Sophia's Birthday

On Sunday, a whole bunch of people in my group decided to go to the beach, but I stayed in San José for my hermanita tica Sophia's birthday party. She turned four earlier this week. The party was held at Brinko's, a bounceplex party place for adults and children. I also got the opportunity to meet my abuela and abuelo tico (host-grandparents), a few tios and tias (aunts and uncles) and a whole bunch of primos (cousins). There were about twenty kids and their parents at the party. Brinko's included a huge slide and blow up obstacle course along with a bounce-house, air hockey table, and a lot of kid friendly toys.

This is all of the guest singing Feliz Cumpleaños to Sophia.
She is the one in the orange dress, and my host parents are to her right. 

Of course, what would a Costa Rican birthday party be without a piñata and queque (cake). Sophia loves Disney princesses, so the cake featured Princess Aurora from sleeping beauty. In this culture, parents generally attend birthday parties along with the kid, instead of dropping them off. I appreciated getting to meet all of the kids, and I especially enjoyed a lot of their names (although they were sometimes difficult to pronounce).

This is what Brinko's looked like on the inside. 

After the party, we went back to the house so that Sophia could open all of her regalos (presents). She got four different sets of playdough, which I spent almost two hours playing with later at the kitchen table. She also got a babydoll and a poodle that you can write on and then put in the washingmachine.

My host parents then invited me out to dinner at this beautiful Mexican restaurant in town with some of my host mom's family and friends. The food was absolutely delicious, and it was a wonderful opportunity to practice my Spanish. Overall, it was a really fun day!