Happy Birthday and Pumpkin carving

Today we had a small party for my mom.

My nephew came with his son.

Yes that's right I'm a Great Aunt.

Way to make me feel old Robbie.

Gasp......

Lily sat on Auntie Jessica's lap.

Yea for improvements in relationships.

We decided to do a little pumpkin carving.

Ewww the inside of a pumpkin is gross.




Pumpkin carving takes some serious concentration.

Whoooo Hoooooo

Scary!!

And then, oh so, sweet.

Happy Birthday

to my beautiful, kind, generous Mama!

A Royal Affair

The day began VERY early with the last ring being cut from our paper chain.

Followed by some bouncing and yelling,

It's party day!!! The perfect setting for a Royal Affair.

I do adore my parents personal park,

oh, I mean yard!

Some snuggles while anticipating the arrival of our
Royal guests.



Our first guest arrived

and the Royal party begins.

Thank you to Irma for traveling so far to attend our Royal affair.




Jake came the day before to help us make cupcakes.

He told Lily he would protect her from the dragon.

He took his knight duties seriously.




A little ice breaker to help our guests get in the mood.

Tiaras for the girls

and whats a knight without his shield.

Attention all young princesses and knights,

The dragon has filled the kingdom with fright.

He's swiped the royal treasure and flown away.

We'll need all of your help to save the day.

To help you must play a game and find the clues.

There hidden inside the dragon eggs waiting for you.

And the hunt for the Royal Treasure begins!

You're all doing quite well on this Royal quest,

But you must practice with these next dragon test.

The Royal Dragon Trainer you must make it through,

Before the dragon beast reveals himself to you.

The Test of Wit

Can you make the Royal Jester laugh

By far the favorite party game

Test of Aim

Use your sword or magic wand to pop the bubbles.

And lastly to become a dragon master you must complete

The test of Strength

And finally the dragon revealed himself to the dragon masters

What good would a dragon master be without the chance

to slay the wily beast.

My favorite picture of the day.

All the hard work is well worth it

when I look at that face!

Now that the dragon masters have surely worked up an appetite

Cupcakes!!!!

Happy Birthday my sweet Princess

I truly wish all your birthday wishes come true!

Yummy!

These two crack me up

I love you Miss Sofia!

The tale of two snow whites

Aren't they adorable!

Beautiful cousin Ava.

Sir Jaxton

Cupcake Mania!

And of course the presents

Happy Birthday Mi Princesa

we love you like crazy cakes!

Magical Night

My friend Colleen is amazing

She gifted Lily and I a ticket to a fundraiser

for the orphanage her children came from

Semillas de Amor.

Can I just say lucky little ones to be cared for by a loving nurturing people.

It was in Atherton which is 2 hours away from me.

The tickets were not inexpensive.

For years I have heard of Semillas de Amor

I have looked at their homepage a time or two

but never really investigated it.

Well can I just say it is amazing.

Semillas de Amor has around 25 permanent residents

due to the fact adoptions in Guatemala have closed.

The founder of Semillas has such a vision.

She is educating the whole child.

They learn to play music and craft and read and write

and most of all they have a vision for their own future.

These children are not languishing in an institution they are flourishing in one.

Here is a link if your interested:
http://semillasdeamor.org

My friend Diana and her daughter Dani came too.

We got there a little early

Lily would not try anything out until her friend arrived.

Lily and Dani are a few weeks apart.

Diana and I met shortly after bringing our girls home.

I simply love seeing these two girls play together.

We got some spectacular face painting first.

Gorgeous,

The face painting and the girls.

Face painting and buns make me a tiny dancer!

Then we took to the petting zoo.

These 2 faces say uh, no,

you hold the chicken.

Alright I suppose I'll try holding the chicken.

Hey, he's kind of cute.

Mom, I'd like to take this one home please.

Ok here is where the evening got truly spectacular.

See that man down there

he was the winner of the Latin American Idol.

He is from Guatemala.

His name is Carlos Pena.

Have I mentioned that I melt around men who can sing or play the piano.

I have no idea what he was saying

but I'm pretty sure it was for me!

Seriously though

he is uber talented.

I only use the word uber in extreme cases

and uber is the word for him.

I looked for a video so you could see for yourself

but the grainy you tube videos don't do him justice.
So go to this link and see for yourself:

http://www.myspace.com/carlospenalai

Groupies!

So this is really out of character for me

I decided Lily must have her picture taken

with Carlos.

(We're on a first name basis now)

how often are we going to get to meet a Guatemalan Rock Star.

She of course told me under no circumstance would she do this.

So then I elicited the help from her friend Dani.

Who at first said yes, yes.....

And then we got closer to said rock star

and she quickly changed her mind.

So the mom's couldn't waste the opportunity for their children right?
Of course being in close proximity to a famous person

makes me a complete idiot.

I share my idiocy with you for your entertainment

I put my camera up to my face and can't see anything

so I look to make sure I have turned it on and place it back to my face.

Then I feel a little joggling of my camera

and wallah I can see.

Guess who reached out and took off my lens cap.

Yeah I am that much of an airhead.

If he was singing to me he quickly changed his mind.

So you see my many shades of red.

I'm still embarrassed by my camera foolery.

Oh and of my child who is hiding behind the coats crying

Loudly!

But look at Dani hugging his leg.

She got in the spirit!

You may think from the extensive time spent here on Carlos

that he was the highlight of the evening.

True,

he was quite spectacular.

But,

the real highlight of my night was my child.

Nancy Bailey got up to speak about Guatemala and Semillas

and what its like to raise 25 children.

Lily was not paying attention to the content of her speech

but every time she said Guatemala

she stood up and clapped her hands

with a grin as big as any I've seen and

said I'm from Guatemala.

Then Dani would stand with an equally big grin and say me too.

The pride for their birth country made my heart sing.

I worry often maybe I am falling short.

Maybe we aren't talking adoption enough.

Maybe we aren't celebrating Guatemala enough.

In those moments I got to relax a little.

Find peace with the fact that for the moment

I've done a good job.

This is really why I have such gratitude for Colleen

What a wonderful birthday gift for Lily

and an equally brilliant gift for me.

I will certainly attend again next year.

Even if Carlos isn't singing for me!