Easter Party

Before I get into the details of our awesome day I feel the need to update on the air conditioning saga that just keeps dragging on.  The workers were back at 8:50 this morning.  They walked out at 10:45 with shaking of the hand and head meaning "no it doesn't work".  Seriously?  One of the guys called Linda (actually it was her husband) and she told me they needed to replace another pipe.  I think this is pipe number 6.  They would be back between 1 and 1:30.  Luckily my ayi was going to be here because I had a party to be at.  I arrived home from the party at 3:30 and they were still working away.  They finally left at 4:15.  I had more head and hand shaking.  You have GOT to be kidding me.  I'm pretty sure my dad could have completely built a new air conditioning unit from scratch in the time these jokers have tried to repair this one.  The Warner guy had to come back to do the final adjustments and then it was suppose to work.  Well, guess what?  After another half hour...IT DIDN'T WORK.  They left.  I talked to Linda and she said the after sale guy was coming back in 20 minutes.  6:00 two guys who were here earlier appeared.  At 7:05 we finally had success!  The air conditioning worked in every room.  It was like a Christmas miracle.  Until I went to do laundry tonight.  I had no water to the washing machine.  The workers shut the washer line off while working on the air conditioning but didn't turn it back on.  I had no clue until I tried to wash the clothes.  I tried everything.  Talked to Todd and he told me to try the spicket but whatever I did didn't work.  Sent a note to our agent...no answer.  Sent a text to Ileana asking if Fredy knew how to fix it.  They came right up (it was 9:20).  We were talking about the dishwasher smell and Fredy happened to turn the spicket I was working on and all of a sudden I had water in my washer.  Fredy didn't even realize he fixed what I needed him to fix.  He's the man.  It took about 30 seconds and it would have taken my Chinese repairmen 3 days probably.  Thank God for GREAT neighbors. 

Sure, go ahead and sit on my refrigerator.

Rachel and I, with some help from Ileana, organized an Easter Party today.  Rachel bought everything needed and baked the cupcakes.  We had 45 kids along with a parent for each.  It was a beautiful day...57 degrees by the end, sunshine, and pretty low (in comparison) pollution levels.  I went out about 11:15 because we needed to make sure things were set up and we needed to hide eggs.  Cecilia had the tables set up which were provided by Warner and covered them with table cloths.  Rachel arrived and Me, Wesley, Tatum, Charlotte, Manuel, and Cameron hid the plastic eggs.  There were 503 to "hide".  With no grass yet the eggs kind of stuck out.  We put them in bushes, trees, on ledges, and in holes.  503 eggs makes it pretty hard to have them not be seen.  We did the best we could and the hiding spot actually looked pretty cute with all the colored eggs all over.  The Warner guards thought we were crazy but oh well. 

At 12:00 everyone started arriving.  A picnic lunch was first on the agenda.  At 12:25 we gathered all the kids so Rachel could tell them the rules of the egg hunt.  The big kids were pretty disappointed when Rachel said we were starting with 4 years and under kids.  We took them to the spot and turned the little ones loose.  They were so cute finding their 10 eggs.  Once they were done we turned the big kids loose.  CRAZY!  Some kids had 30 eggs and some had none.  We aren't sure what part of 10 eggs they didn't understand.  We worked it all out though. Of course, Cameron was one of the kids with 2 eggs because there were no more.  He didn't really care but he ended up with 10 once we had the others put some back.  Overall the egg hunt went great and the kids all seemed really happy.

People were beginning to arrive.

The kids were getting the instructions.

I think Cameron was thinking "Seriously, do we need
this many instructions?"

The big kids waiting their turn.

Cameron got a crazy mushy ball thing with yolks in the middle.

Everyone went back to the party spot where they could color eggs, make Danish wishes, decorate cupcakes, or play.  They all did a great job of waiting their turns at things and rotating through what they wanted to do.  From about 1:30 on they just ran around and played.  It was a GREAT day. 



Nice decorating job.  Right after this shot the
coat came off.

The boys came in and were telling me about a first grade Chinese boy that was outside.  The mom asked if he could play with our kids.  They said yes.  He had a pellet gun.  He was aiming it at girls   and Ryley hit the end of the gun so he missed.  They the kid started shooting at our boys.  They told him to quit and then found Ileana and told her.  Ileana went and talked to the mom and boy.  They boys then said the kid was shooting it at his mom.  As they were telling me I immediately was up to go talk to the kid until they told me Ileana already did. 

The boys had a NERF war again.  The workers were looking at them like they were crazy. 

The gang looking tough...Cameron, Manuel, Ryley, Tobias, and Alfredo.