iiCinco de Mayo!!

Cinco de Mayo, in my familia, has always been a celebración of something else. My hermano's (brother's) birthday! What a fun day to have your cumpleaños (birthday). :) Josh is 27 this year!

**FYI**
Cinco de Mayo (Spanish for "fifth of May") is a holiday held on May 5. It is celebrated nationwide in the United States and regionally in Mexico, primarily in the state of Puebla. The date is observed in the United States as a celebration of Mexican heritage and pride, and to commemorate the cause of freedom and democracy during the first years of the American Civil War. In the state of Puebla, the date is observed to commemorate the Mexican army's unlikely victory over French forces at the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862, under the leadership of General Ignacio Zaragoza Seguín. Contrary to widespread popular belief, Cinco de Mayo is not Mexico's Independence Day, the most important national patriotic holiday in Mexico, which occurs on September 16th.


*Thanks for the info, Wikipedia 
**I did not know this. :)


Cohen communicated with me a week or so ago that he'd like to see his Tio (uncle) Josh on his birthday this year. :) So, I began preparing ideas. His birthday fell on a Thursday, which meant he'd be teaching. And I worked Monday night, Tuesday night and Wednesday night. I decided on a lunch time Fiesta for him. It worked out that my Mom was here from Tuesday to Thursday, so she was able to join in and help! 


I wanted to make cupcakes. But with working the three nights previous to this fiesta, I knew they'd be from a box mix. But the butter cream was home-made! (thanks for helping with this Mom!)

 Vainilla! (vanilla)

 And Chocolate! (because we couldn't remember his favorite.. It's Chocolate, btw!

We colored the butter cream verde! (green)

We went to Party City in hopes of finding some cute Cinco de Mayo cupcake decorations... none. So, I had the idea to make my own from paper plates. So I did. :)

I cut out the shapes and attached them to toothpicks.

Pretty cute! The cutting was the most time consuming part of this whole project. And we had 36 cupcakes. :)

I asked his girlfriend for lunch ideas. I wanted Mexican (of course..) and it needed to be near his school. She suggested Amelia's Cocina Mexicana. (translated: Amelia's Mexican Kitchen) Good choice!

So Thursday, after an hour of sleep, we frosted the cupcakes and loaded up Cohen. (Hector was busy and couldn't join us.) We stopped at Amelia's and got enchiladas, nachos, chips and salsa. This was a surprise for Josh, remember. 

We got to the school about 20 minutes before his lunch. We checked in at the office and the secretary called his room to see if he was in there. (He told us he thought something was up when she did this..) :)

I knocked on the door and then just opened it. I poked my head in with Cohen visible, and he looked at us and was so surprised and happy! He immediately put down what he was doing and made his way over. 

My Cohen didn't know what to think of his new surroundings!

Cohen was Superman for the day (Josh loves Superman; all part of the surprise)

So then, all the little girls in his class wanted to hold Cohen. I cringed but obliged after asking them if they'd been sick, making them sanitize their hands and sit in a chair.  A few of their comments? "Look at his cheeks!" "He looks like my little brother!" "My hair did that when I was a baby!" "Is he part Mexican?" (these kiddos were smart!) "I'm part Mexican!" which lead to "I'm half English, half Mexican and half Scottish." to which I replied, "That's three halves!" She shrugged, as if to say "It is what it is." :) I love kids. 

Something about my brother? Wherever he is, people love him. The office staff, the other teachers, the kids, the kids' parents; they all love him. I know that he is a wonderful teacher and employee. I'm so proud to be his sister. 

See? told ya.

Then we ate lunch in his classroom!

 Josh's enchiladas.

Mom's and my nachos.

The finished cupcakes!

There ya go, Superman poster in his classroom!

And right about now, Cohen got sleepy and cranky. He hadn't had a good morning nap. But while I was holding him and walking, he spit out his paci and full-on laughed out loud! I've only seen this one other time, when he was playing with Daddy. But he was just looking up at me smiling and I said, "What is it baby??" and he giggled. "What's so funny?" more giggling. I'm not kidding. It was that ultra cute baby laughing that people put on YouTube. I just didn't have my flip video handy. I teared up, because it was so cute and sweet. And he still doesn't do this very often. 

Trying to get Cohen to take a nap... not happening. 

We decided to take Cohen outside, Josh wanted us to meet a couple teachers who were on playground duty. 

Cue stampede of children who spotted a cute baby:

 Not sure if the sombrero is for his birthday or Cinco de Mayo. Both?

There are more kids running up, too.

Cohen has never seen such a thing!

These kids must smile for any 'ol stranger with a camera! :)

Uncle Josh with Little Coco

I'm telling you, this baby was tired. He fell asleep as soon as I buckled him in!

It was such a nice surprise for Josh. He was so happy that we came out just for his birthday. I'm sad that I didn't get a picture with him. We love you Uncle Josh! Happy Birthday! Happy Cinco de Mayo!