Feliz Compleanos Pedro!!!

Happy Birthday Pedro!

My son-in-law turned 30 today and we had a little get-together at our house. He's a really great guy. And husband to Hillary. And super Dr. Daddy. And he's a good son. And son-in-law. (Yerno)

:)

Jerry and I, Hillary & Sophia, Pedro's mom, Astrid, and her hubby, Quique, Dala and Milena with their daughter Salome, Miguel and Shirlley, Iris, Maureen, Jesus and Alcides all came to help celebrate!


Sophia took the picture of her daddy above and the following:

Abuela Astrid - (Pedro's mom)...

Quique (Astrid's hubby) - (I think he was worried about Sophia handling the camera until he found out it was OK)...

and Mommy - (My baby girl, Hillary) (that's Jerry helping in the kitchen)...

I'm so thrilled that Sophia is interested in taking pictures - AND doing such a great job of it!!!

I took a break from food prep every now and then to get a few shots.


Here's Quique visiting with Dala and Milena...

Shirley, Milena and Hillary watching Sophia and Salome play...

Aren't they just about as pretty as it gets?


Here's a shot of Miguel and Alcides...(aren't they just about as handsome as it gets)?

And here's the best one I got of Salome sitting in her daddy's lap. Not sure what they saw but they're looking at the high rise apartment building behind our house.

Jesus (a student at Universidad Del Atlantico), Maureen (from Wisconsin - a teacher at Uni Norte here on a Fulbright scholarship) and Iris (from North Carolina - teaching English at Uni Atlantico - also on a Fulbright scholarship) probably wondering when in the world those hamburgers were gonna be ready!!!...

We bought a new charcoal grill and the 'carbon' is sloooow burning but they tasted good - eventually.


Astrid made home-made guacamole to die for and had a big bag of flat bread chips to go with and I cut up raw veggies so we didn't starve.


It wasn't just the grill that held us up either.


I haven't made my own hamburger patties in at least 10-15 years thanks to places like Costco and BJ's but they don't have pre-made sirloin patties here. 

So...I added A1 Peppercorn Steak Sauce (bought in the States), chopped onion, fresh garlic, a couple crushed crackers and some eggs, pepper and rock salt to my carne molida (ground hamburger) and was happily making patties.


It brought me back to my childhood (teen years) when my mom went to work full time and I became the cook at 14 years of age. We ate hamburgers at least 3-4 times a month and patting those patties together today was soothing and...


comfy.


It was getting close to noon which is when I'd told everyone to come and I was still in my pj's. I figured I'd let the doorbell be my signal to run upstairs and hop in the shower. (It only takes me about 10 minutes to get ready if I know what I'm gonna wear). 

(Remember, most houses in Barranquilla don't have hot water heaters so we don't linger in the tub).


Anywho, I saw Hillary come in and quickly realized that Astrid and Quique were close behind her so I handed her the patty I had in my hand and took off upstairs.


As I was getting dressed, Hillary came knocking on the door to tell me there was a hamburger emergency.

She found glass in the hamburger!!! 

OH NO!!!

I asked her if she was sure it wasn't egg shell and - 

she was sure. 

I just couldn't believe my wonderful hamburgers were tainted.

Pedro was waiting outside in Quique's car so they could make a quick trip to buy more beef. I begged them to wait till I had a look-see and sure enough, there were a couple little pieces of smooth glass. 


While they were gone I chopped onion - again - and put all the ingredients mentioned above in my big silver bowl and as soon as they came in the door with I don't know how many pounds of beef, I started mixing it in with my wooden spoon.


Hillary offered to mix it with her hands, which I used to do, but just can't stomach anymore...so I said, "Have at it".


Made me happy.


Until she said, "Mom...it must be something else because there's glass in here too".


Immediately I thought of the rock salt.


Sure enough - we pulled out the first batch of hamburger (which I'd thrown into a bag into the freezer to take back to the store later) and got out the little baggie which we'd saved the glass in...

and it had dissolved. 


All but a tiny little bit which Hillary tasted.


And yes...that glass was rock salt.


OK - it's funny now but by the time we re-made patties we were all pretty ready for dem dere hamburgers.

But better to be safe than sorry.


Anyhow, They were delicious!

Then after chorizo, hamburgers and hot dogs with a big bowl of potato salad, Hillary brought out her marvelous chocolate cake with chocolate cream cheese frosting (I had her make 2 so I could have left overs for a couple days) (Now - how to hide it from Jerry and our muchacha, Eneida)...

and we sang Happy Birthday in English and in Spanish.

I took video of Pedro blowing out the candles - which by the way did not say 30.


All I had in the house was a big 5 and a big 0 from you know when.


So we turned the 5 backwards and pretended.


He commented that he wasn't fifty yet and I said, "Don't worry you will be tomorrow" but I don't think he heard me.


He made a little speech which I also videotaped but I was paying more attention to Sophia trying to blow out the candles than to what he was saying. 


(I can't wait for her birthday which is in a couple weeks).


I haven't figured out how to load a video onto my blog yet or I'd show you.


Oh Well.

That's one proud mama there...(she listened to his speech).

Everybody was ready for cake...

And then...at the end of the day (almost) Sophia made Grumpy and I verrrry happy. 

She finally tried out the swing that we so excitedly bought her a couple months ago. (And she totally ignored). (I think it scared her the first time because it tilted).


It was a wonderful day.


If Bear and Winge had been here...it would have been perfect.