Our family has so much fun this Cinco de Mayo weekend. Growing up just a few miles from the border with Mexico, Melinda has huge pet peeves about people that think this holiday is Mexican Independence Day or was invented by tequila makers.
The entire ride down to Old Town on Saturday, Melinda filled the kids in on the rich history of the holiday. She enlightened them the about the Battle of Puebla, France's hold on Mexico during our Civil War and the celebration of Latin American cultural heritage in the USA.
Eleanor fell asleep and Adelaide begged to have the Frozen CD put back on. Kids... sheesh.
Fortunately for the kids, the festival was a lot more interesting than Mom's boring history lectures. They were entranced by the incredible dancers, mariachi bands and incredible tricked out paint jobs of the Chevy Impala club. Matt busted out some haggling skills to buy the kids some hand-carved animal whistles (a frog and an elephant), and we were off and running.
There were also dozens of vendor booths - from local radio stations to national product marketers trying to court latin american customers - to explore. Adelaide and Eleanor ran from prize wheel to prize wheel and soon wracked up a pretty good haul.
Adelaide won two water bottles and Eleanor won two bags - so they swapped those. Adelaide also nabbed herself a Tinker Bell movie poster and won her Mom a free copy of Tim Conway's new biography. They both got star shaped squishy balls, flashlights and lavender prize bags with lavender satchels and scented candles.
After getting so many cool things, it was a pretty big shock to Adelaide the first time she spun a wheel and didn't win the prize she wanted. The kid was pretty convinced that you spin a prize wheel and it lands on what you want... because that's pretty much how things had been going the entire trip. To make matters worse, not only did she not win the Frozen Magnet set, the person behind the booth handed her a movie poster for a new frat-boy comedy.
That was enough to send Adelaide to the brink of tears, and it was a wonderful teaching moment about being a graceful loser. It was such a good teaching moment, we didn't tell Adelaide that Melinda actually won the prize she was coveting. Maybe we'll give it to her for her birthday.
After the top dance team was announced, we capped off our morning with some Mexican food at our favorite restaurant in Old Town then headed home for some naps.
The entire ride down to Old Town on Saturday, Melinda filled the kids in on the rich history of the holiday. She enlightened them the about the Battle of Puebla, France's hold on Mexico during our Civil War and the celebration of Latin American cultural heritage in the USA.
Eleanor fell asleep and Adelaide begged to have the Frozen CD put back on. Kids... sheesh.
Fortunately for the kids, the festival was a lot more interesting than Mom's boring history lectures. They were entranced by the incredible dancers, mariachi bands and incredible tricked out paint jobs of the Chevy Impala club. Matt busted out some haggling skills to buy the kids some hand-carved animal whistles (a frog and an elephant), and we were off and running.
We wish we had pictures to share of the dancers, but we were far from stage and the colored little dots fail to convey how amazing they were. And, our attempts to take a picture of the lengthy line of Chevy Impala's also fails to get across the detail and creativity of the paint jobs.
There were also dozens of vendor booths - from local radio stations to national product marketers trying to court latin american customers - to explore. Adelaide and Eleanor ran from prize wheel to prize wheel and soon wracked up a pretty good haul.
Adelaide won two water bottles and Eleanor won two bags - so they swapped those. Adelaide also nabbed herself a Tinker Bell movie poster and won her Mom a free copy of Tim Conway's new biography. They both got star shaped squishy balls, flashlights and lavender prize bags with lavender satchels and scented candles.
Free face painting is always a delight.
But, oh the tears that were shed when
her ballon sword popped.
Matt seriously toyed with the
idea of getting a wrestling mask...
The water bottles were probably their
favorite prizes. Hydration is important, after all.
This is now hanging in their room.
Little do the kids know, it is more than
just a picture of fairies... it's a movie poster.
We've elected not to tell them Tinker Bell
has her own line of movies... there is
only so much Disney we can handle.
After getting so many cool things, it was a pretty big shock to Adelaide the first time she spun a wheel and didn't win the prize she wanted. The kid was pretty convinced that you spin a prize wheel and it lands on what you want... because that's pretty much how things had been going the entire trip. To make matters worse, not only did she not win the Frozen Magnet set, the person behind the booth handed her a movie poster for a new frat-boy comedy.
That was enough to send Adelaide to the brink of tears, and it was a wonderful teaching moment about being a graceful loser. It was such a good teaching moment, we didn't tell Adelaide that Melinda actually won the prize she was coveting. Maybe we'll give it to her for her birthday.
After the top dance team was announced, we capped off our morning with some Mexican food at our favorite restaurant in Old Town then headed home for some naps.
Taking Selfies at Lunch with Eleanor
The calmer half of the table.
Totally unrelated to Cinco de Mayo, Melinda's Uncle Roak and Aunt Tehri were also in town that weekend. We went over and had a family dinner with at Grandma Mikki's house on Sunday. Roak made his famous mushroom stroganoff with extra sour cream. And, despite making a huge batch, there wasn't even a drop of leftovers.
A master at work.
Tehri and Eleanor are ready to chow down.
Roak and Tehri gave the kids two new dolls,
Ed and Katie. The dolls were hand-made
by their Amish neighbors when they lived in
Wisconsin several years back. Pretty darn cool.
Another great weekend with perfect weather! Really, San Diego, you are spoiling us. And, we love it.
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