The Ramos Family

On Saturday, August 16th we helped Zach celebrate his first birthday! It was an absolutely beautiful day so we hung outside for awhile. Maria discovered a HUGE beehive in a tree not far from where everyone was sitting - Al hadn't even noticed it before then! We all moved a safer distance from the hive and enjoyed the afternoon until it was time to eat and open gifts inside. We were one of the last guests to leave because Lorenzo slept for almost three hours on their bed! Maria & Bella hung out downstairs with a hungover Uncle Al - despite his efforts to get rid of them so he could nap. At one point when he was laying on the couch with his eyes closed he said, "girls go upstairs". To which Maria responded, "Bella, Uncle Al is dreaming!" They continued to hang out with him & his friend Joe until it was time to leave and go visit Auntie Kimmy. Thanks Zach for inviting us to your birthday party...... oh, that's right, we invited ourselves ;)

Maria & Bella had their first sleepover at a non-family member's house on Saturday night. Maria's classmate, Anna, wanted to have them over for a girls night. She has a younger sister, named Abby, that is 3 years old and she & Bella always have fun playing together. Maria's classmate, Jada, was also there but wasn't spending the night. The minute we walked in the door it was ALL GIRL! They were already putting on play makeup and fingernail polish. I helped Bella with her nailpolish and while I was doing that, Maria asked "when are you leaving mom?" Geez, she's only six years old and she already wants to get rid of me!! Hehehe.




Jada applying lipgloss................. Little sister Abby



Nicole (mom) putting nail polish on Anna




Maria and Bella getting beautified





The three first graders (can you believe it?)!


Paul picked the girls up on Sunday morning and Anna's mom, Nicole, said they had gone to bed around 9:45pm but didn't fall asleep until 11pm. That would have been all good if Maria hadn't woken up at 6am and decided to wake up Bella too! Needless to say, no one got much sleep that night and we had a couple of tired girls that couldn't tolerate much that day! Thank goodness we had Marisa's baptism so they got to spend most of the afternoon playing with their cousins. They were in bed by 7pm that night!

One of Lorenzo's favorite things to do is to lay on his butterfly and look at the toys above. A few weeks ago he started reaching for them, grabbing and batting them around - it's kind of funny and cute to watch. We noticed that he always reaches up with his left hand and of course, Paul's first reaction was "you won't be able to follow daddy's legacy as a catcher if you're a lefty, you'll have to be a pitcher"! I surely hope that baseball is a passion for Lorenzo like it is/was for Paul!

He's even wearing his Twins outfit from The Nepstad's - definitely a future baseball star ;)

Silly picture of the kids!

Birthday wishes from the Ramos girls!

On Tuesday night, the YMCA in Eagan had their annual carnival. Paul had to work in Maple Grove that day so he drove straight from work to the Y. The first thing the girls did was ride ponies! We were lucky to get there right when they were getting set up and were the second ones in line. Last year, the line was so long that they weren't able to make the cutoff to ride them.

The pony that Maria rode was named Bubbles, Bella rode a pony named Fredo (as in Alfredo sauce). They both loved riding them!

They also had horses there from the police force. Maria was brave enough to pet them but Bella was too scared.

They also went for a train ride, of course they didn't want to ride together!

They had two or three different jumpers for the kids to go in and that's what the girls did for the most part. Bella played a game where you toss rolls of toilet paper into a toilet - she made all three shots! She might be our future ball player :)