SIX YEARS OLD!!

Diego Tomas is six years old! Wow, oh wow! When he turned five, he still felt like a little boy. For some reason, six feels big to me. Six doesn't feel like "my little boy" anymore. And you know what is wonderful?! I am grateful that I have come to a great realization that I don't want him to be my little boy forever. I used to weep over him when he was an infant because I didn't want him to grow up and I was so scared of losing him as my sweet little boy. But now I rejoice in his growth and his devlopement and the excitement of seeing what God has planned for his life. I will always long for him to crawl into my lap for cuddles, to need me, to hug me, but I have accepted to let go of that fearful grip that wants him to remain small. I want him to grow up, I want him to be independent, I want him to be a strong man and (if it is God's will for him to marry) to be an amazing husband and father. This morning I told him that if it is God's will for him to marry, I pray he will treat his wife just like his daddy treats me. And I pray that Alexia will marry a man who will treat her just like her daddy treats me. How amazing to be able to say that!

So, to celebrate the big SIX, we let Diego plan the entire day, from dawn to dusk. Some of the pictures uplaoded out of order, so I will give you a recap of our day:

6:20: Diego and Alexia wake up. Ricardo tells them it's too early and to come into our room at 7:00

7:00 Diego and Alexia come running into our room, "IT"S SEVEN O' CLOCK!!" Ricardo and I jump up in bed and starting singing "HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!" Diego was tickled.

We head downstairs to put the croissants in the oven. While the croissants bake, we turn on some music and have a mini dance party...a new favorite activity of the children.

After the favorite songs end, we sit down to a yummy breakfast of yogurt, fresh fruit and warm croissants...delicious!

After breakfast, we had Diego go on a scavenger hunt for his presents. We bought him a razor scooter, Alexia gave him a stack of books, my mom bought him a lego set and Mima bought him a new game and a new school shirt. He was so thrilled with everything!

The kids and I had made a paper mache pinata the day before so we were waiting for it to dry so we could paint it. Ricardo worked on the pinata while Diego whizzed around the house in his scooter. I'm not sure how, but we all ended up outside in the driveway, playing in our jammies in a light drizzle. The kids had an absolute blast and Diego even ripped holes in his jammies from racing down the driveway on Alexia's bike. We stayed out there for about an hour and really had a blast. We suddenly realized it was time to get ready for the first stop on the agenda so we all went upstairs to get dressed. We headed out to Jeronimo's around 10:30. There was one other girl there so we literally had the entire place to ourselves. Ricardo and I even had fun jumping in the bouncy houses and going down the slides. We all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. We left there around 12:30. Diego had requested tacos at home for lunch so we loaded into the car to go home, but as we were driving he said he had changed his mind and wanted to go to Chick Fil A. Fine by us! So we had some yummy chicken (salad for me) for lunch and our favorite lady that works there gave us a milkshake which the kids devoured in no time.

I offered to make a cake for Diego, but he requested a carrot cake from a local bakery so I ordered it the day before. We picked it up after lunch and headed home. We opened his new lego set (his very first big set with 387 pieces) and started assembling the Jedi Shuttle while Marco had a nap.

When Marco woke up, we headed outside for pinata and cake time. The pinata turned out really cute and it just took a couple of hits, and candy went flying.

We enjoyed the birthday cake on the front porch and were so thankful for the gorgeous weather.

After our bellies were full of cake, we loaded up and headed to the bowling alley. We had so much fun bowling! We had been praying (as well as my weekly prayer group) that Marco would walk by Diego's birthday so that he could walk, not crawl, at the bowling alley. What did he do? He walked! He walked more than he ever had and we were so grateful and amazed how clearly God had answered that prayer. He had a blast bowling!

After bowling, we ended the day with dinner at Mellow Mushroom. Thursday is face painting night there so the kids were thrilled!

It was such a special day for us to be together as a family. It felt like a mini vacation because I didn't worry about doing laundry, washing dishes, cleaning up...it was all about Diego and our family and rejoicing in God's blessings in Diego's life.

We have been spending a lot of time out in the driveway lately. This was the afternoon before his birthday, but it is too cute of a picture not to post.

At the breakfast table with his bro and sis.

Opening presents!

Riding bikes in the drizzle. Notice Marco. He would walk that little ride-on toy to the middle of the driveway and speed down with no fear. Of course Ricardo or I were by his side as he sped down, but we were amazed at his lack of fear!

I can't move the other pictures from Jeronimo up here, but here is our family shot and then there are some more pictures below. Alexia had just fallen and was still grumpy and refused to smile.

Happy boy with his lunch! Notice his nuggets and fries lined up. That's Diego for you!

A happy spider man pinata.

About to enjoy cake on the front porch. Yeah, that cake doesn't look so cute, does it? That is exactly how he wanted it so that is what we did. A #6 candle and a spider man candle. :)

Pinata in the works

More pictures from Jeronimo:

And on to the bowling alley:

He wanted a soccer ball face painting! All the other kids thought it was such a great idea.

Precious winnie the pooh

After dinner we came home to skype with Ricardo's dad and grandpa.

On Friday, Alexia, Marco and I took donuts in to Diego's school to share with his friends in his class. I also read a book to the class "Un Dia de nieve" (A Snowy Day in Spanish) and shared some of Diego's baby pictures. It was so much fun to be in his class and to see Diego interact with his buddies. How beautiful is this classroom!?

You can just barely see her, but Diego's teacher is close to Diego, holding Marco.

Marco made his way onto Diego's lap to swipe his donut. Diego was happy to share.

We worked hard on his legos today and completed the shuttle. He was soooo happy!!

We're here!

So once again, I have a load of pictures to share. I only have a chance to post a few of them tonight, but wanted to do so before another day goes by!

Ricardo had MLK day off last week so we headed over to the Graham's house for a great day. We enjoyed a yummy lunch, tea and cookies and then bundled everyone up and walked to a park nearby. We ended up staying there for a few hours and had an absolute blast!! Ricardo and Luke played soccer with Diego, Oliver and Thomas for a long time and then we all joined together to play on the stone sculptures and leaves (pictured below).

Thomas and Marco enjoying their cookies together. They learned how to stab their cookies with their knives and eat them directly from the knife.

After several hours of play, we hit Starbucks for hot chocolate to warm our chilly bones.

Afternoon painting fun

Last week Susanna and Taylor came over for lunch and we had a great time!

A trip to Trader Joes. Alexia is carrying her baby in the sling that Auntie Paige sent her when Marco was born.

Today we did our school work by candlelight. It was delightful.

Marco had a blast with the play doh!

We had some visitors in our backyard today. I love this picture of the kids!

My three blue kids, all bundled up and watching a video together.

**Scroll back up through all of these pictures and notice Marco. Do you notice anything? How about the hat? Do you see that he has the hat on in every single picture? Yes, he wears it ALL.THE.TIME. It is 8:52 pm right now and where do you think the hat is? On his head! He even wears it to sleep. The hat has not left his head in 3 weeks, with the exception of bath time. It is attached to him and he is so very attached to it. My mom brought it to him in November and never imagined it would be such a hit.

Random

Here are some random pictures from the past couple of months. Thought they were worth sharing :)


The kids still get their video time while I shower in the morning, but now they have a lil' buddy that loves to join them! He usually sits next to one of them, but sometime tries to wiggle his way on to Alexia's lap. She usually lets him stay there as long as she can still see the computer. Marco has been responding well to discipline so he received a consequence just one time for touching the computer and he has not tried to touch it again. It is nice that I can leave all three of them on the bed together and know that disaster (most likely) won't happen. Diego has permission to get Marco off the bed at any time if he is bothering them too much.


This is how the three kids spend A LOT of their time...A LOT! They love to gather around the table while I'm cooking or cleaning and draw, color, paint, etc.


Here is another example of Marco's responsiveness. He used to get a kick out of dumping out the crayon box. I finally had enough of it and realized it was an issue to deal with so I gave him a consequence and he has not done it again. Don't get me wrong, the boy has plenty of rebellion and disobedience throughout the day, but just wanted to praise him for these two cases :)


My friend Susanna moved to New York a few years ago (when she had one boy, Micah) and just moved back to Atlanta (!!!) and now has three kids. We went to their house the week they moved in and all of the kids had a blast! Well, Amelia (her youngest) did not like Marco very much because he was picking on her a lot, but the big kids enjoyed their time together :)

Alexia and Ellie

Diego and Micah

Diego took this picture of himself after losing his first tooth. He lost it in his sleep and was so excited!

Evelyn is our next door neighbor and Alexia loves playing with her and Marco together.

I thought this was a neat picture of my two boys having a blast together and the reflection of their mommy's loving eyes and smile. Oh they make my heart ache with happiness and thankfulness!

This was a random bagel date that we had one day while Diego was at school.

Ruth and the kids came over to make Christmas cookies one day in December and had a great time and ate way too many :)

Marco loves to climb up on this stool in the kitchen and check out what's going on at the counter top. He really loves it when he can score a snack by sneaking up there!

We went to Mellow Mushroom for dinner in December and the kids were thrilled to get their faces painted. Alexia decided on Rudolph before we even left the house, not sure where she came up with that, but it looked precious!

We went to the Graham's house for dinner the week before our trip and had a special time. They kids always enjoy their own table!