The party started with Hello Kitty coloring pages the girls could do as they arrived. I downloaded them free from the internet. Then, the girls made Hello Kitty picture frames. I had downloaded the template off the internet and the girls cut them out and glued them to cardboard. Matt took pictures of each guest with our two girls and then printed them for me while the party was going on. The girls then glued their picture on to the frame. They turned out so cute, but I didn't get a picture. I will do that and get it on here soon.
Then, we played "Pin-the-flower-on-Hello-Kitty" which was super simple to make. I drew the Kitty face and the girls painted it for me and we already had the paper flowers from the girls room decorations.
Afterwards, Audrey opened the gifts the girls brought her (they were so sweet!) and then we did the pinata and had cake and ice cream.
It is generally customary here to invite the whole family to a birthday party and serve food as well as cake and the treat bags and such. We decided not to do that and we only invited girls due to the expense involved. Audrey really only wanted a girl-only party. She did concede, however, to allow our two neighbor boys, Alberto and Angel, and the little boy on our other side, Gabriel, to come over for the pinata and cake.
It was the craziest thing, though. And I guess you just get this sometimes....there was a mom that came by that we know who lives down the road from us. Well she stopped at our gate, along with three boys and her two boys and nephew and another girl that we do not know very well and they just stood and watched as we did the pinata. That in itself was not so bad, just awkward. But then they opened our gate and let the three little boys come in. We could hear them telling the kids to go by the pinata.
Part of being here means seeing people who live in extreme poverty. Sometimes that poverty drives people to do really weird things (like push your kid into someone's yard to crash a party). We know this family and know that they live in poverty. We know the husband does not work. And we know that has caused this woman to do some really weird things...and some dishonest things.
So, while in my flesh, I wanted to explain the necessity of being invited to come into someone's yard and to a birthday party, I simply refrained and allowed the little boys to come in. After the pinata had been opened and the candy spilled, I allowed the older boys to come in and gave them bags (There was plenty of candy to go around). (I tried to ignore the screams of the mom for her son to get all the candy he could...)
It is something so simple, but can make a person go nuts. Candy. We've seen it before though, several times. Pinatas make people go a little crazy in this country.
Then we served them all cake and ice cream, even the mom who remained outside the gate. It was a good lesson tonight as we sat down to dinner about how we react to things in the community. How do we be like Jesus to each and every person in this neighborhood?
If we (I) had not allowed this family to be a part of this fiesta, we certainly would have been "within our rights." However, we also would have been acting in our flesh. Despite not being right what the mom did, we felt an example needed to be made to our kids and we just hope they can remember to be selfless and kind and offer grace in the future.
Both Matt and I admitted to our kids that we really didn't know how to handle the situation. We would not expect our kids to enter someone else's yard or go into a party uninvited. However, most of our experiences in this life are about taking what we see, what we experience, what happens all around us and relating it to the example of Jesus Christ. I'd rather err on the side of grace than act out of judgement.
These are the people God has asked us to love as He loves us; in all the good, the bad, and the ugly. And so it is to obey that command that we daily strive.
Enjoy the pictures :)
The cake:
I know I am NO professional...but the smile on the girls faces when they saw this cake was well worth the sweat it took to get this baby to come out today!
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