The Denja Family: January 2011

Saturday, January 29, 2011

mom in training

The total package; Babysitter, housekeeper, honor roll student, friend, beautiful, cook and daughter of the King.

Mmmmmmm.... Calamari

They're here!

Carmen's birthday present from Grandma & Grandpa. An 18 speed mountain bike!!

Friday, January 21, 2011

Monday, January 17, 2011

Wow! Mateo loves this hanging seat and so do Mikey and Petey! Now Mateo can feel like one of the guys and get some exercise. The boys are still right up in his face but at least they are not laying on top of him!

Saturday, January 15, 2011

The Suite Life on Saturday

Mommy took everyone to an EMU basketball game today where they had Suite H almost all to themselves and even got a visit from Swoop and won a t-shirt thrown all the way up to the second level section by a male cheerleader just for them! Maria's friend, Lauren, and Carmen's friend, Sarah, were also able to join us! Everyone (except Peter of course!) was so well behaved it hardly felt like mom had 8 kids under her care for a couple hours.

Daddy picked up not just one, but four little boys from preschool on Thursday. Mikey and his friends; Nicholas (in the background playing wii), Tomas and Luke (playing geotrax in the foreground)

The kids got $100 in a Toysrus gift card from Aunt Maeve and Uncle Aaron for Christmas. Mommy promised if they were good at the game that she would take them to see what they had. Since the girls got to play the grown-up envelope exchange game this year, they agreed that the boys could have $70 of the gift card and they'd take the rest at $10 each. Mikey plays Geotrax online from time to time and had seen this advertisement for the "Christmas in Toy Town" train set. He eagerly showed mommy on the fisherprice.com website how this wonderful toy could be purchased from ToysRUs (pointing to the logo in the corner...Mommy didn't know whether to be proud or horrified of her 4yo's computer savvy and logo recognition given he can't quite read yet!) Alas, it was $130, mommy said "too much!" But wouldn't you know it, we got to Toysrus and the set was on Christmas clearance for $77. Being the generous big sister she is, Maria offered up her $10 and the boys got the set. Maria then spent an hour getting the trains out of the box and setting up the tracks for Mikey and Peter. It really is pretty cool, with lots of triggers in the track that set off lights and Christmas songs.

So a big thank you to Aunt Maeve and Uncle Aaron!

We topped the day all off with Pizza Hut courtesy of gift cards from friends from school!

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

grand prize

Isabel won the drama club raffle at school on Monday!

Sunday, January 09, 2011

memories that last a lifetime

Turn out the lights, the party's over

Mateo and Kevin wiped out too

Going through some of Grandma Paula's mementos from Spain

Carmen wearing the same crown and sash that Grandma Paula is wearing in the photo with her three sisters and brother.

Saturday, January 08, 2011

Celebrate Good Times

We had a surprise birthday party for my dad's 80th birthday today at Sangria in Royal Oak. This photo was actually the cover of the invitation. Over 20 of his closest friends and family came including Kevin and Tina, who planned it all down to the tapas, paella and a flamenco dancer. It was absolutely wonderful! He was so happy and very surprised!