Feliz dia de la Madre

One of the things that both Steve and I enjoy is meeting new people. After church yesterday, our doorbell rang and there were two men from our neighborhood there. They invited us to come to a dinner and get together at 6 o'clock. We showed up fashionably late, but not late enough! It was still another hour before people started showing up. The kids played with their friends that they have met while we've lived here and we began to meet our neighbors as they showed up. It turned out that it was a Mother's Day celebration and the men were cooking the food and serving it too! Probably the only time they ever did such a thing! They made Carne Asala (yummy merinated beef), black beans, salsa, bbq'd onions, baked potato and tortillas. It was neat to see the couples interacting as the men did something so out of their cultural norm. Of course there was deffinitly a language barrier, Steve and I managed to visit and get to know quite a few people. There was a hired singer entertaining everyone while we ate and the music was cranked so we also had to yell in order to have any conversation. It was a riot! After dinner, Steve sat with the older men around a fire and I stayed with a group of ladies who were obviously a very tight group. One old guy got up to dance with his wife and the "President" of our neighborhood told Steve that he had to dance with me. We played along and everyone got a big kick out of that. There was this neat old couple that got up and did a traditional dance that looked really fun(ny); we'll try to show you when we get home....not really. We went home at about 10:30 and the party continued into the night. I woke up at various times durring the night and I could still hear them celebrating Mother's Day until daylight. At 5 a.m. They wrapped it up with a song for all the Mothers, Aunties and Grandmothers at full volume that probably could have been heard a mile away.....except it was right outside our window! Then there were fireworks and everyone went home. I'll have to catch up on some sleep later.
This morning we went to Joy Filled Homes to take part in their Mother's Day celebration. The teachers of their school had decorated the dinning area and put together a really nice program with some songs, games and a special message for mothers done by a local pastor. I picked up the gyst of it, but being in Spanish and since I hardly slept last night, I nearly fell asleep once or twice. After the message, the teacher asked for two volunteers. No one responded so I jumped in and volunteered Magda too! She came up and then we needed partners to feed us something for a race! I figured I could handle some crazy ethnic dish or something spicy. When Denise uncovered the bowls and I saw that they were full of soggy cornflakes, I almost threw up on the spot! I do not eat cereal because it gets soggy and gross. As she aproached us with the bowls, I caught a wiff of the nasty warm milk. EWWW! Again, my stomach twisted and groaned. The thought of one bite sent me through the roof, much less a whole bowl of miserable cereal. I couldn't even attempt it. Magda and her partner had already started and Fernenda agreed to switch. I managed not to gag as I fed small fast spoonfuls of the sludge to Fernanda. She was an eating machine and we won by at least a couple spoonfulls! Horay for Fernanda, I had been ready to forfeit! I may even have nightmares about that race!
The kids were all dressed in their Sunday clothes and looked so cute when they danced for us at the end of the program. What darlings! We stayed for chocolate cake and pop. Cole has the ladies in the kitchen wrapped around his finger and they gave him 3 big pieces of cake! They would have given him more but I pulled the plug on his con.
Before we went home for lunch, Eden and I ironed the new curtains that I sewed for the girls room and Steve hung them. They looked pretty good and Maureen was very happy about them. Sigh. Now to clean house and start packing!