Thank you for those that continue to read this story, you have no idea how honored I am every time I get that notification that someone has made a comment, favorite or follow either the story or myself. I appreciate all of them. Especially those that are trying to guess what happens next. Hope you enjoy this chapter.
I have to continue to thank my best friend for reviewing each chapter and making sure all mistakes are minimal and for giving me feedback to help me be a better writer.
All the familiar characters belong to J.E. I don't own them and I'm not making any money from them, I'm just playing with them for a little bit. However the story line and original characters are mine.
Author's Note: Spanish conversations are italicized.
Celebrating Stephanie/Estefania's 5th Birthday
In Trenton
The past year had been tough when it came to the holidays. They pretty much ignored Thanksgiving, but Christmas they couldn't ignore. Helen and Frank ended up over compensating for Stephanie being gone and gave Valerie everything that she had wanted and more. It also seemed that everyone in the family had the same idea because Valerie received more gifts than she could handle. New Year's passed and they did some reflecting on their loss but then for the past 10 months things were pretty much based on the daily schedule and routines and Stephanie had been pushed to the back of their minds.
Helen's alarm went off signifying that it was a new day and the start of a new week. It was pretty much like any other Monday. She woke Frank up so he could get ready for work and went to the kitchen to brew coffee and work on breakfast.
After being out of work for a bit after Stephanie's death, he decided that he just couldn't sit at home anymore being miserable; so he looked for a job. After a couple of weeks of searching he was able to find a position at the post office. So far he was happy there and was keeping him busy and taking his mind off of things.
Frank rolled out of the bed to take his shower and get ready for the day. While he was doing that Helen went into Valerie's room and woke her up so she could ready then she went into the kitchen to start making breakfast. She went up to the calendar that was hanging on the wall by the phone to mark it off like she did every day. She took the black marker and moved it up to the calendar and stopped dead in her tracks. After a little bit Frank and Valerie came into the kitchen at the same time and saw her just staring at the wall. They turned their heads to figure out what she was looking at and saw the calendar, all the days leading up to today had been marked off and there it sat staring them all in the face the date October 12th. Helen turned and they saw that she was gripping the pen so hard her fingers were turning white. They all knew what this date meant, and had been thinking about it since the beginning of the month. Finally not being able to handle it anymore Frank walked up to Helen grabbed the pen and put it down. He turned her into him and held her there. Valerie walked up to both of them and squeezed in between them. They stood there for who knows how long, trying to comfort each other.
Frank brushed his hand over his face to secretly wipe away the tears, picked up the phone and called out of work. There was no way he'd be able to concentrate. He then turned to Helen and said "Valerie should stay home from school today and we should all do something that Stephanie would have loved to do."
She nodded her head in agreement. She was the least verbal about missing Stephanie but knew that today was the day to remember and the day to honor her.
Valerie said "You know what Stephanie would have loved to do. It's probably too cold but she would have loved to go to the beach. Do you think that maybe we could go to Point Pleasant and go on the boardwalk?"
Frank and Helen both looked down at her and smiled and at the same time said "That sounds like a great idea."
Helen said "You know what I'll get the picnic basket and we can fill it with her favorite foods and sit on the beach and eat it. Yes, it may be cold but we'll just have to bundle up. Valerie why don't you go get the picnic basket and the beach blankets that we use out of the garage. We still need to eat so I'll make breakfast while I'm getting the picnic stuff ready. How does chocolate chip pancakes sound?"
Since Frank and Valerie knew that she said that because that was Stephanie's favorite breakfast food they whole heartily agreed.
While Helen and Valerie were each doing their tasks Frank was going to sneak into Stephanie's room. They had still kept the door shut, so nothing on the inside had changed. No one had wanted to go through her stuff to get rid of it. For him it was finality and he felt Helen hadn't done it just because she didn't want to deal with it. When he opened the door it was like going back in time, he sat down on her bed and cried for a few minutes. He moved over to her closet and knew that she kept her beach things hidden in the back. She was told over and over again by Helen to put it in the garage with the rest of the stuff so she didn't get sand all over the place, but she would never listen. He laughed thinking that was one of the things that made Helen so mad at her. She never liked how independent or adventurous Stephanie was, when she made her mind up to do something nothing stopped her. As he was pulling the bucket and shovel out he noticed a beautiful sand dollar. It was completely whole with no breaks or anything. It was in all essence perfect. He picked it up and looked at it and decided that he would take it back to the beach and put it in the water and hopefully let the tide take it away so that a small piece of her would always be at the beach.
Helen called them into the kitchen for breakfast, when she saw Frank walk in with the bucket and shovel the look on her face told Frank she might get mad because of where he got it from. Instead she let out this hysterical laugh and said "Oh my goodness, that child never listened to me. Those were in her closet weren't they?"
He smiled and replied "Yep they were."
He put them on the floor and they all sat down at the table and ate breakfast. After they were done, Helen and Valerie cleaned the breakfast dishes and Frank loaded up the car with everything they would need. After they were ready they piled in the car to make the hour trip to the beach.
When they arrived, Frank had no problems finding a parking spot since no one else was there. It was about 61 degrees out by the beach and there was a small breeze but with the sun being out it was nice and didn't feel too cold. They all grabbed everything out of the car and Helen took the blanket and found a spot to lay it out. They took off their shoes and put them on the corners of the blanket so it would stay.
After Frank brought the picnic basket down and set it on the blanket, he grabbed the shovel and bucket and asked "Hey Valerie, would you like to build a sand castle with me?"
She smiled and said "Yes, let's build a really big one. Stephanie always liked watching people that would build the huge ones."
So they spent the next 3 hours building the sand castle. Every time Valerie thought something wasn't right she made them start over, eventually Helen joined in too. They all laughed and played in the sand. Once it was done Frank grabbed the sand dollar and stuck it in the main tower and then below it wrote Stephanie's castle.
They walked up to where the showers were so they could wash their hands and get ready for lunch, climbing on the blanket Helen started passing out the sandwiches she'd made along with the chips. Once they were done they decided to pack everything up and head home. In the car they decided to just rest at home for the remainder of the day and when they were ready for dinner they would have Pino's deliver Stephanie's favorite pizza.
Although it had started out as a sad day for them, they had turned it into a great day of remembering.
In Puerto Cabello, Venezuela
After the street festival were Estefania had meet Diego, Nicolas, Nikole, and Isabella they always tried to be together, it was harder during the school year but as soon as the summer came they were together all the time, the 5 of them were thick as thieves. Mostly they were at the Jimenez compound because it had the biggest yard, a pool and on the beach. It didn't originally have a pool but Estefania had mentioned one day that she had always wanted one, so as a surprise for her Osvaldo had one built right before the summer started. He threw a huge party opening it and told the Barros' to invite as many people as they wanted. Osvaldo invited his people and all of their families. Estefania loved the whole thing and made sure that all the kids got stuff to take home.
After that she would hang out with some of them but Osvaldo became suspicious that some of the kids were only her friends because of their money and that she was so generous buying things for everyone, but she didn't seem to care. When he would try to talk to her about it she would just shrug her shoulders and say that since she has so much why not share it with someone that doesn't have as much as she does. He really couldn't argue with her on that so he let it go. He just made sure that he and Tomas would keep a close eye out.
When school started Estefania made an extra effort to make sure that Diego, Nicolas, Nikole, and Isabella would see her and get together every weekend. The only exception was when the girls asked if they could have a girl's day with Isabella and Nikole's mothers. Osvaldo agreed but Diego wasn't happy because he didn't like being far away from her since it was their only time together. After that happened Diego asked Tomas to teach him things that would allow him to take care of Estefania just in case something happened and Tomas couldn't get to her right away. Tomas first thought that it was because of his crush and didn't want to be excluded from anything she was doing but then he said that he wanted to be the one she could always rely on and he wanted to protect her. Diego told Tomas that he wanted to be her personal Batman. Tomas thought about it and decided that it might not be a bad idea, so he talked to Osvaldo and Diego's parents and they were OK with him learning some self-defense stuff but that none of him learn anything regarding weapons, he was too young. Then they started to joke about the day when they grow up, they'd probably end up getting married.
Osvaldo knew that when school had started he had about a month before Estefania's birthday. He wanted to make it extra special since this would be the first one with him. He decided that he would make the party the entire weekend before the day since it actually fell on a Monday this year. It had pretty much taken the entire month or so to plan what he wanted to do for her and he wanted everything to be a surprise so as they were sitting down to dinner he said "Estefania, I have to go out of town tomorrow morning and I was thinking that maybe you would like to go with me. What do you think?"
She said "Can I really go with you?"
He replied "Yes you absolutely can."
She jumped from the table and started yelling and screaming and getting all excited, but then she suddenly stopped and said "Wait, will be home before Saturday? I don't want to miss seeing my best friends."
He laughed at her antics and said "Yes we will be home Friday night, I promise."
She smiled and said "OK, where are we going?"
He said "I can't tell you, I want it to be a surprise."
He knew by saying that it would drive her crazy because she always had to know everything and patience was definitely not part of her virtue. So the next morning they got up and headed out. Before they left Osvaldo had spoken to Maria and made sure that she knew exactly what was going on so they crew could get the house perfect.
Once they were in the car Osvaldo got serious and said "Estefania, we're going to have to get on an airplane, are you going to be OK with that?" She looked at his grabbed his hand and said "As long as I have you and Tomas I will be good. You always make me feel better when I'm scared."
He reached over and kissed her on her head and said "I'm glad you feel that way my princess."
They had made it to the airport and got on the plane, it looked like the first one that she had been on but it was a little different. When they climbed aboard she saw Eric sitting in one of the chairs and ran up to him and gave him a big hug, she said "I didn't know you were coming too."
He said "Yes sweet girl, your Papi goes nowhere without me."
She laughed and then climbed up and sat in the middle of the couch. Osvaldo and Tomas took the hint and each of them sat on the other side of her. That was one of the changes he'd made with this new plane. He knew that they would need a bigger couch because she would want them with her. The pilot signaled that they were ready to go and started down the runway. Estefania grabbed each one of their hands and held on tight. Once they were in the air she was fine.
She asked Osvaldo "Can you finally tell me where we are going now?"
They all laughed and he said "Patience my princess." She just grunted in reply. Everyone laughed. She looked around and pouted.
He said "Don't worry Estefania. We will be in there in couple of hours."
When they were getting ready to land she grabbed their hands again and then Osvaldo kissed her forehead and said "By the way my princess we are going to Barbados. After we land Tomas and Franco will take you to our villa while Eric and myself have to go to a meeting. It will only last a couple of hours and after that I will be yours for the day. Tomorrow we have a few more meetings and again Tomas and Franco will take you to see some of the sites. Wednesday will be my day with you and then Thursday and Friday I have more meetings. We will leave late Friday afternoon and should be home before bed time."
By the time he had finished telling her everything they were doing, they had landed and had taxied up to the terminal. She leaned over gave him a big hug and a kiss and said "You always know what I need."
Time had flown by for Estefania and before she knew it she was getting back on the plane headed for home. Once the plane had taken off, she started to think about everything they had done. She and Tomas went to a wildlife reserve that was a monkey sanctuary, she liked that she got to make fun of them. They took a boat trip through caves and they took a safari jeep tour all around the island. Some nights they had all gone out to see shows with dancers and guys that played on steel drums. Her favorite thing was the day that Osvaldo had off. They went on a submarine trip to explore some city that was under the water. All and all she had a great trip, but she couldn't wait to get home. Tomorrow she would get to see her friends. Especially Diego she missed him, she hadn't been able to talk to him at all. After they had landed and arrived at home, she was too tired to do anything so she went straight to bed.
The next morning Estefania woke up to really loud screaming and before she could get up to find out who it was, Diego, Isabella, Nicolas, and Nikole came barreling in her room, yelling and screaming that it was time for her to get up, she growled at them and tried to pull the blanket back over her head.
Diego walked up to her and said "You want to see the surprise that your Papi has for you, don't you?"
She rubbed her eyes and said "What surprise?"
Isabella replied "The one for your birthday, silly."
Estefania looked puzzled and said "It's not my birthday, yet."
Nicolas spoke up and said "Yes, but we are celebrating today and tomorrow."
Diego quickly put his hand over Nicolas's mouth to shut him up, Nikole grabbed Estefania's hand and pulled her out of her bed and over to the doors of her balcony. She opened the doors and said "LOOK!!"
Estefania looked outside and saw this huge tent in the backyard that looked like a princess castle. She came back inside and ran down the hall and the stairs followed by the rest of the kids. She came to a complete stop at the bottom of the stairs when she saw Osvaldo standing there with the other parents. She started yelling and screaming about the Princess Castle.
Osvaldo said loudly and sternly "Estefania!"
She stopped mid-sentence and looked up at him as the other kids backed up a couple steps since they had never heard him yell before he then continued "You need to calm down. Yes there is a huge Princess Castle tent that's outside and it's there for you. I know you are excited but don't you think before you do anything else you should get dressed."
She looked down and saw that she was wearing her nightgown, she sheepishly smiled up at him and said "Yes Papi." and took off running up the stairs yelling at Maria that she needed to get dressed.
He just shook his head and mumbled "I'll never be able to get that child to stop yelling and running, no matter how hard I try."
He turned back to everyone else and said "Let's go into the kitchen and see what the cook has prepared for us."
They all went into the kitchen and saw the feast that the cook had prepared. On the huge kitchen table was every kind of breakfast food that Estefania ever liked. The girl in question came down about 5 minutes later and walked into the kitchen and got excited all over again.
She said "Look at all this yummy food, I'm starving. Let's eat."
They all sat down and started dishing up their plates. While they were eating Osvaldo said "My princess we all know that Monday is your birthday, however I figured that I would set up a special surprise for you. Today will be all about you, your best friends and their parents. As you've already figured out there is a huge Princess Castle tent in the back yard that was specially made for you. Inside there is enough room for all your friends to sleep over as well as a big screen for you to watch your favorite movies. There is a portable popcorn machine in it, but none of you children can operate it, you have to ask one of us adults to use it, OK?" All the kids nod their heads while he continued "After breakfast we'll all go down to the beach where I have set up a hidden treasure hunt. You will be on teams of 3 and you will be given a map that shows 3 different treasures that are hidden. Once a team has found the treasure chest they are done, and we wait for all the teams to finish. Next we'll come back to the patio where will have the hot dogs and hamburgers that you love so much, after lunch everyone will go into the tent watch a movie and relax. Then maybe afterwards go swimming in the pool. How does that sound so far?"
Estefania looked at him swallowed the food that was in her mouth and said "That sounds absolutely fantastic, if all of that is for today I can't wait to see what happens tomorrow."
He laughed thinking she always thinks ahead. He said "Well you'll just have to wait."
She stared at him and he just laughed at her again. The other parents were looking at them, even though they've been around them a lot, sometimes they can't get over that Osvaldo has a child and how he is with her. They had seen him around the city before she came here but he never seemed as happy as he was now.
After breakfast was over Osvaldo and Estefania got up and started to walk to the patio, they looked back and noticed that no one was following them and that they were all starting to clean off the table. Before Osvaldo could say anything the maid came out and explained that while she appreciates the help it's not necessary. So they walked up to Osvaldo and Estefania, the adults thanking him.
They opened the patio doors and walked down to the beach. Osvaldo said "Alright everyone I will give you 5 minutes to figure out your teams, remember that it has to be a team of 3."
Diego immediately grabbed Estefania's and his Tio Emmanuel's hand claiming they are Team 1. Isabella grabbed Nikole and her mama and said they were team 2. Leaving Nicolas with his mama and Tio Juan being Team 3.
Osvaldo said "Now that the teams have been chosen, everyone gets a treasure map and Tomas will come around giving each team 3 shovels. Once you find the small treasure chest you will come over to this small bucket of keys to try and figure out which one works to open your chest."
He handed one to Emmanuel, Rosalind and Juan. They all moved away from each other so they could look at their maps. Tomas went over to each team and gave them 3 small shovels.
Osvaldo gave them a few minutes to look at it and then said "Go."
All the teams set off to find their treasure. A little bit later Osvaldo started laughing at hearing every one yelling and giving orders and enjoying themselves. Team 3 was the first team to dig out their treasure chest and they raced over to the bucket of keys, Team 2 was the next team to get theirs and met Team 3 at the keys they were still struggling to find the right key. Team 1 finally got theirs and joined the others trying to find the keys. All of a sudden they heard "I got it!!" It was Nikole who was able to open their treasure chest inside the small chest what looked like 5 pearl bracelets with a gold coin hanging from it. Nikole picked one up and looked at the gold coin the initials EMJ with the date October 12th were imprinted on it.
Nikole said "This is beautiful do I get to keep it?"
Rosalind picked one up and looked at it and shockingly questioned "Are these real pearls?"
Osvaldo answered by saying "Yes sweet Nikole you get to keep it and no they are not real and neither is the gold coin. I know you don't really like when Estefania or I give you or your children extravagant gifts so I made sure that everything in the treasure were just simple tokens of my princess's birthday."
Right after he explained everything Diego yelled "We opened ours."
They opened the lid and in the small chest were 5 of just the gold coins. Diego said "These are cool."
Nicolas finally got theirs open and saw that it was filled with all kinds of candy. All the kids gathered around and started to grab what they wanted. The adults laughed.
Osvaldo said "Who's hungry?" All of the kids yelled "We are."
So then he said "Well let's eat, everything should be ready back on the pool deck."
So they walked up to where the food was and began to eat. Everyone was having a good time and enjoying themselves. After they were done eating Osvaldo said "So who's ready to go watch a movie and eat candy and popcorn."
They all gathered and grabbed the chests and moved into the tent. When they walked inside they all were shocked, the first thing they noticed was the floor, it was a real hardwood floor. Then they saw there were 3 different areas in the tent. The first area had a large screen and cushions and pillows on the floor in front of it and a couple of small couches. The second area had 5 small air mattresses and the third area had 2 larger air mattresses.
Osvaldo "Since the kids will be staying in here tonight Tomas and Franco will be sleeping in the area with the 2 big beds." Every one nodded. He looked over at Juan and continued to say "There are plenty of rooms in the main house if you would like to stay, there's even a guest cottage a little bit down the beach if you prefer."
Juan said "Thank you for the offer we'll discuss it and let you know."
Osvaldo just nodded his head and said "Estefania what do you want to watch first?"
She smiled and yelled "Who you gonna call." The other kids yelled back "Ghostbusters!"
So they all settled in and found their spots while the movie was being loaded, the popcorn was passed out. Halfway through the movie the kids had fallen asleep, so the adults got up and walked out of the tent. The Barros had decided to go back to their homes and just leave the kids here. Osvaldo understood and said that he'd see them tomorrow, so they thanked him again for a great time and left.
He went back in to check on the kids and thought that they were all still sleeping, until he heard Estefania's soft voice say "Papi?"
He looked over at her and said "Yes sweet girl, it's me."
She whispered "Guess what I found while we were on the beach?"
He whispered back "What?" She said "I found a sand dollar do you want to see it?"
He said "Yes, I would like that."
She showed it to him and said "I used to have one just like it at my old home that I hid in my closet from my mom. She didn't like that."
He reached down and kissed her forehead and said "Do you want to keep it?" She nodded her head yes.
He said "How about I take it and put it in your room on one of your shelves so that it can be kept safe for you?" She replied "I would like that, Thank you."
She handed it to him and then fell back to sleep. He figured since they looked comfortable and weren't going to get up soon, that for dinner he would have finger sandwiches made for them to eat, instead of a big meal. They could always eat snacks later. He walked into the house with the sand dollar and went into her room and put it up on the shelf just like he said he would. He knew she would always have times when she thought of them and her birthday would definitely be one of them. He heard them wake about 2 hours later and were grateful that he'd planned ahead so the sandwiches where already there. For the remainder of the night they just decided to sit around on the pillows and talk and watch movies until they fell asleep.
The next morning Osvaldo came in and woke the kids up so that they could go in the house and eat breakfast and get ready for the day. He told them that they had to stay inside because men would be working outside getting everything ready for her party this afternoon. After they all changed into their clothes for the day, they hung out in Estefania's room for a little bit and then finally went down to the living room and watched TV. About 3 o'clock guests started to come, by the time everyone was there Estefania felt he had invited the whole city there were so many people and she thought to herself so many gifts. That was one thing she really liked and always had. Osvaldo had set up many different activities for the kids to do. The tent had been taken down and was replaced with a huge bouncy house castle. There were hulu hoops all over the place and a limbo station for anyone wanting to try that. He had the face painter from the street festival and food. Every kind of food that Estefania had ever mentioned she liked was there.
After the food was gone Osvaldo quieted everyone down and said "Thank you all for coming to celebrate my princess's birthday. I know both of us truly appreciate you being here. Now she's going to open up her gifts and afterwards the cake will be served. Estefania please go take you seat."
She walked over to this seat that had all kinds of balloons and streamer on it and sat down. Present after present was opened and by the end she had so many toys and so many clothes that she wouldn't know what to do with them. She would have to talk to Papi about that later. Finally as this big princess castle cake came out, they all started to sing Feliz Cumpleanos (Happy Birthday) to her. After the cake was eaten everyone just kind of sat around and talked, and then slowly started to leave, the only ones that stayed was the Barros families.
Finally Emmanuel said "I know that you all don't want to leave but you've had such a busy weekend we all need to head home so you can rest, since you have school tomorrow."
All the kids started whining but one look from Osvaldo and him saying "Your Papi and Tio is right. We'd like to thank you for being a part of Estefania's celebrations and we'll get together next weekend if not maybe for dinner sometime during the week."
At that Estefania got up screamed "Don't move, I'll be right back" and took off at full speed into the house. Osvaldo just sighed while the other adults just laughed.
She came back and said "Last week Papi took me to Barbados and I brought back stuff for you."
She then handed them what looked like really cool and different colored rocks. She explained "These are pieces of the cave that Tomas and Franco took me to" she looked at Osvaldo and continued "and before you ask I didn't take them out of the cave I promise, I got them from a store just outside."
He gave her a knowing look and with that the Barros' kids thanked her and then got up to leave. Osvaldo and Estefania walked them out to their cars and then Diego before he got into his car walked over to Estefania and gave her a hug and a quick kiss on her cheek said "Feliz Cumpleanos " then ran away and hopped into his car. The adults just shook their heads. Osvaldo picked Estefania up and they watched the cars pull out of the driveway and then they went into the house. Osvaldo said " My princess did you have a good birthday weekend?"
She replied "Yes, Papi I did, but I have a problem."
He was curious as to what that could be so he inquired "What's that sweetie?"
She quietly said "I have so many things all ready, that I didn't need anymore. What am I going to do with it all? Is there some place that I can give it to someone that won't feel bad I give it to them? That's why I didn't give any of it to Isabella or Nikole. I don't want their parents to feel bad."
He thought about it and said "I think I have the perfect idea, I'm not going to tell you just yet, but we'll do it together tomorrow OK? Now why don't you head up to your room take a bath and get your pajamas on, if you aren't tired after that then we'll sit on the couch and watch TV together for a little bit." She kissed him and said "OK" and then got down and ran up the stairs.
She ended up falling asleep right after her bath and didn't move until the morning.
The next morning Osvaldo let Estefania sleep as late as she wanted and finally about 10 o'clock she came strolling down the stairs and saw him at the kitchen table reading his paper. He turned his head and said "Good Morning sleepy head. Feliz Cumpleanos."
She smiled and replied "Thank you Papi."
He said "You need to eat something and then go get dressed we have a big day ahead of us."
She went into the kitchen and the cook said "Feliz Cumpleanos Estefania what would like for breakfast?"
She said "Thank you and just eggs and fruit. I had so much food yesterday I don't know if I could eat a lot today."
The cook smiled and said "Go sit at the table and I'll bring it to you."
She did as she was told and said "Papi do you have to work today?"
He said "No I'm spending the whole day with you, just us and no one else." It had been a while since it was just the two of them so she said "No Tomas or Franco?"
He said "Nope I gave them the day off, although they will probably come and see you later." She nodded and said "What are we doing?"
He said "We are going to take care of all those present that you said you would like to give to someone that would appreciate them. You have to go through them to decide which ones you want to keep and which ones you want to give away."
By that time the cook brought her breakfast over and she began to eat. She thought about what he said and then stated "I don't really want any of it because you give me everything I could want or need, but I don't want to hurt any ones feelings. I just don't know what to keep."
He thought about it and said "I don't think anyone would be upset and we aren't giving them to anyone around here so I think it will be OK if you don't want to keep any of it. I'll have them load everything in the car and once you finish and are dressed we'll leave."
She finished and then got up. When she got into her room she saw a beautiful new dress that Osvaldo had bought especially for her birthday. It was a sapphire sleeveless chiffon dress that matched her eyes perfectly. She looked at Maria who had come out to help her get dressed and said "This is such a pretty dress will you make my hair pretty too?"
Maria said "Why of course sweet girl, I know just the thing to do with it and by the way Feliz Cumpleanos"
After about 10 minutes Maria had curled her hair in a way that made her natural curls extra bouncy, so when she came bounding down the stairs her curls bounced up and down. She walked up to Osvaldo and said "How do I look?" He said "My princess you look absolutely beautiful. Are you ready?" She nodded her head. He grabbed her hand and walked out of the house into their car.
They drove the 2 hour trip to Caracas and pulled up to a place called La Casa De Samuel. She looked over at him and he said "This is a home for orphaned children. We are going to give them all of your presents. I've already called ahead and they are expecting us. They were very thankful that you wanted to do this."
She smiled as someone was walking out of the house to the car. Osvaldo got out and walked around and got Estefania out of her seat on the passenger side. He picked her up and introduced them to the gentleman that was by the car. He told them how excited that they were to get such wonderful things and they would definitely be put to good use. He asked them if they wanted a tour of the house and Osvaldo looked at Estefania who was shaking her head up and down. He laughed and accepted his offer and asked if there was anyone who could help to get all of the presents from the car since there was a lot of stuff, explaining that the whole backseat was filled as well as the trunk of the car. The gentleman walked back into the house and moments later came out with 4 other guys and said to Osvaldo "Don't worry, they will take care of everything and remove it all from your car." Osvaldo thanked him and then they went on the tour of the house. They stopped and talked to some of the kids and declined their offer for dinner since it was getting late. Osvaldo explained that today was Estefania's birthday and he had something else planned for the rest of the evening.
They left La Casa De Samuel and drove to a Lola Restaurante, where he again indulged her and order everything on the menu. She said "Papi by the time this weekend is over I'm going to be fat."
He laughed and said "Not with the way you run around the house you won't." At that she laughed.
Once they were done with dinner he told her that they weren't quite done yet and they pulled into a parking lot in front of a big building that had the words Teatro Teresa Carreño. He told her that they were going to listen to some music played by a symphony.
After the concert was over he asked "My princess did you enjoy the show?"
She said "Yes I did, can we come again?" He said "Absolutely."
Then they got in the car and drove home. On the way home Estefania had falling asleep so when they got back to the house and he picked her up out of the car she sleepily said "Thank you for the best birthday I could have ever had. I love you, Papi."
He said "You're welcome my princess and I love you too."