Esperanza turned 4 years old today! A few days ago I asked her what she wanted to do on her birthday. Not her birthday party day, but her birthday day. I suggested going to a movie and she said no. Pool? No. Beach? No. Zoo? Nope. I began running out of ideas and worried that I'd already set her standards too high, and only 4 years into it! Then I suggested the park. She perked up. But still not super enthusiastic. Then I suggested spending the day with her cousin Rafa. She screamed with delight! So it became, the day would be spent with Rafa, and we'd all go to the park.
This morning Armando drove all the way out to Rafa's house and picked him and his sister Celeste up. They got back to the house around 10 and Esperanza was still asleep. She did wake pretty soon after though and she dug right into her surprise gifts that were awaiting her. There was one gift saved for last and inside of it was an Ariel mermaid doll. With her was a little note. The note instructed Esperanza to search throughout the house for Ariel's mermaid sisters and friends. The hunt was on and over the course of a couple of hours, and in between doing other things, Esperanza found over a dozen mermaid dolls hiding. In between mermaid findings, the kids colored in coloring books, played with a spelling game that was one of Esperanza's gifts and took pictures with the kid digital camera she also got
Mermaids hiding next to the rice and lentils
I told Esperanza to go potty and guess what she found in the bathroom? A purple haired mermaid!
Esperanza has a thing for mermaids. Not just Arial - which is pretty much the only mermaid you can find if one were to go look for mermaid things. So, when I stumbled upon a Craigslist ad with all these mermaids for sale for dirt cheap, I couldn't pass it up. Sure, a little overboard in numbers, but so what.
While Ezra napped, the kids and I made Esperanza's birthday cake. This year, we picked a quick and easy recipe, a basic yellow cake with cream cheese frosting. Esperanza decided she wanted cupcakes instead of one big cake.
By the time Ezra woke up, the cupcakes were all cooked and we headed off to the park for some play and picnicking. The kids ran around the fields, laughed and chased each other, went down the slides several dozen times, swung on the swings, pushed each other dizzy on the spinning thing, ate pb/jelly sandwiches along with some grapes and gram crackers and had a ton of fun! I even went down the big slide with Ezra several times.
This is probably the coolest slide in Camas. And, it's been at Goot Park since I was a kid.
After the fun started dying down, we packed up and headed back home. My mom stopped by to wish happy birthday to Esperanza and visit for a bit (dang-it, I didn't take any pictures while my mom was over). She gave Esperanza a cute summer dress and a bright tie-dyed top and striped leggings outfit. Clothes always win Esperanza over. I made the frosting, frosted the cupcakes and we ate dinner. My mom had to leave to get back to George before Armando got home from work. When he did get there, we sang happy birthday, ate a cupcake and enjoyed the rest of the evening with all the kids playing in the front yard together.
Happy Fourth Birthday Esperanza!
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