(Seemingly) Endless Celebrations

Ana Luisa's Family Day last month kicked off a very long string of celebrations for our family. First there was Easter. On Holy Thursday we had a little seder-ish meal together, talked about the last supper, and washed each others feet. Ana Luisa really liked that part, and has been occasionally asking to have her feet washed after dinner since then. Good Friday was appropriately rainy and cold. We went to church in the afternoon to do a quick kid-friendly version on the Stations of the Cross together. The weather on Holy Saturday was beautiful, which was good because our hope was to tire the kids out before the Easter Vigil that night. We spent the morning at a playground, and the afternoon playing in the backyard. The kids both took late afternoon naps, and then we got ready for the vigil. The kids both looked adorable in their Easter outfits, but they decided to prove once and for all that the only thing more difficult than getting a good picture of two kids together, is getting a good picture of two kids together when they're dressed up in super-cute outfits. Oh well.
We tried.The kids did GREAT during the Easter Vigil. It began at 9, which is usually an hour after they've gone to bed. Thanks to the late nap, we figured Juan Pablo would probably stay awake throughout the whole thing, which he did. We took paper and crayons, and our budding little artist just drew for four hours straight, until 1am. He would occasionally turn to my mom, who was next to him, to tell her what he was drawing. "Abuela, this is a tyrannosaurus....Abuela, this is a goat eating three apples." He fell asleep immediately in the car on the way home, as expected. Ana Luisa spent the first hour and a half or so of the vigil going back and forth between Jeff and me, occasionally trying to color on top of whatever Juan Pablo was coloring, dancing and singing along with the psalm responses, and generally having a good time (quietly, thankfully). During the homily, I took her out in the back and rocked her to sleep in a quiet corner. She slept up until right after communion. She woke up and looked around at everyone singing around her, and just calmly took it all in. It was a little hard to get her back to sleep when we got home, but she did eventually fall asleep, and Jeff and I (the Easter Bunnies) were in bed by 2am. Not bad.

Not ones to deviate from their normal schedule, the kids woke up at 7:30am on Easter morning, despite the late night the night before. There were Easter baskets, and a little Easter egg hunt in the living room...

Because Juan Pablo's favorite color is red, and therefore he only likes things that are red, he only kept the pink (because it is close to red) Easter eggs that he found. All others went into Ana Luisa's Easter basket. So by the end of the Easter egg hunt, Ana Luisa had a giant pile of eggs, while Juan Pablo only had a handful. But that's the way he wanted it.

After eating massive amounts of jelly beans, we had breakfast to try to get something semi-healthy into the kids. After a few minutes at the table Juan Pablo said, "I don't want to do Easter. I just want to snuggle on the couch with Papa." We took this as evidence that he was tired, and after eating some more candy and dyeing Easter eggs, both kids went down for a nap. We spent the afternoon at Abuelo and Abuela's house, where there were more Eater baskets and more candy. Overall, a great day.

The day after Easter was Ana Luisa's 2nd birthday. We spent the morning all together at the mall, because it was rainy and the mall is one of Ana Luisa favorite indoor places to go (yes, she is girly). Jeff went into work for the afternoon, then came home for Ana Luisa's favorite dinner- hot dogs. After dinner she opened her gifts from us.

She got a baby doll from Juan Pablo...
And a cradle for the baby doll from Jeff and me.
Juan Pablo suggested the name "Abby" for the baby doll, and Ana Luisa immediately liked the name. Baby Abby has since then gotten a lot of love from her mama.
Ana Luisa loves to cuddle her, rock her sing to her, put her down for a nap in her cradle (although she co-sleeps with her at naptime and at night), feed her bottles, change her diapers and her clothes...very cute.

We had cupcakes that evening (since we didn't get enough sugar the day before), and Ana Luisa was able to blow out her two candles. Last year on her birthday we also had cupcakes, but since she was still in Ethiopia, Juan Pablo blew out her candle for her. What a blessing to have her with us for her birthday this year!
The day after Ana Luisa's birthday, my aunt Rebeca came from Mexico to spend a week visiting. Rebeca is also my godmother, so it was extra-special for me to be able to spend time with her and have her meet Ana Luisa.
Because Ana Luisa's birthday was so close to Easter, we opted to have her birthday party the weekend after. Several of her little buddies came...
She did great whacking her first piñata. In fact, she was a little jealous when other kids took their turns. She wanted to be the only one to hit it. "Tortuga. BUM!"
But everyone got a turn, including her big brother, who ended up being the one to (with papa's help) break it.
There was also cake.
And lots of present. Oh, and party bags with favors, which included little star sunglasses, which she is proudly sporting here:
Cutest two-year-old ever.
The day after Ana Luisa's party was Divine Mercy Sunday, as well as Pope John Paul II's beatification. We chose to make a big deal out of this, partly because it IS a big deal, partly because we just love John Paul II so much, and partly because with all the attention Ana Luisa had been getting the last couple weeks, we thought it would be good to have a special day for Juan Pablo. We watched clips from the beatification at breakfast before Mass, then celebrated after Mass by having pastries and coffee with friends and spending some time at one of Juan Pablo's favorite toy stores. That afternoon we celebrated some more at Abuelo and Abuela's. Juan Pablo did enjoy being a little more the center of attention for a day, and better yet, learned a little more about his friend in heave, Blessed Pope John Paul II. And now we'll be able to celebrate Juan Pablo's feast day on October 22! Blessed Pope John Paul II, pray for us!

Five days later we celebrated Jeff's birthday (apparently he felt like he needed to be the center of attention for a little while too). Unfortunately he had to go into work on his birthday, but the kids and I still enjoyed the preparations. We went to the dollar store to pick out gifts for Jeff, which was very amusing. We walked in, and Ana Luisa immediately zeroed in on a display near the front of the store that had pens topped with a frilly, feathery, hat-wearing duck. She started playing with them, and I asked if that was what she wanted to get for Jeff. She said yes. Then Juan Pablo came over to see what all the fuss was about, and decided that one of those would be the perfect gift for Jeff, who would no doubt need a pen to use in his meetings at work. Since there were no green pens (Jeff's favorite color), he went with the next best: pink (Juan Pablo's favorite color when red is not available.). I thought we might have another conflict of interest with both kids wanting to buy Jeff the same pen, but fortunately, while Juan Pablo was finding the perfect pink frilly pen, Ana Luisa picked up a green bike-reflector looking light that turns on when you push a little button. Crisis averted. We came home and made cupcakes.
We also made cards. Juan Pablo decided that instead of writing "papa" which he already knew how to write and was therefore too easy, he would challenge himself by attempting to write "Daddy" on Jeff's card. This was his first attempt:
After we tried sounding out D-D-A-A together and he realized it didn't quite say what he had been going for, I gave him a little help with the spelling:
Finally, Jeff came home from work at the kids were able to give him his gifts.
He loved them, and is now proudly using his pink frilly pen to take notes at meetings. At least that's what Juan Pablo thinks.

Two days after Jeff's birthday was mother's day. We didn't get any pictures of the day, but it was great. The weather was beautiful, and we were able to spend most of the day outside. I am so thankful for my kids, who have made me a mother, and so thankful for my husband, who made sure that I got to relax and enjoy the day.

And I think we're done with the celebrations for now, and won't be wanting to eat any more desserts for at least a month. Or a week. Or...wait, we had dessert tonight. Well, it's finally warm out, that means we need to celebrate with ice cream, right?