Mexican Marketplace

The first graders at R's school held a Mexican Marketplace today, in honor of Cinco de Mayo. All the parents were invited. R was so excited about it. He mentioned something beforehand about being a cashier and being worried about the stress that goes along with that. :-)

It was so cute. As I walked in, I was handed five paper pesos. There were three big tables - one "selling" God's eyes, one selling bark paintings, and one selling paper flowers - all of which the first graders had made.

R was manning the bark paintings table when I arrived (I heard him yell, "Hi, Mama!!!" and saw him waving and smiling at me). I bought one of his bark paintings for 3 pesos. Then, he told me to go buy a God's eye. So, I bought one from one of R's best friends. (Then, I had to go replenish my pesos.) I bought a paper flower from another of R's friends.

R's teacher then assembled the parents in one area and the kids all lined up to sing two songs in Spanish. (There are about 60 first graders - my camera only caught a few of them, obviously.)

Afterwards, I got a few more pesos, and R ran around to the different tables so that I could buy one of everything again from him. We found his other bark painting, so I bought that, too.

Everyone was so excited. The kids were thrilled to be in charge of the "money" and to sell their wares. They were all wearing colorful vests they had made in class.

A fun start to a happy Cinco de Mayo! And, R is going to teach me how to make a God's eye when he gets home today. I never learned that growing up - weird!