Weekend of Festivities

Last weekend we celebrated all weekend long.

Mario initially told me "I don't want to have a party, let's just go spend the weekend with Paco and Alicia." ok. About Wednesday it evolved to "how about we invite a few friends over for cake on Friday night. Just cake, nothing else." sure, I can make a cake. Thursday sometime he comments "maybe we should have cake and one other dessert, just so there's enough." no problem. Friday morning he calls me "I was thinking you could make make that crab dip I really like and serve it with crackers, just to have something savory. but nothing else." ingredients for crab dip acquired. Friday night when he gets home from work "I'm worried people will be hungry, so I bought a bunch of soda and chips and how about I order some pizzas?" It's your birthday, whatever you want baby!!

So Friday night we had a very casual, but with lots of food, gathering with our friends. We started playing a modified version of Taboo, and were quickly screaming and having a riot. It's amazing that Gabe never woke up!!

The women's team, which technically won.

The men's team, which claimed victory due to a technicality.

Then Saturday, as previously planned, we headed to Santa Fe where Paco prepared a MOST DELICIOUS asado for us. Mario discovered the real secret to preparing the meat has everything to do with the right tools...starter cubes for the fire, "asado" salt for the meat, a state-of-the-art barbeque that sucks up all the smoke without leaving the room cold, and some cool utensil thing for serving the meat straight off the grill and onto the plates - one-handed.

I made cake to take with us but made Mario take a picture with it before we left b/c I didn't think it would survive the trip. Can anyone tell me how to get cream cheese frosting how to set up stiff enough to decorate with??

Gabe is sampling the "cream"

We all played croquet on the lawn, and Gabe loved having lots of space to run around and Pilar's playhouse.

and Pilar got Mario to dress up like a magician and pull a bunny out of a hat (which she previously drew and stuffed into the hat for him. I appreciate her sense of preparedness!)

Gabe really enjoyed all of Pilar's toys, especially dressing up as a "'posa" (mariposa = butterfly).

Then Sunday was Dia del Niño, or Kid's Day. So after church Pilar and Gabe got special presents. Gabe got a kids golf set (now I get my kitchen spatulas back) which he loved for the whole 48 hours he had it before he took it to the glass doors on the entertainment center and smashed one. Now he gets to look at the clubs on a high shelf in his room and contemplate his actions for a few days.

And Tia Alicia also surprised him with LOTS of Play-Doh!!! He is thrilled, I'll try to remember to be thankful that you can't break things with Play-Doh.

We all had so much fun we think we might go back this weekend!