Paraguay Party

So if you attend the American School of Asuncion you will be invited to 40 birthday parties a year.  Upon arriving here (after our 3rd party) I decided to create a rule about this.  You must PLAY with this friend at recess in order to attend the party.  This has cut our party's down to just a few each year.

So Emma was invited to a birthday party on Friday.  She is good friends with the little Paraguayan girl that was hosting the party so we added it to our calendar.  Lucky for me this friend only lives 6 or 7 blocks straight down the road.  I had a vague idea of where I was headed.  As we were driving down the street we could hear a ton of girls screaming in a back yard.  "That has to be it!"  So we pull over and start looking.  The numbers on the house didn't seem to match up but it was a corner house I I thought the numbers must match up with the other street (they do weird things here, who am I to second guess their logic.) 

So the guard waves us over to the door to the backyard.  While we are waiting Emma says to me very quietly, "I hope I'm not over dressed."  She was wearing her cute black skinny pants with the sequin belt and a beautiful shirt with some sparkles on it.  I tried to reassure her as we entered the back yard.  We can see the girls are jumping on the trampoline in the the far corner of the yard.  But it was dark and the yard was very large so we couldn't see them very well.  I walk her to about the middle of the yard and realized none of the little girls were yelling "Emma you came!" as I had expected (because we were about 40 minutes late.)  Then as we got closer I realized all the girls (now I can see they are about 16) are in their bra's and panties, while jumping on the tramp.

I looked at Emma, she looked at me, I quickly said, "This looks like a swim party.  I don't recall that being on the invitation."  So we headed back to the guard.  He looked at the invitation and then assured us that we were at the wrong birthday party. 

We were one block off but easily found the party on the next street, where there was a totally different atmosphere.  They had hired a DJ and brought in a huge plasma screen TV, with a disco ball, fog machine, 2 waiters serving drinks (that I truly hope did not have any alcohol in them), a dance floor, karaoke machine, bar style seating all over the patio and confetti.  Most of the kids were dressed up and if asked I might even say Emma was a bit under dressed, although it didn't matter because there were so many kids there she quickly got lost in the crowd. 

The invitation stated that the party ended at 10:30 but as I headed out the door the girl's mother told me not to come pick her up before 11 or 12 because she didn't quite know when the party would end.
 
I arrived shortly after 11, there were fewer kids there but the party was still going strong.  Emma however was ready to head home. 

I guess the moral of the story is, Paraguay birthday party's are like a box of chocolates.....

Is it Just Me, or Am I CRAZY?!?

So Emma's teacher sent an email last week asking for "bite sized" treats to sell at lunch to help support the school.  Now I think this kind of stuff is a waste of time, but Emma has gotten a ton of pressure from her friends about participating in this stuff so I obliged.  I bought cute little star cup cake tins and broke out a box of brownie mix and got to work.  She was asked to bring 12 but I sent her with 18.  They were sold for 1mil each.  ONE MIL!  This is the equivalent of 22 cents.  Totalling a whopping 3.88 (because she ate one) that was raised for the school that day.  Now I'm pretty sure that box of brownies cost me about $3, and once I put in the cost for powdered sugar, plates and baggies to sell I think they may have taken a loss.  I asked next time can't I just send $5 and not have to make anything?  Nope, if we do that I'm not considered a team player.  ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!? 

Happy Birthday Emma!

So Emma's birthday started out different than most years.  Shawn and Isaac had a scout camp out at a neighbors house.  So they boys took off on Friday night and left the house to the girls. 

We watched Switched at Birth and ate ice cream before heading to bed.  (Where Emma slept in Daddy's spot.) 

On Saturday morning I went to pick the boys us and we started the morning off with Frenchies (of course). Then Emma had FAME practice for 4 whole hours. While she was gone we decorated the house, started on dinner and a cake and the boys planned a scavenger hunt for her to find her presents.  

The present hunt begins.

Clue #1

The clues lead her all over the house, the linen closet, the kitchen cupboards, the quincho, here she was directed to watch 20 seconds of The Emperor's New Groove.    

 Isaac was especially proud of this clue.  It was his idea to put it floating in the bowl in the pool.  I think he was secretly hoping she would jump in to get it.

 Finally we were lead to the TV room where.... Sweetie Pie and Papa joined us via Skype.  Emma found her presents behind (and under) the couch and sat down to open them.

 This year I was really shooting for the Mother of the Year award.  I mean my mother has had it for so long I felt like it was time she shared it with me.  So in my attempt to win the award (and to make up for our lack of paragliding last year) we bought Emma a Galaxy tablet.  Now in all fairness we were going to buy her a Kindle but decided that she is going to need something for school next year anyway and this just seemed to make a little more sense.  She is so excited!  She has already customized it, and is working on downloading a ton of apps.  We did have to warn her if we found any of the parental controls uninstalled she would lose any and all access to the tablet.  But for now my little girl is growing up. 

 I love this picture, because this is how Eli is with all technology.  "I wanna touch, I wanna touch." Who knows we might be buying one of these for him in the next few years. 

 Last but not least, Emma had 2 requests for her birthday cake.  She wanted to decorate it and she wanted it to be a money cake.  As much as I loved money cakes when I was a kid, and even for the first few years I had kids I really don't love them now.  It takes forever to wrap the money to the point that I know none of it will touch food that might be eaten.  Then when I go to throw the cake out (which I almost always do) I have to go back through and dig for the left over money and wash it off.  So this year I just wrapped 2 bills in plastic wrap and put it on the top of the cake.  When we cut the cake I gave each of the kids one of the bills and told them to enjoy the cake.  I think I took all the fun out of it.  I guess I'll go back to wrapping coins next year.

It is NOT Negro Viernes, but Black Friday

So someone somewhere in Paraguay got the idea that Black Friday was a killer idea and they should have one here.  I seriously doubt that they understood the reason we have Black Friday in the States or why it is even called Black Friday; but none the less $$$ were in their eyes and thus Black Friday in Paraguay was born.   

The idea was conceived a while ago and they tried it out in Ciudad del Este about 6 or 8 weeks ago.  It went so well how could they not do it here in Asuncion?  So for a few weeks every store was advertising Black Friday.  Please note here that because it is a totally American "day" it was called Black Friday in English, not Negro Viernes.  Anyway, the only thing I knew about this whole event is that I wanted nothing to do with it.  I didn't car how much money I could save being out in these crowds was just not worth it.

That evening the traffic was horrific.  We later learned that there was an influx of over 600,000 people into the city that day.  There are only 2 million that live here, and only 6 million in the entire country.  It was NUTS trying to get around. 

I'm sure stores did well enough we will have another Black Friday next year, if not before.

** The following picture was taken from a local news paper. I did NOT enter a mall that day.