Sunday, July 3, 2011

Newest Family Members

Call us crazy....

Within a months time we went from having one dog to having two dogs, one kitten, and a fish.

One morning Abby woke up saying she heard a cat outside her window.  As our neighborhood is full of cats, we didn't think anything of it.  Later in the afternoon (on our way to piano lessons), we heard it again.  After investigating (and being late for piano in the process), we found a little kitty stuck inside a garbage can on the side of the house.  We attempted to find a good home for him, but fell in love in the process.  Tobi is now a part of the Lopez household.


A couple weeks later (Father's Day), Juan came home with Sage, an 8 month old pitbull.  A co-worker could no longer care for her.  Of course, we all fell in love with her and her very cute, expressive ears.


We decided that Maxx should raise Sage as his own.  The crate is in his room, he's in charge of scooping and walking, etc.  We gave Tobi to Abby, as she is the cat whisperer in the family.  Sofia felt left out and luckily agreed a fish would be an awesome pet.  I tried to convince her how wonderful a betta fish would be.  She, of course, had other plans that included Goldie, the goldfish.  Well, Goldie passed on to fishy heaven within 24 hrs.  I am unsure whether she was flushed or just thrown away, since Fia took in upon herself to take care of it.  We now have a betta named Gooey.

How is Daisy with all of this you might ask?  Awesome!  You couldn't ask for a better dog.  For those of you that know her...she has 7 cats under her collar.  Juan introduced them and informed Daisy that Tobi was a friend.  At first Daisy wanted nothing to do with the enemy.

Pic taken on Juan's phone - sorry it's blurry.

Then Daisy became curious.  Now they are friends.  Tobi even eats/drinks out of the dog bowls.  When Sage came into the picture, Daisy put her in her place.  I never, ever thought I would see the day when my cat killing pitbull would defend a kitten from another dog.  Even Sage and Tobi can been seen playing together.  Of course, every time I try to get a pic of it my camera is missing, or they stop when I try.  Hopefully soon, I can post "proof" of the amiability.  Sage is a more submissive dog.  Daisy had to teach her how to play.  Crazy!  Sage is even mellower than Daisy.  They fit really well together.  There is no Alpha-dog battles between them like there were with Fergie.  

Now the question is "What do we do with them all when we go out of town???"




Thursday, June 30, 2011

PJ Day

Just found this picture, and realized I didn't post about pajama day at Sofia's preschool.  I think she was more excited for PJ day than for her play, graduation, and celebratory water party.  Of course, in true Fia style, she had to wear a skirt and mary janes.  (She's on an "I don't like sandals!" kick.)

Monday, May 30, 2011

Red Writing Hood

Maxx's 4th grade class performed the play "Red Writing Hood" on May 25th.  It was very cute.  The video is really hard to hear, so only the most devout Lopez kids' fans should attempt. :)  If you really want to know the story, Maxx can recite the whole play for you.  Maxx was Agent Grimm from Fairytale Believers Inc. (FBI).  He's toward the end.

Sunday, May 29, 2011

Piano Recital

Both Maxx and Abby had their piano recital yesterday.  They both did really well.  Abby started taking lessons in April.  She made a last minute decision to play in the recital, so she only had a week and a half to learn this piece.  Maxx's piece is harder than he makes it look.  Each "hand" has a different timing....good thing timing is his specialty. :)

Abby played "Hedwig's Theme" from Harry Potter.  Maxx played "Linus and Lucy" from Peanuts.




Stomp

Abby had her band concert on May 19th.  She started in a percussion class this year.  Her group put together a "Stomp" project.  They had a great time!


Sorry, it's so blurry.  I'm not so great in the camcording skills!

Monday, May 23, 2011

Jack and the Beanstalk

Sofia's preschool performed Jack and the Beanstalk.  Sofia was the Old Woman who gave Jack the beans.  They had rehearsed it moments before the parents arrived and did fabulous.  Once the audience was in place things went a bit south.  The performance was classic and very fitting of preschool aged kids. We loved it!







Sofia and Hannah were the only two graduating onto Kindergarten this year.  We will miss preschool and Miss Jessica.  She is fabulous.  Luckily she's a good friend whom we see often.

I took pics while filming so they came out a bit blurry.




The lady in the background is "Grandma" aka Miss Jessica's mom.  She is the genius behind the play and music.  The kids love her!




She was done smiling and cooperating for the day. 

Saturday, May 21, 2011

Maxx's Animal Report

Maxx had to do a report on the Mexican Raccoon.  The class invited families and other classrooms in to see what they learned.  He had to make a 3D image/habitat of his animal.  He had a good time creating his habitat!

We are still working on his "mexican" spelling issues. :)

Tournament!

On May 14th Maxx competed in the Arizona Super Challenge.  He performed his week old personal form. Still needs a bit of tweaking and smoothing out, but I think he did pretty good for just learning it.  And no the splits at the end did not hurt!



He, also, competed in sparring.  He received participation medals in both.



All in a Day's Play.. No All in a Day's Work...No Both!

On May 4th as the kids were actively playing, an innocent enough looking frog soared through the air and made his way to our sliding glass door.

The culprit...




The consequences of the culprit's actions...


 Amazingly enough the "tint" on our window held the glass together.  It's still connected.


The end result...


Since our bedroom sliding glass door gets direct sun until about 11 am and the room gets rather toasty, we decided to do a swap.  We took the door out of our bedroom and put it in place of the one that broke.  Then we replaced our door with the new insulated, energy efficient, blinds in between the glass, new door.  Hopefully, this summer we will be able to see a major difference.

P.S. There's a little magnet inside the frog - aka - the real culprit. :)

Thursday, May 5, 2011

Ninja Blue Belt!

Sofia earned her Ninja Blue belt on Monday!  Just don't call her a Smurf-belt....she might use some of her ninja moves on you. :)

During her test still a Barney-belt Purple belt...


Showing us her front kicks....
(She had to learn her right side kick for this belt, but of course no photo of it.)


Miss Pozon awarding her her new belt!


Very happy...

Sunday, May 1, 2011

Sofia's Easter

Sofia had a horrible stomach flu Easter weekend.  By Saturday evening it seemed like she was doing better.  Even Sunday morning wasn't too bad, but then....  She didn't keep anything down all day Sunday - not even sips of water.  We debated whether we would have to take her in for dehydration.  I spent half the night in her bed periodically giving her sips of gatorade. (I'm sure that wasn't dentist approved.)  She kept it down and was much better the next day.  Still it took her a few days to bounce back - really tired.  She didn't even ask for her Easter candy until Thursday!  Anyway, yesterday Maxx did an egg hunt for her, and she wore her Easter dress to church today.




Saturday, April 30, 2011

Easter!

After the Easter Bunny left...



Checking out their baskets...




Maxx and Abby in their Easter clothes.  Sofia had the stomach flu all weekend.  She'll wear her dress this Sunday, and I'll post pics later.

Pinewood Derby 2011

Maxx raced in his 2nd Pinewood Derby on April 12th.

The car...


It's name was "Question Mark".

The driver....

His car was "Judges Favorite".  It tied for 5th place.


Some crazy scout we picked up off the street....


Maxx did an awesome job on his car this year!  We are very proud of him.

Black with Green!

Abby tested April 1st for her First Degree Black with Green belt.

They had to perform a traditional form and spar.





Eli's Back

After the zoo we went to the airport to see Eli come home from his mission.  I didn't take the best of pics, but you can see how happy Eli is to see everyone.  We were all very happy to see him as well.




Field Trip to the Zoo

Sofia's preschool class went on a Field Trip to the Phoenix Zoo.

Her class!


Sitting on a frog...


 Hangin' with Jack...


Rhinos!!


Fighting Gazelles, I think....


Not exactly sure what this is called...Anyone???


Zebras...


Miss Jessica (her teacher) had been talking for a good month about the different animals they would see.  It was so fun to hear Sofia talk about this animal or that animal and point them out at the zoo.  She would use their more detailed name and tell me something about them.  Maybe I should ask her what that long horned animal is....

Our Very Own Punky Brewster

The pics speak for themselves...







Lately, she's been really into tucking in her shirts....a bit Urkelish...she really does channel those old 80's sitcoms. :)

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

We Are Not Alone!

Ok, for those of you thinking this would be a spiritual post or one about life on other planets... sorry, not quite. :)

We have had a lovely, quite amazing looking spider among our midst.  If I really deep down wasn't terrified of them, I would say it was quite a remarkable lady.  Just wish she wasn't in my back yard, under my 4 yr. old's slide...she might have been welcomed.