Just another day at the park!

We love watching Daddy play soccer! We love to cheer for him ("Go, Daddy, go! Run, Daddy, run!), run around on the sidelines, and just enjoy the outdoors.  Sofia has totally fallen in line with her siblings, and taken on the cheerleading with pride!

The BIG 4-0!!!

It really did sneak up on him!  Daddy had no idea, but the BIG 4-0 was knocking at his door.  To celebrate his birthday, we had Grammy, Grandpa, Vovo and Voovoo come over for pizza and cupcakes, as the kids had determined that to be the best way to celebrate him.
They all helped make the cupcakes and frost them while Daddy was at work and after Ava got home from school.  Then we put up the birthday banner and got everything organized.
It was so cute and sweet to see how excited the kids were to celebrate Daddy's birthday... of course, any excuse to have cupcakes always helps!

Then on Saturday night, Vovo had agreed to stay with Ava, Alex, and Sofia so that Mommy and Daddy could have date night.  Little did Daddy know, but Mommy had a surprise up her sleeve.

I told Daddy I was feeling a bit nostalgic and wanted to go into town to have dinner at one of the old restaurants we used to go to when we lived in town.  So we went, took a bit of a scenic route, and ended up at Chatter's.  I had been keeping an eye on the time, wanting to make it to Onion Creek by about 8pm, as I had invited a bunch of Daddy's friends to meet up with us there as a surprise.  I told Daddy that I wanted to get there to watch the A&M/Rice kick-off - hoping he might buy my story.

Finally we finished up dinner and headed over to Onion Creek at about 8:20pm.  As we were walking in Daddy spotted Shackouls at the bar, and said "Hey that's Shackouls! What are the odds that the one night we go out and down this way that we run into someone we know?!?"  I responded, "Yeah! What are the odds!". Then he saw Triche, "hey man, what are you doing here!?!", then turned around to see the Smiths, Andy G., Aaron Woo, Lisa Triche, Robbie S., and finally it began to sink in a little. He was totally confused to see that mix of people all sitting together at Onion Creek, then turned around and looked at me to say "this is your doing?" "Happy birthday", I responded and then went to find Lisa and Roman Anguiano, who were sitting outside.

It was a perfect birthday surprise.  Daddy did not expect it at all, and I had not seen him so relaxed, laid back, and having fun like that in such a long time.  Even Vovo commented on how much good our outing seemed to have done - a total success!!

After all, I figure Daddy deserves a surprise party every decade or so...considering the last surprise party I threw for him was for the big 3-0!

So much fun!

Too sweet for words!

Alex is just the best big brother!!!  He absolutely adores Sofia and gets such a kick out of her giggling for him.  While Ava was at school, Alex and Sofia decided to look at books together.  Since many of our books are already memorized, Alex decided he would read to Sofia.  She loved it!!!

It was easier to capture them from behind, so they wouldn't notice - but I couldn't miss out on capturing their faces too :)

The Foot Book - by Dr. Seuss

Inside, Outside, Upside Down - The Bernstein Bears