Happy Birthday Alicia

This past Friday we were invited to the birthday party for the daughter of one of our friends who lives in the village near our rancho.  Alicia was celebrating her 11th birthday and we thought the party was going to be from 4 to 5 p.m.  Of course everyone needs to understand that we were told this in Spanish and although our language skills have improved greatly, we are still novices in many forms of communication.

We show up at the socially acceptable time of around 4:20 and we find that there is hardly anyone there.  Thus we help Augustina, Alicia’s mother, set up for the party and help entertain some of the children who have already shown up.

It is a lot of fun as I have my camera and Jo Ann gets some of the children to do gymnastics in the yard.  As they are doing summersaults and headstands, I am able to show them the images on the LCD viewer on the back of the camera, it was a lot of fun, and a great way to practice your language skills.

As the party starts to unfold, some of the children bring out Alicia’s pet hamster.  The kids have a great time playing with the hamster, although I am not sure it was reciprocal. 

Around 6p Alicia’s father Arturo comes home and is greeted joyously by both of his daughters.  Although Mexico may not be a wealthy country financially, it is so amazing to see how many families are truly happy and content with their lives.  


Jo Ann and I talk many times about the various places we have lived in the US, from SoCal, to NoCal to Chicago to Minnesota and never have we seen some many communities that financially do not have much, but emotionally and spiritually have so much.  Maybe a number of my fellow boomers should come to Mexico to see what happiness can be all about.

The fun of the birthday party moves from the yard with all the children running around to dinner, where we have a wonderful meal of grilled chicken, rice and these absolutely sinful Rancho Beans.

After the meal, Arturo brings out the piñatas, one for the girls and one for the boys.  Now I have never been to a party where there is an authentic piñata so this was a real treat for me.

Even Jo Ann got into the action and was blindfolded and swung at the piñata, however, I promised to keep those photos hidden as her swing did not look at all like Barry Bonds.

After both of the piñatas are opened and everyone has picked up their candies, we move back to the dinner table for cake.  As you can see below Alicia only had to blow out one candle which she did just fine.

 

However, after the candle was out, her friends helped her to “enjoy” the cake by pushing her face into the frosting.  It was great fun.



Both Jo Ann and I feel so grateful to have been invited into the village of Las Palmas and our adopted new country of Mexico.