Weddings and Picnics

This past weekend, I was able to attend a wedding with my friends Shawna and Miguel.  In traditional church weddings in Mexico, the couple have padrinos (godparents) that present symbolic gifts to them throughout the service.  In can vary depending on the wedding, but at this wedding the couple had padrinos that presented them with cojines (small pillows they kneeled on up front), Libro (a Bible), and their rings.  They also had Padrinos de lazo and Padrinos de arras.  The lazo is a decorated cord that is in the shape of a figure eight.  It is placed on the shoulders of the bride and groom for most of the ceremony and then is removed at the end.  It is a symbol of their unity and commitment to one another as a couple.  The arras are 13 gold coins that are passed from the groom to the bride.  This is symbol of his wealth becoming her wealth, and his commitment to provide for her.  

The bride arrived in this vintage car... it was a surprise from the groom.

The bridal party preparing to enter the church

There were three little girls wearing these beautiful dresses.  They passed out rice and bubbles to all of the guests toward the end of the ceremony.

And then the next day...

Sunday morning I arrived at church with Ryan and Stephanie, and we discovered it was the El Dia de los Niños.  Kid's Day is actually April 30th, but we celebrated early.  The kids had seats reserved for them in a special seating area and we began the service with songs that were familiar to them.  We were dancing, singing, clapping, hugging... it was a lot of fun.  We also got to sing praises bluegrass style which I particularly enjoyed.  The kids were all assigned a certain color to wear (and the parents matched the kids) depending on the age group that they are a part of.  The church was filled with lots of color:  red, green, yellow, white, and orange.  The funny thing was that everyone was dressed extremely casual for a Sunday.  When I say casual, I mean the ladies were wearing jeans and that is not a normal occurrence.    Stephanie and I were laughing because we were intentional to dress up for church and it turned out to be "casual Sunday".  

After church the celebration continued and the church had a picnic out by the beach.  A few of us headed out there to join in the festivities.  There was a lot of food, games, music, and again celebrating kids and how much God loves them.  Pretty cool.

One of the first games they played was tug of war.  They started out with kids and parents on both sides.  

Here is the Red Team

And here is the White Team

It turned out though that the brute strength of the parents proved to be too much, and after breaking two ropes they moved to a kids only competition.  It was very entertaining to watch people fall down like a row of dominoes (not just once, but twice).

Red Team in the kids only version

And the White Team Kids... they were the champions!

The next game was one of my favorites.  The little ones got to compete as pinguinos.  They tied their feet together and they waddled like penguins (no jumping allowed) to a tree and back.