Syracuse's Heritage Days

June is over and with it the million things that we had going on. No wonder it flew by!

Syracuse’s Heritage Days festivities are one of my favorite things to do. This year we started our celebration on Thursday night by attending the fair and game booths.

I purchased wrist bands for the kids a month in advance so that the kids could have unlimited rides. My oh my they were worth it, we could have easily spent a couple of hundred dollars with the amount of times these kids rode on the rides. This was the first night the fair was open so we literally had all the rides to ourselves and the cool breeze of the evening to make things even more pleasant.

Julia made me go on this really grown up ride. while she was smiling and having a good time I was about to die. I felt all my blood rush to my toes and my head was spinning out of control.

When we got in the ride there were 6 people laying on the grass outside of it and I though that was weird, by the time the ride ended, I joined them. Apparently you needed a couple of minutes to recuperate from this particular ride that's how bad it was. Little Julia wanted to go again. I must be getting old because I hated that thing.

We played until 9:30 that night, but look how bright and sunny it still looks. We ended our fun with some shaved ice.

On Friday they had a free magic show for the kids. The kids loved it! There was a point during the show where the magician had a bunny puppet doing some magic with him. The bunny told the magician he wanted to turn all the kids into frogs, wouldn’t you know that my 5-year old bought it. She turned around looked at me all scared and said “I want to get out of here”. These are some serious words. If she ever says that is because she is really scared. Anyways I asked her why she wanted to leave and she said that bunny wants to turn me into a frog. I couldn’t do anything else but just laugh.

Every time that bunny touched the magician’s magic wand she got really concern. I don’t think she trusted that bunny at all.

The kids have been doing magic downstairs ever since that time. I smile every time I hear Josh say “Ada cadaba” and apparently this makes Julia turn into an animal because I start hearing animal noises all over the house.

They had a movie in the Park that night, but it was Rapunzel. Let’s be honest, right now we are watching that movie twice on a daily basis. We skipped the movie and just walked around the booths for a couple of minutes grabbing some cotton candy on our way home

Saturday finally came along. This is the most anticipated day for my kids besides Halloween, why? Well because of all the candy you get.

This year Julia got to be part of the parade though. She went with her tumbling class Flipside Tumbling.

We got her a bag full of candy to throw to people and I guess she took her job very seriously. When I went to pick her up from the trailer she rode on she told me: “mommy I tried so very hard but I just ran out of candy”. I guess throwing candy is a tougher job than what you though.

Josh was in charge of gathering all the candy from the parade. He was great at waving to people, so great that people threw candy at his head three times, not a very pretty picture as you can imagine.

When Julia’s parade trailer came around he stopped and logically got excited to see his sister. His priority was to wave and say hi to her, Julia’s response was: “Tell Josh to get the candy”

Although she had lots of fun being part of the parade, she made it clear to me that she rather catch the candy next year because Josh was waving too much and just not paying enough attention to the candy.

Thank you grandma and Grandpa for coming over and supporting her, we really enjoyed it.

We couldn’t end these festivities without fireworks and what a better way to enjoy them than from the comfort of your own front yard. The kids were ready with their PJ’s, so at the end of the show we just walked inside and took them straight to bed. Hassle free event! I love it.

 That was the end of our fiestas!

a cookie monster party

A.D you broke your promise, you told me that you were going to stay little for your mamma and just look at how big you are getting.
I remember when you came out as I was listening to my favorite Beatles song on the operating room. All the sudden there you were. A little bundle of joy, all cover in hair.
We were so happy to see you. I remember they put an I.V on your tiny little hand and I cried every time I saw it. You could barely even fit on the car seat. It looked humungous against your little cuddly body.
You are such a blessing to me. You love me so much. You know the sound of my footsteps and are so alert when you hear them in the morning. You can tell the sound of my voice from afar and I love seeing how your face lights up when you can finally see me.

You know just the right way to cuddle with me; like the other day when I was laying on the couch and you climbed up on it and snuggle and fell asleep right next to me.
You make me laugh and cry and when I am tired all I have to do is look at you and your siblings to get through my day.

 So I guess now you are going to start doing all that walking and talking and ignoring your mamma, but that’s fine. I have a year full of memories that I will cherish for the rest of my life.

We had a cookie monster birthday party for Andrew. It wasn’t because he likes this character but because he has learned how to growllike the cookie monster. He does it all the time and Julia and Josh think it is so hilarious.

We went to his favorite place so far, Arctic Circle. Their playground is so child friendly and he has learned how to climb up and crawl down their tube slide.

He has such a charisma that everywhere we go all the kids want to play with him. This time he was playing with 6 year olds.

Won’t you look at this picture?  It looks to me like one of those high school graduation pictures where they have the kids leaning against a tree and looking at the camera. He looks so grown up!

 

This place is one of our favorite because they give out some little ice cream cones to the kids. This was the first time that Andrew joined the gang on tasting this yummy treat.

As you can see it on the pictures, he absolutely loved it. He ate that thing in 5 minutes. All the sudden we heard him saying mas mas, which means more in Spanish. I love the last picture. can you see him saying: what happen to the ice cream, where did it go?... I sure can


 
That night we had a little party. The kids are always thrilled to have their cousins over and this was no exception.

A.D. had fun just chilling with grandpa and watching the commotion around him.
We opened presents and as I expected he loved the wrapping paper better than the toys inside. Good thing Julia and Josh were there to make sure those toys were put to good use.

When it was time to blow the candles we put him on his high chair. It was funny to see his face when we all started singing the happy birthday song to him. He was looking at us with one of his funny expressions that almost say: “what in the world is going on”; of course that was followed with one of his heart melting smiles.

Before he could figure out what to do with the candle, Julia helped him blow it up. After that the real party started. He was introduced to his first piece of cake.

Unlike Josh, who didn’t want to touch the cake and hated ice cream, Andrew went right for it. He took one little bite at first to see what it was all about and then handfuls of cake were flying left and right.

Every time he had a bite of the ice cream he made a funny face but the funny things was that he kept asking for more. I guess it was one of those sweet but though moments in life and at the end the sweet won.

We forgot to tell this kid what to do after he was finished with his cake and ice cream. He though the plate was part of his wardrobe and decided to balance it o his head like a hat. Thank goodness he had eaten all of his food or we would have had one messy hair-do.

Oh Andrew, never stop having that sweet smile of yours and that sweet temperament you carry yourself around with.


We love you big guy…

Your family