ARRIBA! ARRIBA! ANDALE! ANDALE! CELEBRATING CINCO DE MAYO

Magical folk like our home.  They love it.  It’s a fact. Father Christmas, Mistletoe, Merry Bright and Mack Mack the elves, Dublin the Leprechaun and Hop, the Easter Bunny… they all come, and somehow they manage to extend their stay for as long as possible.  This week, Dadda and I got to stop hiding jellybeans around the house the Easter Bunny boarded the plane to Easter Island until next year, as we joined in with a different celebration.

You see, the elves were still causing mischief well into March when thankfully Dublin and his Irish magic captured the boys’ imagination instead.  Dublin himself then looked to be getting very comfy, hanging his little green hat in our home…until he was ousted by the Bunny….and they LOVE the bunny.

Talking to a fellow Mommy Blogger at a recent conference, we started to wonder… who was next? Then it hit me. If there wasn’t anything next, that Bunny was going to be setting up camp with his furry paws under our table and eating me out of carrots until it became time for Charlie Brown’s Great Pumpkin book to come out again.  And call me heartless, but there’s only so many times you can reenact the egg hunt, or grow magic jellybeans.

Finally, watching countless hours of Disney Junior and Nickelodeon paid off.  I had an escape route.  Cinco de Mayo!

Cinco de Mayo was originally a Mexican celebration which commemorated their liberation from the French troops in 1862.  It was, like many of our cherished celebrations, adopted by the USA and because of this, we’ve seen Manny and friends on Disney Junior and Nickelodeon’s Dora the Explorer all breaking out the piñatas and having fun each May.

I’ve always wanted an excuse to buy a piñata… Browsing the aisles of our friendly hypermarket in February I tried to convince myself that buying one for the boys’ birthday party and letting over 30 under fours have at it with sticks would be a fine idea indeed.  Now I had an excuse.  I just had to get my hands on it.

As I’m approaching the last few weeks of my pregnancy with baby number three, it’s getting harder to wrangle two boys around in the supermarket with a full trolley to boot. Lucky for me, Asda have a delivery service.  My American friends are highly jealous of this.

A few clicks later and my virtual shopping was completed.  Piñata and party goods were on their way. Our plans for the day included making Sombrero cookies, eating cookies, hitting the piñata and then enjoying tacos for dinner…and I shopped for everything in less than 20 minutes.

The following day our supplies were delivered (and the delivery man had his ears talked off was made fully aware of what we were up to). Bags of brightly coloured plates, cookies and decorating supplies, Mexican food and of course, the coveted candy holder, arrived on our doorstep.  We started on the sombrero cookies and by lunchtime we were eating them in the garden at our own little fiesta; the boys enjoyed the paper moustaches (like Dadda and Grandad Frank’s) and gummy worms at the bottom of the lemonade bottles (like Granny and her drinks in Mexico).

Everyone has the same expression when they taste that worm. Even if they’re made of sugar.  Ewww.

After a peculiarly large meltdown from Jensen over the piñata whacking, we finally got to it.  We stuffed it with sweeties and set to work with pretty crepe papered sticks.

As much as we loved the piñata, it was practically indestructible.  With the sticks alone, the celebration would have lasted well over a year I’m sure.

It took some serious scissor action and Dadda power to burst it open…and then a headbutt.

Thanks to my recently diagnosed gestational diabetes, I was out of the running for cookie munching.  The tacos were a different story though.

It finally feels like Summer is on its way.

Happy Cinco de Mayo!  Olé!