Celebrating Mommy's Birthday

I can't believe it, but today represents my last year in my 30s. It doesn't feel much different than 38, but there is one major difference. Last year I was a mother of 2 and now I am closing out this decade as a mother of 3. My how things have changed. Today I had a great time with my family and got an overwhelming amount of well wishes from loved ones. It was all I could really ask for.

This morning I got greeted in bed with lots of hugs and kisses from the kids. Then they just hung out which was pretty nice.

"Waaaaazuuuupppp!"

Later that evening we went to a very nice dinner with Aba and Abu. Thanks everyone for making this a great day.

Vielot - Gonzalez Family Goes Bowling

So the drawback of having a summer birthday is a lot of times no one is around to help you celebrate. A benefit, however, of having a birthday that sometimes falls on labor day weekend is you kind of get a long weekend that can be dedicated to celebrating your birthday. This year my birthday falls on a Sunday which means Labor Day weekend. Today the family kicked off the celebration by going bowling. It was not the first time the kids had bowled, but it had been a while and it is the first time we did so as a family.

Mateo - all smiles- is ready to get started

Papi is showing Lucia the roll-between-your-legs technique

Lucia is also quite happy to be here

Mateo taking his first roll

Lucia taking her first roll

Family bowling 

We had a great time

We ended the day with a great meal at a local restaurant. A fun kick-off to my birthday weekend.

L &V Hang with Mommy

Now that we have three kids it always feels like we have to divide and conquer to allow them to participate in the activities they like without completely throwing off the other siblings schedules. Today was one of the "split-up" days. Mateo had a chess tournament in the city and we discovered pretty early on that those tournaments take a while,s o instead of making Lucia and Valentina suffer through them we decided to let them stay home with me, so it was to be a girls-only day.

Looks like Valentina is happy with that plan

We figured out a way to also fit Lucia in the stroller. It looks like she is the Wicked Witch of the East and Dorothy's house has just landed on her.

A special treat for Lucia - a lunch at Panera's with a giant M&M cookie for dessert. She is a happy camper.

Valentina is more mellow about the affair...maybe because she doesn't get to eat real food yet, so she doesn't get the joy experienced by huge M&M cookies.

ML&V Enjoy a Random Festival

Hoboken has a lot of activities for families going on in the summer time - movie nights, park activities, and festivals. They love their festivals - today we heard about a summer music festival or something like that happening at Pier A, so we headed out to see what was going on.

When we arrived we found bouncy houses, rock climbing wall, music, face painting and free Ben & Jerry's ice cream. Not too shabby

Mateo and Lucia enjoyed into and out of this bouncy house/slide

"We love festivals!"

Valentina Puts Papi to Sleep

Valentina is sort of settling into a sleep pattern and is starting to figure out her nights from her days although she is not yet sleeping through the night. She has also established herself as a definite morning person. She is always so happy and alert in the morning. She likes to interact with us and tries her hardest to engage...

...but sometimes we are too exhausted to engage back. "nite, nite Papi"

Valentina Meets Satya and Auntie Gina

The great thing about having a baby, other than the miracle of life and overall joy stuff, is the fact that it normally brings in visitors and loved-ones. Today, we were very happy to have some very special visitors in from Pittsburgh.

Auntie Gina, Satya (who Mommy was meeting for the first time) and Aryan (not pictured) came for a quick visit

B-school roomies (w/ kids) reunite!

ML&V Celebrate Tia Lola's Birthday

In the Gonzalez family there is always some reason to party...especially in the summer. Everyone always wants a reason to BBQ, drink and enjoy each others' company. Today our reason was to celebrate Tia Lola's birthday.

The birthday girl, Tia Lola, shares some swing time with Valentina

Later she enjoyed a birthday serenade from all of the kids - Nelsito, Melanie, Valentina, Lucia and Mateo