Mexico: Valentine's Day and Stuff

Hope everybody had a wonderful Valentine's Day.  Growing up, the way we celebrate Valentine's Day was buying candy the day after at half price.  I only went to public school for kindergarten and every year after that Valentine's Day was mildly celebrate at Cornerstone.

Do people in Mexico celebrate Valentine's Day? Oh, you betcha they do!  This year my eyes were opened to what Valentine's Day is for a lot of people...and I rather enjoyed it :D

Thursday night Hannah very kindly offered to help me make Valentine's cookies for all the kids.  She had a stamp with a bird on it that said 'You're too sweet' so I made tags for all the cookie bags.

Mixing up the first batch of frosting...

Grant's Aunt Ruth that is here with her husband for a week.  She was a huge help!

The finished cookies.  Aren't they fun?

So basically Thursday night these two wonderful ladies baked and washed dishes, frosted and mixed all so I would have something to give the kids for Valentine's Day.  The kids loved the cookies.  Some disappeared right on the spot, others were saved for later.  Some were eaten while writing down the homework assignment...

Valentine's Day was pretty much just a big party.

Some first graders...

And third graders...

Yah, that's six kisses.  I'm not sure who they were from, but somebody must be sweet on that little guy!

Talking about sweets, by the end of the day I had been given 12 suckers (2 of which I ate at school...bad idea), a mini chocolate bar, and two large marshmallow treats.

After school got out, I went and hung out at Grant and Hannah's.  Hannah and Ruth were very busy getting ready for their Valentine's party that evening.  Between making flower garlands, eating lunch, and playing with Ivory the afternoon went very fast.

The party was so fun!  They went all out!!  First we made a flower pin/clip, then made Valentine's for the older women in church.  Afterward we ate (of course :D) and everything was delicious.  The room was very cutely decorated and I think everybody enjoyed the time together!

A party favor. All the guests also got a bag with some fun stuff from socks to hand sanitizer.  

I don't have a group picture on my camera but there were roughly 18 there including kitchen help.  At the end we wrote down Bible verses that talked about love and drew a tag with special instructions of what to do with that verse.  It was a special evening that was a great end to a big day.

Well, it was kind of the end.  After cleanup, Grant, Hannah, and I played a game of Settler's.  I was having a sugar crash after eating wayyyy to many sweets and let's just say that I feel way better after a good night of sleep.

This morning I got up to go on a walk out by the strawberry fields. Ruth went along and this time I took my camera so I got a few pics.  I was really missing my other camera because a little point and shoot has a hard time capturing morning lighting, which is part of what makes the scenery so enchanting.  Anyway, enjoy...

Sorry about the wires.  They seem to be everywhere down here.

The plaza in the morning.  Very empty.  This place comes to life at night.

An there is a strawberry field.  From the road you can see the bright red berries peeking from underneath the leaves.  To the west was the full moon shining in the morning sky and to the left were mountains crowned with golden beauty of the rising sun.  Agh!  Pictures do it no justice.

"When peace, like a river..."

Oh, so beautiful!

Something I've been wanting to post about are these little plants that have been growing in my room.

These are Forget-Me-Not's that Leah gave to me (along with a bunch of other amazing stuff) as a going away gift.  I planted them soon after arriving and watered them but after a few weeks had decided they may not get enough sunlight in my room to grow.  Then one day, I noticed a little green dot in the soil  Pretty soon, there were two little plants reaching out of the soil!

I now have five green stems absorbing sun in the window as I write.  So to everybody back home, especially you, Leah, I have forgotten you NOT!!!  My time here has been enjoyable but thinking of home is always bittersweet.  I miss everybody and everything.  Especially my daddy since today is his birthday.  And I really miss my horse.  

Since this post is getting long, I won't take time to write about the funeral I attended Thursday.  But I plan to write about it soon.  Until then, have a wonderful wonderful weekend!!!!