Fiesta!

One nice thing about living in Grenada is that no one expects you to throw a big party when your son turns one. Which is why I can't explain what came over me when I decided to throw a fiesta for Liam's birthday, complete with homemade salsa, Mexican decorations, and get this, a pinata I made myself.

There is a little extra work involved in throwing a party in Grenada. There is no one-stop shopping at super Walmart for all your party needs. To collect all the food, drinks and supplies I went to the grocery store, the hardware store, a stationary store, the pharmacy, a party store, a bulk-buy store, a fruit stand by my house and the market in St. George's.

And there is the matter of decorations. There are some expensive and limited options at the one party store in our area, so that means a lot of labor to create your own. Budgets are tight so there is also a lot of DIY cooking and baking.

But I just couldn't let the day go by without some excitement, and I wanted to bring a little bit of home to the island. I invited over 20 adults and 12 kids to celebrate with us. I mean, if you're going to do it, do it right.

The party planning sucked up all my free time last week (glue, fold, glue, cut, fold, glue...), not to mention the time of some of my poor friends who I roped into helping me. And I even put C.J. to work cutting streamers for the pinata after his clinical skills final last Friday. But it really turned out to be a lot of fun, and a special event to mark the passing of a pretty special year.

Liam, of course, could not have cared less about his party, but at this age it's really all about me, isn't it? C.J. said we couldn't have any more kids if I am going to act like this about every birthday. I promised him there are cheap party stores back in America, and at the very least, I will never make my own pinata again.

The decorations - lots of Mexican paper flowers and banners


Seriously, lots of Mexican paper flowers

And banners

Dang it, forgot to take a pic of the table with salsa, bean dip, tortilla rolls and cowboy caviar; use your imagination here



The crown jewel of the party - did I mention that I made this?

Liam was unimpressed

Our pinata handler (and more flowers and banners)


Let the fun begin - Emma taking a whack at it

Next up, Laurence

And little Zane

And Allie

And finally Kody, our closer

Going in for the loot

Cake time - one cupcake, one candle and one year old

Mom and Dad help with blowing out the candle

Digging in

That icing is pretty good

Mom, I got this

Why haven't you served me this before?

Sweet birthday cards from our little friends - a nice reminder of the fun we had