Feliz Dia de Madre

Last night our family attended a party at the church for Mother's Day.  It was amazing.  As usual it was scheduled to begin at 7 but didn't really start until 8.  So my kids spent the first hour in the yard playing.  You can see Isaac "chasing" after the missionaries as they are headed into the party.  

 

A favorite "hang out" of Isaac's

"LET ME OUT!"

 I love the picture of Eli above pleading to get out, because he often does escape.  The church here leaves ALL of the doors open.  The doors to the church to the yard and if I don't have my hands on him every single minute he will run away.   That is one of my many wonders here.  Why is it my little white, blond haired, blue eyed American baby will run far, far away when given the chance but all these little Paraguayan children are given the freedom to run all over the church and most of their parents don't think another thing about it and yet they never leave the premises?  I think it is a secret plot thought up by my children to drive me crazy.  But that must be a story for another day.

Although Isaac swears that he hates speaking Spanish and doesn't understand any of it, he sure gets along pretty well with the kids in the primary. 

So as my kids are out playing in the yard the Young Men are hard at work in the kitchen.  They made it a point to make sure that the Mothers didn't have to do any work.  And they did a pretty good job. 

We had a presentation of poems, dances and music by many of the ward members.  And of course the children sang, Mother I Love You! (which I of couse have video of but I can not get to load on here so I have put it on facebook for my family.)

The ward hired these wonderful musicians to come in and play traditional Paraguayan music.  And for the last song a few of the members got up and danced.  Would you know Shawn and I did too.  I would post a picture but I had the camera and was busy dancing.  But when we got on the dance floor the ward cheered, probably because we were making fools of ourselves not knowing how to do their dance.  But we were creating memories; and that one was a good one for us. 

 This cake turned out to be pretty yummy.  I don't usually care for cake here.  They tend to be dry and full of dulce de leche.  This one was not dry, but was full of dulce de leche but also had peaches layered in it.  It was a hit with the ward.  My family even liked it, and that says a lot here. 

This is our bishopric.  I have to say over the course of our lives there have been a couple of bishops that have really stuck out as super, humble, wonderful men that touched our lives.  This bishop is one of them.  He is an awesome guy.  We are grateful to know him. 

Please Dont' Headbutt my Baby!

Eli and I went to the embassy yesterday morning.  As we were walking back to daddy's office we walked past the deer just enjoying the shade.  I got my phone out to take a picture and Eli naturally, before I knew it, Eli ran right up to get a closer look.  The deer did not budge until Eli started barking at  him.  Poor thing.  All he wanted was to sit on the nice asphalt in the shade and do a little people watching.  Dang kids, they ruin everything!

Best Birthday Present EVER!!!

 

First you need your tools......

then you need to dig.

For Eli's birthday we gave him a sand table.  It took us a week or so to find sand to put in it.  And the sand still has issues.  It is wet and has rocks in it, but honestly he does not care.  He will go to the back door rain or shine, hot or cold, and beg to go out and play in the sand.  He scoops it, he piles it, he digs in it, and sometime he even eats it (and then spits it).  But he always comes back for more.  You just never know what will hit the jackpot when you are buying presents for your kids . 

Resting after a hard day of play.

FS BRU - Chaos!

The Foreign Service Round Up topic for the month is Chaos.  I find it fitting that Jill choose Chaos during EER season.  I don't know if it is just my family but the month of April is always stressful in our house. 

Yes, I know it looks like I may have robbed the cradle a bit.
But I assure you he is older than me.

It started 15 years ago when my husband and I decided to get married in this month.  People asked us why we would want to get married around tax time.  I assured them that we always had our taxes done in plenty of time and that would not be a worry.  Little did we know that the foreign service had their own ideas for deadlines in the month of April. 
But it doesn't just stop and start with EER season for whatever reason when it rain, it pours in our house and the phrase "April showers" does not seem to quite describe the downpour we see in our house.

Machu Picchu-- yep, super excited!

This year we have found the perfect storm of Chaos.  My husband is swamped at work, not just with work but training a new person for a new position.  We both have callings at church that are very demanding and require a lot of time. I am involved in the school board and volunteer in Isaac's classroom.  I have a toddler at home and have tweaked my knee and can't run after him.  I can't run errands or grocery shop so we are eating bean burritos and mac and cheese because we only have what I have bought from Amazon in the house.  Emma has the lead in the school play so we are sitting up nights running lines.  I am busy planing an agenda and all the in's and outs for a trip for our 15 year wedding anniversary, and I'm praying I will be able to hike all over Machu Picchu, because I have less than a month to get my knee back in working order.  Emma has been home from school all week long with a fever, and I finally took her to see someone. And yes, this is our "April shower," Emma was diagnosed today with Dengue Fever.

My baby, day one of the Dengue rash

So although the chaos in my life is not currently due to packing or unpacking.  However if you saw my attic after putting Easter decorations away you might wonder what what going on up there.  All I have to say is next April you can petty much count on a post very similar to this one.  Because if there is one thing in life I can count on, it is a downpour in the middle of our April in our house.  . 


***Please note many good things have happened in April as well.  Namely I married my best friend and welcomed my sweet Eli into this world.

Puddle on the Floor

The other day we had a pretty hard rain storm.  It will do that from time to time here and it is a great day to say in and watch TV.  I will do almost anything to avoid driving in it but do like to sit out on the patio and watch/listen to the rain. 








At the end of this last storm I walked into our TV room to grab the baby's blanket and my feet got wet.  I moved the couch and there was a puddle of water in the middle of the floor.  How did this get there?  I began searching for the stream of water leading up to the puddle, or the stain on the ceiling from where it must have dripped.  But nothing.  We determined after finding some water in the far corner of the room, that it entered at the corner, ran under the tile under the floor and then when enough collected in the center of the room began to rise through the tile and eventually the carpet.  I can't wait to see how they fix this one. 

I can say this.  Life in the foreign service is NEVER boring.  Even when you are 'just' a stay at home mom, playing with the baby all day long.

Should I feel guilty?

Last night Eli was happily watching Toy Story 2.  I laid on the floor to watch it with him and laid him on my chest.  Shortly after 9 I was sure he must be asleep so I peeked down to see my sweet angel snoozing away and he looked up at me and said, "Hi."  And then off he went.  I knew I had blown it.  I had lost my time to cuddle with my baby because I was greedy and wanted to see this sweet creature I had created sleeping. 

So I did what any mother would do..... I began to fake cry.  I have never done this with him before and it really took him by surprise.  He ran over to me put his hand on my head and said, "Are you okay?"  Yes folks, that is correct.  My baby's first sentence came from his mother's manipulation.  I was shocked and of course perked right up.   So already twice this morning I have heard "Are you okay?" 

I guess I should be surprised he didn't say, "Que pasa?"

International Day at ASA

So last week we had "International Day" at the elementary school.  In years past they have studied Paraguayan traditions and history and all of the kids have participated in a Paraguayan dance.  But this year only 2 grades represented Paraguay and the others learned about different countries (and one state.) 

All in all the program was great.  The costumes were very well done and the kids looked so cute.  But there were a couple of things that made me say, "huh?"  For example the picture you see above is of England.  If you look you will see the English flag, white with a red stripe.  I had no idea this was England's flag, nor do I understand how those outfits represent England.  I think our kids might have been better served to have learned about the United Kingdom, but who am I to say? 

The other thing that made me giggle was that they choose to do Hawaii (the one state.)  And every time the principal would talk about the different countries she would have to say (in a low voice,) "and one state."  It was funny. 


 Isaac's class represented Taiwan.  Now many of you might be thinking, "Taiwan is not a country, it is part of China."  Well actually Paraguay is one of the few countries that recognizes Taiwan as an independent nation.  So although we are the AMERICAN school of Asuncion, because we live in Paraguay we will let that one slide. 






He looked so handsome in his costume.  And although they were not told they were Ninja fighters;,I give it just a matter of time before he decided that is exactly what he is.  Doesn't he look just like a Ninja?









This is Isaac's best friend.  He was representing Tahiti.  Cute huh?

These are our little dancers from Mexico.  I think kindergartners are so cute.  Don't you?

 Isaac doing the "coolest" dance of all!

After all that dancing the kids got "passports" and if the collected the flags from each country they could turn it in for an ice cream.  Isaac did it. 

And he got his ice cream!