so you may remember waaaay back in october becky and i went to church with lerma, a woman who works at gabriel house. today we went back to the same place, but this time with roca de salvacion for a kid's day celebration (i'm telling you...this day is a big deal here. crazy that it doesn't even exist in the states!). cande and his family and a couple other families camped out the night before, and the rest of us got there this morning. abram decided he wanted to ride his bike, so whenever he wasn't holding on to the back of the truck the rest of us were in, he was jumping across rivers and careening down rocky hills while we watched and gave him helpful tips (that way! watch out for the rock! water up ahead! i think he went faster just to get away from the peanut gallery hahaha)

there was a tire swing...what was i supposed to do? look at it?

a bunch of us climbed up this mountain! eliseo and i are in the middle, and higher up is rosario, ana, jonathan, and josue. sandals were not the best choice. but such a beautiful view up top!

worship in the park/valley/clearing...whatever you want to call it! it was great to be with people from church in a place other than, well, church. lots of good conversation, friends, and sun makes for an awesome, joy filled day. woo hoo!

so saturday we took the kids to a party at church (the one we go to on thursday nights). it was for kid's day, so there was a bouncy castle, a pinata, food, and lots of people. the church is also an alcohol/drug rehab center (for people who are already clean, so i guess it's kind of a halfway house?) the guys are wonderful and help so much with the kids we bring. they also have some animals...pigs, chickens, and ducks, and nene and i spent most of the day with the pigs. at first she wasn't sure if she liked them - in this picture she's saying no, no! but then they grew on eacho ther and she was enthralled by the way it was eating...

love.this.face.

well, it's a party, so obviously oscar the grouch and the doctor that stands outside of all the pharmacies in mexico are going to come...

ruben found a babysitter! he loved her, she took such good care of him (and he LISTENED to her)...a match made in heaven.

waiting for becky! i pulled a fast one on the kids...all this time they have been told that becky was coming back on saturday (today). well she wanted to surprise them and come to gabriel house a day earlier, friday, which also happened to be kid's day. it worked out perfectly, because we had nothing planned and the kids were bummed. they were like, it's kids day! how can we not have a party! and i was like, i'm really sorry, guys, but there's just not a lot of money. i'm sure we'll figure something out. so i said i wouldn't be around friday night or saturday morning because i had a friend in ensenada who needed help, so we needed to set up for becky during school on friday morning. they went along with it, because they're great...and then i told them to celebrate kid's day, we could read a story outside at the end of our school day. (what a treat, right? ha. they weren't exactly thrilled.) as we were reading, who pulls up but...becky! they were stunned. the first thing marcos says to me is 'why did you make us put her name in the calendar on may 1st?! she's here a day early!' i said, 'i tricked you...she wanted to surprise everyone!' it was so fun.

some cute videos of becky getting here, and jose seeing her.

reunited with her marcos, wearing the new clothes and shoes she bought him (shorts: size 5T. falling off of him. he's 7 and a half...)

so instead of having a cake to welcome becky back, i decided fruit salad was a better choice. (the kids love me, really. no but seriously, this past weekend two groups came and each brought huge cakes. more cake = unnecessary! even if it was kid's day...)
i put a little bit of whipped cream on top, and thelma looks at her bowl, scoops the entire spoonful of whipped cream up, and devours it, leaving only a tiny bit on her face. i was laughing so hard...so sad i didn't get that on video hahahaha

we went for a walk, and pilar got tired :)

jose, very proud of some work he did in math. marcos just wanted to be in the picture hahaha

marcos decided he wanted to take an angry picture...i decided to take an i-just-ate-something-very-sour picture.

at church tonight - teddy reading along with the pastor.

praying after the sermon. note marcos playing with the car...although this was after he prayed and was prayed for. he's 7! very short attention span...and he did great. we brought josue along this time, too, and he loved it. every time the preacher said amen, josue yelled amen! and clapped and hugged whoever was nearest to him. so adorable.

getting ready to welcome becky home!

teddy being teddy :)
i told him today that he can go to kids camp, at rancho el refugio in july, and his eyes got huge and he started asking me a ton of questions. the thing that he was most excited about is that he isn't going to sleep in his bed for 2 whole nights! he asked me to make him a calendar so that he can know how far away camp is.

nene, on the other hand, asks me every few minutes: kakey? (becky) i tell her becky will be here in a couple days! and then, always, ana? (hanna) me: one month. nene: oh.
so funny - today nene and i were reading i spy together. we looked for a bunch of things on one page and then she kind of goes off to do something else, and i said wait, nene, there are still more pages! and she looks at me, at the book, turns the page, and goes, WOW! which is hilarious because we read 2 or 3 books every single day. maybe a big book confused her. i don't know...but priceless either way.

there are some new videos i've put up lately...if you go to youtube and search "hilaryholbrook" (in quotes, no spaces) it will bring up all the videos i've posted.

marcos and jose playing being before school starts...

nene and ruben LOVING the big books that i brought back from mexicali...an esl program in the states had shut down and the books were donated to mexico outreach, or they ended up at the mexicali camp somehow. we were packing up at the end of the week and i saw this PILE of spanish books, and some big books too. i was like ron, where are those going and can i please have some! he let me take a whole box! chica chica boom boom, tiki tiki tembo, i spy, and tons of great books. the kids were excited to see some new ones :)

eliseo was/is having some major girl problems so i went to his house this afternoon...there's this place he always tells me about but i've never been to. it's called el mirador - it's like a lookout point. oh. my. goodness. i saw ensenada like i've never seen it before. first we were level with the ocean and walked along this beautiful path, right next to the water, while the sun was setting. there wasn't a sandy beach, just big rocks, and so when big waves came up we got wet - the pathway was that close to the water.
then we went up to the lookout point, way way way up this one mountain. there's this stone ledge that you sit on and you can see the ENTIRE city. since it was dusk and then later completely dark, we could see all the lights and everything. there was a full moon and it was reflected into the water, we could hear the seals barking or whatever they do, and we seriously were looking out over the entire city. of course we both forgot out cameras, so we're going back in a couple weeks to take pictures of everything. i-n-c-r-e-d-i-b-l-e. i wish i had known about this place sooner! everyone needs to go.

today was a good day!
i woke up this morning just not feeling it and was trying to get over that. i kept telling myself that i could just slog through the day or i could make the most of it. then i found out the boys broke the cd player that we use ALL DAY at school...i love to have music playing in the background and i was like, dang, this is just going to be one of those stinkin' mondays.
but it turned out to be a pretty good day! the kids worked well and we did a LOT. they knew they were working hard and well and were proud of themselves (and rightly so!)
josue is with his mom for a few days, so preschool was much more calm and i was able to work one on one with all the kids (again...rare).

i just got back from dinner with dan and ivey, a couple who live at rancho el refugio and are working on a school that's being built at the ranch. it was great to spend time with them - they're such a sweet, solid, Godly couple. it was nice to speak english with people in person and not on skype, too!