A wonderful birthday!

Ricardo has always been sure to celebrate my birthdays in a very special way. When we lived in El Salvador and he worked for an airline, we would always travel for my birthday. Two years in a row he even took me to Paris for a long weekend. Yes, those were the days of free travel and no kids! We have not been away for my birthday since we've had kids so it was extra special to have a real getaway for my birthday this year. Our awesome, selfless, wonderful friends, Aaron and Helen offered to stay overnight with the kids one more time before the baby arrives, so we chose this past weekend so we could make a birthday celebration out of it.

A friend had given me two certificates for massages a few weeks ago so I booked 2:00pm massages for us on Friday and that was the beginning of our escapade. After our wonderful massages, we strolled around downtown Decatur for awhile which we had never done before. We loved it. We stopped for donuts and coffee (yes Em, at Dancing Goats!) and then headed to our bed and breakfast on Piedmont. The place was AMAZING. I am so sad that we did not have our camera because every nook and cranny of the inn was gorgeous. The gardens, the front porch, the staircase, the back porch...everything. I downloaded two photos from their website of our room and that's all I have.

Our bedroom

Our sitting room

Our room had a little sitting area so after we checked in, we served some of their complimentary hors d'oevres and brought them upstairs to nibble on while we played card games. It was so fun to be on our own schedule, do what we wanted to do and have uninterrupted conversation the whole time. We had 8:30 reservations at my favorite restaurant so we headed there for a fabulous meal that lasted almost 3 hours. Yes, we like to eat and we like to talk :)

Of course I was so excited to be able to sleep in on Saturday, but I woke up at 6:20 and could NOT fall back asleep. I adore bed and breakfasts because I always look forward to the gourmet breakfast in the morning. The dining room was beautiful and we had a delicious meal. Breakfast was at 9:30, then we took a stroll in the neighborhood and headed back home around 12:00.

Meanwhile, the kids had a wonderful time with Aaron and Helen. I had been telling them all week that they were coming over to spend the night and they were really excited about it. When I called on Friday afternoon, they barely wanted to say hi which put me at ease to know they were more interested in whatever they were doing than missing us. When we returned on Saturday, the kids had baked a birthday cake for me, made cards and bought flowers. And it wasn't just any birthday cake, Diego told them that carrot cake is my favorite, so carrot cake it was! We all had lunch together, ate cake and had a fun time!

After Aaron and Helen left, we were about to lay down for a nap when the doorbell rang. I was thrilled to open the door to a gorgeous bouquet of flowers sent by my godmother in Washington. Thank you Brownie!!!

We all slept for 2 1/2 hours, waking up close to 5:30pm. We headed out for a beautiful walk in the neighborhood and then drove to La Fonda (our favorite Mexican restaurant). Since the kids had napped late, it was fun to go out to dinner at the time we're usually winding down for bedtime. We stopped at Whole Foods on our way home and Ricardo and Diego surprised me by buying cupcakes. When we got home, they set the dining room up with the cupcakes, a sweet card and a little present. We ate cake and my wonderful day came to an end. Phew, I was really spoiled, wasn't I?! :)

Here are some pictures from our late-night festivities:

We asked Diego to take a pictures of us - here's the result:

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In other news, our baby boy is due to arrive in 5 weeks, 2 days. Wow! That is hard to believe. I had my 34 week appointment today (5 days late) and everything looks great. Diego and Alexia are awesome sports about having to go to every single one of my prenatal appointments. It is a joy for me to bring them along because it makes me so happy at how well they behave. I even had to get blood drawn today and I told them they had to stand against the wall and not move. They stood like soldiers with their heels against the wall for a good 10 minutes, while the nurse took her time with her other patients before sauntering over my way.

My mom bought Diego and Alexia's homecoming outfits for them so of course she was excited to get one for this baby too. I picked it out online and she sent it in the mail today...I LOVE IT! The photo does not do it justice, but I thought it would be fun to share. It got me even more excited to meet this lil' guy.

So we've decided to name him Marco Andres which I think I've already shared. This week, Ricardo and I were exploring other options. A few weeks before Alexia's arrival, we did the same thing. We had that "Oh no! Is this the right name?!" question. So it was inevitable that it would happen this time around. This is how my conversation about it went with Diego:

"Que tal si cambiamos el nombre de Marco?" (What do you think if we change Marco's name?

"No! Marco es Marco." (No! Marco is Marco)

"Te gusta el nombre _____?" (Do you like the name ____?" ( I won't share the name I suggested)

"Si me gusta, si tenemos otro bebe, pero Marco es Marco" (Yes, I like it if we have another baby, but Marco is Marco.

So there you go, Marco is Marco!