quinceañera

You see, out here, 15 is a big year for girls - it is the coming of age deal.  Quinceañeras are usually big, huge, elaborate birthday parties for girls.  The whole deal is in pink, they wear what might be considered wedding dresses (in pink, of course), they have a court of their best friends who wear special dresses and all that nonsense.... I mean wonderful things.  They are often as big as weddings and just as expensive.

We never planned to do anything so fancy anyway, but Maddy and I, along with our wonderful friends, Marlo and Mikala, did decide to do a mother-daughter weekend instead of a party.  Initially we wanted to go to the beach to a nice all inclusive place.  Two or three years ago we would have been able to do it, but prices have gone crazy in the last few years so we couldn't afford it.  Then we thought we'd just go to a regular place.  But goodness - we couldn't find a single weekend that would work.  Finally we resorted to a hotel in Quito.  Even with that, we could only do one night.  But darn it, we did it - as down graded as it was!  And we had a fabulous time.  Fabulous.

We stayed at the Marriott - a hotel normally way out of the price range, but hey, for one night of specialness for our girls?  Worth it.

After a late afternoon of swimming, we got ready for a night at a great restaurant - Zao.  Kind of like a P. F. Changs and quite delicious.  The girls wanted to dress up.  Maddy got ready in the ginormous bathtub.

After a really tasty dinner - eaten only with chop sticks (we weren't that great at it....), we stopped off for ice cream.  Why?  We were ridiculously full.  But you still need to get ice cream, right?

We took it back to the hotel, got all set and snuggled and ate while watching Les Miserables.  The room had a great big TV but no good movie channels.  And we couldn't connect the laptop to it.  So we all sat on a double bed together and watched the movie on the computer.  My butt cheek went numb as it was only half on the bed.  Good thing the movie and ice cream were good!

Morning brought two free (read: included in the price - part of why it was so expensive) $25 brunches. Since this was all about the girls, they had the brunch.  Ceviche in cute little shot glasses, even.

Our server was great and we chatted with him a little.  We told him why we were there, so he ended up bringing the girls a special dessert.  Yes, dessert after breakfast.  

After a whole lot of food, it was time for a little more swimming before we headed back to reality.

I still can't believe I have a 15 year old.  That is reality.