A New Life In Costa Rica

Gardenia

 

It was a long road but I can now say my gardenia survived the ant eating and is thriving. Maybe the coffee grounds worked. To whatever forces of nature that allowed my plant to be resurrected I offer my gratitude.

Pink amapola

 

This pink amapola is special to me. I didn't know until recently we had pink amapolas. Bill usually keeps them so well trimmed I rarely see any flowers at all. I've asked him to allow them to grow this year and so far he's allowing it. I don't know if he'll keep the clippers in check once the rains start as they do grow rapidly but at least for a little longer I get to enjoy another splash of color around the house.

Rite of passage

Our baby is no longer a baby. Over the weekend she became a teenager. Not something taken lightly by Mama let me tell you. Daddy either. In keeping with the rites of passage her father and I are having to loosen up. It's not easy. Callista finally decided Monday night to have a make-up themed party on Saturday. We both cringed.

We cringed for different reasons, too numerous to list but as my dear friend continued to remind me it wasn't about me. So with that in mind I set out to give Callista and her friends a great make-up themed party... on short notice.

   It was a GREAT party! The girls arrived and didn't waste any time digging into all the make-up we had set out.

 

In searching on line for party ideas I ran across the idea of creating outfits with a roll of toilet paper. Excellent idea! We gave them a 10 minute time limit. At first everyone was a little unsure of what to do but when I gave them the five minute warning they got their acts together and came up with some impressive looks. If you've got a teenage girl party in your future I'd give this one a shot. Bill was recruited to judge the competition. He said it wasn't an easy decision. I think he was afraid of having four girls mad at him.

    

Callista and I decided to take a different approach to pin the tail on the donkey. Instead of tails and a donkey they planted kisses on poster boys from her teen magazines.

 

What's a party without dancing? There was plenty as well as a heated game of musical chairs. Who knew this classic was age defying? It was the guests who chose this game learning that I had more prizes than games planned.

  Food, food and more food. The girls accused us of trying to make them all fat. We certainly made sure no one went home hungry. No rice and beans at this party. We made french bread pizzas and hamburgers, universal favorites as well as popcorn, chips and fruit.

  

Local tradition dictates one must have a pinata at your party no matter how old you are. We added  some costume jewelery to the candy mix as well as a special treasure. The girl who found the diamond ring among the goodies was awarded an additional prize.

 

One of Cal's friends has the same birthday so we tried to make it a special day for her as well with a candle for each of them on the cake. The girls sang Happy Birthday in English while Bill sang in Spanish. That was HILARIOUS! Once the cake was served we learned it's a custom for the birthday girl to get creamed with her cake. The two birthday girls shmeered each other before the inevitable happened. Yes, you guessed it, cake war 2009!

 The girls were thrilled with their make-up gift bags, they were expecting candy. As they left they thanked us and said they felt like it was their birthday as well.

  The party ran over schedule by a couple of hours. Imagine that! Everyone had so much fun they didn't want to leave. Bill drove the guests home to make sure they all arrived safely as the sun had already started to go down.

Callista's passage into teenage-hood was a wonderful success. More importantly, it was all about her and her friends. Bill, the dogs and I stayed out of the way as much as possible and let them enjoy their day.

(Thanks again "P" for helping me keep my sanity, perspective AND offering to come over on a moments notice if I needed you!!!!)

Magic of nature

 

I'm very excited about these! My cactus is about to flower. It's going to be a spectacular show this year. I count more than 10 buds on this one plant. Those are only the ones I can see. This particular cactus, while similar to the type that produces red flowers has different characteristics. For example it's white flowers only blooms for one night. From dark to dawn is the only time to catch these amazing creations of nature.

Subscriber glitch

Subscribers may have had difficulty reaching the web page through email links today, Sunday. Sorry for the inconvenience. I did some blog maintenance this morning and well screwed things up. All should be fine now.

Also, if you're looking for my list of blogs written by people in Costa Rica check the sidebar under the title Blogging in Costa Rica.