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A few more pictures from the party.... sadly I don't have any pictures of Mario and I together on my birthday. He worked most of the day, as well as get all of this set for me. And thanks to those of you who helped Mario prepare for this. I really had such a fun birthday!

Friday night we went to the Kaza's to have dinner with Aunt Raquel (Tabitha has a much better picture of Aunt Raquel with the boys on the Suarez Family blog). Here is one of Joey while wrestling with Daddy and MJ. He's kind of cute when he's trying to be scary.

And here is probably the first of many pictures we will see of Joey like this. He learned how to take pictures Friday night. We got this camera 2 years ago when we were in Bangkok to replace one that broke. We got it for it's nice picture quality and appearant durabilty. We like it and all, but it is kind of big. So, we've been hoping that MJ would break it and we could get it replaced (we got the extended warranty). Well, it's survived 2 years of MJ bashing, and now it is Joey's turn. This thing is indestructible... so if you are into that, we have the camera for you.

It's true...

I am now 27 years old! I had an absolutely wonderful birthday... I think I can safely say it was the best birthday so far. Mario came home from work early (Wed night instead of Thursday) so he could be with me on my birthday. We started with a delicious pancake breakfast and then prepared to head out the door for our typical busy Thursday. I knew Mario had more in store as he said we'd have to be in the car and ready to go with the boys at 5:30 that night. (hmmmm...what could it be?) He totally played anything down and I LOVE being suprised so I wasn't going to ask, hint, or even think about what it could be. (Though possible theories included - dinner witht he boys or - dinner without the boys). As I left, I made sure to take a picture of myself with MJ and Joey before we got all messy from the 3 cakes I had that day.

I left the kitchen a mess b/c I was in too big of a hurry to get to our Rosary group. But as I left, I wondered if Mario (who was working from home) could possibly read my mind, and do one of the only things I'd really want to have done for me on my birthday.... clean the kitchen. The Rosary group had a party for me with unexpected and generous gifts, lovely balloons, and a delicious cake.

Later, I left the boys with Julie and went to 1st choice to volunteer. The director of the program was also celebrating her birthday, so of course we had a cake! Then I rushed home to get the boys ready in time to be out to door at....well, Mario changed the time to 5:10pm... but we were ready. OH! And the kitchen was cleaned!!! I was so happy... whether he actually read my mind or not did not matter... what a sweet guy!

He informed me it was a 45 min drive to our destination, MJ fell asleep, I began to theorize that we were certainly all going somewhere as a family as there were no friends 45 minutes away we could dump our kids on. But as we were driving I questioned what could possibly be all the way out in Tyson's corner that we couldn't find near our home? Mario said I would regret that comment later. I then figured we were probably picking up someone from the metro (probably Andrea and Andy) and then going to dinner with them. I was starving, so any solution with food coming soon was good for me.

Well, we did get Andrea, and Mario informed me this was the suprise. I was very happy to be with Andrea and he said we'd get to play Settlers with her and have pizza for dinner (which I was totally excited about). We talked the whole drive back, and even when I arrived at our home, it took me a second to realize that the house had more balloons in it and more people! I couldn't believe it...Mario actually through a surpise party for me! Here are a few pictures from the evening. More to come in the next post since I can't seem to put up more than 4 at a time.