Michael's Birthday 1/7/2012 Day 366

So Michael is one year old already. I know it's a cliché thing to say but "Don't they grow up quickly?"
We spent the morning cleaning and sorting out the living-room for the party, putting up balloons and streamers and busying with the jelly and mazamora (It's a lot like jam, made from red corn and you get to eat a whole bowl full of it).

Here is Mike in his Captain's hat



I tried very hard to get a picture of Mike with the piñata clown, to show that they were almost the same size, but he was far too interested in grabbing it to stand and pose.



I went out at midday to collect the Pocoyo cake we had ordered especially for Michael. I was so looking forward to seeing him recognise Pocoyo, his favourite cartoon character, on the cake. When I got to the shop they brought out a lovely cake with a hideous drawing on the top. I regret not taking the camera to the shop to photo this monstrosity. Also the cake was smaller than the one I had chosen and had the chocolate decorations missing from the side. As usual the young girls in the shop didn't give a toss that the cake was bad and just kept repeating "This is what the owne left for us" One girl proceeded to attempt to write "Happy Birthday Michael" in chocolate icing directly on top of the bumpiest part of the decoration. Of course most of the lettering fell off and it was unreadable. I told them I wasn't happy and they could give me another cake. So they got a small wafer and wrote Happy birthday again and leant it in front of the bad lettering. I explained that I still needed my chocolate decorations, the bad lettering removed, a bigger cake (or discount) and something done about the ugly unrecognisable picture but they weren't listening so I walked out and left them with the ugly cake. I was expecting to be chased down the street as they won't be able to sell that mess, but they let me go.
So I went and bought a chocolate cake from a nearby shop and had Happy Birthday written on it whilst I waited. Much simpler but I don't get to see Michael recognise the Pocoyo.

The party was a great success with lots of children and Mum's turning up. We sang songs and ate lots of stuff and did the Hokey-Cokey (in English) and a very popular train game around the garden to a favourite merengue



and then it was time for the piñata. I only vaguely knew ow to organise this so my cousin Sara took over and we all had a great time smashing the clown with a big plastic mallet until the sweets and toys came out.
Here he is leading the way



At which point there was a real scrimmage for the things on the floor. It really reminded me of the Corta Monte in Mentushari where Bob earned his small plastic in-tray.





Here's Michael's birthday table



and Michael doing the "mordita" or little bite, where by tradition he has to take a little bite directly from the cake and also by tradition someone pushes his face right in! We only did this very gently for Mike but sometimes it's a real face full.



At the end of the party after all the guests had gone (all taking balloons with them even if it meant climbing the furniture to take them off the walls!) we had Michael's present opening. He was burried in a mound of presents and rather overwhelmed by them all. He did rip some open but then wouldn't look at the others because he had enough to do with the lorries and motorbikes and yoghurts and balls and biscuits he found inside.



Here he is with parts of a lorry-of-pop he was given. He isn't crying but he does still have cream on his face from the birthday cake.



Strangly after all this we received our late comming guests. Daena (a blind girl we have recently met) and her little sister. I never quite worked out why they came so very late but they were very welcome and we still had a little cake, popcorn, jelly, chocolate drink and birthday cake for them.



I think Michael loved his party and he even had an excellent time the next day pulling all the decorations down with me and having a wild time in a pile of balloons.