Joaquin's First Birthday

I love birthday and have so much fun planning them. I have my parents to thank for that. As a little girl they used to celebrate with balloons, piñatas, cake, ice cream, candy bags, and our family and friends. I always looked forward to the fiestas. So I've held onto that. Even if we have a more intimate celebration we always have cake. I remember telling Shawn early in our marriage to make sure there was always a cake for my birthday. As I look back I see how wonderful he's been at keeping that promise. When we went to Isla Holbox last January we found out there was only one bakery on the whole island. I turned 29 that week and Shawn went to the tiny local market to buy a cake mix and with the help of my family and boys he baked me the best birthday cake!

Sorry for the long intro to Joaquin's birthday party. This boy is the sweetest treasure to have entered our family this year and we are so grateful for him! We wished we could share the day with all our family and friends both back home and here. But due to obvious reasons like distance and trying to stick to a budget we invited a few friends and some of the people we've become acquainted with here in the MTC. 

It was a lovely celebration. Joaquin enjoyed his cake very much. He enjoyed the company and sweet hugs and besos that everybody had for him. He was all smiles and kept us on our feet walking him all over the place. He even had an outfit change because well that's just what happens when your the main attraction right? No, he went to town on a slice of watermelon and it got all over his clothes. There was a quick moment when our nephew Kevin and his missionary companion stopped by the house and grabbed a slice of dessert. That was just wonderful, we've been so happy seeing Kevin around the MTC and to be able to share a little bit of all of this with him made me so happy.