A Friendly Ghost!

Natalie and I are having some real fun creating old-looking ghosty pictures! With the iPad :)

 

Happy Halloween!

From left to right: Bill's, mine, Natalie's and Diego's. As you can see the kids' were a lot better than Bill's and mine :o

Great Christo-style sculpture that we saw in our walk.

I hope that you had a Happy Halloween! We went trick or treating with the kids and it was lots of fun. Diego had been anticipating this day for months. But of course he was very picky when it came to candies, he refused many of them. Diego only accepted the ones that were part of his mental list. Natalie on the other side took everything she could. Her favorite thing is sorting them out. The best part of the walk was an "enchanted" house where they had the most beautiful live music. We love Halloween!

Natalie's style.

Here's a picture of Natalie taken with Bill's iPhone. Natalie already has her own sense of style. She knows what she wants to wear and how she wants to cut her hair. That's something that I enjoy.

It's nice when kids have the freedom to be who they are without critisism. I remember a time when we took the kids to the flea market. Natalie was wearing as many things as she could manage to wear: 2 scarfs, a hat, leggings, a t-shirt, a vest, a jacket... An older lady stopped us to thank Bill and I. She said: THANK YOU for letting this little girl dress up like that! I used to be like her when I was little but my Mom wouldn't let me go out unless I was dressed "properly". She went on and on about how children should be free to be themselves. I couldn't agree more :)

A Wolf?

Natalie and Diego are attending Art Camp this Summer. What a great experience! They're both loving it. Here is an animal that Natalie drew the other day. She says that it could be a fox, a dog or a wolf. I love her colored pencil creations. 

Wishing you a fun Summer!

Elsita :)

 

Hello Louise!

Just sharing this cute character created by Natalie. Diego wanted to know why Louise had 3 eyes. He saw the nose as a 3rd eye. Try to see the nose as one of three eyes and you will get to experience how Diego sees the world. I did it and it's pretty interesting. Suddenly you feel like there are 3 eyes in there indeed.

I hope that you're having a nice week so far!

Elsita

Natalie and I playing with Photoshop.

 

Natalie felt inspired to dress up a little bit just for fun. I took this picture of her with my new iPad and then we inserted a layer image with flowers . She's wearing one of my dresses, plus some of my necklaces and hair accessories. She's a mini me! 

We did this after Art camp today. Diego and Natalie are attending some great Art camp program close to our house. They're having a blast. The teacher knows that Diego is Autistic so she's prepared for his jokes and unexpected ideas. He's doing great so far. The other kids have been nice to him and Natalie. That makes me happy.

I hope that you're having a nice summer.

See you soon!

Elsita :)

 

Natalie makes $ for buying a book.

Natalie wanted some book from the LACMA museum but we decided not to buy it because we have gotten too many books for her in a short period of time. Natalie's love for books has turned into a serious passion (almost an obsession).
But Natalie doesn't take no as an answer so she came up with an idea: I will make cookies and some cool cards and I will sell them so I can buy the book with that money. We said OK.
With Bill's help she made a big bunch of cookies. Then with Diego's assistance she tried to sell them in front of our house. This was her pitch: Delicious cookies for 1 dollar and summer cards for 50 cents !! And this was Diego's pitch: YES! buy these delicious cookies! Absolutely for free! Every time he said that Natalie had to correct him.
There wasn't a single soul on the street but a neighbor came and bought one cookie and one card. So at the right time Bill came to the house to pick up something. Seeing the situation in the kid's sales department he thought that Natalie should bring the cookies and cards to his office where there were some potential customers. She did it and guess what? Sold out! All the merchandise was gone in a couple of minutes.
Today I took the kids to the museum so Natalie could get her book and a gift for Diego. I felt very proud of Natalie. I see a good business woman in the future and someone who will get things done no matter what. She inspires me everyday :)

Car Accident.

Road report!

Right today, on Diego's 7th birthday, we had a car accident. I was driving the kids back home from their swim lesson when a (very young) driver who was parked on the right side of the street opened his car door suddenly, without looking in the mirror and them BOOM! His door attaked my car! Everything happened so fast. The young man was extremely sorry so was his Mom. I was very sorry about how sorry they were :) We didn't get hurt at all. A great part of the day was spent taking care of towing my car, renting a new vehicle etc. But in the end everything was OK. We had a nice family dinner, sang Happy Birthday to my prince and came back home tired but happy. Diego said that he was never going to forget this day. We asked: Why? And he said: Because I love our new (rented) car! 

Events like this one make me think about how precious life is. I love life and I'm so happy to be alive! Thank God that we're all safe! 

Last Day of School.

Here is a tiny story that Natalie wrote for her teacher to make her smile.

 

Today is the last day of school for Natalie and Diego. They should be jumping with joy since the summer vacation is right there, but instead they feel a little sad because they're going to miss their teachers and friends. Natalie and Diego LOVE school. Soon we're going to be driving up to the mountains. I hope that the kids feel happy when we're there. They love nature, I'm sure that as soon as we get there their little faces are going to start smiling again :)

I hope that you have a great day!

Elsita :)

The kids :)

 

Nothing makes me happier that seeing these three people together and happy. They are the meaning of life to me :) I love you guys so much!