4th of July (again!)

yesterday, laura and i celebrated the 4th of july with our mexican friends. they didn't really care about the significance of the holiday, but they did enjoy the food (although they thought the baked beans were pretty weird! nothing like any of the beans here!) and we sure had a great time going waaaaaaaay overboard with decorating and decking ourselves out with some of the stuff i brought back with me last month.

don't you just love my headband and laura's hair ties? haha
our "family portrait." izzy had red, white and blue bows for her ears!
she even got a red, white and blue toy. like i said, we went ALL OUT!
just a few of the decorations
we borrowed an ice cream maker from the haynes. it was really noisy though, so we plugged it in upstairs where we wouldn't have to hear it. doesn't everyone make ice cream in the bathroom?my friend, Ana, and i. we met in March of last year and hung out a lot. then, in august, i lost my cell phone...and her phone number! she thought i just didn't want to hang out with her, and i was really upset that i had no way to get in touch with her. i prayed and prayed (and had several other people praying) that i would somehow just run into her (not so likely in a city of 6 million). then, in january when my dad was here visiting, we were walking around downtown and all of a sudden i noticed Ana just sitting on a bench as i walked by. we were both so excited! after much shrieking and laughing and jumping up and down, i was able to explain what happened and get her number once again. God is so faithful! we haven't gotten to hang out much this semester because she has been working and taking french classes, but i was so glad she got to come yesterday. we have plans to get together this week too. here is a picture of (almost) everyone who came. way more people showed up than we imagined. there were close to 30 people here!
for dessert we had banana pudding, and a flag cake (please ignore the fact that we had to use blackberries instead of blueberries. you do what you gotta do here!) our mexican friends were so impressed that as soon as we got the dessert out, they all started taking pictures of it!we grilled hot dogs and hamburgers (well, actually we just got it all ready and lit the grill, then let our friend, manuel, do the rest!) and had potato salad, baked beans and chips. yummmm
everyone loved the food!
izzy did pretty well most of the day, but she was worn out when everyone left! she's pretty much done nothing but sleep ever since the party ended!