Karen turns 32

Monday, June 25 was my turn to celebrate my birthday.  My morning started by the Ocampos singing to me with a cupcake looking treat.  They only had the 3 candle, so I made up my own '2'.
I thought my birthday was going to be ordinary, but I was glad they had thought of me and had a small treat.  I loved it.

That morning, Margarita had made some arrangements for Arden to attend the school her girls go to, so he could practice his Spanish.  He protested, but I told him to try it out for 1 day.  That's all he went.  He said class was boring and during recess they didn't have any playground equipment, nor were they allowed to play with balls (I also thought that was odd).  So Arden decided to play with the giant ants.  Other kids joined him, of course and it sounded like it was fun.  However, when I picked him up from school he said he didn't want to go back. He also mentioned he was the tallest kid in the room.   I don't really think his day was boring...I think he just didn't want to get up to go to school.  About a week later when we (including Grandma and Newel) attended Pamela's promotion event, Arden was showing off his daddy...and showing Newel his 1 day classmates.  At least he had some experience of what is like to attend a Mexican school.

Weird political party get together

While Arden and Pamela were at school, we went shopping.  I bought a couple of things for my birthday.

Margarita and me

After school and our costumary late lunch, Margarita's friend, named Vianey, drove us to el Zocalo to buy materials to make our sandals.  More details about that later.   The Zocalo was packed with supporters of a political party.  A lot of the streets were closed and it was chaotic.  They had balloons, music, and people dressed in some sort of folkloric costumes that I'm not sure what it symbolized.  Anyways, it was so crazy that we decided my birthday dinner, later that night, was not going be at a restaurant there.

Aren't they cute?

Waiting for dinner...I'm starving

After dolling up for the night, we decided our best option would be Chilli's at the mall.  Here Chilli's is considered more of a pricey restaurant.  We were lucky that Chilli's had a play area and we let the kids roam wild.
If my mother happens to see the photo with my glasses on...and wonders why I'm wearing glasses instead of contacts...well, I brought my contacts to Mexico, I just forgot the contact case to place them in.

After dinner, somehow, Chinito managed to sneak off and tell the server it was my birthday and the servers came over and sang to me and played a musical instrument.  It was kind of funny and even a bit embarrassing, but it was worth my free dessert.