4th of July in Asuncion

     Sorry this post is not coming to you until 6 weeks after the 4th of July.  I can blame some of it on family fun, and getting ready for back to school; but some of it just boils down to being lazy.    

     So I think the best way to tell you about the party is just to show you how much fun we had.  This was our first 4th of July overseas as a family and I didn't know what to expect.  It was a lot of fun.  However the party for families actually occurred on June 30th.   

Friend Fun

Balloons

Food

Family Fun

Statue of Liberty

Egg Toss

Long lines for bouncy slides

Soccer (futbol)

Cheaters in the 3 legged race

Super Cute Babies

Dancing

Music

Cartoon Artists

Tug-o-war

Still got it!

Egg Toss

Prizes (we had 7 tickets and won 3 prizes!)

Uncle Sam

      



  




Best of All FAMILY!!!

 The following pictures are pictures from the actual 4th of July.  There was a more formal party at the Ambassador's residence later in the day that I do not have pictures of, but was a very nice event.  I was an interesting event as the change (ousting of the last president) of political power had just occurred (a week or so ago) here in Paraguay and the Embassy didn't know if they should expect the old administration, the new administration, some of each or none at all.  I'm going to say it was a success, although my Spanish leaves something to be desired so I could have missed something.  But I enjoyed myself and they had peanut butter cookies.  What else could a girl ask for?

Marines with the flag

Raising the flag



Star Spangled Banner

Ambassador speaking

FS BRU- Livin' in Asuncion

Well it is bidding season again and as usual excitement, anticipation, sweat, stress, excel spreadsheets the smell of burning the mid-night oil as tales mag, blogs and other Internet research is exhausted and a myriad of other things have begun to fill the air.  WHAT!?!!?  Bidding is not like that at your house???  Okay, I guess I just gave you a little in site as to what my husband has to live with every few years. 

I love that Jill has asked the FS blogging community to post the pro's and con's of living at their current post.  I would like to preface my comments by saying this is my first overseas post, so we really don't have anything to compare it to.  So my elation here (because many here as not as happy as I) might simply be because I don't know there is better out there. 

Pros

1.  Great fresh fruit and veggies most of the year.

2.  House hold help is cheap.  I know it might seem tacky to put this on my list of pro's, but I like having household help.  I like not dragging my kids to the grocery store with me.  I like that my bathroom is cleaned everyday and that I know my baby will probably not put a bug in his mouth because the floors are swept, mopped and vacuumed every day.  And honestly I like my maid, I think she is nice and she loves my kids.

3.  All in all it is pretty safe to live here.  Yes, we still have petty crimes here and there has even been reports of con artists posing as people from the embassy to steal televisions.  But there is very little violent crime (especially against Americans).  We still shouldn't walk after dark alone, or take public transportation, we should involve ourselves in political rallies or argue with drunk people about soccer.

4.  Activities.  There are many activities to participate in for a reasonable cost provided you can find the time.  Horseback riding, MMA, tennis, swimming (still looking for a team), golf, cooking, art, dance, music, singing and I'm sure many more. 

5.  Super awesome supportive community.  I don't know if it is because we are a small embassy, or because there are just really cool people here right now, or if it is just because I'm awesome so everyone wants to be my friend, but I love the people here.

6.  Can I add a 6???  The embassy works M-Th 7:30-5:30 & F 7:30-11:30  This is super awesome for everyone except DEA, military, and DS.  Those people generally end up working late anyway.  But for the rest of you out there it is great! 


Cons

1.  Getting home is not as easy or cheap as the rest of South America (although it should be getting better we will have a direct flight from here to Miami starting 3 times a week in November---provided you want to go to Miami).  It takes me about 24-27 hours to get to Utah. 

2.  Paraguay is NOT an exotic travel destination, and travel around South America is not super cheap.  There are some cheap flights to Buenos Aires, or Santiago ($200 RT.)  But as a whole it is like flying at home, watch for the deal and hope for the best.

3.  No one is singing the praises of the schools here.  Don't get me wrong we feel like our kids are getting an alright education, but it is what they would be getting from an average public school in the states.  I was hoping for more intimate classrooms, and more challenging course work.  (Also the school is 75% Paraguayan students and only 15-20% US --- I might put this in my pro's too, but many people have put it in their cons as far as learning for their child goes.)  I think it increases time in which your kids learn Spanish but slows other subjects down, especially in the lower grades.  However, there is an hour a week of "Guarani" that many people hire private tutors to go to the school to help make up for that difference. 

4.  Traffic, I hesitate to list this as a con; not because traffic doesn't suck as bad as it does in other places.  And really it might not even be the traffic but the totally insane way the traffic flow was laid out with all the one-way streets and lack of a left hand turns.  None-the-less it is something that drives me crazy here, but it is nothing compared to most other posts.

5.  There is no doctor on post.  There are several doctors and a couple of decent hospitals in the area.  However, we happen to be a mosquito magnets.  We had only been here about 3 weeks and my one year old got Hemorrhagic Dengue Fever, which a local doctor (with US credentials) diagnosed as a respiratory infection.  (We have not been back to see him!)  At the beginning of this year my 12 year old got the very typical strain of Dengue Fever.  So having a doctor at the embassy would be nice, but after a year here we have figured out the in's and out's of health care here. 


Hope this was helpful.  Happy hunting!  And my the odds be ever in your favor. 

Baking Bread with the Young Women

Since moving here we have been blessed with a wonderful ward.  A few months (okay 6) I was called to serve in the Young Women.  I was surprised because we really only had 2 active young women.  But I was happy to serve and work with the girls. 
Over the last few months we have had Emma turn 12 and a new Mission President who has a YW, but we have that still leaves our count at 4. 
This last Wednesday for our activity we told the girls we were going to bake bread as a service to the ward.  The plan was to have each girl make their own dough and I would make a loaf.  We would donate my loaf to the church and it would be used on Sunday for sacrament.  Well by the time we got started on Wednesday we had 9, yes count them NINE girls show up.  We had 3 less active girls and 2 visitors come to make bread with us. 
Needless to say I was scraping together enough bowls and spoons for each to make their own loaf of bread.  I did not get mine made.  But it is all good.  I made mine today, Saturday, so it will be fresh for tomorrow mornings service.  Now it we can just get all 9 of those girls to church on Sunday.

Were all my babies like this?

Last night at dinner Eli decided he was not going to eat his dinner.  He was not going to even try it.  We have had nights like this before.  I remember each of my kids going through a stage.  Emma decided at one point (I guess at about Eli's age) that she was not going to eat anything white.  That included milk, potatoes, bread, ice cream etc. 

Eli is currently refusing to eat anything except milk, yogurt, cookies, candy and fruit.  No veggies and no meat.  I'm super frustrated by this. 

• I have tried the "then that is all you will get until you eat" approach.  But honestly that just drives me crazy. 
• I have tried the "then I will blend it up with some yogurt and put it in a bottle" approach.  Sometimes and works and sometimes not. 
• But mostly we go with the "than eat what you want" approach because it is what make all of us happy.  I have never tried this approach. 

When Emma was in her phase we used food coloring, colored cups and just avoided potatoes and bread that really are not that nutritional anyway. 

Do you think I am going to ruin him if I just let him have what he wants?

Paraguay Party

So if you attend the American School of Asuncion you will be invited to 40 birthday parties a year.  Upon arriving here (after our 3rd party) I decided to create a rule about this.  You must PLAY with this friend at recess in order to attend the party.  This has cut our party's down to just a few each year.

So Emma was invited to a birthday party on Friday.  She is good friends with the little Paraguayan girl that was hosting the party so we added it to our calendar.  Lucky for me this friend only lives 6 or 7 blocks straight down the road.  I had a vague idea of where I was headed.  As we were driving down the street we could hear a ton of girls screaming in a back yard.  "That has to be it!"  So we pull over and start looking.  The numbers on the house didn't seem to match up but it was a corner house I I thought the numbers must match up with the other street (they do weird things here, who am I to second guess their logic.) 

So the guard waves us over to the door to the backyard.  While we are waiting Emma says to me very quietly, "I hope I'm not over dressed."  She was wearing her cute black skinny pants with the sequin belt and a beautiful shirt with some sparkles on it.  I tried to reassure her as we entered the back yard.  We can see the girls are jumping on the trampoline in the the far corner of the yard.  But it was dark and the yard was very large so we couldn't see them very well.  I walk her to about the middle of the yard and realized none of the little girls were yelling "Emma you came!" as I had expected (because we were about 40 minutes late.)  Then as we got closer I realized all the girls (now I can see they are about 16) are in their bra's and panties, while jumping on the tramp.

I looked at Emma, she looked at me, I quickly said, "This looks like a swim party.  I don't recall that being on the invitation."  So we headed back to the guard.  He looked at the invitation and then assured us that we were at the wrong birthday party. 

We were one block off but easily found the party on the next street, where there was a totally different atmosphere.  They had hired a DJ and brought in a huge plasma screen TV, with a disco ball, fog machine, 2 waiters serving drinks (that I truly hope did not have any alcohol in them), a dance floor, karaoke machine, bar style seating all over the patio and confetti.  Most of the kids were dressed up and if asked I might even say Emma was a bit under dressed, although it didn't matter because there were so many kids there she quickly got lost in the crowd. 

The invitation stated that the party ended at 10:30 but as I headed out the door the girl's mother told me not to come pick her up before 11 or 12 because she didn't quite know when the party would end.
 
I arrived shortly after 11, there were fewer kids there but the party was still going strong.  Emma however was ready to head home. 

I guess the moral of the story is, Paraguay birthday party's are like a box of chocolates.....

Is it Just Me, or Am I CRAZY?!?

So Emma's teacher sent an email last week asking for "bite sized" treats to sell at lunch to help support the school.  Now I think this kind of stuff is a waste of time, but Emma has gotten a ton of pressure from her friends about participating in this stuff so I obliged.  I bought cute little star cup cake tins and broke out a box of brownie mix and got to work.  She was asked to bring 12 but I sent her with 18.  They were sold for 1mil each.  ONE MIL!  This is the equivalent of 22 cents.  Totalling a whopping 3.88 (because she ate one) that was raised for the school that day.  Now I'm pretty sure that box of brownies cost me about $3, and once I put in the cost for powdered sugar, plates and baggies to sell I think they may have taken a loss.  I asked next time can't I just send $5 and not have to make anything?  Nope, if we do that I'm not considered a team player.  ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!? 

Happy Birthday Emma!

So Emma's birthday started out different than most years.  Shawn and Isaac had a scout camp out at a neighbors house.  So they boys took off on Friday night and left the house to the girls. 

We watched Switched at Birth and ate ice cream before heading to bed.  (Where Emma slept in Daddy's spot.) 

On Saturday morning I went to pick the boys us and we started the morning off with Frenchies (of course). Then Emma had FAME practice for 4 whole hours. While she was gone we decorated the house, started on dinner and a cake and the boys planned a scavenger hunt for her to find her presents.  

The present hunt begins.

Clue #1

The clues lead her all over the house, the linen closet, the kitchen cupboards, the quincho, here she was directed to watch 20 seconds of The Emperor's New Groove.    

 Isaac was especially proud of this clue.  It was his idea to put it floating in the bowl in the pool.  I think he was secretly hoping she would jump in to get it.

 Finally we were lead to the TV room where.... Sweetie Pie and Papa joined us via Skype.  Emma found her presents behind (and under) the couch and sat down to open them.

 This year I was really shooting for the Mother of the Year award.  I mean my mother has had it for so long I felt like it was time she shared it with me.  So in my attempt to win the award (and to make up for our lack of paragliding last year) we bought Emma a Galaxy tablet.  Now in all fairness we were going to buy her a Kindle but decided that she is going to need something for school next year anyway and this just seemed to make a little more sense.  She is so excited!  She has already customized it, and is working on downloading a ton of apps.  We did have to warn her if we found any of the parental controls uninstalled she would lose any and all access to the tablet.  But for now my little girl is growing up. 

 I love this picture, because this is how Eli is with all technology.  "I wanna touch, I wanna touch." Who knows we might be buying one of these for him in the next few years. 

 Last but not least, Emma had 2 requests for her birthday cake.  She wanted to decorate it and she wanted it to be a money cake.  As much as I loved money cakes when I was a kid, and even for the first few years I had kids I really don't love them now.  It takes forever to wrap the money to the point that I know none of it will touch food that might be eaten.  Then when I go to throw the cake out (which I almost always do) I have to go back through and dig for the left over money and wash it off.  So this year I just wrapped 2 bills in plastic wrap and put it on the top of the cake.  When we cut the cake I gave each of the kids one of the bills and told them to enjoy the cake.  I think I took all the fun out of it.  I guess I'll go back to wrapping coins next year.