia

One of the greatest blessings of our trip was seeing our dear yaya. She has spent all her life praying for her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. We feel honored that we were able to give her the gift of seeing at least the first of many great grandchildren. She blessed Gabriela Zoe as a great matriarch in our family. She has been sick for quite a while...if I am correct our wedding day was one of the last days that she was able to walk around and get out of the house. Since she increasingly got weaker and many times we thought that she had reached the end, but God was preserving her because she was such a contender and prayer warrior for all of her descendands. Two days after we left she went to be with the Lord...so you can understand why we are so grateful for seeing her one more time. She was an awesome grandma who took care of me and my sister so much, with a lot of patience. We were not the easiest kids to deal with but she loved us unconditionally and gave constantly of her love to us. Whoever knew her knows what a great woman she was and how caring and loving towards other she was. That's why she was yaya Evangelia to everyone that was younger than her :-) May her godly inheritance be passed on and continue for many generations.

Kathi, Brad's Bday, Family Photos

On September 27th we went up to Brad and Amber's house to celebrate Brad's (Stephen's cousin) bday. They live up in the mountains and we got to stay so short and it was still soooooo relaxing and fun to hang out with our family. We also had with us our friend and "mom" Kathi who came to visit with us for a few days. Gabriela Zoe was just starting to get the idea of crawling about a week before she was 7 months. Of coarse she still slipped and slided on the wood floors but we were/are so proud of her...she is a little go getter. On the same day we also got our family pictures with Stephen's side (we had with my side when GZ was barely born) It was a lot of fun and she smiled for the camera almost non-stop...she is also a little model. By the witness of the girl at pennies she was by far one of the best babies, she may have said THE BEST because all other babies will start crying at about the middle of the session and she was smilling baby from beginning to end. Well I have to say that there were times that she was a little confused with all of us clowns trying to make her smile and despite the craziness she did awesome. I am SOOOO proud of her.

Nonprofit Days

Once in a while I do my search to find fun things we can do for cheap or no cost at all (even better) so I found that the Aquarium of the Pacific was offering free tickets to non-profit organizations. What more non-profit than a church right? So I gave the info to my husband who passed it along to someone who would be able to fill out the application and stuff and voila not only us but I think the whole stuff got two free tickets to the aquarium!!! So on a Tuesday, after a work filled weekend, we packed our bags and drove to the aquarium. It was so much fun and I think that Gabriela Zoe really enjoyed looking at the fishes (taking after mommy and daddy) even though she did not ask for fish at the end of the day. Side note they even have a nice area where a nursing mother like myself can sit down, relax and nurse in private. Cudos AotP!! The aquarium is not huge so when we were done looking at the excibitions we took the little free bus (please) to the little port village and walked around the shops. I never really knew what a fun town Long Beach is :-) a little European in its setting I would think. The weird thing was that it was so dead...meaning there were no people walking around...I guess that fact would make it drastically different than any European town. Oh Well...we had so much fun and maybe in a few years we'll do a family membership because they are so inexpensive!!!! Enjoy the pics