Family Celebration

Yesterday, as I posted, was Elena's Forever Family Day. The day itself was pretty low-key but we did have a party/dinner last night to celebrate. Unfortunately none of our blood family was in the area to celebrate with us. However, as those of us in the adoption and military communities know, family isn't always about who you are related to by blood. So we celebrated with our friends who are family -- Angel and her sons, Zach and Jacob (our neighbors who Elena is in LOVE with), and Meg, Ben, and Nathan. Momma CiCi and Jack weren't able to make it as they have the rough time of being in Hawaii right now. Tough, I know.

For dinner I decided to make a Guatemalan meal. I spent a lot of time on the internet researching different meals and I settled on pollo en pina (chicken in pineapple), arroz Guatemalteco (Guatemalan-style rice), refried black beans, fried plantains, and pastel de tres leches (three milks cake). I am proud to say that I made this entire meal from scratch. It was DE-LISH!!! Definitely going to be cooking all these items again, though next time I am going to grill the chicken before simmering it. Now I am torn as to whether to make this same meal in April for Garrett's forever family day, or to try one of the other traditional meals. Maybe I'll even get brave and try tamales!

Here are some photos of our fun night. Unfortunately I didn't get any photos of Zach while he was over, so I included a photo of a few days ago when my girl and her new favorite guy were watching a video together.

Awww, first movie date

Ummm -- bubble juice!

(We had sparkling grape juice to toast a great year and bless the next. The kids all called it "bubble juice" and the name stuck.)

Yummmmm -- cake! Let's just say that the kids didn't leave any of that on their plates!

Some Nathan cuteness

Bubby and Daddy snuggles and loves. Gotta love the guys in my life -- they are just so sweet and cute!

Some Elena cuteness

Lena and Auntie Meg

Lena and Uncle Rice (Meg said that my kids had a rice for an uncle -- Uncle Ben -- and so, of course, I have decided that the name will stick and my kids have been willing.)

Garrett and Auntie Meg

Tickle time!

Nathan and Uncle Chris hiding from the Daddy Dinosaur -- Nathan really thought he was hiding behind that tree. Kids crack me up!

Garrett carrying his cars around the house. Love how he clutches them close to his chest to carry or protect, I'm not entirely sure which.