Last Saturday Gabe turned 3, and requested a farm animal themed party. Here is the photolog in reverse order since I am no longer able to change the order of pictures in blogger. Can someone please help me??
Here we are tired but happy after a long and beautiful winter afternoon playing outside.
The kids pinning the tail on the horse. All played, except Gabe who refused to wear the blindfold.
My handsome boys - the younger of which didn't get his hair combed for the party because his father was in charge of dressing him while I went ahead to set things up. oh well. Gabe ADORES his dad, and is sad every.single.day when he wakes up in the morning or from his nap and his dad is at work. And he loves to tell anyone who will listen that now he's big and plays golf and football (soccer) in the grass with his dad.
Gabe hitting the piñata.
Blowing out his candles while I hold back Celeste who blew them out the first time around.
So happy we are singing to him!
Running across the basketball court with their pinwheels. They were supposed to be decoration but made a great activity!
Cupcakes decorated with farm animals accompanied giant suckers, white chocolate covered popcorn, number 3 sugar cookies and mini caramel apples on the party sweet table.
Gabe and Roque in the fantastic barn my niece Vicki painted on the giant piece of cardboard I found in a dumpser in front of my house. I made little beanbags for them to throw through the windows at each other and the kids had a great time.
The dessert table with the piñata and the souvenir bags for his friends. I made little coloring books and we gave them to the kids with crayons and modeling clay.
I am 3!!! (his thumb is up you just can't see it.)
This was my fridge the day before the party - the door wasn't closing properly so I called the repair man, and he had to remove the door and take it with him to fix. So I baking and preparing for a party with a fridge covered in cardboard. nice.
The kitchen table more or less looked like this the whole week previous to the party - and every day Gabe asked "is this for my party"? "are Roque and Felipe coming to my party at the church?" "can we have my party today??" "can I see the candy inside the piñata? just a little bit? Can't I just eat one piece mom??" anticipation. it's the foundation to appreciating the moment!
Elder Neil Anderson of the Quorum ofthe Twelve Apostles presided over our stake conference and we got to meet him and his lovely wife. It was a wonderful experience for all of us, but especially Mario who got to spend quite a bit of time meeting with him and was so impressed with his humble and kind spirit.
In a less spiritual reunion, I went to the concert of the Argentine heartthrob Axel with my friend Carolina and Florencia - my most wonderful babysitter/cleaner/helper ever. 
It was in the ballroom of a hotel and there were maybe 1000 people there - very fun, relaxed concert full of screaming females.
In case: selling all our belongings, packing, making sure we have all the necessary birth certificates and documents, getting international apostilles for them, selling our car, going to a million doctors to make sure we're all healthy before we have no more insurance, trying to find a car and a place to live online, etc. etc. etc. weren't enough, Mario lost the keys to the car last weekend. Which necessitated breaking two windows, having the car towed, getting the keys replaced, then getting the windows replaced. Fun. 
I'm a second child - there is no baby book or record of my firsts. I swore I would not do that to my children, yet my second child is suffering the same fate already. Lucia is now 8 months old. She's been crawling all over the place for a month now, and for the last couple of weeks pulling herself into standing on anything that will support her - usually my pants legs. Makes it difficult to get things done. She is still ridiculous about sleeping - hard to get her to nap, won't sleep through the night - but when she's awake for the most part she's happy and giggly and babbling and we all adore her to pieces. Oh - except that she completely hates her car seat and screams any time we are in the car. Nice.
Gabe has survived his first girlfriend and first breakup. For the last couple of months he has come home from school every day telling me about his friend Barbi (just in front of him in the picture). "Ma, Barbi es mi amiga" with a special smile on his face. He wants to go to Barbi's house, he wants her to come to our house, he's sad when she doesn't come to school. Then today, I asked him if he played with Barbi today and he told me: "No, parece que Barbi no fue mi amiga. Es amiga de Mattias y el es grande" (No, it seems that Barbi was not my friend, she is friends with Mattias and he is big). But he seemed not at all concerned or saddened by that. I tried no hold in my laughter until he could no longer see me. 
