long travels /// short stays

Well, my hermanito came back from his missions in Mexico and it was also his birthday. 

So me and the boys packed our bags, and headed on that 5 hr long trip to celebrate. He came back redondito but he was still the same Carlitos. Never unglued from his phone. 

I purposely made sure to pack my boxing gloves because I knew Carl had some. I couldn't wait to see what would happen if there was 2 pairs of gloves in the house. :) I have to report that Jonah calls them punches and loves to wear them. He's a beast!

And of course, Carlitos brings back a luchador mask!!! 

He also brought back the most amazing pulseras {bracelets} hand-made, earrings, belts, keychains and morrales {knapsack} which I am currently using as my purse and now I feel 100% hippified!!!

 I will have to post pictures of it and my new color in my hair! 

And that night, we all gathered around to celebrate his mid-twenties---ohhh that cake was delicious! 

It is Mexican tradition to smash birthday boy or girl's face into the cake. 

Carl's usually too strong for us so we have to catch him off guard--and Moomie knows just how to do it! 

The birthday boy making a chinito face, Moomie and our Tia Betsy {Moomie's sister}. 

Like true southerners, we sat around the dining table, talked, and ate. Then talked more and ate more until the 

pastel was done. Man, you guys should have had some, it was YUM. Good times. 

The next day, one of Andrew's books he had to read {a beginner book that I picked from our library because I'm his teacher--ha!} for school was Johnny Appleseed. I don't know what made him react so strongly about the apple pies and the juicer {shown below} but he REALLY wanted to have a picnic with apples. So off Moomie and Andrew went to get some apples. And I love it when she does that.

So they made apple juice, apple pie, and apple fritters. And the boys went nuts over the apple juice.

They decided they were drinking their juice with spoons...

My family attends a homeschooling group in town and they have a P.E. hour at the local college. 

I took the kiddos so they could play and they also had such a blast. We never get to do any physical exertions when we go to the library and during playground time, it's just them two playing. So I am currently looking for something similar here in Houston for them. I would love to be part of a P.E. group like that! 

....AND good news! My sis finally received her diploma after graduating in December from UTA!!! 

Ahhh. It was almost a great week. I had a terrible headache and could NOT operate one of the nights.
The weather was so cold & windy, the boys only went outside once...

Our drive back was fun because mid-way in our trip, one of the public rest areas had a playground!
 A massive, no-mulch, no-sand, squishy-floor playground {which are the best, if you must know} so we played and played and it gave our behinds some time to un-flatten themselves. 

I returned home and finally saw my honeybun, only we were so exhausted to do anything that Friday night, that we just took a nap and stayed up later than usual :)
 I've said it before and I'll say it again -- i love my family.