recognize anyone?

We've had a very exciting weekend!! The kids got to dance in a parade on Saturday, along with their cousins
aunt, and grandmother. It all started Friday afternoon when we spent several hours searching for the costumes. Of course, there is one street that is all costume rentals (that was interesting to learn...the costumes are all rented) so you have to visit each store and see if they have the right size, right colors etc. It was really hard to find their size because this weekend seemed to be a big weekend for parades. We were about to give up when Beatriz disappeared and ended up finding a really nice young man who had ALL the things we needed...hats, boy's costume, girl's costumes! So then we went and found shoes and hair accesories...it was exhausting, but Isabela was so excited.
So the next morning, everyone got dressed up and we had to adjust the costumes some because they were big, so everyone was sewing and pinning. People were starting to get anxious..."where are my shoes, I can't find my hat!" etc. And of course it started raining...but the show must go on. So we put plastic bags on the kids and went running off to join the parade that had already started.
The crowd always loves the little kids up front. There's a car that is very decorated that goes first, then someone carrying a banner, then the little kids, then the rest of the dancers, then the band. The whole road is closed off and people line the streets to watch. Everyone laughed when Isabela kicked her shoe off of her foot. And Joaquin was a crowd pleaser when he did his little dance once every thirty minutes. The rest of the time he was riding on Juan Pablo's shoulders.
The girls hung in there...Isabela, Maira, and Daniela danced for almost two hours! Every so often, the parade stops so dancers can be given free drinks...usually beer, but water or soda for the kids...and then it continues. The kids did really great until the end, where someone started lighting loud firecrackers like twenty feet from them. That's part of the parade, but neither Joaquin nor Isabela liked it, so we took them out. The party continued all night with eight groups dancing, but I took the kids home in a taxi around 8pm. They were asleep before we got there.