Spanish Birthday Party

Well, we got ourselves invited to a birthday party for a 5 year old Spaniard today. Back in April, when David's parents were here visiting, we had taken the kids hiking on the "mountains" behind our house, and met a Spaniard and her children. We talked for a while and the lady, Maria, invited us to come by her house sometime. We've had a hard time connecting with her since then, though we've tried on a few occasions.

The day we arrived back in Spain after being in the States for a month, Maria rang our bell and invited us to come over. She had been watching for our car to be in front of our house the whole time we were out of the country. Having already been awake for over 24 hours, we politely declined. She understood, and invited us to come over anytime.

Today, we decided to go by their house to visit. They very graciously invited us in, and we found out that today is their son's birthday. They were planning to have a big party in an hour, and they invited us to attend. We went home and got the kids' swimming suits (they have a pool, and we just live around the corner). It was great fun - they are such a hospitable family - and it was incentive for us to continue to work on our Spanish.

Here is Rachel and some of the children at the party:

Keri and Mathis enjoying the food. They kept bringing out more and more food all evening long.

After dinner, they had a theater set up for the children to watch the movie Bolt.

Finally, a simple pinata. It was a box with streamers coming out the bottom. Each child grabbed a streamer and pulled. This opened the bottom of the box, and the candy fell out. Much quicker and safer than a standard pinata. The man holding the pinata is Javier, the dad.