Children's Day at Cafe Colibri

Here in Mexico, April 30 is Dia del Niño (Children's Day). People all over Mexico spend this day celebrating children with parties, pinatas, and sweets. We met a man about a week before Children's Day who is an owner of a coffee shop in the downtown area. He offered to throw a party for our Sunday school kids. We announced it the Sunday before and the kids got so excited. These kids hardly get out so this was a huge deal to them. We all met at the church at 11am and everyone boarded the bus we had rented to take us all there. We tied yellow ribbons on each child's wrist and said many prayers that we would not lose anyone...or end up back home with a kid that didn't belong to us - ha! We had 36 kids, several members of our Sunday school team and a few parents. According to our chauffeur, the bus held 25 sitting and 22 standing - LOL. Every bit of space was taken advantage of.

Sardines

More sardines! :)

A few of us opted for a more cushy and luxurious ride (just kidding - the bus was too full lol)

We arrived at the plaza early so the kids all lined up so we could get a head count. After counting them, several kids had to use the restroom. One tiny little guy had a particularly pained expression on his face - we found out later that he was having some explosive issues. He had the biggest smile on his face when he came out of the bathroom.

The tiny little guy is actually front and center in the blue shirt and brown pants...and hilariously enough, we caught the distressed look! Oh my word :D

The adults took the kids to the bathroom in groups of five - a couple girls from Nicole's group ended up getting locked in their stalls. They couldn't figure out how to turn the metal knob. Nicole had to scoot under the door on her back - wearing a white top - to help get the door open. They were very happy to be liberated.

Nicole, Ana, Paulina, and Miguel

Here we all are!

Jera went around taking pictures from the webcam on her mini laptop. We got a kick out of it.

Nicole and Jera

The coffee shop that the party was being held at is in Puebla's convention center. There is a big, beautiful garden behind the plaza that we took the kids through.

Ana kept coming up to me and saying, "Cargame!" (Carry me!) 

We stopped under some trees to play games. It was such a beautiful day!

We had a hula hoop passing competition between the ladies and the kids. 

We won :)

After playing games for a while, the cafe was finally ready for us.

Happy to get refreshments

Belen and Daniela

We played charades while waiting for the food to come out

Serving cake

The owner of the coffee shop had a pinata made up for the kids - we were not expecting so much!

Whacking away!

After several whacks, the princess was decapitated and fell to the ground below. They ended up just throwing the candy over the side of the stairs. The kids were going wild!

We got home completely exhausted, but happy to have survived without any tragedies. So many doors have been opening lately for our kids - they are a spoiled bunch!

~Bethany~