Quick Recap

Our ELEVEN year anniversary was this Saturday. Lane & I have been married to each other for one third of our lives. We had big plans to spend Saturday celebrating our 4 year old niece's bday. Lane surprised me on Thursday by advising me that I needed to drop Gabriela off at her Auntie's house...and to pack a bag for her because she was spending the night.  Then he sent me off to get a massage. it was heavenly. I stopped in a couple stores in our cute downtown, picked up a couple things for Gabriela and Baby Brother and then it was off to a dinner date at the Cambodian restaurant. delish. I haven't had Cambodian food before.  It was so sweet to have time with just Lane, to have him surprise me like that. yay.

Friday I called to check up on Gabriela, she was very upset to learn I was coming to pick her up later that morning.  So glad to hear that she loved her visit, especially since that is likely where she will go for several days when we go to the hospital for Baby Brother's birth. 

Saturday was Miss Mina's 4th bday and party. It was great to see Tim and Kristie's new house in Hollister. We ate lots of good food and Mina was showered with Hello Kitty gifts.  After all the kids had a turn on the piñata with no candy in sight, i thought it was only appropriate to give it a whirl myself. A few whacks and mission accomplished. Gabriela announced she was tired on the way home and was passed out 2 minutes later.

Sunday Gabriela spent hours playing blocks with Daddy, then we picked tons of blackberries at Nana's house. We played her new birthday game from Auntie Theresa...twice. And then it was off to show Nana how she rides her bike like a big girl and time to take a dip in the pool. Busy, busy day.

Gabriela's Birthday

Today I let Gabriela have some chocolate chips in her nectarine nutty oatmeal for breakfast.

We packed some snacks and she (mostly) rode the 0.8 miles to downtown where we shopped at the toy store, using a gift card that some friends generously gifted her last week.  Gabriela kept finding things for her baby brother - so sweet.  She settled on a Green Toys dishes set, a lunch box with a guitar on it that says "you rock" and a jungle placemat.  After using our gift card, we owed one penny, which we didn't have so the whole purchase was basically free.  Yay!

Next we went to the frozen yogurt joint a few doors down where Gabriela ate her lunch without any coaching or begging on my part, a miracle I tell you.  I interviewed her for her totally awesome birthday book, and then we feasted on mint frozen yogurt with oreo cookie chunks. It was $2.31.  Sweet.  Gabriela thankfully rode her bike most of the way home, but there were some stretches where I carried her bike while she walked. It was great though, she didn't ask me to carry her once on our trip.

We came home and had a lazy afternoon having a picnic with her stuffed animals and her new dishes, building bunk beds for her dollies with blocks, creating forts with the pillows in the living room, and playing her new animal yahtzee game.

Then she helped me make her special request for dinner: Pancakes.  We had scrambled eggs, bacon, fresh melon, pancakes, and smoothies for dinner. I find this hilarious because never once have I ever suggested having breakfast for dinner, in fact I don't much care for breakfast for breakfast. She gobbled it down and we ate the last of the leftover chocolate cake for dessert. Gabriela sang along with us as we serenaded her with the happy birthday song. She sang right in tune with her mommy and daddy.

Love that little three year old.

Birthday Bike

Gabriela's birthday technically isn't until Wednesday, but we gave her present to her on Sunday, after the party madness was over and on the weekend so Daddy could enjoy seeing her get her bike and spend time with her riding it around.  

She was thrilled.  And probably not too surprised since she has been informing nearly everyone she comes across for the past month that she is getting a bike for her birthday.  At first she was terrified to get on it. I was starting to wonder if she just wouldn't like it. But two seconds later she was walking on her bike across the whole house. 

Next it was time to put air in the tires. Lane borrowed a bike pump from the neighbors and pumped until the tire exploded. Literally. I should have taken a photo. It sounded like a cannon went off in our living room and the tire was ripped to shreds. Whoops. He was reading the wrong units on the pump and put more than twice the recommended amount of air. I stayed calm, since I knew he was really upset with himself about this. But I'm not gonna lie. I almost cried.  The first thing he did was ruin her birthday present!!!  How were we going to enjoy watching her ride around on her bike over the weekend with a busted tire!?!?!?  Luckily there is a bike shop within walking distance of our house (did I mention I love our neighborhood?) and they got him all set with a new tire and inner tube. 

Gabriela asked her daddy not to make that noise anymore and also asked why he broke her bike. Phew, thank goodness we got it fixed the same morning. 

Next, she informed us that she needed a helmet. What a safe little biker. We then gave her the present we'd been holding onto from Auntie Ann and Uncle Jesse. matching helmet, elbow and knee pads! She was so excited, and she looks so big!

 

Birthday bike from mommy and daddy, cute outfit from Walter, helmet, elbow and knee pads from Auntie Ann, and shoes from Auntie Liss.  This is one loved little girl!

 Testing out the new ride

Gabriela rode (well, walked on her bike) the half mile to a park and back this afternoon. And by the time we were almost home and Daddy was waiting for us out front, she pulled out all the stops and actually started going kind of fast.  It just took one day for her to figure out how to move around and steer and actually watch where she's going.  What a little Grover.

Growing Cousins

 Annie and me on moving day. We take a belly picture every time we are together.

Two weeks later. I'm 23 weeks and don't know where the rest of this baby is going to grow. He's only like 1 lb right now and 12 inches or so. It's so fun knowing that these little cousins are going to be just the same age.

Pirate Party Essentials

 

No pirate party is complete without pirate rice krispie treat pops, right?  Thanks to Adam and Stephanie and Baby Thomas for helping me with these bad boys.

 

A pirate cake. This was really team effort. Lane baked the cake, I made the chocolate ganache frosting, and Auntie Liss put it all together.

 

Every pirate needs an eye patch. Thanks Kiera for whipping these up on your sewing machine.

 

Pirate goodies. I decided to have the party at 2 so it wasn't a meal time and we wouldn't have to worry about feeding people. I kind of went a little overboard, as usual. I think it's the mexican in me that needs to feed everyone and has an irrational fear of people going hungry.

 

Some swashbuckling pirates and pirate presents. And if you look really closely, you can see some pirate goodie bags in the window sill.

 

  The pirate of honor, herself.

 More pirates, and a pirate flag, of course.  Check out Beau holding one of the pirate goodie bags I sewed. I am so bummed I forgot to photograph them before passing them out to the lil pirates.

 Pirates get hurt sometimes, so you need pirate bandaids.

 And what pirate party is complete without a pirate treasure hunt? Adam put together the cutest pirate treasure hunt map for Gabriela and she found a little treasure chest with goodies right outside in the front yard! 

It was a huge success.  I wasn't going to do a themed party and was feeling so guilty about it, since Gabriela has been talking about her pirate party ever since her monkey party ended. But I'm pregnant, and we just moved two weeks ago.  I thought we could get away without the themed madness.  So, already feeling guilty, I just melted when I heard Gabriela invite her new neighbors to her party all on her own. "You want to come to my birthday party?!? It's going to be a PIRATE PARTY!!!!!" How could I let that little sweetheart down?

Thank goodness our friends and family pulled together to make the pirate magic happen. Thanks everyone for all your help!

 

Leftover pirate goodness

Moving, Moving

Lots has happened in the last few weeks.  Mainly, we finally moved into our own place. When we came out to California things didn't go exactly as we had planned and Lane didn't actually start working until March. Did I mention we moved in May??

Thank goodness for family, we have been staying with Uncle Nate for the last year. They have been wonderful, but every one's ready for their own space after a year, right?

So when I got the okay to look for an apartment, Gabriela and I went searching like crazy. That little trooper. She and I would view at least an apartment a day for about 2 weeks. It didn't take us long to realize that we wanted to be in Alameda instead of Oakland or Berkeley.

Some friends of ours already live here and we loved the cute downtown (even though I'd never actually gone to any of the stores or restaurants), the fact that it's a super pedestrian friendly town, and it seemed so much safer and family friendly.

Well, so far Alameda is living up to its reputation. Our first night here, the next door neighbors invited us over for dinner. Gabriela and their 6 year old son played and played.  The next day, our landlord, who lives above us, had a giant barbecue. She insisted on feeding us.  The following day was the Fourth and our neighbors invited us to a giant block party, complete with band, bounce house, and like 7 kiddie pools for the kids to splash in.  That evening, our landlord had yet another barbecue and again, made sure we ate our share.  This resulted in us not having to buy any groceries until Tuesday. I knew this place was family friendly, but this was beyond our expectations. It might have helped that it was a holiday weekend.  Gabriela is convinced now that any sounds from outside means a barbecue is happening outside.

There are lots of kids in the neighborhood and Gabriela is already playing lots with them.  She is signed up for pre-school starting in September. We are a few blocks away from a nice park and just a few doors down from a really sweet independent grocery store, which is going to be a real life saver once Baby Brother makes his appearance.

We still have lots of boxes (empty and full) taking up space inside. Once we get rid of those, hang things up on the walls, remove the mini-blinds and make some curtains, it's going to feel even cozier and more like home. 

pics coming soon.