Cinco De Mayo with kids!

This year for our Fun and Food Cinco de Mayo Craft Day, we were blessed to have our family friend Laura and her kids celebrate with us!  Being of Mexican descent she lent authenticity to our day.  She was able to help us make some authentic foods like Gorditas and Chalupas and Churros. 

We started our day off with the children putting together wooden puzzle animals. The kits were purchased from our local craft store.  The kids did a great job on these and they were so cute when finished!  Some of the animals included were a butterfly, horse, owl and a snake.

Gordita
Food Prep	Using the Tortilladora / Tortilla Press	Cooking the Tortilla's

After helping the children with their puzzles we started to prep the food for the event.  We delegated each child a task in each food item we made.  First we made dough and we rolled them into balls and pressed them in the Tortilladora (a press to flatten the dough) and fried them in oil creating two different Tortillas de Maiz fritas.  Gorditas which have a pocket for food and Chalupas are made for the food to be placed on top.  Everyone helped cutting up the vegetables and cooking the re-fried beans. We had Queso Chihuahua which is a Mexican style melting cheese to sprinkle on our Gorditas and Chalupas.  We also made kid friendly margarita punch that was very refreshing and everyone really loved it.  Click HERE for the recipe.  Here is a video of Laura assembling one of the Chalupas:

Cucumber Cactus

Tissue Paper Flowers

We decorated the dining room with bright colors, cacti, Mexican flags and tissue paper flowers.  Because our creative cucumber cacti were such a hit last year we decided to make them again – so cute!  We used cucumbers, toothpicks broken in half and miniature tissue paper flowers.   We placed them in a terra cotta pot that we eventually painted later that day.  Lauren had a great time helping to create these.  They are easy to do and very festive.   We created many tissue paper flowers.  We cut the edges of them to give them each a different look.  These flowers are so colorful and give you an instant festive feeling!   We then sat down together and ate our fabulous authentic Mexican meal.  This was so delicious and everyone really had a great time from beginning to end! 

Wooden Animal Craft: Painting Mexican Folk Art

After our wonderful meal and clean up, we sat down with the kids and had them paint their wooden animals they had put together earlier in the day.  We asked them to paint them using bright colors similar to those used in Mexican folk art.  We also had some terra cotta pots that we offered to the children to paint to mimic Mexican Pottery.  The embellished some of the pots with terra cotta colored clay to add unique patterns. 

Churros

Making the froth using the Molinillo

Our finished Churros

After painting we had the girls make the dough for the Churros.  They then rolled the dough out and cut them in strips and then twisted them into shape.  When they were twisted they brought them to the frying pan and we fried them up.  After frying they were placed in some cinnamon and sugar mix to give them a nice coating.  We also made Chocolate Caliente which is Spanish Hot Chocolate that we made by melting Mexican chocolate in milk and then using a Molinillo to add a wonderful froth to our Chocolate Caliente.    Here is a video making the churros:

We ALL had so much fun!  We asked the kids what they liked best and here is what they said:

Lauren:  “I think the best part was decorating and making the Churros”

Tiffany:  “I liked Decorating for the party”

Matthew:  “I really liked helping to make the food and painting the Mexican Folk Art”

Willy:  “Painting Mexican Folk Art”

Willy as one of our Props, lol

Party Props we made from black paper and skewers

Margarita Punch

For even more inspiration here are some of our pictures from last years party:

Paper Place mats

Cucumber Cactus

Frozen kid friendly Margarita

Tortilla Soup and Taco Salads

Our Props

Lauren making her God's Eye craft

Our Ojo de Dios or God's eye collection

Cinco De Mayo with kids!

Technically this is the day where the Mexican army defeated the French army at the Battle of Puebla. This is not a celebration of the Mexican independence as many think (that is celebrated on September 16th) but a celebration of the Mexican and Hispanic culture. We will be having a lot of fun with this day.

We just love Cinco De Mayo, what a fun, colorful, festive holiday to celebrate. We picked up a few wall hangings we found at our local party store and can’t wait to put these up. It will really give the room a lot of ambiance and this celebration is definitely one that should be a feast for the eyes as well and traditional Mexican food, music, crafts and dance.

Kids CRAFT:

Wendy has a friend who is Mexican and a few years ago she made a project for her kids school. She called this “ojos de Dios” loosely translated it means “God’s Eyes”. We researched these on the internet and found an interesting fact. “God’s Eyes” predates Mexico to the Huichol Indians. They used to weave these and every year until a child turned five they added a layer of thread. This is such a beautiful decoration. We both remember how much we loved the colors.

Here is my take on how to make these.

You will need sticks, glue and colorful yarn. Green, Red and White would represent the Mexican flag but you can use any colors you like. Now you need to either weave thread around the sticks to form a cross or glue the sticks together to form a cross. Now you need to fasten a piece of yarn to the center of the cross on what will be the back of the project. You then wind the first piece of yarn over and under all the sticks then tie that off, again at the back of the project so it will not be seen from the front when you are done. Do this and alternate colors as you wish until you are completed your Ojos de Dios. These can be done in any size from small pin size to large wall hanging size. Found this website that has incredibly detailed ones that you can see – HERE

Decorations:

We will be making a Pinata for our centerpiece to go along with all the other decorations we picked up at our local Party Supply Store.

Food:

• 
  
  Mexican Taco Salads
• 
  
  Tortilla Soup
• 
  
  Non-alcholic Margarita's or Daquairi's
• 
  
  Mexican Wedding Cookie - Recipe Below - We make these every year they are so good!
• 
  
  Cinnamon Churros with Mexican Chocolate Dipping Sauce Recipe

Mexican Wedding Cookies

FOR THE DOUGH                                                   FOR THE GARNISH

1 cup pecan halves                                                       1 cup confectioners' sugar

1 cup all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature

DIRECTIONS:

1.In a food processor, pulse pecans, flour, granulated sugar, cinnamon, and salt until mixture resembles coarse meal; add butter and pulse until a dough forms. Shape dough into a disk, and wrap tightly in plastic; refrigerate until firm, 30 to 60 minutes.

2.Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Pinch off and roll dough into balls, each equal to 1 level tablespoon. Space 1 1/2 inches apart on two large baking sheets. Bake, switching sheets from top to bottom halfway through, until cookies are just golden around edges, 20 to 25 minutes.

3.Cool 5 minutes on sheets; transfer to a rack to cool completely. Place confectioners' sugar in a bowl. Roll cookies in sugar twice to coat thoroughly, tapping off excess.

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We will be researching all of this and coming up with the finer points to our day of celebration.  So remember to check back on this post :)