Piñatas

I have posted before on this blog to show you my piñata creations. For Ella's birthday, I began to wonder if my pinata creations could possibly match up to the piñatas that are made in Mexico. Before embarking on this difficult task, I decided I should check out the prices of piñatas first.

I was surprised to learn they run between $40 and $45 pesos (yeah, about $4). Hmm...the reason I made my own pinatas in the US was because the pinatas were about $20 each (for cardboard you're just going to beat up?! Give me a break!). In this case, I gave in and let Ella have her pick of the local fare:

She decided she wanted Strawberry Shortcake who was hiding the back room, in need of repair. Her hair and clothes were spotted and bleached from the sun, and she needed some new crepe and tissue paper. I wish this photo showed her condition better. She was sad.

We took her home and did some surgery until she looked like this:

The kids happily beat her to a pulp for Ella's small birthday party (5 friends only).

Happy 6th Birthday, Ella!

Jenga

For this past Christmas we gave the girls a Jenga game. Can I just say it is an extremely age-appropriate game which we all enjoy playing together?

How not to drive...

Maneuvering down narrow village streets can be tricky. In downtown Ajijic, most of the electric poles next to the street look like this...

KFC in Mexico

Would you like some Jalapeño with your mashed potatoes?

Chapala Carnival

We went to the "Chapala Carnaval" (yes, it is spelled that way) last month. We arrived in the late evening just before dark, and found the whole park nearly empty. Vendors were just beginning to set up for the night. One vendor told us the crowds would start around 8pm, and continue until 3am or so. Until the crowds began to arrive, wWe scoped out the animals, got some food, and prepared ourselves for the festivities and mariachi noise!

An almost perfect family picture.... :::sigh:::

The toppings on the table at a burger/hot dog joint:

The rides at the Carnaval weren't nearly as cheap as I remembered from two years ago. This ride was $3, so we just watched the other kids get into these giant balls and roll around on the water. Pretty cool "ride," in my opinion! Most other rides were $10-$15 pesos apiece ($1-$1.50 USD). Yikes!

We have started to give the girls a small allowance. They have a chart they fill out daily--and they get 1/2 a peso for each item they do right that day (clean up, talk nice, don't hit, listen, take a bath, etc). They have a hard time hitting all of those goals, but they love the chart and the bribery does work in shaping up their behavior throughout the day. The money doesn't add up really fast--but every week they might earn $1 to $1.50 or so. They saved up their money for a few weeks to go on rides, and then we also chipped in so they could enjoy some activities.

Their giant bounce-houses are awesome. They usually include multiple levels of trampolines and balls. As always, our children are show-stoppers when we walk around places like this. Hard to hide their pale skin and bright hair!

Maiya really enjoyed driving the ghetto bus.

And let me tell you...it was SOOOO ghetto :)

For the first time ever we let Jared do one of the carnival games to try to win a stuffed animal. He popped a balloon and we thought he had won. But, alas, no reward. I guess we were wrong, and we didn't know the rules. Language barriers!

The highlight of the night was watching the Ballet Folklorico from Guadalajara. They did a small show with traditional Mexican dancing, and all of the kids were glued for quite some time! We saw the performance at night, so it was hard to get a photo. Here's a photo I found online of the dancing with their beautiful and colorful dresses:

I don't have the patience to let my video upload for the predicted 349 hours, so instead I will just link to a video of one of their performances that is already online, here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGCBo3UsO30&feature=related

Overall, we had a fun (albeit expensive) night out with the kids!!

Are we moving?

Earlier this month, Ella asked us when we were moving again. We asked her what she meant, and she clarified by stating, "Well, we always move. We're travelers!" Children are so adaptive! We had to explain to her that although we have moved at least once every 6 months throughout the 6 years of her life, from now on we are staying put! You should have seen her surprise to finally understand that when we said we were moving to Mexico to live, we meant that we were moving to Mexico for GOOD!

It is a great feeling to know that we are finally putting down roots. Indeed, it is the first time in our married life (8 years in May!) that we have no plans to move again! Sure, we'll be moving rental homes...but not leaving this area!

Pyramids of Paralta

When driving to San Miguel Allende with Jared's parents, we kept seeing blue signs along the highway, announcing upcoming pyramids. We thought the pyramids must be coming up really soon, and at every exit would chastise Jared for not being willing to turn off (this never happens in our car, normally, of course).

After 20 or 30 minutes, and miles and miles (and even more kilometers), we finally saw the definite exit for the pyramids. We took the exit, and then went much further than expected looking for more pyramid signs. We stopped a few times to ask people on the roadside where the pyramid was. One looked at me like I couldn't speak a lick of Spanish (seriously...my Spanish isn't that bad...is it?!), and the other two sent us back in the direction we came. Finally, on our return to the freeway, we finally saw the sign we were looking for. It was well posted on the return, but the arrow had been removed from original direction we came from. Relief!

We paid the small fee, and started the short hike to the pyramid.

A grounds keeper began following us around, trying to give me a tour in Spanish, and I tried to translate what I could understand for the group.

This "pyramid" really was more like 2 pyramids. There were two separate structures, and they were quite large in size.

I caught that there were 22 pyramids in the area...And that they found heads in jars...and...well...that was about it! Surely there was more...but this is what I remember, now!

The lower part (lighter) on the steps seemed to be new construction, although it was a pity they covered up the very old stairs. There was obviously a barrier in front of the stairs, but the "guide" insisted we climb up to take a photo.

The larger pyramid was a giant structure with a huge inner courtyard and multiple levels. This was one of the "hallway" entries to get inside. We didn't have to climb far to get to on this one, as most of it was still underground, and hadn't been fully excavated.

The guide also took us to an area where he bounced a small rock off of a big rock. He had us listen to the sound of the small rock impacting 2 different rocks. They had very different sounds, and one sounded almost hollow. Why? Well...it was our turn to guess. We decided it was because one large rock was detached, and one wasn't?....There was a perfect indentation of the small rock in the big rock. So maybe they used it for food preparation? Hmm....I guess we'll never know! Never made it past that language barrier for this particular question...

I took photos of the Spanish informations signs, so that I could return home and look up more info. To learn more about the Paralta Pyramids...go here!

When the tour was done, we tipped him for his time, and he returned to his real job!