Happy 2014! It seems we never got around to posting in 2013. So here is our year in review :-) Maybe 2014 we'll be better at blogging, but probably not....

Wishing that 2013 was a wonderful year for all of you near and (mostly) far and that 2014 is even better -- filling your lives with love, peace and happiness :-)

January 2013!
After Christmas in Managua with my Mom,where someone very quickly figured out that every stocking has candy in it ...

Then we went to El Salvador for New Year's with Rafa's family. Gustavo and Finnula helped out in PapaTilo's tailor shop .. sort of.

We also got to go up to Chalatenango to see Mama Lina!

February
Rafa celebrated his birthday. The kids helped pick out the cake design and knowing how much he likes his truck they wanted a green truck for him.

I also got to speak on TV about what it means to be a Doula, healthy pregnancy and early childhood with our dear friend Arlen on "Cafe con Aroma de Mujer"

Rafa got to see his brother Mauricio who came home to El Salvador from Italy. It was special to have all three of the brothers together!

March
March was pretty calm. we went for walks everyday, went on a nice date night, beat the heat by bathing the kids in a tupperware tub, church and apparently put Gustavo to work with the Gardner.

Claudia came to visit us from El Salvador in March and also helped out with a project at one of the orphanages. We put her to work at home filling up the pool for the kids as well and dancing with Gustavo! 
April
April we celebrated 5 years of marriage! And we celebrated by escaping to the beach without the kids for a weekend. The kids also saw rain for the first time that they remembered (because there is rainy season here and doesnt rain outside of that), which was a pretty big deal. I guess it is crazy to see water falling from the sky if you dont know what it is. They had a blast.

We also celebrated our now annual Easter egg hunt with dear friends here in Managua

May
We celebrated mother's day by going to Gustavo's school show. He danced to a song from Grease. The kids loved on each other a lot and hand lots of fun together. We went to the beach. The kids helped in the garden (and ate a lot of basil and mint). And Gustavo saw his first movie in the theatre (Superman, Man of Steel) which he took a little nap in the middle of.

June
Meghan celebrated her birthday at an amazing local restaurant. Gustavo talked on the phone to Mom, PapaTilo, Uncle Ian and Auntie Sushmita. The kids got really into kayaking and Finnula grew into another one of Mama's old clothes - a nightgown.

July
We had very special visitors in July when KaPa and Ant Tilly came to visit. We went to Grenada, Mombacho, Laguna de Apoyo and the beach -- all of our favorite places!

August
In August Rafa took a quick trip home to EL Salvador to see his dad and brother Kike.

While he was gone the kids went to the circus for the first time ... and then we went again when we had more special visitors when Rafa got back when Tio Pipo, Tia Lucy, Michelita, Rafael Ernesto and Paquito came to visit. We took them to see lots of our favorite places as well. Gustavo and Michelita have a special cousin bond, but all of the kids had a blast.

In August also the kids started their new school and we found a great park to burn off a lot of their climbing energy

September
In September Gustavo's new school introduced him to music including the drums which he loves! The school is trilingual: French Spanish and English and includes a lot of Montessori principles of open exploration and has a strong science and art focus. The kids have loved playing with clay, new instruments, songs in different languages, small science experiments and their new friends. We took a break at the beginning of September to head back to the states for two weeks and got to see so many friends and family in Charlottesville, DC, Baltimore, Richmond, and a few drive throughs as well (Thank you Johnson family!) and spent a lot of great time in Keswick. We also got to go to Richmond Children's museum with Uncle Ian (Unka Ena) where we apparently decided it was clothing optional.

Rafa has been running a tour business this year (shameless plug here for Ceiba Tour). He has built it from the ground up with a focus on customer service and high quality flexible personalized tours. The business has grown throughout the year and has been a really fun for him! (Even that monkey behind him is trying to get in on it). I do have to say it doesnt all seem like hard work to me...

October
October we celebrated with costumes. All of October. Lots of costumes. Mostly superheros.

I should note grocery shopping is very tiring for superheros. (also this was clearly a boys shopping trip as evidenced by the pop tarts in the cart...)
We also celebrated Finnula's birthday in October with all things Hello Kitty (or "Kitty Kitty" and after her birthday party "Piñata Kitty")

The kids also started swim lessons and we had some nice relaxing weekends at home as well.

November
November is great weather here in Nicaragua -- after the rains and not really hot yet. We went to the beach a number of times -- our favorite beach Playa del Coco -- as a family and with good friends.

We also celebrated Gustavo's birthday with a Hulk Piñata. Rafa might banned from ever buying the piñata again since it ended up being larger than our child. But as you can see Gustavo was more than thrilled. We of course asked everyone to dress up as superheros for the party because it is a given that Gustavo would be dressed as one.

Thanksgiving we spent at Club Terraza with dear dear friends and then headed back to the beach the next day! This time we got to see sea turtles being released which the kids were thrilled about.

December
December began with some amazing happy news:

Surprise! :-) Looking forward to June 2014!
We got to tell our families and then shortly there after my Mom came to spend Christmas with us in what is becoming a tradition.

We of course took her to the beach as well! And then came back to Managua for Christmas and the crazy decorations and fireworks.

All in all it has been a wonderful year. We are looking forward to the adventures that 2014 will bring and hope to see all of you very soon!
Huge abrazos (hugs) from Managua!