Glorious Weekend!

What a beautiful weekend it was here in SA, TX! It started on Friday with another trip to the zoo with Francisco and Rocio. The kids had a blast playing at the river bank. Cade enjoyed the water very much, but not nearly as much as he enjoyed eating the sand...mmmm!

On Saturday we were joined by Aunt Judy and Uncle MC who came down for a visit from Dallas. The weather couldn't have been more enjoyable! After cocktails on our new patio, we set off to grab dinner at one of our local restaurants before heading off to check out Luminaria. This was the third year for this huge local arts event. It takes place right downtown and is within walking distance of our home. It was pretty exciting! Lots of light shows, many stages with different dance and musical performances, and art exhibits featuring local artists. Lots and LOTS of people showed up as it was a free event. (The reports say that last year 130,000 people attended.)

The kids really enjoyed themselves. Eliana loved watching the Ballet Folklorico and clapping along to the different musical artists. Both the kids were fascinated by the light shows! They stayed up quite late that night, causing Cade to fall into a deep slumber on Uncle MC's arm in, what we like to call, "stinkbug" position! Very cute!

All in all the weather worked in our favor, providing us with plenty of sunshine minus the heat of summer so that we could enjoy lots of outdoor time! We're looking forward to more perfect weather (we'll take it while we can) and the line up of events that this city has to offer.

Eliana's First Kiss

Last week we went to the zoo with Eliana's friend Francisco and his mom Rocio. Francisco is one of our friends who we met at the library when we first moved here in '08. This last Wednesday, Francisco started making the moves on Eliana soon after we met at the zoo entrance. He would approach her with lips puckered and neck craning towards her face while Eliana would fend him off by turning her head and showing him "the hand". He was insistent on kissing her and no one else; refusing my offer to kiss him instead. After a couple of hours of looking at the animals and sharing snacks it was finally time to go. We let the kids sit on the lion statues right by the entrance and then announced that it was time to say goodbye. Eliana, sitting in her stroller, reached out her arms to give Francisco a squeeze and he gladly returned the embraced. The two moms let out a loud "Awwww!" the pitch of which quickly raised several octaves as an innocent hug turned into a great BIG KISS!!! (I swear it was several seconds too long.) Immediately after breaking the lip-lock Francisco backs away with arms raised in the air as though he were Beckham and had just scored the winning goal.

And they're ONLY THREE!!! (...what's a mom to do??)

Might as well give blogging a try...

Welcome to the Shelhamer Family blog! I figured I'd get in on the action since it seems to be the way to go these days. I also logged on to see a friend's blog and was reminded that I had started this quite a while ago. In this entry I will try to get you caught up on our lives thus far without overwhelming you with ALL the gory details! And then we'll just have to see how the rest goes...

We are still in San Antonio (year and a half now...phew!) and really getting settled in. Our house is becoming more and more ours and we are really enjoying the neighborhood and its downtown locale. We have recently had some "yard work" completed. We now have grass in place of the weeds out front and grass has replaced mulched beds out back in the hopes that the kids will have more area for play. We also had a new patio put in. This new addition has really made outdoor dining such a pleasure and we're looking forward to having some outdoor gatherings!

We have really enjoyed getting to know our neighborhood on foot. Last Sunday's walk took us to the the center of downtown via the world renown Riverwalk which we can hop on via a footbridge that's just a couple blocks away. It's quite a beautiful stroll along the river, with pathways smooth enough to allow a three year old to run to her heart's content with only her own two feet to trip her up (quite an important detail since the sidewalks near home are very precarious), Cade enjoys the view from his daddy's back and is happy to be carried along for hours, and mommy and daddy love how happy the kids are!

Speaking of the little tyrants... Eliana is a beautiful three year old quickly going on 16. *groan* She continues to go to daycare five days a week and has been astounding us with her rapid acquisition of both the English and Spanish languages. She actually is also learning bits and pieces of my mom's language, Ede, and speaks a fourth... unfortunately she's the only one who speaks this fourth language, so don't ask me what she's saying. She is very fluent in it though! She loves doing lots and LOTS of art, playing with her baby dolls, and taking care of her baby brother who she calls "Guapo". She's high energy, high maintenance, and highly likely to turn my head completely gray before I get to 35.

Cade is a very determined eight months old. He started sprouting teeth during the holidays and hasn't quit yet. Teeth nine and ten are popping up soon to be followed, I'm sure, by 11 and 12. He's crawling all over the place and is sure trying his hardest to figure out the whole walking thing. He can NOT wait to catch up to his big sissy! Just the sight of her sends him into a fit of giggles and muscle spasms that threaten to throw him out of the arms of anyone holding him! Very cute! He's definitely a golden boy... all smiles, very happy, very social! Let's hope he stays that way. I personally think he deserves the nickname Eliana has given him, just look at that face! Cade's latest accomplishment is clapping. He now claps when ever he sees his sister, his daddy or the dog. Mommy has to ask him to clap for her...

Well, I could go on... but I'm sure we'll all be happiest if I just quit while ahead! I hope this blog (how weird to write that) finds you well and maybe plants the bug to come and visit the Shelhamers! I will post more pics of our lovely town soon!