Matthew's 30th Birthday

I think it was with some sadness that Matthew celebrated his 30th Birthday.  He has spent so much time reassuring me that we aren't "old" and today for the first time I realized that maybe he was reassuring me to reassure himself.  Oh well, I suppose that is what life does to you.  One minute you are 15 and the next minute, BAM, you are 30.  Matthew and I have spent almost half of our lives together.  We started dating when I was 16 so it is crazy to think that we have literally been together for half of our lives.  For his birthday this year I was torn with what to do.  It would have been so cool to have friends from Oregon fly down for this 30th but I knew that would never happen.  I am so thankful for our good friends back home, but also for our good friends here.  Matthew has a tight group of friends at school and I love these guys because they have been a great example of what hard work should look like and plus they have a BLAST together.  So I decided to get all his friends under one roof, Cabo Grill, a seafood taco place that is yummy, and surprise him.  That was the tricky part.  The plan was for all his friends to meet at the restaurant at 5 and we would meet up with them at 5:30 after Eva's dance class.  Well that was where the first little glitch happened.  Eva's classmate from dance class decided to have her birthday party right after dance.  I had to go into class and ask a favor of the teacher to let the kids out early so we wouldn't be late.  She agreed and thankfully Eva wasn't too upset when I made her tell her dad that she was ready to leave because she was STARVING and didn't like chocolate cake.  I know, I am mean.  Well, the little lie worked.  We were able to get out of ballet at a decent time and make it to the restaurant.  Once we got to the restaurant Matthew asked what a friend's truck was doing there.  I was SO nervous at this point, I just made him think he was crazy and said, " Are you sure that's his truck?  That's weird."  He then asked me if people were at the restuarant and my cover was blown.  I tried to tell him no but when we walked in he quickly figured out he was right.  Eva even blew it at the door when she saw one of my friends and said, "Mommy, there's Monste."  Oh man!  It is so hard to pull off a good surprise.  He said he really had no idea until he noticed the truck which is pretty good.  Everyone was good about hiding their cars.  I thought that was sweet of them.  And Matthew did say that in retrospect he did think it was weird we were busting out of the ballet party so quickly, but since I had told him we were all starving, he believed me.  Surprises are stressful, but it sure was fun.  I seriously was so worried that Eva would tell Matthew what was going on.  I had to tell her over and over that it was a surprise and we couldn't tell daddy.  She was so cute.  She managed to pull it off.

What did we get him for his birthday you ask?  Well, I had my own plans, that I never told him about so now I will be saving it for another birthday, but he really wanted to see Aerosmith.  Thus, his present is two tickets to Aerosmith.  We are REALLY excited.  We go tomorrow and I think it will be awesome!  

Happy Birthday Matthew.  The kids and I love you to pieces and are so thankful for all the time and effort you put in to being what you want to be in the long run.  You are a great dad and husband. 

Our guests...

Julie, who Matthew refers to as Yuli and Michelle

                                   

Aaron and Sarah

                                                                Kat, Christina and Rafa

                                                                        Ben and Kristi

                                                                       Dany and Monste

                                                                 Kylee, Lincoln, and Anjane

                                                                  Jaren and Vanessa

           Don't know why he was making this face, but it made me laugh

I had to get a picture of this.  On Monday, Rafa told Matthew that he was going to get him a HUGE birthday card.  Matthew didn't think anything of it, so tonight when he got this, I just had to laugh.

What we do around this place

I meant to post this a LONG time ago.  Oh well.  I wanted these pics on here for my sake.  But I suppose this post fits perfect after my "vacation post."  I swear, life isn't always crazy around this place.  In fact, the running joke with some good friends here is that you have to "book" me three weeks in advance.  I laugh, but most of the time, things are mellow around this place.  Here's a look at our life, on a more daily basis.

Birthday brunches.  These are some women from the ward.  They are such sweet women and it has been nice that they have let me tag along to their events.  I never feel out of place, even though it looks like I might huh?

Elijah and I take trips often to the "merceria."  Think of it like your local JoAnn's, well sort of.  I am not going to lie, I miss my JoAnns and my coupons.  Some things are really cheap here, like a zipper, ribbon, or thread, but for the most part, I swear things cost more.  Especially fabric.  I haven't gotten used to what poor quality they have and how much they want for it.

This is what happens when I am washing the dishes and Elijah finds and expo marker.  My son LOVES to make messes.

Lately, I have been looking for a first grade for Eva.  Private schooling is so much more stressful than American public schooling.  I wish I could just send her to her neighborhood school, but that doesn't exist here, really.  So, he we are touring a school with Eva's school.  Kind of like a field trip.  Lame!  Whatever happened to going to the zoo?

More birthday brunches.  This place was so cool.  It is a Oaxacan restaurant and the ambiance is awesome!  Oh and where is Elijah?  Well, even though it breaks my heart to send him because he is SUPER attached to me, on Friday I have four hours to myself when both kids are in school.  I am not gonna lie, I like this time.

Wives club lunches.  We haven't had one in a while, but my friend was the last host at one and she had like a million people in her home.  What a trooper!

Eva's ballet on Mondays and Wednesdays.  Often we bring Elijah's bike and he has a great time going down this ramp, laughing his little head off.  If we are lucky, his buddy Ian joins us for some of the action.

So there you have it.  Some of the things that we do in a "typical" week.  Can't say we never have nothing to do.  We just have to find it, or it finds us.

Mexico Part 25: Panamerican Games in our Backyard

This year, the Panamerican Games, which happen in between Olympic years, were in Guadalajara.  How cool is that?  I have never been in a city where such a huge event takes place.  With everything said and done, I think the city did a pretty impressive job in managing the event.  I didn't get to see all of the new facilities that were built, but what I have seen are quite nice.  I was worried that traffic would be a nightmare around the game times, but I don't think I was affected at all.  One of the things that helped was that private schools and some of the public schools were closed during the games.  The kids had two weeks off at the end of October.  Needless to say, I had to keep the kids busy.  Eva is so used to doing things that every morning she woke up she wanted to know what we were doing that day.  So, here you have it.  A documentation of some of the things that we did during the two weeks off of school.

To kick off the vacation we took a trip to Colomos.  It is a big park that is nearby to where I live.  They have a Japanese garden, a Mexican garden, a castle that holds art activities on the weekend, a playground, and a ton of animals that are too used to humans, in my opinion.  The squirrels, birds, ducks, fish, turtles, have been feed so much by humans that they are a  little too in your face.  But, it is a fun place to spend some time and where the kids can wear themselves out by playing in the play structures that are there and walking all over the park.

Matthew and I were able to go to a soccer game.  A friend of ours who works for Nike gave us a couple of tickets for a woman's preliminary soccer match.  We watched Canada and I can't even remember the other team.  Since it was early in the morning and early in the games, it was pretty dead, but still fun to be able to go see an event.

The mascots for the games were from left to right, Leo, a lion who represented the strength of the people of Guadalajara, Huichi, a deer representing the southern state of Guadalajara, and Gavo, or blue agave representing the agave that makes the tequila.  We bought Eva a Huichi.  She's pretty cute.

Later in the week we went back to Trompo Magico.  I am telling you the kids and I never get sick of this place.  Thank goodness!

One day we went to Krispy Kremes.  I swear, I never went there back home but since it is close to my house and they have an indoor playground upstairs we go quite often.  I mean, who doesn't love an overpriced donut?

Eva scored a trip to the circus with her little friend Luna.  We didn't do it on purpose but it's kind of funny how they match.

One night, coming home from a relief society activity, Eva asked us when she was going to see the "americanos."  We eventually figured out she meant "panamericanos" and the poor girl wanted to see a game.  Well, by this point, it was pretty hard to get tickets to games.  They were being really weird about selling them.  The venues were dead, but they kept telling people they didn't have tickets.  And really, the tickets to the games weren't expensive.  You could get in if you bought tickets ahead of time for about three dollars.  Worried I wasn't going to be able to get Eva to a game, my sweet friend, Dany, was going to be heading to a soccer match.  Lucky for Eva and I she had an extra ticket and she let me pawn Eva on her and she took her to a game.  I was SO grateful for her.  She loves my kids and they love her too because she treats them as if they were her own niece and nephew.  And when you are away from family, it is great to have people like her.

Towards the end of our vacation we took the kids to the Fiestas de Octubre.  For whatever reason, October is a popular month for celebrations.  And for one month they open up this huge carnival.  We didn't get to see its full potential because it was early in the day, but we still had fun getting on some rides and eating yummy food.

One last picture to show what I love about this place.  After the primary program rehearsals that we were having, my friends Kim and Dany, would go out to eat.  At one place, Cabo Grill, which is delicious by the way, they had a kids table where someones job was to play with the kids.  After Eva was done with the table, she looked like this...Too cute.  And that's a wrap folks.  Vacation is over.

Mexico Part 24: "Queremos Halloween"

This is one of those mother of all Halloween posts.  Of course all these things didn't happen in one day, but easier for me to lump all the events into one post.  So here are all the details of Halloween 2011...

Eva wanted to be Minnie Mouse for Halloween this year.  The love of Minnie was explained in the previous post.  So of course I jumped on the idea to coordinate these cute kids.  I made everything you see on these kiddos.  With the help of internet tutorials and pinterest, I pulled it all together.  By far Eva's shirt gave me the most headaches.  It was my first attempt at sleeves and I am pretty proud of myself.  Last year I told myself I would make the kid's costumes and I can't believe I did it.  So unlike me.  I finished all last minute, but if got done.  That is more like me!  The night before I needed the costumes done I stayed up until 2 in the morning and since I missed my peak sleep time, I couldn't sleep until 3:30ish in the morning.  It was HORRIBLE, but the results made it worth it.  The one thing that was a major fail (that's for you Scott) were Elijah's shorts.  That kid has one. HUGE. butt.  I had to safety pin them together because in the morning when I tried them on him, they totally didn't fit and I didn't have time to pull something out in time for the trunk or treat event.  He didn't want to wear them at first, but he amused me and wore them until way late in the night, when they wouldn't stay on him anymore.  He wore a dress instead, since he was wearing my black shirt and that was pretty funny.

 The Gaudalajara Wives Club coordinated a trunk or treat event and it turned out great.  We had a good turn out and the kids got enough candy that I didn't have to take them out Monday night for candy.  They trick or treat real late here and having a grumpy kid in the morning isn't exactly my cup of tea.  And since Eva didn't even ask that I take her out, I thought I wouldn't even bother.  I think that is a sign that I am getting OLD!

 A couple weeks before Halloween we went to our good friends' Lincoln and Anjane goth party.  We had a great time.  Everyone said Matthew looked totally goth.  He is pretty funny when it comes to dressing up.  He likes to get real into it but all about a couple hours before the party.  Last minute he is cramming to pull together a costume and we did a pretty good job this year.  Matthew was excited to hear from our friends that the theme for Halloween is likely to be the same every year so Matthew is looking into investing into his goth costume to be ready for the next goth party.

For family home evening one Monday we decorated pumpkins.  These little guys are kind of hard to find in these parts so when I saw them at Walmart I bought them.  Good thing I did because a week later when I went back to the store they were out of pumpkins.  I think each one of these was like $3.  Kind of expensive for tiny pumpkins but worth the family time.

 Matthew spent most of his time looking for what to do with his pumpkin.  I think he eventually settled on painting it all white like Elijah and with lack of time never finished.  Maybe next year.  And unlike Hoarders, we will be throwing away the pumpkins.

 I seriously could not get enough of Elijah decorating his pumpkin.  He was SO into it.  It was the cutest thing ever.  Well, until of course he started painting his body and using his hand as a paintbrush.  Then, I just had to get pictures to remind him later what a mess maker he was.  Oh children...  Hope you all had a good one!