love, amor, love

Another post that I have had up and running for a while, but never finished.....

I think I'll be brief.  I just want to get this stuff done - call me a sloth.  Go ahead.

So almost two months ago now, friends of ours got married.  She works in the chaplain's office at the kids' school (and is part of Youth World).  He is from here, works in the chaplain's office part time, teaches drumming part time and is a student.  They are adorable.  That is about all that needs to be said.

I feebly helped a friend throw a shower for her.  Oh, I guess names need to be said - a shower for Ashley.  Initially there were some grandiose decorating plans in my head, but that is mostly where they stayed.  A few smaller things came to fruition.

Katie did some games - I don't do games.  I tried to pretend that I needed to take pictures while the games were happening but didn't fly with this crowd.

Everyone (including me) had to draw a picture of Ashley on her wedding day on a paper plate, while holding it on your head.  Then Ashley picked the winner.

I am proud to say that Maddy won.  I got third or fourthish place.... not to bad for a grumpy lady who didn't want to participate.

The wedding was really nice.  It was at a beautiful hacienda with really pretty grounds.  The not so pretty part was all the rain that had been falling, so it was a little tricky to get to.  I should have taken some pictures of the muddy roads!

Thankfully, the rain held off that day until a little later.  It squelched some of the festivities but not too much.  There were too many people there who liked to have a good time, so the party lived in spite of a little moisture!

My job was to coordinate and decorate.  There were many moments that were a bit frantic, as the hacienda people didn't hold up to their end of the bargain in several areas, but there are always people who are willing to pitch in, so it all got done.

I made the little sign above for the flower girl (who therefore was really the little sign girl) to carry down the aisle in front of Ashley.  It was a very sweet idea (not my idea, by the way!).

Then right after they were announced as husband and wife and walked out, she flipped the sign around and walked out in front of them.

They had coke bottles for everyone.  It looked great and was a fun touch.  Surprisingly, bottles of soda are not that hard to come by here.  Ashley also ordered some very neat wooden disposable plates and cutlery.

Sandi, another Youth Worlder, took care of all the centerpieces/flowers.

Ashley also planned for a kids table.  It was covered with butcher paper and crayons were put out.  They even got bags of gummy bears and swirly lollipops.  The problem was that very few kids even sat there.  That was fine by me - it just allowed some of the rest of us to have a chance at the fun.

And a few other detail pictures.....

There wasn't a whole lot of socializing or sitting for me, but I took advantage of a few moments.  You can't but take some time to laugh when you are at a party with good friends.

Other than dislocating my jaw (okay, not really, it just looks like it from how I am smiling), it was a great day.  Rain and all.

we have a seven year old

Sheesh.  I've had these pictures uploaded and ready to post for ever now, and just haven't done the writing.  What a lame mom.

Lucy turned seven......The last birthday for the family for 8 months.  And a glorious affair it was.

Cupcakes for class.  They look kind of nasty here, but there were a cute purple and turquoise - the latest two favorite colors of the birthday girl.

After the singing of the birthday song and the eating of cupcakes, it was time for the reading of the birthday book.  Lucy's teacher, Miss Rinoldo, has the kids draw pictures and write what they would like to give the birthday child.  Then she compiles the pages and makes a book.  The birthday child then reads the book out loud to everyone.  Very cute.

Lucy went crazy, broke with all kinds of tradition, and busted out with "I want to go to Crepes and Waffles" for her birthday dinner.  This, I believe, is evidence of a highly influential oldest sister - not mentioning any names, of course.

Her oldest sister, Maddy (hey, I didn't mention her name in the previous paragraph), made a little dress for Lucy's teddy bear in her home ec. class.  Absolute sweetness.

Cade enjoyed the festivities by drawing a chart showing the correlation between gallons, pints, cups and all that.

Finished!

The chart is now in the kitchen for easy reference.  Handy.

Then Sunday we had some Casa G. type party time.

The "it" gift?  Sour ice breakers - imported, of course.

Ecuadorian tradition is to shove the birthday person's face into the birthday cake.  This is not normally a practice that we as a family or we as a larger, Casa G. family participate in, but apparently Lucy is more Ecuadorian than the rest of us.

She decided to enjoy the fullness of another birthday in this fine land.

Later than evening Lucy got a phone call from one of her closest friends, Shadia.  I wish I would have had a video camera going the whole time.  Hilarious.  They talked (aka: giggled) on the phone for a good ten minutes, Lucy lounging on the couch like a 16 year-old, sucking her lollipop, chatting it up.

Then it was time for some presents.  Boots.

Make up - her favorite, and our least (what was I thinking??).

The following weekend we had her party.  The party was actually supposed to be on the weekend of her birthday but we had a few behavioral issues, let's just say.  The privilege of a birthday party was then earned back (barely) the following week.

She wanted a "fruit" party.  The theme of fruit was based off of her favorite pjs (featured in the photo above).  I was a little uninspired, only out of my typical laziness for things involving our own family, but finally threw up some balloons and tried to make them look like fruit.  I gathered some leaves from outside and stuck them on, then strung them up.

The strawberries were my personal favorite.

The yellow balloon with the big bunch of leaves was an attempt at a pineapple, but I was a little stack in making sure the greens stuck out/up.  Oh well.

I did have fun making a fruit bouquet.

She wanted a cherry cake.  Well, it was sort of a cherry cake..... I really wanted to do a different fruit but I had to bend to the birthday girl's wishes, so a (sort of) cherry it was.  I ran out of space so the stem and leave are a little homely looking.  Okay, the whole thing was pretty homely looking.  I'll just keep the photo small.

The table still looked a little bare, so I threw on a lemon/lime umbrella.  Because, you know, umbrellas are good decorations.

I even (I'm so proud of myself) made some last minute goody bags - printed off some "fruit of the spirit" book marks I found online, "laminated" them (clear contact paper) and stuffed the bags with a bunch of random candy.  Not so random were the little bags of "runts" that Eric brought back from the states.

Mia took on the games division.  She and Cade made a came of "stick the fruit in the fruit basket".  She drew and cut out a basket and the two of them drew and cut out fruit shapes.  The Mia's friend Mia came over and they two of them ran the games.

They also made a treasure hunt throughout the house and outside.  The Treasure was the birthday cake.  So then we ate.

And sang.  Lucy was a little anxious to blow out the candles, so she didn't quite wait until we were done singing.  Eager beaver.

We had cake, fruit kabobs and chocolate fondue, chips and soda.   Lots of good healthy sugar.

The girls all headed up to the roof to eat.

And then, once they were all covered with chocolate and fruit juice and the chip crumbs were stuck to them, Lucy opened her gifts.

The girls managed to stand still enough for me to snap a few photos.  But just a few.

Mia and Mia then led the girls in a rousing game of duck, duck, goose.

Some of the girls refused to play unless we played on the grass, so we moved to the back yard.  And continued on.....

That quickly died out and they went for swinging each other around instead.

The party was only 2 hours long (several parents are Ecuadorian, so 2 hours turned into almost 3, in terms of pick-up).  I don't think I could have handled any more time.

Seven year old girls have a lot of energy.