My 2012 Journey

So I was sitting here thinking how A new year is about to begin and how to me its a clean slate. I get to start all over again and make the new year the best year possible. But before the New Year starts I was reflecting on my 2012. What happened, what I did, how its gone for me. So here is My 2012:

January: Start of 2012, My sisters 21st birthday (new Years baby), 2 special little girls birthday, my first hair cut in over 3 years! Yep! Wow! But I really felt like I had no time for it

February: Tax season craze! The people in costumes were always stalking us on the bus. We went to Seaworld opening day. We fed the dolphins! We turned all our family members into Bacon. Leap year (always great to get an extra day) and celebrated Valentines day!

March: Spring Break! See munchkin leaping off the floor playing with water, St.Patricks Day! (lots of green)

April: We had a great Easter! Check out my Easter basket cupcakes I made. I also made my own cascarones and rice krispies eggs! Sadly most of the month I had a horrible Bad ear ache that closed my ear and made it sound like a muffled hum mixed with ringing and pain and endless Dr appts! I spent so much time with my ear against a pillow.

May: Aquatica at Seaworld had its grand opening and of course we had to be there to check it out! Mothers day,  SOL (Seeds Of Learning) classes ended and we had a party at the San Antonio Childrens Museum to celebrate a good year (Thankyou to the museum for this amazing free kids program)

June: First official day of summer (Although in Texas it feels like Summer most of the time) so we had a lot of fun in the Sun!

July: We saw the fireworks at Seaworld 4th of July. Sadly I stepped on a nail when I was walking outside in my neighborhood and had to get a shot and antibiotics. It made me stay in alot the rest of the month so I could heal.  

August: Went to The San Antonio children's museum Free day with Sid the science kid (KLRN kids sponsor), My dads bday, We went to the Witte Museum to see the Darwin Exhibit which was amazing! (Thankyou Maker Mama for the Giveaway) and I officially started blogging (whoo-hoo)!

September: We started going to Play and Learn this fall, We went to the Witte again! We celebrated Grandparents day, started our alphabet journey. We went to Seaworlds Howl-0-Scream

October: We went to National Night out and Munchkin even got to take a picture with Mayor Castro! We went to Howl-O-Scream again, We went to Chalk it up for the first time and loved it. We got lucky to go free to the Botanical gardens and we saw the dinosaurs! We had fun at Treat street and Coffins on parade on the Riverwalk. Had a spooky Halloween! Most important of all we celebrated my munchkins 4th bday!

November: We went to Dia de los Muertos events and the Diwali festival of Lights. We went to Seaworlds Christmas Celebration, celebrated my birthday and my brothers. Had fun at The San Antonio Childrens museum. Got in the holiday spirit when we went to see Santa on the Riverwalk.

December: We went to the Zoo to see Santa deliver presents to the animals, We went to the San Antonio Museum of Art for a special book launch, Survived the end of the world again, and had a Beautiful Christmas! Now getting ready for a New Year!

I want to say Thankyou to my family for always being there for me. Thankyou to Colleen Pence for your kindness and for introducing me to such a beautiful group of Bloggers that have only made me grow. Thankyou to the readers who visit the blog. Thankyou To Play and Learn for all the fun and learning.Thankyou Seaworld for the amazing year with the Fun cards I won during the Flat Jack contest. They let us go to Seaworld all this year and it was awesome!

How was your year? Think back on this year and all the Happiness and tears you shared with loved ones and How this 2013 is sure to be an amazing new adventure too! Thank you 2012 for all the memories but I cant wait to make my mark in 2013! Hope you are all here to follow along in our journey and share it with us. Happy New Year guys!

Love Always

-Alvina

Our Week with the Letter G

This week we worked on the letter G. If your wondering where I have been on my letter journey well we took a week off after munchkins birthday. We had alot to do and we needed a breather so I used it as a review week were we played with alphabet puzzles and highlighter letters and we reviewed the letters A-F. I wasn't going to stop so dont worry we are back at learning! This is what we did this week with the Letter G:

Monday: On Monday we worked on letter recognition

Tuesday: We worked on letter writing and made a letter G craft out of handprints which by using white paint we made into spooky Ghosts.

Wednesday: We went to Central Library Play and Learn which was Halloween themed then we gave out candy at home for our Halloween celebration.

Thursday: We cleaned up our yard after Halloween, packed everything away and ate too much candy.

Friday: We worked on letter recognition through matching and worked online on our alphabet.

Saturday: We went to Main Plaza to see the Dia de los Muertos altar, then to La Villita for the Dia de Los Muertos Celebration and ended the day at Hemisfair Park for the Diwali Festival of Lights.

Sunday: We reviewed our letters and colored pictures of animals that started with the letter G.

Overall with everything we did this week I think we got plenty of learning in too. I'm so proud of my munchkin for all his hard work. He is really letting it all sink it.

How is your alphabet journey going? Any tips or advice to help us along our way?

Diwali Festival of Lights at Hemisfair Park

Saturday was such a busy day! We went to Main plaza to see the Dia de los Muertos altar (bonus Blue moon art) and then we went to la Villita for the Dia de los Muertos Celebration and to end the day we crossed the street over to Hemisfair park for The Diwali Festival of Lights. Yes our feet already hurt but we wanted to check it out so it was worth it.

This was our first time at the festival of lights and it was quite the new Experience. Let me tell you a little bit about it:

• Diwali is an Indian festival known as the Festival of Lights.
• This is a free event
• There are performances and Indian food and vendors of all sorts
• And Fireworks! (burst to drive away evil spirits)
• Illuminating the diya was in celebration

In between the festival area the Instituto cultural de Mexico was there and open to the public for free to view Dia de los Muertos altars. We went in to check it out. The space was quite amazing.

We then headed to the main stage at the festival. It was amazing to see the beautiful clothes. I felt like I was at a fashion show because of all the beautiful dresses. They even had shoes, jewelry and even henna tattoos for sale to finish the look. And don't get me started on the music. I have a weak spot for a certain song they played clips of which is "Jai ho" from Slumdog Millionaire (one of my favorite movies). Its lots of fun.
Here's some of what we saw:

Parade Of States

Bollywood Zumba

Fashion and accessories

I'm sad that we couldn't stay longer to be able to see the lighting of the diya's (candle) and set one out into the water but my munchkin was already so tired and had started wanted to lay on the floor so we had to call it a night. I bet it must have looked beautiful as it got darker.

Have any of you ever been to the Festival of Lights?

Main Plaza Blue Moon Art Project and San Fernando Cathedral

Remember how I said I had made a list of things to do this weekend? Well on our way to La Villita for the Dia de Los Muertos Celebration we stopped by the San Fernando Cathedral because I had heard there was an altar there for Dia de Los Muertos and wanted to check it out since it was so close. We walked over there and saw a bunch of artists with paintings, live music and other booths. It turns out that the Blue Moon art project was having its finale that day. I had never heard of the Blue Moon Art project so I was very curious about it. I asked about the contest and was told that artists had to create a work of art that incorporated a blue moon. We only caught a glimpse of the event but liked what I saw.

And of course  we saw the altar which was Beautiful and original. It gave you this warm feeling that just drew you in. I loved it!

Have any of you ever heard of the Blue Moon Art project or participated? Did you get a chance to check out the altar in front of the cathedral?

Dia De Los Muertos at La Villita

I love making weekend plans and for this weekend I knew I wanted to do something related with Dia de los Muertos. We have never really celebrated it or gone to an activity involved with it but I wanted to check it out and learn more. Its always good to try something new.  

So I had looked for events and made a plan and of course plans don't always go the way you want them to because I wanted to go see Say Si "Muertitos Fest" and we ended up getting lost!  I had other things on my list for the day so we moved on to the next event which was at La Villita "Dia De Los Muertos Celebration" and we ended up having so much fun!

If your wondering what Dia de Los Muertos is let me give you some info:

• Dia de los Muertos is all about family and loved ones.
• You take this time to honor and remember those who have passed in special ways like with creating altars, sugar skulls, food and gifts.
• Its not a scary holiday or to be mistaken with Halloween. This is all about love.

We got to La Villita and checked out the awesome folklorico dancing. We looked at all the art which was beautiful. Then the living altar which was amazing to look at. We made a mask and then watched the dance, drum and puppet procession (my favorite part).

Didn't that look like fun? I really enjoyed the event and was so glad to try it out because I learned about something new and gave my son a good cultural experience. I will definitely be celebrating Dia de los Muertos next year with much more thought now that I had this experience.

Did you celebrate Dia de Los Muertos this year? How did you celebrate or what event did you attend? And please if you went to Say Si "Muertitos Fest" let me know how it was (Thanks in advance).