Dia de las Madres

Mother's day in Mexico was amazing!! It is a National Holiday...uauh!! Jose had the day off from work and there was a "fiesta" at Santiago's school.
I felt so honored and loved with so many surprises, hugs and so many other special mamas to share the joy with.

Santiago danced a "danza folclorica" which I was very touched by. I remember very vividly when I used to dance and dress in very similar dresses for my school when I was his age! I'm so thankful and feel so blessed to see him enjoy and partake of our very rich hispanic culture.

The children sang, recited poetry, played the flute, the older kids played the guitar and every classroom danced a different song...it was a lovely presentation.

Santiago y su maestra Marcela

After the show, we had "tacos de canasta"...mmmm so good!!

Then I was given this beautiful flowers and to end the evening....a "serenata" with Mariachis and all!!

Even cookie participated in the celebration!!

Thank you to my three sweeties who made my day so special!! Love you so much!

Redesigning the backyard

Now that our time here in Mexico is almost coming to an end, we decided to start preparing the turn in the house. The owner did not want a sand box to be left outside, so we thought a beautiful planter box would be great for them and for us to enjoy for the time we have left here. I had lots of fun picking out trinitarias, roses, hibiscus and some vegetables.

Fortunately, I had great helpers and the planter box was done in no time. Many hands make light work!!

Digging our hands in the earth makes us soo happy!! Incredible connection indeed!!

Now that all the yummy vegetables are in, the bunnies can't roam free anymore...:(
We harvested some bamboo and made them a nice area for them to be in..they did seem to be happy and have since built a tunnel home where they spend time when the weather is too warm.

Huatulco

This was one of our best family vacations...we all had a wonderful time! The beach was excellent...no big waves and the water was warm...the kids were always with buddies to play with since we went with the Bocigas family and their 5 kids. I fell in love with Sarita, their 3 year old daughter and Miguelito, their 5 year old fell in love with Jose and kept calling him "Jose Rios...." Julia their older daughter and Santiago got along great and were always together.

The kids dug holes, built castles, rolled in the sand and burried themselves over and over again...

Here's Sarita and Lucas!!

And then, let's swim some more...why not!!

Then it was lunch time!! and the buffet was great...the kids would all be in one table and were very hungry usually after all the excitement and exercise!!

The hotel was very big so we had to take a cart to go from the rooms to the beach and restaurants and the kids loved the rides!!

Mami and papi enjoyed the restaurants at night...I loved the mediterranean restaurant...their salads were excellent!!

And at night, there were shows that we all enjoyed...with mariachis, folkloric dances and lots of music!!

Easter

This year we did something different for easter. We painted the eggs as every year, but then, we left them for the easter bunny to fill them with goodies!! We were all pleasantly surprised
to find the very same eggs filled with tiny treasures and of course some candy. Now that we know the easter bunny can fill our very own painted eggs, we will continue to do it from now on!!
How clever he is!!

The easter bunny hid the eggs all over the backyard and there was no confusion for the kids since they knew which eggs they had painted.

It was a very short easter celebration. We had breakfast and left to the airport, since tia was going back home and we went to the beach. Thank you tia for coming to spend time with us...we can't wait for the next time!!

Last days with tia Mary

We had been meaning to come and take a picture with the big angel wings near the zoo and now that tia was here we made sure to take her there so she could also get her own picture as an angel!

Aren't we all cute angels??

Then we all went to the museum of Anthropology and saw the amazing aztec calendar!!

Then we saw "Los hombres voladores de Papantla" when we were walking out of the museum...it's always a treat to see them perform.

Here is some history of this ceremony which I find fascinating!!


Los orígenes de la ceremonia de los voladores se remonta a la época prehispánica. Aunque no se tiene una fecha exacta, se sabe que a la llegada de los conquistadores, sus principales cronistas consideraron esta danza como un juego, quizá porque originalmente el atuendo empleado consistía en trajes confeccionados con auténticas plumas de aves que representaban águilas, búhos, cuervos, guacamayas, quetzales, calandrias, etcétera.

Si bien los antecedentes de la danza no están plenamente identificados, existe una leyenda que describe el posible motivo de la ceremonia: Hace muchos años, una fuerte sequía en la zona del señoría de Totonacapan [que comprende los límites de los actuales estado de Veracruz y Puebla] causó estragos entre los pueblos de la región y diezmó gran parte sus habitantes.


Un grupo de viejos sabios encomendó a unos jóvenes castos localizar y cortar el árbol más alto, recio y recto del monte, para utilizarlos en un ritual complementado con música y danza, con el fin de solicitar a los dioses su benevolencia para que les concediera lluvias generosas que devolvieran su fertilidad a la tierra. Este culto debía realizarse en la parte superior del tronco, para que las oraciones expresadas con fervor fueran escuchadas en las alturas por sus protectores.
Al parecer, el buen resultado que dio esa celebración fue acogido como un tributo que debería realizarse periódicamente, convirtiéndose en una práctica permanente, que en un principio se llevaba a cabo al inicio de la primavera, para esperar una buena fertilidad. Actualmente, las fechas varían según la región.

Here's cookie trying to steal the carrots from the bunnies and he got trapped!! silly dog.

The day before tia Mary left, we took her to a restaurant just otside the city where we had a nice lunch and the kids got to pet some farm animals and had lots of space to run around and
play!