Coopers 2nd Birthday!

My baby boy turned 2 already, I can hardly believe it! Two years ago this beautiful little boy gave us all a scare of a lifetime, and now is a happy full of life toddler. Cooper is the sweetest little guy ever. He is a charmer with his wink and blonde curly locks of hair. Cooper speaks spanglish, as of now more spanish than english. He will switch between the two in one sentence, it is really cute. We love this little guy and feel so blessed to have him in our family.
Birthday breakfast, waffles with whipped cream and fresh berries! Cooper loved blowing out the candles, and did it about 20 times at breakfast.
A nice dirty face after his bday cupcake!
Since Coopers birthday was on a sunday this year we decided to have his party the next day on monday! Here we are setting up for the big bash.
Can not have a party with out a bounce house right!
Cooper and his buddy Marcus.
I have been taking Cooper every monday to a music class which he just loves, so I asked the teacher if he would be willing to come a do a class for his party, and he gladly accepted. The kids loved it!
Cooper playing his drum.
Us singing happy birthday to my big boy!!!
Cooper opening his presents. He really could care less, but his brothers sure loved opening all of them.

Futbol!

Well as I was deciding what to do with my kids this summer, yes we are enjoying summer while you guys are enjoying your winter, I found an awesome place for the kids to do soccer. It is a program run by Oscar Ibanez, who plays for the national team here in Peru! The program is amazingly well organized and the boys are loving every minute. Oscar even came one day to train with the boys and was so kind to let me rob a picture!!!
The boys in Brocks group.
Zander and Oscar!
Z and his group!

Karate exam!

Brock just had another Karate exam and did well. He now has a black stripe on his yellow belt. Great Job!

Zander turns 5!!!!

So my Z man turned 5 and I can hardly believe it. I can still remember the day he was born and all the fun we had taking him back to Puerto Rico when he was 6 days old and Brock was not yet 2, we must have been crazy getting on that airplane that day!!!!

Zander is such a joy to have in our family, he is always full of mischief and laughs. He is the best big brother ever and will share anything he has with you. He can't go anywhere without being noticed, and can speak better spanish than most of the kids in his class. His teachers always marvel at how easy the language comes to him being that it is not his mother language. In fact he probably speaks better spanish than english. We love him very much and are so proud of him.
Breaking the piñata!
Love his smile, it just warms my heart.
Yep it has become a full blown tradition............The Bounce House!
Zander requested breakfast in bed after he saw how awesome it was when we did it for Dad on his birthday, so here he is enjoying his breakfast in bed. He asked for german pancakes and a fruit smoothie.
Zander had a great birthday with about 20 friends at our house. If you ask him what his favorite part was, he would tell you the ice cream cart. We rented an ice cream cart filled with 20 different types of ice cream!!!! Can you say stomach ache. We still have a fridge full that will last all year long, yum!

New Years2011!!!

Happy New Years!!! I can hardly believe how fast this year has gone and it reminds me of how fast this next year will go. We celebrated the end of this year with a bang, literally!!! Chris put on an incredible fireworks show and we had lots of food and fun with friends. My kids stayed up as well and loved every minute of the festivities.
My family waiting for the clock to strike midnight.
Some friends Nicholas and Carlos.
The crew doing firework warm ups! Oh man was it a mess to clean up afterwards.

Christmas 2011

Mommy and Cooper enjoying the fireworks!
Christmas PJs. Every year the boys get to open one present on Christmas eve and it is always new pjs, here they are showing them off!!!
We had way too much food, but oh man was it good!!!!
Coopers presents!!
Brock and his presents!
Z mans presents.
Cooper hugging his bear that his aunt Megs sent him.
Opening presents christmas morning! It was a bit tricky this year because we had church at 8.30 in the morning, so the kids only got to open presents from santa and wait for the rest until we got home from church. They were troopers, but I did get just one more please mom all the way out the door to the car.
Every year since we have lived here in Peru Chris has put on a extravagant fireworks show, but this year took the prize. He has found a love for these dangerous little bundles of light and so have my boys. They look forward to Christmas and New Years for this reason. So far no damage just pure fun. I was afraid that our neighbors might get upset and call the police after Chris shot off some of the big ones, but instead we got a round of applause and pleading for more. Every year our group gets bigger and we love being able to share this time with friends since we are so far from home.

Brock sings!!!

The end of the year is always crazy with activities, but you add ending the school year on top of it and it is madness. We had something everyday for the whole month, parent conferences, end of the year shows, holiday parties, graduations and more. Brock had a beautiful carol night at his school for their end of the year show. It made me laugh a bit to hear the kids sing songs like jingle bells, rudolph and more with spanish accents. They did a great job, and sang so beautifully. Especially my Brock.
Brock and his buds!
So every year we have made it a tradition to make plates of goodies to give as gifts for christmas. People here in Peru do not really bake, so they just love the goodies. In fact the kids teachers can't wait for the end of the year for their plate of goodies. I made about 8 different types and the boys and I wrapped then nicely in cellophane and made the rounds. This year Chris found these cute shoe covers that light up for the boys.

Zander Graduates

In December Zander graduated from his nido,preschool, and now is off to big boy school in March. He has been in this school for 3 yrs, it is hard to believe how fast time flies. It was so fun to see him in his cap and gown, we are so proud of him.
Oh Zander, how they will miss you at Garabatos!!!
This picture is Zander in a nut shell, full of personality.
Zander and his teacher Miss Marcela. This year has been a tough year but we made it through. We found that Zander has a sensory problem, and it made it challenging working with his teachers, but we are off to big boy school hooray!!!!
Zander and his best bud Santiago!!!