The Despedida, Part 2

So, here's what we did! Last night, we had a pijamada! A sleepover. And we made those adorable pillows I've been saturating my blog with. Here's how it went. :)

We started off by eating dinner in the section. We brought food down from the comedor and all gathered in the sala. All of the Fatima girls were there, plus the eight girls who just moved out of my section last month, plus three tías, plus an año de servicio, plus me. We had a full house! We'd also dragged all of the girls' mattresses into the sala, creating one massive bed for all 30 of us to plop down upon.

I'd kept the whole pillow project a surprise, so when we'd finished eating, I finally revealed to the girls what was in the two huge bags I'd toted down to the section earlier. They'd been poking at them (Girls! Don't sit on that bag!) all night trying to figure out what was inside, hah.

Earlier this week, in authentic pijamada fashion, I'd made each girl a goodie bag! In her goodie bag, everyone received her two pieces of heart-shaped fleece, a card I'd written her, some photos I'd printed for her, and a couple of polovorosa cookies. And oh MAN were they excited to get 'em. I felt like Santa Claus pulling out goodie bag after goodie bag, calling out the girls' names. So much shrieking and freaking out and hoping I called so-and-so's name next. It was adorable.

 Many thanks go out to the panadería in Parramos that made me a special order of 70 polvorosas!

 Goodie bags!

Well, they loved their cards and they loved their photos (Ay mira! Y quiero ver las tuyas! Aw look! And I want to see yours!) and they loved the cookies and they LOVED making the pillows. They maybe even took it a little too seriously, those little perfeccionistas. Carrie, come help me cut this! Carrie, I'm going to mess it up! Carrie, over here next! Carrie, over here! Carrie, Carrie, Carrie! But in the end, the pillows turned out GREAT!

Afterwards, all 30-ish of us found spots on the giant sala-sized bed we'd created, and we proceeded (with new pillows tucked behind our heads) to watch movies until 2 a.m. It made me remember, haha -- when you're 13, the point of a sleepover is to not sleep. At all.

We slept in this morning until the very last minute and then dragged ourselves up to the comedor just in time for breakfast. The girls and I parted ways for the day, and I think I got more Gracias, Carrie's and Gracias por todo Carrie's than I maybe ever have. The despedida was a huge success, and I couldn't have asked for it to go any better. Man, love those girls.