SAN ANTONIO — Annabella Jaramillo is great at Mario Kart 8 for the Nintendo Switch. Her go-to characters are Peach and Baby Luigi. She’s also pretty good at the ukulele. 

However, once a year, she gets to show off her creativity with a shoebox. Her mother Jessica Jaramillo was by her side to assist her in turning her shoebox into a Fiesta float. 

“What are we making today?” Jessica asked Annabella.

“We are going to make a Barbie float,” Annabella says. 

Annabella has experience. She had made a float a couple of years ago before the pandemic.

“I’ve made one before, an LOL [Surprise] one. It’s like little dolls, it’s like a little Barbie doll,” Annabella Jaramillo says. 

The Shoebox float display is likely a child’s first introduction to the Fiesta culture. Making shoebox floats is something Jessica Jaramillo did when she was younger. 

“Every year my mom had us all doing them, had all five of us,” Jessica Jaramillo says. 

She’s excited to see her daughter continue that tradition. Annabella sprinkled confetti on a trail of glue on the side of the float. Then glued some cascarónes (confetti eggs) on the corners of the box before she set a Barbie doll in the center. 

“I think we are more excited than they are. She’ll [Annabella] be just like keep it simple and we want to go all out. Get them into and let them know the meaning behind it,” Jessica Jaramillo says. 

The best part of it all is that Annabella gets to show this off in front of her classmates at school. 

“So we line up and then we go outside and start the parade,” Annabella Jaramillo says.