Fingernails, Football, and a Farm Visit

Since Vivian's birthday is in July, she usually gets a fun vacation type celebration, but doesn't necessarily get to celebrate with her school friends.  This year she asked if we could do a simple slumber party type thing before everyone left for summer vacation.  Friday was the last day of school, and on Saturday afternoon a group of her friends came over.  The plan was to get their nails done, and then let them have a "grown up" type dinner out.  The big girls were kind enough to include Elena for nails, so she got her first manicure.

She ended up loving the whole process, especially the grape scented hand scrub they used.  It took a while to get everyone's nails done, but when the owner heard it was Vivian's birthday celebration, she insisted on presenting Viv with a cake and taking time to sing happy birthday. 

We put the cake back in the box to save for dessert though, because the girls had dinner plans.  Jeff met us to retrieve Elena, and one of the other moms came to join me.  We let the girls have their own booth at The Ugly American, so that they could feel like grown ups, while the parents sat a discreet distance away.  It worked out really well.

The girls all piled into Vivian's room to sleep and took a quick dip in the pool the next morning.  The partying continued for the whole family the next day.  Colombia had a football game against Poland at 1, and we had invited the girls' families as well as a bunch of other friends to come over and watch.  One of the best parts about our big apartment is it gives us plenty of space to entertain.  Almost everyone came in their Colombia jersey, even the babies.  It was a lot of fun, especially since Colombia won.

My mom got in that night and helped with the girls while I finished up my last week of work.  Vivian tried out a cooking and mindfulness camp that was run in Spanish.  She really enjoyed it and came home with delicious food.  We were very proud of her.

The following weekend we met up with some friends at La Granja Tenjo which is a farm/restaurant/playground about an hour outside of Bogotá.  They also have a lot of interesting metal sculptures.

We took some time to visit the animals and explore the acre of playgrounds.

There was also a little playground near the table where the girls could play while we waited for food.  We got an assortment of things, but grilled meats were definitely their specialty.  The meat came on a hot skillet shaped like a butterfly.

We stayed for a few hours.  In true Bogotá fashion, every so often it rained for a few minutes.  All the kids screamed and ran off the playground when that happened and back to the shelter of the tables.  We also explored a bit inside the big complex of restaurant and activities.

There were lots of arts and crafts type activities, but the girls' favorite thing to do was feed the farm animals.

We finished off a great day out with some yummy desserts.

A couple days later, I got on a flight to the States with Mom and the girls.  It was another Colombia game day, so we traveled in our jerseys.

It was a close game against England and it came down to a shoot out.  We were in the welcome area at Dulles when the shoot out happened, and there is a bar there with televisions.  We stayed to watch while my dad went to get the car.  England won, which was sad, but we were happy to be at my parents' house all the same.