Pass The Love Back and Support Youth Soccer

This post was sponsored by Mondelez International as part of an Influencer Activation for Influence Central. I received compensation as a thank you for my review.

We are a sports obsessed family. Adrian and Ivanna play various sports, including youth soccer, and hope to one day become professional athletes. Ivanna, especially, hopes to one day join the U.S. Women's National Soccer team. She loves soccer. I never see her happier than when she is on that soccer field competing. She even has tryouts coming up soon for an elite team here in Miami. We are training hard and I know she will be amazing. 

Why soccer? I believe youth soccer is great exercise, teaches kids teamwork and sportsmanship and it's fun.  Adrian and Ivanna both enjoy the competition and the love of the game! Youth soccer keeps them active and focused on a goal, all traits that will help them thrive in adulthood! Youth sports is also a way to create community and make friends. When you are on a team, you spend lots of time with your teammates and sometimes this can lead to lifelong friendships. I love being out on the field watching the kids give it their all and bond with other kids. 

PASS THE LOVE BACK CAMPAIGN

Adrian and Ivanna are extremely fortunate that they have all the equipment and training they need to be soccer stars. Not all children are so fortunate. The #PassTheLoveBack campaign helps bridge the divide and connect teams with enhancements. As the Official Snacks of U.S. Soccer and Major League Soccer, the maker of OREO cookies, RITZ BITS crackers and CHIPS AHOY! cookie multipacks, is back with the third year of the #PassTheLoveBack soccer program. Through May 31st, teams can visit the official site, www.passthelove.com, and sign up to earn up to $1,000 toward custom T-shirts and/or team donations. $1000 can make a huge difference for a team!

Do your children play youth soccer? What's your reasoning behind getting your child involved in youth soccer?

He Still Believes!

"Mommy, is Santa real?"

I have been dreading that question for years. Why? Because I do not want the magic to stop. I do not want his childhood innocence to fade. Not yet. I'm not ready.

My response: "What do you believe?"

Adrian: "I do believe in Santa but there are kids in my class who say he isn't real!"

Well then, I believe it was time for a life lesson. This was the perfect opportunity to teach him about beliefs. I started with reminding him that everyone has an opinion and just because you have an opinion and your classmate has another, it doesn't mean either of you are wrong. "A belief is like an opinion. Everyone believes in what they want and you accept it and move on." Those were my exact words to him. He just stared at me for a few seconds and then said, "OK."

That was it. He understood and he still believes. Adrian is now nine years old. I know that this might be the last year he believes in Santa and believe me, I will try for another, maybe 10 more. I am a HUGE believer in making childhood as magical as possible. He will never be nine years old again. I am soaking it in.

Oh and just in case you were wondering, he believes in the Elf too. He wakes up every morning excited to see what Buddy has done (Buddy is probably the world's most mischievous elf!) and never touches him, you know so he doesn't lose his magic!!

NINE

NINE. Today is Adrian's NINTH birthday. I still cannot believe it as I am typing this post. Nine years have passed in a blink of the eye. I always thought the saying "The days are long but the years are short" was kinda corny but today I understand it. I look at my boy and wonder where the past nine years have gone.

This year he asked for a laser tag party. Adrian gets what he wants on his birthday so on Sunday, we celebrated with a party at Laserland. He invited alot of his friends, his step-siblings his cousins. In total, he celebrated with 15 of his nearest and dearest!

I am kinda loving having parties at places like Laserland. They do everything. All you need to do is bring the cake and goody bags. They entertain the kids, feed them and clean up!

Family first and these people right here never miss a party! 

I was so relaxed. No need to stress when everything is being done for you!

Here are the kids getting ready for laser tag. They played 2 games. One just the kids and the other, adults versus kids. The adults came out of that room sweaty and defeated!

My friends and I even joined in the fun. In between the laser tag games, there is an arcade where the kids can play. We took advantage to play a game of air hockey while they were playing a laser tag game!

He only had one other request for his birthday: a camo cake. He didn't want a regular camo cake though, it had to be black and white camo. I ordered a regular cake from our local bakery and JC attached the camo-shapes at home with sugar sheets!

Adrian and my brother. These two argue as much as any two people can argue but I know there is lots of love there too!

His Tita. My mom and Adrian have an incredible bond!

With my sisters. These are his other two moms (that let him get away with whatever he wants!)

Today, he is celebrating his special day by going to a blogging event with me (oh the joys of being a blogger's kid) and then we will go to the toy store to use up some gift cards he received on Sunday. Oh and of course, there will be another cake. It's my strong belief that there must be a cake and singing on your actual birthday, no matter how else you may celebrate!!

Happy Birthday Adrian! I love you from the bottom of my heart and to the moon and back! 

Trendy & Affordable Fall Looks for Tweens

Disclosure: I am an Aeropostale V.I.P., and I was provided a gift card to purchase these items. All opinions are mine alone.

Fall is here which means it's time to update our wardrobes. Here in Florida, we can only do so much updating. The weather stays at about 85 degrees until Janaury but that doesn't stop us from rocking some fun fall looks. As you may know, I share my favorite looks from the Aeropostale kids line, P.S. Kids, 4 times a year and their fall line definitely doesn't disappoint. It's trendy, fun and most importantly, affordable!!

Adrian loves the P.S. from Aeropostale active wear lines. The easiest way for us to transition to fall is by adding a lightweight jacket like the colorblock one Adrian is wearing. It's perfect for cooler mornings. 

You guys know that Amberly loves a bohemian look. Once she saw this peasant dress, she was in heaven!

Peasant dresses must be worn with a cool faux pearl headband! It only completes the look!

There is nothing I love more than to see Adrian in a plaid button down and destroyed skinny jeans. This is his best look! A button down is perfect as a layering piece or dressed up with a nice pair of khakis!

These two love to shop and think they are now fashion bloggers!

One more look at this amazing peasant dress. I want one in my size!!

P.S. from Aeropostale never fails us when it comes to trendy clothes for our kids. With sizes ranging from 4-16, they have all your kids covered. Just in case you are wondering about sizes, my kids all wear an 8 (they are aged 9) in P.S.from Aeropostale clothing. 

Pumpkin Painting

On Sunday, Adrian, Ivanna and I hung out with friends. We went to a pumpkin patch and then to one of our friend's houses to paint our pumpkins. It was a wonderful way to spend a Sunday!!

Pumpkin patch fun!

Honestly, painting is one of the best activity you can do with kids. You never get too old to paint. I took a container full of paint, brushes, googly eyes, ribbon, washi tape and aprons. We set it all out on a table and they just painted and painted. 

I loved this. I loved the time away from electronics, talking with friends and just being creative!

After the kids were done, they jumped in the pool (this is Florida!) and then my friend Alina and I painted our pumpkins. These are all the finished pumpkins (kids and adults).

Check out my Jack!!

Alina painted a frosted doughnut with sprinkles. How cute is this pumpkin?

One of Alina's daughters is a super talented artist. Here's her take on Starry Night! I could never make something this amazing!!

Pumpkin painting is fun for all and so much easier than carving. Besides, if we would have carved these pumpkins, they would be gross already. Humidity and heat are not a pumpkin's friend!!

Life Lately: All About Adrian

WOW! Anyone out there still reading this blog? I feel like I haven't really sat down to write about personal stuff in a long time. Today, I decided to update you on my life lately with Adrian. I never knew one child could be so much work.  I have no idea how parents with multiple kids do it.

Back to Adrian. So last week, I checked his school app to review his grades and noticed that he had gotten F's on his math and science test. Tests I didn't even know he had. I quickly contacted his teacher and we had a parent-teacher conference on Wednesday. During this conference, I learned that Adrian leaves all his paperwork in class, including the class newsletter that has test dates on it. I assured the teacher that he will begin being more responsible and he now brings a backpack full of papers home every night. We also spent all weekend studying for three tests he has this week!

Last week, he also started complaining about headaches so I called his pediatrician and they told me to get his eyes checked. I called a pediatric optometrist, made an appointment for Tuesday afternoon where I was told he could barely see out of his left eye. INSERT SUPER WORRIED MOM HERE! The doctor prescribed glasses and we started the journey into vision repair and glasses.

Thankfully, by Thursday afternoon, his glasses were ready. I picked them up and he began wearing them but was a little unsure about going to school on Friday wearing glasses.

Sure enough, he had a bad day on Friday. He said kids made fun of him for wearing glasses. Thankfully, his friends were very supportive. When I picked him up from after care, he told me that while he was playing football with his friends, the ball hit his pinky and it was jammed. I put some ice and we went home. When we woke up on Saturday, his finger was purple and I knew something else was wrong. Straight to the ER where we found out that he broke his finger.

To add on to all this crazy, he began tutoring on Saturday for reading comprehension issues and I have spent the week trying to figure out insurance procedures for scheduling an appointment with a pediatric orthopedist to see if he will need a cast for his finger.

It's been a LOOOOOOOONG 2 weeks and I really am spent!

Back to School 2015-2016

It's that time again, time to send the kids back to school! This morning was insane and I can't believe I am actually posting this today and not ten weeks later (as I have been known to do!) This morning, JC and I split up handle the first day madness. He took Amberly and Gian to their new school and I took Adrian back to his. There is no way we can make all three kids on the same day. It's hard to miss being a part of these days for everyone, but thankfully we take lots of pictures!!

Adrian was not happy to start third grade....

Amberly was really nervous over the weekend but thankfully, she was in a great mood this morning...

Gian was the most excited to go back but this morning, he wasn't too sure to start second grade!

School security is at an all-time high in our schools and this was the only day we could walk the kids to their classrooms. I love to walk into their classrooms and see where they will spend their day. Amberly and Gian will be in those classrooms all day. Adrian's school has new scheduling where he will be with four different teachers so he will be moving around a lot. He is not happy about this and even though I tried my best efforts to get him to smile, this was how I left him:

I have a feeling the really big first day smiles are history for him, maybe I will get another one from him his senior year of high school! 

I really hope they each have an amazing first day! I can't wait to talk to them all after school, especially Ivanna who started middle school today and forgot to send me a pic!

Get To Know Us In 7 Pictures

I've given myself a little challenge. I've noticed some new readers lately (thank you so much!) and realized that I needed a re-introduction post. I wanted something different than just talking about myself (you can read that in The Girl page) so I decided to make it a little more fun. Now, in this post, you can get to know us, all of us, through pictures, seven to be exact. Why seven? I have no idea! It was the first number to pop into my head!!

Here we go!

{ONE}

Not your traditional storybook family here, we are a proud blended family! Pictured above, from left to right, there's me, Amberly, Gian, JC, Adrian and Ivanna. JC and I met in 2011 at work! When we met, I was already a mom to Adrian and he was a dad to Amberly and Gian. Ivanna is Adrian's cousin from his dad's side who I met when she was 2. She is being raised by her and Adrian's grandparents and I have pretty much taken her in as my own! 

{TWO}

We live in Miami, Florida. I was born and raised in Miami. All the kids were born here too. JC emigrated here from Cuba when he was eight and has been here ever since. We love living in Miami and honestly, cannot picture raising our family anywhere else!

{THREE}

These three are 9, 8 and 7 years old. Their birthdays are all at the end of the year (November 10, November 11 and December 27 to be exact. They get along 25% of the time and argue the other 75%, sounds like regular siblings to me!

{FOUR}

We are water junkies. Whether it be the pool, beach or a lake, we love hanging out by the water!

{FIVE}

We are BIG hometown team fans. We cheer for the Miami Heat, Miami Hurricanes, Miami Marlins and the Miami Dolphins. We are real fans too, no matter how many losing seasons our teams give us, we cheer for them!! 

{SIX}

We love Disney! We went on our first Disney cruise this year and then up to Magic kingdom in July. Disney World is always the best vacation spot for us!

{SEVEN}

Fourth of July is our family holiday. We have been together every Fourth of July since we became a family. We love all holidays but this one is it for me. I love our traditions of spending the day at the beach and then watching the most amazing fireworks at the Biltmore! I plan on continuing this tradition as long as possible!! Family Rule: The kids know that no matter where they are in the world, we are together on the 4th!!

This was quite the challenge because our family is so much more than these seven pictures but here you get a good idea of who our family is! Anything else you'd like to know, please feel free to comment below or email me!

Indoor Fun With Disney Pixar Cars and the Cars Daredevil App

Disclosure: This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc., and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #DisneyPixarCarsToGo #CollectiveBias

The rainy season has hit South Florida and I like to be prepared. The last thing I need is to be cooped up in the house with three bored kids. My trick for saving my sanity is that I keep a box of toys in my closet with toys that I buy when I am at the store alone. I only bring these toys out when the kids are super bored and are tired of playing with all the toys that are already laying around the house. This past weekend came with lots of rain so we spent lots of time indoors. Being indoors with two boys, ages 7 and 8, is not for the faint of heart. I asked them to watch a movie while I did some cleaning. To nobody's surprise, they watched Disney Pixar Cars. They know this movie by heart. It is definitely one of their favorites!

See them watching the movie reminded me that I had recently gone to Toys "R" Us and bought some new Cars toys for them. I quickly went into my  magic box in  my closet and pulled out two Die Cast cars (exclusive Green Ramone and Hudson Hornet) and a Radiator Springs Story set for them to play with!

As I started building Luigi's Loop for them to play with, JC grabbed a foam board and drew a track for the new cars!

As the boys finished watching the movie, I was looking through the App Store on my phone and saw that there was a Cars app: Disney Pixar Cars Daredevil Garage!

Downloading the Daredevil app is super easy. Go to the App store on your phone. The Daredevil App is currently compatible with iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch.  This app is optimized for iPhone 5, iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus.

In the search box, type in Cars Daredevil Garage and press the Get button.

Allow the app to download. 

As soon as the movie was over, I handed the boys my phone and they started playing immediately. 

I let them play on the app for a while until Adrian drifted toward his new toy setup!

Adrian loves cars and race tracks. He has loved them since he was a toddler. He spent hours playing with his new toys and I had a couple hours of peace!!

The exclusive die-cast vehicles and Story sets are available at Toys "R" Us. 

Do your kids love the Disney Pixar Cars movies? Do they collect the die-cast vehicles? What is your special trick for keeping kids entertained while playing indoors?