For birthday's, Matthew and I set an amount of money we plan to spend and we let the kids decide whether we spend it on presents or on a birthday party. The boys usually choose presents, but Mercy so far has always asked for a party. The past couple of years she's opted for a large dinner party with a couple of her favorite families, but this year she wanted a little girl party, complete with a craft and nail painting. We invited a couple girls from church, all the girls in her school class, and her Kindergarten teacher and her teacher's daughter. We ended up with six little girls, which was perfect, plus Becky and her teacher Mrs. Brooks. Cassie, of course, was also there, as well as Cassie's mom, Aunt Karen, who flew in late last night to visit for the weekend.
It was a beautiful day and the girls were able to play in the back yard until everyone arrived. Once everyone was here, we did a little sewing craft. Earlier in the week I hemmed the top and bottom of some rectangular pieces of fabric, then at the party helped each girl put wrong sides together and sew up the sides to make little bags. Pretty much all they did was push the pedal while I kept the fabric straight, then turn the bags right side out and thread a piece of ribbon through the top to make the drawstring. It ended up being really simple and the girls all loved it. Mercy and I picked out several different colors of nail polish, so each girl got to choose one, get her nails painted, then take the bottle home in the bag she made. After nail painting, we opened presents and ate pizza. Mercy wanted an ice cream bar rather than cake, so we had Neapolitan ice cream with an assortment of toppings for dessert. There was a bit more playing outside, and that was the party. Easy peasy, and Mercy couldn't have enjoyed herself more.
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Matthew needed to zero in his shotgun for turkey hunting and Abraham wanted to dig in his hole, so this afternoon, while the Barrios' and Karen explored Old Town, the five of us spent a couple of laid back hours out on our property.
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Cassie's 25th birthday is tomorrow, but it's going to be a crazy busy day, so Beto's mom offered to make her a birthday dinner today. She made a Bolivian yellow chicken with rice and potato dish that was delicious and reminded me very much of the food I ate on my mission. I didn't manage to make Cassie a cake, but between Mercy's two celebrations, we figured we all had had our fill of birthday treats.
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