Just like Christmas it comes once a year...SPRING!

(Spring just lasts a lot longer than Christmas)

Bienvendido Primavera

       I love change, which means I absolutely love seasons! (my only drawback on Texas) In Peru, unlike the rest of you, we have entered into Springtime. Which means that today for the first time in a long time when we said what the weather was outside in our morning routine it was no longer cloudy it was sunny! So exciting!!!!

But the important thing is that the kids enjoyed eating them!

        With Spring comes celebration, I mean why not? Most of the schools take a field trip to bring in spring, like to the beach or one of the restaurants that has the playground, pool, and soccer field.  The idea presented itself a little last minute. My only idea was to go to the botanical garden (which is still on my list but we are going to go on the close of our plant unit we just started instead), and then I decided it just wasn't possible yet. So we had a party to welcome spring, more of a day of activities for the parents to come participate and do something fun with their kids.

       So, yesterday the kids and their moms came for a fun day. There were four main events, painting, flower making, bubble blowing, and popsicle eating! On Monday we made some pineapple popsicles by making pineapple juice in the blender, straining out the yuckies, and freezing them in cups. The kids loved eating them. The moms not so much because they are so cold, and if you don't remember me mentioning it before eating or drinking cold things is bad for your health especially your throat.

And little sisters were invited too!

Yobana blowing some pretty sweet bubbles! She got it down the
others not so much they just kept stirring the mix instead of
dipping the wand which meant they only had suds on their wand.

         The bubble blowing was outside. I made bubble wands with the rings from coke, water and yogurt bottles, hot glue and straws (popsicle sticks or something less flimsy would be better but we have an abundance, plethora if you will, of straws). The yogurt bottle rings are better, because they make bigger bubbles. Then I made some bubble mix (which no I did not come up with this one my own, the internet is a wonderful thing) with baby shampoo, warm water, and a lil suga. They are the best bubbles I have ever made!!!! The kids loved them a lot!!!

Neiver beginning with the orange. 

       Inside, where the moms stayed, the kids were able to paint on giant sheets of white paper at a table to themselves. The moms were supposed to paint with them a few joined in but not too many they just watched their kids be wildly creative. And beautiful art they created, and were able to take home with them, which they love getting to take things home.

Kids, Moms, an Aunt, and Wendy making flowers to
celebrate springtime! Being creative isn't always a clean or
orderly process- and that is why my room is never clean :)

      The other inside activity was the one all the moms flocked to. One main reason is because the kids needed a lot of help to do it, hence why Samantha planned it for this day and not one where she was all alone in class with 18 kids... The project was to trace the kid's hands, cut them out, wrap them around a straw, staple it in place, and curl the fingers back and you have a flower. It sound a little painful, but the hand are only made out of paper.  The kids liked the flowers and the moms really liked making them, some of them even cut out like butterflies to attach to their 'toilet paper roll vases'. They all went home with a vase full of brightly colored fresh flowers, that will last longer than the           flowers in the market (unless they are in reach of a baby sibling or a dog...)

A weekend away

       As usual I went to Pacasmayo for the weekend. The two weeks prior I had forgotten to take my camera, and wished I hadn't been so rushed in leaving. So I took the advice of Sintia who told me one weekend, after forgetting to bring promised beads and Skipbo, I packed the night before or at least got certain things in a pile ready to go. So I have just a few pictures to share that is about it. 

This is baby, of course, (with Kevin in the background) showing us how to properly wear the sunglasses I got him.  He always wears mine so I found some cheap baby sized ones at the Mayorista the other day. 

Tilt your head to the left cause there is still no option to rotate this (come on Google, if there is it is too annoying to figure out). But not only is he walking, he is an avid climber, which he may have picked that up from I don't know, maybe me. He climbs on all the chairs and onto the table (which he got a time out from Kevin the other day for doing that), and he loves climbing on the playground. In fact whenever the door is open to the house and you can't seem to find this child it is because he up and left your lazy hinny to go play in the dirt and climb some ladders. He got to the second rung by himself, which then required a spotter. 

Saturday mornings are supposed to be glorious. Well when we walked out of the house on the way to the boys house, we ran into Bruce and Arelio looking at a bunch of dead cockroaches with extreme satisfaction. Up until this point I have seen four roaches the entire time I have been here. But in this pictures all the little brown dots are nasty dead cockroaches, courtesy of Bruce and Arelio who didn't think it was also a good idea to not just kill them but also not bother to sweep them up? But it was a teaching moment for baby, lesson? Roaches should be stomped on if live, he learned the squish a bug technique. Lesson 2 dead or alive roached should never be picked up in your bare hand and put anywhere near your face or handed to Samantha. 

I am on the other end of this teeter totter, yes there are two of them but with one pint sized kid at the other end, the adult does all the work, this way it is fun for both sides, and I convinced Mary (right) to let me take her picture. 

Again tilt the head a little to the left, a bit more, and there you can see Betsy (who also let me take a picture!) with her princess coloring project. That is what we did Saturday, they all wanted to color princesses so that is what we did.