Birthdays, Mother's Day and San Ramon's Festival!

Stedelgn's Birthday Celebration!

Meet Stedelgn, the Birthday Girl and Tinkerbell for the day, with her cousins!

The birthday theme was Tinkerbell from the cake to Stedelgn's outfit to the t-shirts of her cousins that had Tinkerbell on the front and, let's not forget, the Tinkerbell Pineta. 

On the 11th of August we were invited to the above mentioned Birthday Celebration of 2 year old Stedelgn.  Stedelgn is a very special child with a very special family.  She was burned on most of her body when she was quite young and abandoned by her birth Mother.  Carlos and Yuslania adopted her and she is now a happy, self assured little girl with an older brother and sister and many friends and relatives.  She has worn, and still wears, special fabric on her burns to help with healing and reduce scarring.  Stedelgn is the niece of our employee, Roberto, and the granddaughter of Flor with the Soda where we get the best hamburgusas and we think of all of them as our Costa Rican family.

The party was held in a large building adjacent to the church where many events are held in Berlin and it was packed!

In these two photos you can see what a large celebration it was.  We felt like the whole town had been invited to join in the fun.  Food and drinks were served and at the end, all the children received a bag of favors!

There were people we knew like Damaris and Amanda and many more that didn't even look familiar!  The tables were decorated with balloons to make the large room festive and there were two men playing guitars who entertained most of the evening.

Tinkerbell even had her own little table and chair to enjoy her birthday cake.

There were so many children that after a few tried unsuccessfully to break the Pinata,  the insides were released to be enjoyed by all!

In the end we all sang a Spanish Happy Birthday  to Stedelgn with the help of the two guitar players and headed home! 

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Mother's Day!

One party ended and another was to begin!  In Costa Rica Mother's Day is on the 15th of August and we were invited to the home of Elida and Jose who are the parents of our neighbors, Eileen, Edwin and their six children and one little puppy!  We had a ball and made some connections, saw familiar faces and met new people who were mostly, if not all, part of this wonderful family.

To give you an idea why we had so much fun I'm beginning with this video of Hazel and Dr. Don!

Our wonderful hostess fro Mother's day,  Elida with her grandson and Hazel's son, Jose Arturo.

We were royally entertained and fed all evening and enjoyed a delightful variety of people.

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Hazel and her friend (probably family and I'm sorry I don't have a name)  were so funny with their costumes and antics that we laughed so hard our sides hurt!

Not only is Hazel a comedian but she sings Karaoke!!  There were a number of wonderful singers and the mic was busy most of the evening!!

Here we are with Eileen!  Her talents lean toward cooking and raising wonderful children!  Thank you, Eileen, for inviting us to share Mother's Day with your family.  We love having all of you as our neighbors!

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Festival San Ramon--140 Years

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It is impossible to imagine the time put in to preparing for this Festival.  For weeks we watched the work of construction going on to create the required structures--it is the rainy season here--and that was only a small part of the necessary planning and preparation.  It appeared that the materials were used and the structures were rustic but very functional.  In front of the church there was a stage built and covering for spectators, as well as a number of places to eat.  All events in Costa Rica include food don't they everywhere??

You can see here some of the tables and benches that were created for people use for eating or just taking a break.

This picture shows the stage and area for an audience!  At this time there was a young man doing a little Michael Jackson.  Every day and evening for about 3 weeks there were different kinds of entertainment going on.  When in town, it was always worth a walk by to see what was happening.  We were never disappointed and enjoyed much of the talent we saw.

Another group of young people performing.  This group also included three young women singing and doing a nice job.

Face painting for children and adults alike.  It was fun to see people walking around with so many different designs on their faces.  This is also the area around the park where the various venders were located.

One day while we were there we walked by this young lady with her pet Iguana on a leash!!  There is always something new and different to see!  The structures around the park were full of venders selling just about anything you might want including cabinets for kitchens, jewelry, food and solar panels!

I'm going to end this blog with a photo of the inside of the church and the beautiful floral decorations that have been added for the celebration!  Although I am ending this blog page, it is not the end of the Festival events we are going to share so stay tuned!