Add the basement to the list

The basement is now completed! Wow what a project! It started a while back when we ripped out some rooms, pulled down some sheet-rock and pretty much just gutted the whole room. The open part of the room was two toned with dark blue and light blue, and again with the chair rail, shadow boxes and ridiculous amounts of crown molding. The bedroom we ripped out was the lighter blue, and the hallway by the back door was a salmon color...lovely combos here people, LOVELY!

Oscar did a beautiful job repairing the sheetrock, hand sewing the carpet back in where the wall used to be, laying linoleum, matching the baseboards all around, and drilling the edging into the cement. We painted the room and it just looks so amazing. There are still a few small things to do, but overall we are really pleased. Since this picture, the playroom has moved down...yea for a lot less toys around the house! Boo for a perpetually disastrous mess of a basement! But now that the playroom is out of the dining room, remodeling of the dining room has begun (woohoo, and shopping for furniture has begun also :) don't tell Oscar).

Happy Father's Day

For Father's day this year we did exactly what Oscar has been wanting to do for awhile, take a trip to NYC. It's the firs time we have brought the girls and it was a lot of fun (no matter how skeptical I was regarding bringing them). We were in NY for a very short time, we arrived Saturday afternoon and departed Sunday afternoon. Saturday was lovely, we went to central park and had pizza in the sheep meadow, then walked through the park to see the sights, share some ice cream, and enjoy. The girls loved it, of course it's a park! After a lot of walking we got to the hotel and cleaned up for dinner.

Oscar wanted to go to this cuban restaurant in Jersey, we were staying over there. It was very good, but we got way too much food. After dinner we drove by Oscar's favorite view of NYC. I can't argue with him, it is a fantastic view. Luli passed out as soon as we left the restaurant, it was a long day for them and it was really late. Fiona on the other hand is always ready to party! So I stayed in the car with sleeping beauty (seriously a beautiful sleeping face) and Oscar took Fiona to see the view and take some pictures.













On Sunday our mission was to find the cemetery Oscar's grandparents were buried at and pay our respects. After some driving and asking at convenience stores, we found the cemetery and with the assistance of very nice people in the office we were guided to their resting place.
After that we had plans to do a few other things but the girls lack of sleep caught up with them and this picture is how the day felt, at least she looks cute when she's crying (in this pic)...Unfortunately the first reason we decided to go to NYC was because a lovely friend of Oscar's family had passed away. Lazlo was an amazing man who had survived so much in his life, including Nazi occupation, Russian occupation and finally life in America where he raised his family and friended the Santiago's in NY. We were not able to make the services however our hearts still ache for this loss and we think of Lazlo's wife and son daily.

Fireworks, Neighbors and a 10k

Last night we enjoyed the big firework display for Herndon Festival. They have them on Thursday and a Saturday night of the festival, and both nights the display is pretty amazing but Saturday is certainly larger and more extravagant. The girls favorite are the fireworks with shapes, especially the hearts. Frankly I'm just impressed that you can make something explode in a certain shape. If my brain were so inclined I'd love to learn.

The girls were jazzed for fireworks since Thursday's display and they stayed up all day and night asking NON STOP when it would be time. Seriously at 2pm they were asking, umm ladies we need a little thing called NIGHT TIME! They were exhausted but they rallied. Let's recap, Thursday they stayed up until 10 for the fireworks, Friday they stayed up until 10:30 for the festival, Saturday they woke up at 6:30am and stayed up until 10pm for the fireworks. Fiona was laying on the blanket for the fireworks and I caught her eyes struggling to stay open, and as soon as the booms stopped she was OUT! Luli was still running around even though she was ridiculously tired. But this reminds me of the fact that Luli has two speeds, GO and SLEEP. There is no in between for her!

The fireworks were just another expression of how much I love our house and our neighborhood. Our front lawn has a bit of a slope to it, and frankly it's perfect for laying out a blanket and enjoying the completely unobstructed view of all Herndon Fireworks displays. Several neighbors were walking by and we invited them to pull up some lawn and join us. It was great, it was what I've been wanting from a neighborhood. Impromptu neighbor get togethers, I love it! I put the girls to bed and returned to our neighbors, we chatted for awhile and it was just great. We did stay up a bit late, which was super because Oscar was running the 10k on Sunday morning.

Which brings me to the present. Oscar ran the Herndon Festival 10k this morning. The girls and I went out to cheer him on. Man, another thing I love about our neighborhood! The race was running right by our intersection with the W&OD trail. I brought the girls out with their chairs and we waited for Oscar to come through. We were going to sit right at the end of our street but I figured Oscar would expect us there, and if we were up a little further at the trail it'd be a nice surprise to get through the finish. He did great and we cheered especially loudly for him!


Today we'll probably hit up the festival again to use up our final tickets and indulge in more unnecessary fair food. mmm fried dough!

Documenting a Snow Storm

(This is our deck at 7pm Friday night.) For the first time 2003 we are actually getting a real snow storm! Oscar and I remember the storm of February 2003 well, at total of 16.5" fell. We were living in an apartment in Arlington and worked together at NRECA. Work was closed for a week and we had a great time trekking through the snow. We haven't had another storm like that until TODAY!

This is our deck at 11pm Friday night. The snow started around 9:30pm. We slept with the curtain open because I love to see the snow fall in the night. I woke up several times to go look out the window and see how much we had. Of course it didn't help that the girls woke up at 5am because of the snow excitement.

This is our deck at 9am, when we were eating breakfast! We had about six inches by 6am and then the snow seemed to get very light. But around 9am the flakes got bigger and the accumulation was back on.

Here is Oscar making a great snow angel at 10:30am. After breakfast the girls wanted to get outside and play. It is noon on Saturday and we have over a foot already, we woke up to six inches. The girls got up at 5am, clearly excited about the snow they'd heard so much about and the fact that Santa is coming to our house tonight.

Stay tuned for more snow storm '09 pictures and reports!

Father's Day

We certainly need to back up a bit here! I've been really focused on renovating the bathroom and have not been so focused on the blog.

We had a lovely father's day and showed Oscar how much we love and adore him. All week the girls and I worked on our presents for him, Pahpah and Abuelo. First we decided to make him a paperweight. They had the directions in an earlier addition of High Five and it was a great project for the two of them to work on.

Our first step was grabbing our umbrellas and heading out to hunt for the perfect rock. We found a great one and brought it back home to dry out.

Once it was dry we covered it in glue and then papered it with paper we cut from origami paper. Then covered it in glue and hid it to dry.

We were all really happy with the finished product and we did a good job keeping it hidden and secret from Daddy. Of course both girls were busting at the seems to tell him all about it. The other gifts for Daddy were things that told him how the girls felt about him. It was really sweet, Luli said she loved her daddy because of his hugs, kisses and because he makes breakfast. Fiona said her daddy was the best because he hung curtains. These two really crack me up!

The whole day was really lovely, a big breakfast, reading the paper, taking walks and playing with the girls.

Peanut Brittle

Oscar has been wanting peanut brittle. Apparently he REALLY wanted it because he and the girls made it this weekend. I had planned on making it on Halloween. The girls were really adorable helping out as best they could. Everyone donned their aprons, and the little ones pulled up chairs to the counter and then stove area to help prep and watch Daddy stir. For a first attempt it came out pretty good.