Museo de antropología

Two Saturday’s ago, we decided to take L,O &P to the anthropology museum. The museum opened in 1964 and opened its’ doors to over 2 million visitors per year, according to Wikipedia. The museum covers almost 20 acres of land which is an incredible amount of space in the most populated city in North America.  

Sadly, the central courtyard umbrella, a well known photographed water spectacular was being maintained, so it’s photograph is not as iconic as you can find if you google it😉 

   
 
Normally water falls from the ceiling creating a fantastic fountain. We will definitely return as we only covered 4 out of 23 rooms. 

  The entrance to the museum displayed in Mexican flag as the Independence Day of Mexico was on Sept 16th.
 The ticket line. 64 MX pesos per adult, children 13 and under are free. So in dollars admittance is a mere $3.76 per adult! 

I brought along our old iPhones 📱 for the boys to take photos with. Let me say, Luca inherited the Newton Photography gene📷! 

  
  

  Luca taking a photo of an Aztec carving.

  Oliver taking a photo of a frog ‘rana’ carved out of stone.

We have been reading Susan Wise Bauer’s history series: “The Story of the World”after a fellow homeschool mother and friend,Lisa, recommended it. The boys beg me to read Book 1, covering Ancient Times at lunch and dinner each day. I greatly suggest this book for normal read aloud time for the younger children and a reading series for children who can handle it on their own, homeschool or not. It is a great source of  classical history that children are no longer taught. 

So back to the anthropology museum, the boys loved finding artifacts that we have learned about reading of the ancient times.  They were able to see tools and skulls from Neanderthal times. 

   
  A Neanderthal boy skull. 

  Skeletons of The differences in Homo Sapiens Neanderthal and Homo Sapiens Sapiens. 
 Tools   
 Cooking tools

  
The museum also had a remake of the pelota court used in Aztec times. M & I got to see one in person during our honeymoon at Chichinetza. 

   The “hoop” for the ball to go through. 
   
Here is an original throwbacks of M outside the court of Chichinetza and a shot of the two of us in front of Chichinetza pyramid: 

   
 My how young and innocent we looked! Lol

The last thing we stopped by to see at the museum was the original Mayan calendar: 

  
I hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend! I am resting up after a trip to the ER on Friday. No worries-  All is well now and I am thankfully on the mend. 

I hope to begin writing more frequently so please stay tuned! 

L

Homemade window and glass cleaner

Three days a week, we have a maid in our home from 8am-4pm. She cleans all day only stopping to eat lunch for 30 minutes and an occasional glass of water. Our maid, Gudelia, is a Godsend! She leaves our home looking like a model home and she does it with love! 

The children’s beds are made with care: their hand crocheted blankets and stuffed animals placed adorably on their pillows.

   
   Even our bed screams “Don’t touch me- I’m too pretty to be slept in! ”
So Gudelia has been with us for two full weeks and after cleaning the house she has managed to find time to iron M’s work shirts (7 shirts in a half hour!) and clean out all the cupboards and pantry and organize better than I could have dreamed! 

So this weekend, I decided I could have her wash the water spots off the windows this week when she has some spare time. 

Once again I wanted a homemade glass and window cleaning recipe, so I grabbed a empty spray at Superama, our local grocery store. When I got home I logged into Pinterest and found a very simple recipe and it works amazingly with no streaks left behind. I hope once you try this you will never buy the toxic stuff at the grocery store. 

So here are my ingredients:

Alcohol

Vinegar

Water

  
And…. Citrus fresh essential oil because who loves the smell of vinegar?!?! Not me! By the way, you can use any essential oil to mask the vinegar smell, I chose citrus fresh because I had a full bottle and figure the orange, tangerine, grapefruit, lemony scent was perfect for window spray 😉

In a spare spray bottle, add 1 cup of water, 1/2 cup of vinegar, 1/2cup alcohol and 15 drops of citrus fresh essential oil. Shake and your ready to clean! 

Let me know if you decide to try this and how you like it! It’s really too simple not to try…

I hope you are enjoying a wonderful weekend! 

L

Califlower inspired by Helen Cavallo on Disney Jr!

As I mentioned the word ‘Cauliflower’, O shouted out “Helen Cavallo made Califlower Au’ Gratin”. Now, keep in mind that we have not had the Disney Jr Channel since May, proving O has the best ears and memory of our three little ones. 😉

A quick YouTube search and there was Helen Cavallo playing in my kitchen on my iPad, all 6 eyes of the children fixed in the screen. After a few times playing it, I was able to figure out how she roughly made it. 

Boil Cauliflower, with some reserved for the topping. While boiling in a food processor, I put two large florets and pulsed until chopped finely. I added Parmesan cheese, a little butter (always make cauliflower taste its’ best and some ground golden flaxseed(instead of breadcrumbs). I pulsed this mixture together and put it in to a bowl to save for topping. 

After the cauliflower in the boiling water was tender, I strained it and put it into the food processor with some milk(I used Bove organic whole milk but any substitute should work) for creaminess, and two spoonfuls of the topping and blended until smooth. 

I greased an 8′ glass dish with coconut oil and poured the cauliflower purée in and then sprinkled the topping. I cooked it at 210°C for 30 minutes. 

It was so beyond yummy that it was my dinner with nothing more! 

My husband liked it but requested a little more salt next time around! 
Here are some pictures of the cauliflower au’ gratin! 

   
   I will be indulging in another piece with my homemade lentil soup for lunch! I will serve some to the kiddos for dinner with my fingers crossed… 

Wishing you beautiful weather… Wherever you are! 

L

City café lunch

Quick post so you know that we are doing well resettling back in Mexico! We are going to Costco,mainly to find a decent dog food for Lola, and to grab some bulk items!
First we are grabbing a bite to eat at City café, with many heathy choices!
The children are enjoying a choice of fruit with yogurt and granola and a fresh made smoothie!

I enjoyed a vegetarian sandwich with mushrooms, panela cheese, Veggies and a fruit vinaigrette. It was absolutely delicious!

Mario enjoyed a salad with mushrooms, grilled chicken and sprouts with balsamic vinaigrette.

With full bellies, we are now off to Costco for a membership and shopping! Say a prayer for us! 😉🙏🏼

L

Rain rain go away!

After an easy flight (minus the last 20 minutes of turbulence due to dropping into the clouds to land) with Aeromexico, We landed in Orlando on July 29th and were welcomed by a rainstorm that caused the FAA to ground all airplanes for 45 minutes. Despite my attempt and prayers to bring our wonderful Mexico City weather to Florida, it continued to rain most of every day until Tuesday of our beach week. The beach house of our timeshare is the same one I have visited every year since my birth. My grandmother purchased the third story room for week 31 when my mother was a teenager and after my sister and I were born, we joined her each and every year until her death in 2005. My mother then took over the annual visits to North Redington beach in St. Pete every 31st week of the year. When I was pregnant with Luca in 2008, my mother purchased a room for Mario and I to inhabit so we could also carry the tradition in the family.
In all my life, I have never seen the storm that we had at the beginning of the week. Crazy winds, rain and waves.

As we landed at MCO, the rain began to fall.

And the rain continued to pour!

Rain and wind at the beach

I will be posting a few things today and tomorrow… Stay tuned!

Home sweet home!

Well we are officially in our rental and down to the last two boxes of our stuff that was shipped from the Florida. (All my mommy teacher things, that don’t yet have a place to go…)

We got the keys! This is actually a bedroom key! Ancient wrought-iron door handles with less than stellar locking mechanisms (just ask Luca, who spent two hours locked in the bathroom one afternoon, until daddy got home!)

Said handle:

Now there is a box that will remain in the house and this is the new “Lost and Found”. In order to get the children to return toys to their rooms, instead of being tossed out(the old way of handling the issue), we converted one of the moving boxes, so during the day any toys or child items found are tossed into the lost and found. Each evening before bedtime, the children gather what is theirs and put it in its proper place. That’s the idea anyway 😉

Back to the house tour,
I know many people were concerned about safety when we announced moving to Mexico City. We are lucky to have found a 2200 square foot house with a backyard. A security guard stands watch less than 50 feet from our front door 24 hours a day, 7 days a week by two guards Milton and Jorge, who are already enjoying delicious cookies from our oven!

The house is adorned with hardwood doors and the front door is like no other. It is 4″ thick, with an locked iron gate before it. It has a sliding lock that I can unlock when I throw my body against the door. Lol… the children have no chance at opening it.

The floors of the lower level of the house are square and rectangular stones that have been glazed, painted and beaten up over the years. It is hard of the knees, but thankfully we brought sandals to wear in the house.

All throughout the house are wooden beamed ceilings along with skylights to let in the daylight.

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Living room before furniture:

Living room furnished and occupied:

Check out the fireplace! We will definitely use this soon as the night are still high 40’s- low 50’s at night now in mid-July!

Dining room: expect nothing less than disaster as I serve three meals and two to four snacks per day! 😋

The kitchen and bathrooms are adorned with hand painted Mexican tile and while it may look overwhelming, it makes this a typical Mexican house and has grown on me quickly.

The kitchen:

Anyone up for washing dishes?!

Each bathroom has their own tile to display.

Master:

Paisley’s: which I just realized is the same as the master bathroom…

I couldn’t help but share her beautiful smiling face!

The boys:

Who dropped their toothbrush?!

The office(meant to be the maid’s quarter’s):

Paisley’s bedroom is, what we believe, was the original master(largest closet and best view of the backyard(and parties at the infamous San Angel Inn restaurant which is just behind the wall in the backyard😉)
She enjoys the toy closet the most!

Oliver waiting for another tea party to begin…

The boys room is hard to find tidy, no matter how much mama gripes. They actually do clean it, I just never get around to taking a picture when it’s clean for all of 5 seconds. Lol

Upstairs is a loft that divides the boys room from Paisley’s and houses the boys two school desks, their old breakfast table and the children’s play things.

The office is a work in progress but we managed to fit our futon,for guests (hint, hint) and Mariano’s desk. It also is a place for storing suitcases and boxes😁

Finally the master bedroom… This is considered the guest room, in house standards, due to lack of a closet and a pedestal sink. Good thing we are simple people 😉 We enjoy the view of the backyard through our french doors and windows of the bathroom. We don’t have air conditioning and rely on Mother Nature for the breeze which is almost always constant through the windows.

Last but not least, the most used area is the backyard. In the week and a half that we have lived here, Luca’s soccer skills have improved dramatically and Paisley had had more tea parties than I can count!

I hope you enjoyed the tour of our house in Mexico City and hope to share more photos as we add to the decor of the house but the snapshots of the barebones will have to do for now😉

Two weeks until we head back to Florida for beach week! I can almost feel sand between my toes thinking about it, almost!

Have a fabulous afternoon!

Ta-ta!
L

Centro histórico México City D.F.

Mario decided Saturday evening, while eating dinner, that we should go downtown for breakfast. It was a restaurant that has had rave reviews by his coworkers so we must try it out 😉
Early in the morning we climbed into the taxi and headed for the city center.

Paisley doesn’t care for taxi’s and I am pretty sure she is scared of the “men” that drive them, so she held onto Luca on the ride there and Luca reluctantly gave in, showing that he can be a caring, big brother.
We were dropped off right in front of El Cardenal, on a beautiful, cobblestone street, lined with old-European architecture.

My first thought was “Gorgeous”!

Inside El Cardenal, the first thing you notice is a large stained glass Cardinal above the elevator and a glass window looking into the bakery. The bakery was in full swing and we had no idea at the time how delicious the pastries would be!

To get to our table, we boarded the Elevator and rode to the 3rd floor.
I was glad to see we were sitting in a room with other families with smaller children which made me less anxious eating at a fancy restaurant.

The children enjoyed Mexican Hot Chocolate as described above which is a little dark for their liking but they enjoy all the new flavors.

Paisley’s pastry was coconut-fig with sweet cream cheese. I will definitely snag this one next time- yes, there will definitely be a next time! 😉

Our fruit-loving children enjoyed cantaloupe with yogurt and a fruit platter. Oliver was a champ, eating one and a half plates of cantaloupe and yogurt!

My love looking over the menu…

Trying to eat as vegetarian as I can, I ordered the spinach and cheese Omelet and was very impressed with the flavor of this dish.
Mario ordered an egg, tortilla dish (sorry I don’t remember what his dish was called) and he enjoyed!

Before heading out to the city, we stopped by the bathroom which had tall wooden doors that opened up to Juliet balconies:

Paisley was fascinated!

Following breakfast, we headed to Zócalo, the Cathedral and even enjoyed a trolley ride taking in the sights and sounds:

 

View of the cathedral from Zocàlo square.

Zócalo is a large square made up of concrete squares.

The kids playing in the CDMX 3D sign.

On Sunday’s, they close down two major streets downtown for family fitness time. I love the concept and hope that we can enjoy it, once we have our scooters, helmets and bikes out of storage, which will, hopefully, be very soon!

The cathedral is absolutely stunning. After an Earthquake in the 80’s the church foundation had to be rebuilt.

 

Zócalo is known for having the largest Mexican flag.

These are remnants of the 1980’s earthquake that the children are climbing.

When Mario had visited Mexico City last fall, he took a photo of this Pope John Paul statue. I have been looking forward to seeing it in person ever since! It is made of melted keys with Mary carved out in the middle and roses casting down. It was well worth seeing it in person and the children loved it!

We look forward to attending Mass at the cathedral. The organs and alters are made from Gold and it has many Alters for the saints(no photos because Paisley thought there were ghosts since they were dark and behind bars).

Just beautiful, isn’t it?!

Well, I hope you enjoyed hearing of our Sunday! I hope you all are getting ready for July 4th. We hope to see the fireworks on television! Maybe we will blow bubbles to celebrate our America’s birthday!

God bless!
L

Market day

It is hard to believe it has been almost 4 weeks since we arrived in Mexico City. We now have a routine of hitting the organic market, Mercado el 100, each Saturday morning.
This past Saturday, before heading to the market, we took the children to Viveros, a park in Coyoacán. The park has running trails, basketball courts, jungle gyms for kids, a large playground and fountain amongst many other things. The kids enjoyed running around and releasing energy pent up from the past week.

Even Daddy got a little workout in😉

They have many of these fitness areas in Mexico City. I remember areas like this in Northdale(maybe not as large) when I was a little girl living in Tampa with my family. Somehow as U.S. Citizens we lost the way of easy fitness and rely on gym memberships to keep us healthy and fit. We saw people of all ages and fitness levels working out on what looks like a large metal A frame swing set. Even the kids joined in!

After playtime and a little fitness, we headed over to Mercado el 100. Each time we go we find a few different things than the time before and we always search for things that we yearn to devour again: freeze dried strawberries, fresh fish of the day, home crafted beer and ginger ale to name a few!

So after grabbing our favorites, we found one of our favorite tables which offers a variety of fruits and veggies that varies each week. We grab a few Kilos of plums and tomatoes and pears for the week.

Later today, or tomorrow, I will post about our first family day in Centro Historico. It took 4 weeks for us to enjoy a day in downtown Mexico City but it was well worth the wait.
I hope you are having a great week!

L

Meeting Polanco

Polanco is one of Mexico City’s upscale neighborhoods. It is also home to the largest children’s playground which is the main reason we visited Polanco yesterday. Lincoln park, which is named after U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, is a rectangular-shaped park which contains ponds, an aviary, a large children’s park, and an amphitheater and more.
When we arrived to Lincoln Park, many vendors were setting up for the market or “tianguis”.

We found our way to the children’s playground and immediately the children ran to climb rock walls!

We spent the next hour watching the children, run, swing, hop, climb, jump and slide. They enjoyed finally being able to run free from our hands and the stroller.😉

Once the kids tired out at the playground, we decided to walk down the sidewalk of tianguis and see if anything caught our eye. I saw painted ceramic pitchers(wish I had a kitchen to put it in) and wicker baskets, but the first place I stopped at was a crepe stand and ordered a Nutella crepe to share (30 pesos and I bet in other neighborhoods it would have been much cheaper;) and Daddy stopped to buy fresh squeezed orange juice for 15 pesos.

Luca, was having a rough day and wanted his own orange juice rather than sharing. I wouldn’t normally share a picture of him having a 6 1/2-year-old tantrum but it is the only picture I got of the crepe, which was delicious!

Not to be outdone Paisley wanted to whine a little, too! She loved the orange juice and drank 1/2 the cupful, although she would have rather had the whole thing to herself.

So hard learning to share…

After tasting these delicious goodies, we took a stroll to find a place for lunch, as we were still hungry. There are many different restaurants in Polanco from typical Mexican foods to Italian and French. We almost stopped at a sandwich shop, but worried they had little to offer for children to eat, so we continued walking a few blocks and found this quaint little French bakery/restaurant:La Pain Quotidien

As you can see, this is an organic restaurant which I loved! I spotted the list of coffee’s

and chose a café con leche

it was delicious! The children had iced hot cocoa’s:

Mario decided on the Quiche Lorraine:

and I enjoyed the Vegetarian Lasagna which was mouth-watering!

The boys had waffles and Paisley a fancy yogurt parfait!

While we ate our lunch we had great entertainment. Luca snapped a picture to remember them. Isn’t his photography getting good?!

This was by-far the most expensive meal we have had in Mexico City ($66 U.S. Dollars worth)but we enjoyed a delicious meal and look forward to returning!

Following lunch, we headed to a little area of Lincoln Park where children and adults can ride bikes, scooters and the like. The children found a dirt hill to climb and play on before we called the taxi thru Uber.

We had a great time visiting Polanco and look forward to enjoying what it has to offer on future weekends.

We hope to soon have a place to call home… We pray we will have good news this week.

Thanks for reading!
L

How we spend days in Mexico City

The company has us in a hotel in Sante Fe, México City. While it is a nice, modern hotel, there is very little for children to do and nothing but a 10X10 room with a chalkboard for a play area. No parks with swings or monkey bars to play on. This requires more playing with mama and mama thinking outside of the box. We have played hide-and-seek, musical chairs, wiki sticks(now all dried up), coloring books, reading activities, electronic time, Simon says, movies on Netflix (thanks to Apple TV), etc. So, today I decided to check out what was out frontof the hotel. I remembered seeing another Starbucks out of a taxi window this weekend and we wouldn’t have to cross the road, so after breakfast we set out on an adventure down the mountain. Literally a mountain, just covered with pavement of course, since we are in a city.
Being solo with the children, I only got a chance to take one photo. Oliver drinking juice!

Since I have decided to be as confident as I can while out with the children, I found it was easier to order in Spanish and the whole process was much smoother the second time around. I walked away from the experience proud that I ventured out of the hotel again with my three kiddos in my own.

Here are some photos I have taken this week,while hanging around the hotel suite:

Luca and Paisley trying out the elliptical in the “mommy gym” as Paisley calls it.

P loves “wiki stick” time with mama. Pardon my awful eye wrinkles, I cannot get Sacred Frank in Mexico😓.

Miss P helping me mix pancake batter.

Well, I hope to have some news on the housing situation soon. Like all things in Mexico, things are running slower than I am use to- just God continuing to teach me patience.

L