Thursday's Thirteen on Thursday

1.  Hola, mis amigos.  What a crazy week. We had torrential rain for two days straight, and on Monday night (or was it Tuesday? No recuerdo.) it went into freezing temperatures, so it looked like this the next morning. 

 It's actually quite weird for it to freeze at all after Feb 14th here, so it was pretty unexpected.  I was sad, because a poppy was blooming in my backyard and there were lots of buds on the other poppy plants, and while they're still alive, I don't know if they'll still bloom or not.  :(

2. Ana was given the  MVP and best offensive player awards for basketball.  Very impressive.

3. I spent Monday and Tuesday all determined to get all this stuff done on my to-do list.  And now I have no motivation left.  Sigh.

4.  On Monday and Tuesday I did practically finish Miriam's second dress.  I am definitely getting faster.  However on Tuesday night at midnight, I only had some trim to finish off her dress, (well, minus some hand sewing I was planning on doing the next day at playgroup) and I figured I could finish it in an hour and be in bed by 1 AM.  Yeah, no.  I spent 4.5 hour trying to turn what was basically large spaghetti straps, and never did finish turning one.  I just made straps like that for Harriet's dress and it took less than five minutes, it's just that this fabric was much stiffer and had less give.  Needless to say, I'm never doing that again, and put a bid on a very expensive spaghetti strap turner.  Yes, that's all it does, in 6 different sizes.  I don't care, it's worth every penny--FOUR of my fingers were numb and tingling for the whole rest of the next day.  And my hand hurt like the dickens, I couldn't even hold the phone for very long.  And yes, I am stubborn and didn't want to give up on it, but eventually I had to cry uncle.

5. No, I didn't function well the next day and yes, that is when my motivation to get stuff done for the rest of the week collapsed.  

6.  I just adore Nicolas. He's in his room right now singing himself to sleep.  He sings ALL the time.  It's adorable.  No words, just singing.
 

 7.  Sebastian had his birthday!  He turned four. I tried to convince him that his present was a barbie doll.  He wasn't impressed with that idea.

 8.  Umm, yeah, I don't know how to make 7 minute frosting obviously, because it went really runny. But it's a race car and Sebastian LOVED it. 

 

9. He also loved his presents.  Actually, all the kids have loved his presents.  Elena and Isabel have been playing cars and trains with him since he had his birthday.  Nicolas too. The binoculars and headlamp from Grandma and Grandpa were a smash hit too!

 

10. Elena made this train for Sebastian with a little bit of Ana's help.  So cute.

 11.  I think his new race cars took the cake though.  Just look at that face.

 12.  Ana showing the truck that the race cars stow in the back of.

 13.  And a full hour of heavenly, uninterrupted-by-fights, playtime commenced with the train tracks after dinner.  Good times.  I wish it was like that all the time.  If only.  :)