This past Saturday was Cruz's birthday party. We had it here in Sayaxche at the Yaxkin Restaurant on the property where we live. Our landlord and his family did a great job of hosting it and wanted to make it special for Cruz.
Here is a group photo of most everyone that was there. We had a couple more show up after we took the photo. It was a great turnout!
I had brought stuff back from the States to decorate with and had in mind all I wanted to do for the party. His party was at 3:00. Well, about 9:00 that morning our landlord came over and told David he had something to show him. David walked next door to the restaurant and found this-
They had been busy all morning decorating the tables and putting balloons out. We had not asked them to do this. David came home to get me, knowing my reaction might not be good. I have to admit my first thoughts were disappointing. All I could think about was the blue didn't match a thing! Then I quickly got over it and realized what a sweet gesture they were doing. They really wanted to do it for Cruz and how could I not be happy about that.
The party began by playing pin the tail on the donkey. The kids acted very shy and you had to almost beg them to do it. I was quite surprised to see them be so timid.
Afterwards we moved on to the pinata. Our neighbors daughter makes pinatas and has a shop in La Libertad. She made the pinata for us. We think it turned out cute.
We picked it up on Friday and Cruz was terribly afraid of it. He was afraid of all the pinatas in the shop. We kept it in our office and he would not go near that room. Once the party began he warmed up to it. He actually shook it's hand before we tore it up. Here he is getting the first chance to hit it with a stick-
I took several video clips of the kids hitting the pinata. Here are a few of them-
We had the restaurant fix tamales for our meal. That is tradition for birthday's. They were delicious! They served a tostada with it and we had horchata to drink. I wanted it to be traditional Guatemalan food for his party here. I think it turned out great.
A few of the guests enjoying their meal. The kids were quiet and very behaved while we ate.
A missionary friend of mine was going to make Cruz's cake. I was really looking forward to it because she makes beautiful cakes. Well, the day before the party she called to say they were having car trouble and they were not going to be able to make the trip. They live a few hours away. I was very disappointed, but I understood. I then had to regroup and come up with a quick Plan B. I didn't have much to make a cake with. I researched clown cakes on-line and quickly learned that I was in trouble. I did find a clown cupcake that gave me an idea so I ran to a local store here in town and picked up a few things and went home to start baking. In the mean time another missionary friend who found out wrote to say she would be happy to make a simple cake for me and I was happy for her help. I ended up making two bundt cakes, some cupcakes, and a smash cake for Cruz.
This is the "simple" cake my friend Keturah made. It doesn't look very simple to me, haha and I cried when I saw it. I was very grateful to her. What a sweet friend she is!
These are my throw together cupcakes. They look a little scary but turned out a lot better than I thought they would.
We sang to Cruz in English and Spanish and helped him blow out his candle.
He then got to play in his cake.
At one point he dumped it all over and made such a huge mess.
In all the party turned out perfect. We were very pleased with everything. I think everyone enjoyed themselves and that's all that matters. Birthday's are fun, but a lot of hard work. I am glad they only come around once a year, haha.
Here are a few of the sweet people that made the day a lot of fun-
