Children's Day 2013

October 1 is "Día De Los Niños" in Guatemala. It is a holiday similar to Mother's Day and Father's Day but celebrates the kids. The kids here love it and look forward to it every year. The schools do big celebrations and this year Cruz got to be a part of it. We were both happy about that! I didn't do much at home mostly because we had company, but below are a few photos of our celebration time.

I made this banner over the weekend to hang for the day.  I will keep it and start using it every year.  In addition to that I hung streamers and balloons in the windows.   The layout of our house may not be my first choice of how I would like to live but I love that it provides a great place to decorate on holidays. 

For breakfast we had banana pancakes, bacon, and fruit.  Here's Cruz (who is in bad need of a haircut!) arriving at the table to eat.

His pancake had heart shaped eyes with chocolate chips, a star nose, and a marshmallow mouth that is missing a tooth.  When Cruz saw the "teeth" he said "mommy, we need to fix that" and he squeezed them all together.  Oh how I wish it could be that easy to fix Cruz's teeth.  I am still very sad about his tooth being gone.

Sweet Ben enjoying his pancake breakfast on Children's Day

Over the weekend Cruz and I had made these crowns for them to wear.   I told him they would be "Kings for the Day".   They had almost worn them out by the time I remembered to take this picture.  I am starting to notice that I am developing a habit of wanting to make festive hats for my boys to wear on holidays.  It's fun, they like it, and I guess I'll continue to do it until they are old enough to tell me to stop, ha. 

Because it was going to be a celebration day at school all of the kids got to wear normal clothes.   Here are my "little Kings" before Cruz left for school. 

While at school Cruz had a full morning of games, music, playing, eating cake, hitting pinatas, and devouring lots and lots of candy.  What kid wouldn't like a day like that, ha.  As if that were not enough he came home
with this gift full of candy from his teacher. 

Our guests were still here so we all enjoyed lunch together.  I cooked a chicken, broccoli, and rice casserole with a carrot souffle.  For our dessert we had a happy face lemon cake.  I let Cruz pick out what flavor cake and icing he wanted me to bake.  He chose lemon.

Our children's day dessert.  I used M&M's to make the face.  I put them around the edge too but you can't see them in the picture.  

The afternoon consisted of naps for the boys and then we spent the rest of the day just playing.  Our company left and we thought about driving into town for supper, but ended up just staying home instead.  Cruz had seen on an episode of "Peppa" on Discovery Kids how they took a box and made a television out of it.  It was an episode when the power went off and they needed something to do to pass the time.  He asked David if they could make a t.v. like Peppa.  They did and he spent much of the afternoon pretending to be a television  person.  It was simple fun and he loved it.

Here's my little weatherman, sportscaster, comedian... who knows what this little one will end up doing in life. 

I love celebrating with my kids and not just on a holiday, but everyday.  There is nothing in this world that I would rather be than their mom.  I hope that days like this will remind them just how much they are loved and cared for.  I hope they will always know I adore them, wish the best for them, and will always be here to support them.  Kids truly are a blessing from the Lord!