Funny sayings and updates

A random picture of Vivi dressing up in the beautiful knight costume Auntie Colleen made:

Bug Adventures:

We are discovering the insect world of Houston. Now I know that when Maya is crying that her foot hurts, it probably means some fire ants are in her sandals. Also, fire ant hills appear abandoned, but the instant you accidentally step on them, thousands of ants swarm your foot and inject their nasty venom in all available skin. Tonito also learned that when you use a stick to poke their home, the ants climb the stick to your hand faster than you can pull the stick away. Finally, we learned that fire ants eat other insects. Using chopsticks, we rescued a worm from a swarm, but could not save the caterpillar. I have some stories about enormous cockroaches in my dishwasher and under my garbage can, but I am trying not to traumatize my overly active imagination. We do have an exterminator now, because all environmentally-friendly tendencies are blown out of the water when flying, fist-sized cockroaches are involved.

Gardening dreams realized:

We always said if we ever move anywhere warm, that we would take advantage of the climate in our garening. Sooooo, we bought a mandarin orange tree, a papaya tree and a lime tree, to go with our already existing banana trees. Come over for fruit salad next spring!!!! We're going to add more next spring once we see how these do.

Funny/dangerous antics by the resident monkeys:

I walked out of the room for a second to grab the level, and came back to this scene: Vivi holding a hammer above Tonito's leg and saying "Come on, you drink milk, you have strong bones."

Me: "No, no, no! We can't hit anyone ever with a hammer!"

Tonito: "Yeah Vivi, you can only hit mommy or papi cause they're stronger"

Me: "No, no one has that strong of bones!!!"

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Vivi: If I close my eyes while you're reading I can watch TV! And sometimes there are princess commercials."

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As I hopped out of the shower, Maya latched onto my legs and giggled "Big mama, big mama!"

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Vivi looking at an ad of a shirtless, muscular guy: "Why does he have all of those bumps?"

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Celebrating Mexican Independence Day!

Contrary to popular belief, Mexican Independence Day is NOT Cinco de Mayo, but actually is Sept 16th. On Sept 16th, 1810, Father Hidalgo rang the bells of his church and called for everyone to revolt against Spain. (10 years later, they achieved independence). All over Mexico, people read the "Grito" (the call for independence) and celebrate with fireworks, music, of course food. We went to downtown Houston to celebrate the Grito at an outdoor concert. It was so fun! Too bad I didn't remember my camera. I promised Tonio that next year, unpacked and organized, I will make the traditional "Chiles en Nogadas"- chiles rellenos with meat, almonds, dried fruit, and bathed in a walnut and cream sauce, sprinkled with pomegranate seeds. The red, white, and green represents the 3 colors of the Mexican flag- and the dish is DELICIOUSly sweet and spicy. Next year Tonio!!!!