Isabella's Birthday

I got up soon after Alex and Isabella did. I let Alex make breakfast. First he made Isabella a scrambled egg. He made sure to pick all the shells out, though she probably wouldn’t have cared if her eggs were crunchy. Then he made 3 scrambled eggs for himself. After that, he washed the dishes.

After breakfast, I let Alex watch Disney’s Pinocchio. Monday night, he had watched the last half of a live-action version of Pinocchio (with Roberto Benigni). Even though it was in Spanish, he loved it and it occurred to me that he’d never seen the Disney version. It just so happens that we brought the Disney version with us on VHS. A teacher in my department was cleaning out some old stuff and he had several Disney movies he was giving away. I scooped up three of them, and we decided to bring them down here with us and leave them here for the children in Ramón’s relatively new family to enjoy. After the movie, Alex and I walked down to Mus Manni for pastries.

Around lunchtime, Maritza’s daughter Carmen came to visit with her 5-year-old son Andrés. After lunch, Carmen drove Maritza to a doctor’s appointment, and Cristina and I took Alex, Isabella, and Andrés to La Sabana park. Andrés said it was the first time he’d ever ridden a bus!

The park was a bit wet and muddy, but the kids were undeterred. The slopped it up and made sure whoever would be washing their clothes would know they had a good time. At the lake, we saw a young man catch a fish, a tilapia. The man let Alex pose with it for a picture.

Back at home, Carmen and Andrés left and we ate a nice dinner of rice, beans, Russian salad (leftover from lunch) and a little frozen tilapia that I fried up. After dinner, we put a pineapple strudel from Mus Manni in front of Isabella, lit a candle, and sang happy birthday. She got shy, but she did blow out her candle. Not much of a celebration, but the real party is scheduled for Friday at Ricardo’s house after the football game (Costa Rica kicks off the World Cup against host country Germany).

After getting the kids to bed, I finished reading The Da Vinci Code. Very satisfying! Now I’m ready to see the movie. I’ll try to see it here, because I don’t think I want to wait 5 more weeks.

I watched a little TV in bed. On Jay Leno, Jay was talking to a country bumpkin/American Idol finalist that the Tonight Show sends to red carpet events to interview celebrities. Amazingly, her name is Kellie Pickler (my grandmother’s maiden name was Pickler) and she’s from Albemarle, where my grandparents lived! I wonder if she’s related to me!

To see more photos from this day, click here.