Feliz Cumpleaños a Scott!

Last week was Scott's birthday and for that matter the first birthday either one of us has celebrated in our new country. What a fun day! I bought a cake from our upstairs neighbor who makes baked goods for a living. The fun began there when trying to tell her what I wanted and learning that here they sell cakes by the pound. "How many pounds do you want?" she asked. How many pounds of what I thought? How many pounds would I like to gain from eating your cake? None please! I had no idea how to order a cake in pounds, so I told her that. Then she told me that I needed a 3 pound cake, which if you were wondering can feed an army, or a small wedding.

We celebrated at lunch with our new friend Kathy and our cook Manuela. They surprised us by decorating the house with streamers and balloons before we came home. We laughed over how big the cake was then indulged as much as we could until we had gained about 3 pounds each.

We brought the rest of the cake (which was basically all of it) to our office where suddenly everyone appeared out of no where and before we knew it they were singing happy birthday and the army size cake was gone. Lucky for us though, the office also had a cake so just as we were about to run out of ours they started singing all over again and brought out the second cake. No worries though this one was only a 1 or 2 pounder. We ended up with half of it at the end of the day. It was a great party at the office and I think Scott left feeling loved to say the least!


When we got home after going out to pizza, I saw my neighbor sitting outside her house in her white plastic chair, so I decided that I needed to be a good neighbor and bring her some left over cake too. The funny awkward thing about this neighbor is that she always offers us juice when we go sit outside with her. You might not think that is awkward but even when we say, "No thanks I am fine" because we don't want to make her go out of the way, she always replies with, "Ok, I will go make some for you". It is some of the best in the country though so I never complain. As I was about to go bring her the cake I noticed she had gone back inside her house. Jokingly I said to Scott, she probably knows we are coming over and is going inside to make us juice. Once I saw her back outside I went and brought her over the cake. Of course she responds with "Oh Thank you! Would you like some juice?" I told her no thank you, I just wanted to share our cake with her. She said she was going to go put it on a plate of her own and bring me back my plate. Wouldn't you guess...when she returned with our plate she also had a glass of juice. It was delicious...what can I say!

Save the best for last! Our guy friends stopped by that night to wish Scott a Happy Birthday and according to Dominican tradition, they cracked eggs on his head and poured water over him. Unfortunately he didn't get the last topping which most Dominicans get...Flour. They turn YOU into the cake! Lucky Scott!

Happy 27th Scott!