Fiesta!

If you've known me for a while, you know that I love to have a get together for family and friends on Cinco de Mayo. Over the years I have pondered the cultural appropriation factor, and please feel free to discuss if you disagree, but I think due to my own Mexican heritage and my genuine lifelong love and respect for Mexican culture, my celebration is really just that: a celebration. I do don a Mexican dress but that is not unusual. I make my pico de gallo and other Mexican foods, some of which I really did learn to make in Mexico,again, not unusual. We should, together as a group, discuss the remarkable battle against Napoleon's army in Puebla Mexico, 1862, the triumphant victory of the underdog, but we don't generally get to it. Instead we run around putting sweaters on babies who just want to jump on the trampoline all night, and take moments here and there to laugh and storytell with friends. I do blast Mexican music all night which really keeps the spirits lifted, including but not limited to: Vicente Fernandez, Selena, and Enrique Iglesias.

The swing is such a hit with the young set. After our old rope broke late last summer, we've tried the swing in lower, smaller trees but nothing was just right. Darin and my dad had a rope-throwing event one evening to get a new rope up over the super high oak branch. Darin is pretty impressive in his skills and made it after just a couple tries. We now have a long-high-arcing swing again and the girls are in heaven!

Pretty senoritas.

As soon as Jorden walked in, Lucy gushed "I LOVE your shirt...."

it's no wonder. Here's a closer look.

Watermelon slices, chillin.

The tiny friend group grows and grows.

Three years ago, when I was thirty weeks pregnant with Toot, we all had the ultimate Cinco de Mayo celebration that added a whole new element to our little tribe's ongoing festivities that day. Joey and Emily's wedding. Now look how far we've come.

Unfortunately, something that night triggered a round of pukey-sickness in the group, starting right at home with both of my daughters throwing up ON ME at various points in the middle of the night. It was a first in our household and a story that deserves its own space. We went through all the foodstuffs and pretty much ruled out anything foodborne, so it appears to have just been a strange bug that made the rounds and only hit the unlucky. (I never got it but Darin did). Thus began Cinco-de-Sicko and I sure hope that it doesn't scare everyone off from future Mexican revels.