Maxi is 4

It's been about 3 months since Maximiliano turned FOUR! As I said in my prior post, life has been busy and there have been so many changes that we are getting adjusted to and that is the reason I'm posting about it now!

I worked really hard on this party for my boy because it was the first theme that he actually chose and he was so just so excited for his avengers birthday! I literally made almost everything myself and was happy with the way everything turned out! I even cosplayed as black widow as requested by the birthday boy! For this party I got a lot of help from my sisters and mom and my husband helped too (a little haha jk), I couldn't have done it with out them.

Everyone had a blast and kept on commenting on what a great party it was so I was definitely one proud mommy. It was worth all the late nights (thank you Starbucks double shot) and hard work and I would do it all over in a heart beat! My boy kept on commenting on what an awesome party it was and that just made me the happiest. The photo backdrop was a success, I took all of Maxi's costumes and super hero props so everyone could use. And honestly lots of the decor is now hanging on his little side of our shared room, the garland, the chalkboard banner with his name, the iron man frame and I've been meaning to put up his little garland of spider man pictures. I will post pictures when our room is done.

I started working on the decorations about a month in advance starting with the "building" boxes that would be on the tables, I simply collected boxes and wrapped them in black paper then taped yellow cardboard windows to them, This year, I kept the invites super simple. I bought some blank black and white cards from target's dollar section, found a site with super hero font and printed out our favorite avenger symbols then cut and glued on card. They didn't come out super professional but they were cute and just what I wanted! Wrote the deets inside with a sharpie and included a picture of Maxi as spider man! We took the pictures a couple of month in advance and I absolutely loved the way they came out. We also used the pictures to decorate the dessert table.

For the photo drop I had my husband spray paint big cardboard boxes, I also glued on yellow cardboard for the windows, I made a star garland and cut out the moon from a cardboard box and then painted with yellow acrylic paint, the black background was just a piece of heavy fabric that I bought from Johann's.

A few other diy's were the city tri-fold board on the table, I used a ruler and paint to draw on buildings and color in sky, yellow paint for moon and the stars were from a star puncher (that I used for garland as well), the spider man bowls that held spicy chips, I had these bowls from Maxi's 3rd birthday and just painted the spider man eyes with acrylic paints! they looked great.

And last but not least I made his cake, which I was pretty happy with! I was going to just opt for store bought this year just because I was so busy with so many things but of course I couldn't just NOT bake my baby's birthday cake haha, for the dessert table I also made super hero cookies, rice crispy treats and cake pops that were a pain in the butt.

For the food I wanted to just have fresh salads because I didn't not want to worry about heating up food, we had about 4 different salads and lots of fresh fruit. Not of it was pictured of course because it was kept in coolers and taken out later. I chose to not make goody bags this year because I already had a full on dessert table + a piñata! So I just set out bags for the kids to fill with candy from the piñata.

Above: me, sisters and mom. Below: me as black widow.

Iced Horchata Latte

It's been a looooong time since I have blogged. We moved houses, Damian got a new job and Maxi started school so we have been busy busy busy and readjusting to all the new changes that have been going on! My dear pen pal asked for this horchata latte recipe that I posted about on Instagram and I promised her I would post it here. So here it is. A day late but I'm sure she already knew I was going to be fashionably late just like with the letters we send each other. This one's for you Kim, Enjoy!

Iced Horchata Latte

Ingredients:

1/4 cup brown rice
1/2 cup coffee beans
1/4 cup raw almonds
1/2 cinnamon stick, crushed
1/4 sugar

Using coffee grinder (or as I do, baby bullet that I used twice to make baby food) coarsely grind rice and transfer to an airtight container. Coarsely grind coffee beans and place in same container as rice. Add almonds, cinnamon stick and 4 cups water. Cover and let soak in refrigerator overnight.

To make the simple syrup, that you will use to sweeten your horchata lattes, bring sugar and 1/4 cup water to a boil in a small saucepan, swirling to dissolve sugar. Transfer simple syrup to a heatproof container, cover and chill.

After your horchata latte concoction has been soaking overnight, transfer to a blender and blend until very smooth. Strain through a fine mesh sieve into a container, pressing on solids to extract all that goodness. Grab a cup with lots of ice, pour some horchata latte over it, sweeten with your simple syrup, add a straw and mix it all up. You just saved yourself a trip to the coffee shop (and some money). I like to double this recipe and have iced coffee on hand for that very much needed afternoon-pick-me-up. Don't forget to double simple syrup when doubling latte!

20/52 | 21/52 | 22/52

20/52

"a photo of my child, once a week, every week in 2015."

Maximiliano: A well deserved scoop of ice cream, you were such a good boy through my meeting this day. On our way there I asked you to please sit quietly while I talked to the lady and that's exactly what you did, I love you.

21/52

"a photo of my child, once a week, every week in 2015."

Maximiliano: My little explorer.  Always picking up sticks.

22/52

"a photo of my child, once a week, every week in 2015."

Maximiliano: You argued with the other (older) kids there for at least 30 minutes about this statue. 

                          You: "It's a snake."

                          Kid: "It's a crocodile."

                          You: "It's a snake."

                          Kid; "Nope, it's a crocodile."

                          You: "It's a snake!"

                          Kid; "I've never seen a snake with legs before!"

                          You: "I've never seen a crocodile with such huuuuge legs before! Let's call it a dinosaur."

                          And so on and so forth.

Leucadia Beach

Quick stop at Leucadia beach after legoland, oh the happines. Making memories is my favorite.

Exploring Our City: Living Coast Discovery Center

In the month of April we visited the nature center in Chula Vista also known as the living coast discovery center. The living coast discovery center is a small nonprofit zoo and aquarium. I first heard of it a couple of years ago at the annual Chicano park day celebration and forgot about it until I heard the name come up recently and immediately googled it since Maxi loves animals and had been asking lots about sea turtles.

I was surprised I hadn't ever heard much about this little place but when we arrived at the location it kind of made sense because of the fact that it's so hidden and in a not so frequented area. You even have to take a little bus into the place, after parking your car, which kind of adds to the experience if you ask me haha,

As soon as we arrived we saw the sea turtles swimming in their area and we loved watching them chill (ever since watching nemo, I just always think of them as hippies and picture them talking in that cool Australian surfer slang). We then moved indoors where we were able to see eels (maxi thought they were scary), sea horses and stars, beautiful jelly fish dancing elegantly, a variety of reptiles including a chameleon which was on Maximiliano's top list of animals he wanted to see.

As we headed outside they had a cool crafting table where they charged like 50 cents a project, everything looked so cool that I almost sat down and crafted myself but of course my active toddler would never sit for more than a minute, especially when he knows he's surrounded by animals he could be admiring. We headed past the table into the outside aquarium where they had sharks and sting rays you could pet and a larger tank with a variety of sharks and other creatures. Maximiliano is really afraid of sharks and he wasn't really into it, it's funny because he will say "I'm a big boy, big boys are afraid of sharks". They also had a bird watching area which we enjoyed.

On top of all the animals that they have, what I absolutely love about the living coast discovery center are the walking trails. They lead you to the shore of San Diego Bay where you can actually see the railroad tracks that where used to bring kelp to the gunpowder factory that used to exist there. They also encourage you to make a day of it by packing your lunch and enjoying it there, which we will definitely be doing next time we visit!

The admission tickets are $14 per adult, $9 per childern (4-17) & students (with ID).
They also have a great family membership (2 adults and up to 5 children) for $75.