Braulio's Birthday - March 22, 2014

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A few weeks ago we started planning a surprise party for Braulio. We gave invitations to all of our friends at church and told them that we were telling Braulio that it was just a church get-together, so if they needed him for transportation they could still use them.

Debi decided on Mexican for the food, and then asked Braulio where to get tamales. Tamales are not an Ecuadorian food, so there are not many places that make them. But Braulio had a friend that made them. So he picked up a couple so we could try them. They were very good, so we ordered 60 of the chicken and 30 of the sweet tamales.

On Friday Debi started on the food. She made a great chocolate cake, and then a couple of dozen cupcakes to supplement the cake.

Chanel, Braulio and Mandy came over about 2:00 and then Braulio left at 2:30 to start picking people up. The poor guy had to run a shuttle service for his own party (although he didn't know it was his party, yet).

Debi and Chanel started working on the Spanish rice, and setting all the other things out. I started blowing up balloons and placing them around the front door.

By the time Braulio returned with the first guests, he didn't have a hard time guessing it was his birthday party. After all, the round balloons all said "Felix Cumpleanos" (Happy Birthday).

What a wonderful time we had. Twenty-four people showed up to show Braulio their love. He was very blessed.

This afternoon after church and lunch, when we got back to our house, I was able to get more pictures of all of us with Mandy, so I am posting them here as well.

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