This past weekend we celebrated Grandma Ceal’s 79th birthday. The Mendez’s put together a killer taco bar, soft and hard shell, of course. It was great to see Ceal again and her spirits seemed pretty high. She cracked a few jokes about our cheap gifts to her, and she had every right, especially when you compare them with what she gave to Steven for his graduation present:
Yes, there were a lot of zeros on that check…
Anyhow, as usual- here is a slideshow of the party:
(Annalia, if you want to hear music while watching the slideshow, click play on this box, then click play on the slideshow)
The Kim Girls celebrated their birthdays this weekend at Casa Merino. Annalia turned 9 and Mia turned 5 this week. The party’s theme was Princess and the Frog, and featured an inflatable water slide to help keep everyone cool.
If you have LOTS of time to kill, below is a LONG Slideshow with over 400 pictures. If you want to browse the photos for yourself, click here.
This weekend was not only to honor our fallen heroes and kick off the Summer season- For the Kimerindez Family, it was also to celebrate Christy’s thirty-somthingeth birthday.
The weather was perfect for Barbequing my special hamburgers and hotdogs and watching the kids frolic in the yard. If you watch the slideshow below, you may even catch a glimpse of Truck-a-saurus Rex, a future Diva, and the elusive Sasquatch lurking in the shadows…
It’s that time of year where we turn the tables and shine the spotlight on the one person that is usually the one pointing the spotlight on us- our mothers. This year, the Kimerindeztein family celebrated at the Merino home base and relished on our favorite Hawaiian Food. The food was plentiful, the kids well behaved and the gifts well received. I was scared that Christy would not be happy about her new iPhone, but she warmed up to it after a few days.
Pictures from the event:
(Click Play to watch a slideshow, or click on a picture to go to the webpage to download the image)
After 11 years and 105,000 challenging miles, we decided to say goodbye to our family truckster- a 1999 Ford Expedition XLT. This was a really hard decision, but the miles started to take their toll. The squeaks and rattles were getting louder and louder, the door locks and lights had a mind of their own, and much of the trim was in need of replacing. We certainly could have kept the truck as the engine and transmission were still running strong- but the cost of gas in a big V8 truck didn’t make much sense anymore. The Expedition got us through many Merino Madness camping trips (including some off-road excursions I will never forget), and helped us schlep our three boys around while keeping them beyond arm’s reach- the main reason we chose this truck in the first place.
Now that we didn’t need the rough and tumble kind of vehicle, we decided to go for a more car-like option while keeping the seating capacity as high as possible. There are several of these types of vehicles out there in the sub-luxury price range: Mazda CX-9, Chevrolet Traverse, GMC Acadia, Honda Pilot, Toyota Highlander, and Ford Flex, just to name a few. We chose the Mazda for several reasons, but most importantly was the 0% financing for 60 months, plus the below invoice pricing we were able to get. Besides the incredible value, the Mazda really was the most balanced vehicle out there. It wasn’t quite as big as the Chevy and GMC, but it felt just as roomy inside. It was much roomier than Honda, Toyota and Ford, and it had them all beat when it comes to the ride quality and fit and finish. Surprisingly, it was the least expensive when comparing apples to apples. Of course, I spent upwards of 40 hours researching all of my options, and most car magazines (print and online) agreed that the Mazda CX-9 is the best 7-passenger crossover out there. Christy liked the Mazda the best in terms of style and design, and the kids all voted the Mazda the car they most wanted to be seen in (a very important criteria).
It’s always great to see a family member recognized for their talent or hard work. We’ve been lucky enough to experience our own kids get their fair share of recognition- whether it’s Steven with his football games, Mark with his soccer, or David with his theater… as parents, we are easily impressed. It’s not too often an adult family member gets to take a bit of the spotlight.
Today, we were fortunate enough to experience a bit of celebrity shining right from within our own family. Christy’s uncle, Oscar Castillo, is a seasoned photographer who has been behind the camera’s lens for decades- whether it’s capturing candid moments at family gatherings- or powerful moments in Chicano history, it’s very rare to see Oscar without a camera. Last year, UCLA’s Chicano Studies Research Center offered to digitize over 5,000 of Oscar’s anthropological photos taken from the 1960′s, 70′s and 80′s throughout Los Angeles- depicting the cultural relevance of the Chicano movement. For the past several months, The Latino Museum of History, Art and Culture in Downtown Los Angeles has been showcasing a glimpse of the world as seen through Oscar’s eyes. We were lucky enough to get a personal tour of the exhibit by the legend himself- Oscar Castillo.
As much as I’ve liked having control over my own online photo gallery hosted on my own site, due to stupid restrictions by most web-hosting companies that now limit the number of files you can host- even with so-called “unlimited” hosting programs, I have decided to move my pictures over to a photo-sharing website- Flickr.com.
Flickr.com offers a truly unlimited account for only $25 a year- significantly less than most other photo-sharing websites. Plus, Flickr.com allows you to easily group and share you photos, and is partnered with www.snapfish.com- our favorite choice for photo printing services. You can easily browse our family photos by year and month, select photos you like, and either download them or order prints directly from the site.
Simply select the “Merino Family Pics” link from the header or sidebar of the site and you will be taken directly to our Flickr photostream.
You’ll also notice that a random selection of pictures appear on the sidebar. Those pictures also link directly to our Flickr photostream.
Please post a comment to let me know what you think of the change!
Well, it’s been a full year since Merinospace was born into the blogsphere. We officially have our first “Anniversary Blog”. This year’s Independence Day festivities pretty much mimic last year’s Independence Day blog. The day started with a Madison Heights Neighborhood parade, and ended with a barrage of Safe and Sane fireworks at the Kim household in Alhambra. This year, some of Cyndi and John’s new neighbors brought out the big guns, so we had court-side seats to some pretty fantastic not-so-legal fireworks.
This weekend, we celebrated Annalia’s 8th and Mia’s 4th birthdays. It’s hard to believe how quickly they are growing. Needless to say, there was plenty of pink decor to satisfy a Disney Princess Parade. The girls were adorable and very well behaved.
