We had a great time with our friends today. Baby Sam had open heart surgery two weeks ago and is home and doing so well. It was so good to see him. Lucia thought he was lots of fun.

Marco (and Lucia) loved our stop at the pet store yesterday. Marco was so sweet with the cats.

Diego is NINE!

We had a super special Family Fun Day to celebrate Diego Tomas!  Ricardo took the day off and the big kids stayed home from school.  Diego had the day planned and we had a blast!

He requested homemade waffles with strawberries for breakfast.  He absolutely loves meals in the dining room and is on candle lighting duty. 

Sweet brothers

Big bro, lil sis

Lucia was asleep when breakfast started...

...but enjoye waffles...

...and balloons when she woke up.  When Diego turned one we took balloons to his room and that has been a tradition with each child.  They love waking up to balloons in their room!

He opened his present from his siblings at breakfast which was the game Battleship.  We had fun playing it for awhile while we waited for Ricardo to have a work call.

We arrived to Top Golf close to noon and it was awesome!  All of the children really enjoyed playing golf, and of course daddy too!

Giving Marco some tips

Alexia was really into it.

Watching the birthday boy!

Lucia did pretty well, but was getting restless by the end.  She was as happy as can be when she was on someone's shoulders.

I love this picture of us.  Such a special time!

The big NINE year old!

Marco loved the golf bag that they lent him.

We were all so hungry by the time we got home at 2:00.  We considered having snacks at Top Golf, but Diego was set on having baguette sandwiches for lunch so we waited.  Baguettes are a treat around here so that was his request.  He wanted ham, onion, lettuce and mayonnaise.  We had fun with our sandwich bar!

This boy's love language is quality time without a doubt.  His request for the afternoon activity was to sit by the fire in the family room and hang out.  We played board games and just enjoyed a super relaxed time.  

We had pizza movie night for dinner.  We picked up pizza from Mellow Mushroom and watched Old Yeller.  

And then of course there had to be cake!  He wanted brownie sundaes.  Yes, we did a lot of eating!  

This boy is an incredible blessing in our family.  He is fun, energetic, joyful, kind, loving, honest, strong and just fun to be around.  I am so grateful that the Lord chose US to be his family and to get these front row seats to watch his life happen.

We had a play date with Katie, Ben, Evie and Owen last week. Ben's daddy gave this pin wheel to marco and he adores it

Getting ready for a very special day tomorrow, celebrating our NINE year old!!!

We met Hannah and Benjamin at a new neighborhood park last week. We enjoyed soaking up the warm weather!

We had a super fun day at Christys today. How crazy cute is this trio?! They're such sweet buddies and I'm really grateful for their friendship.
Mamas had an even better time of chat, lunch and tea!

Ok, this is gross, but had to share!
I bought this box of mangoes at Costco and 5 out of 6 were bad. I cut in to each one and left them in the box to throw away later. Along came a mango-loving marco and nibbled his way at several of them, skin and all. They all love to eat mangoes, skin and all. He knew they were bad bc I had showed them to him so he did not do this unknowingly!

The cutest bookends ever!

Today was seriously dreamy!  It was just so wonderful in every way.  Praise be to God and to Him be the glory for blessing us so richly today.

The children woke up at 7:00a and we sent Lucia downstairs with them to watch a video.  As long as she has nursed, she is happy to play around in the family room while they watch a video.  I showered around 7:30 and then R and I went downstairs together and he made his specialty - french toast.  My breakfast specialty is waffles (we had them on Saturday) and his is french toast.  We enjoyed a leisurly breakfast together, then Lucia went down for a nap and Diego and I headed to Trader Joes while Alexia and Marco stayed home with Ricardo to play chess.  We came home, packed a picnic lunch and headed out.  We stopped by the hospital in Decatur to drop off a bag of lunch goodies for my dear friend, Kay who's baby boy had open heart surgery last week.  It was so good to see her and squeeze her.  From there we went to Piedmont Park and enjoyed a yummy picnic lunch...

Here we are getting ready to dig in!

After lunch we headed to the playground to play for awhile...

...then walked around for a bit...

...and stopped to feed the ducks our leftover bread from lunch...

...Lucia loved her view of the ducks from daddy's shoulders.

After feeding the ducks we headed to the bike shop to rent bikes.  This pic is taken from my bike as we were headed to the Belt line.  

Marco enjoyed his spot on daddy's bike

After riding for over an hour, we were all hungry and ready for a treat so we stopped for popsicles in Inman park and Lucia had her first taste of sugar.  She thought it was amazing!  My popsicle was coconut/banana/orange and she complained every time I stopped sharing.

Me and my brood.

Ok, so we were really bad.  About 40 minutes after our popsicle break Ricardo told us he wanted to stop somewhere.  We went in to Krog St market and had ANOTHER treat.  Ricardo had never tried Jeni's ice cream so of course he couldn't pass up the chance.  We enjoyed ice cream on the front steps of the market and it was so much fun.

As we headed back to the park, the kids wanted to play on this graffiti covered underpass.

Ricardo taking a selfie of me taking a selfie

A family selfie with all of us in it!

And another one!  So after our 3 1/2 hour bike ride we decided to stop for a yummy dinner out at Osteria and we enjoyed a delicious pizza feast...

...here's big boy D with a prosciutto and arugula pizza.

So that sums up the day.  Ricardo and I just couldn't stop rejoicing at what beauty and joy and grace.  My heart is full of gratitude.  Not all days are like this and it may be a long time before we experience another one like it so for today I just stand amazed and grateful that He chose to bless us this way, today.  Thank you Jesus!