This year has been one of the best Mother's Day yet. It was a very fun and relaxing day with my family. They have all healthy and have adjusted so well to the culture in which we now live and for that I am very thankful.
After we celebrated with 16 at a swimming party, we went out to eat. We were just about finished when we realized that it was starting to get dark. Storms here are very different than in the States. The sky gets dark, and the air will feel so thick, until all at one time the sky can no longer hold the moisture and it pours. There is no leading up to this rain it just drops buckets full. We were about half way home when we took shelter under a building to wait for the hardest part of it to pass.
We then continue home, splashing thorugh the rivers of water that form oh so quickly :)
I think Lauren had the best spot for the storm....in her Daddy's arms and under the umbrella.
Katherine's school invited all the moms to come by for a special time with their child. This is Katherine's class and the kids told us over and over again why they love us :)
This is the poem they were reciting/reading to us and one of her teachers pointing to the words as they were to be read. After that all the kids gave us HOT water (I still have a really hard time drinking hot water...especially when it's 93 degrees outside) but I tried my best to get it down without making a face. I know I know it's just water, but still... Then they all lined up to get a flower to give to us.
After all of that we did a Mother?Daughter craft. The only instructions were to make a picture frame with the materials on the table. So we tried our best :) and had fun doing it.
Katherine added the two hearts after she had "finished" so I took another picture. The red rectangle at the top actually says "Katherine and Mommy" but it is really hard to see. The marker was all dried up. Now we just have to find a pictue to put there!
This was another surprise this weekend. A little boy came over to play with the kids and brought a box full of hungry caterpillars and put them on my kitchen table. At first I thought someone should babysit the little guys to make sure they did not try to find a new home in the middle of all my stuff, but we soon became fascinated with the little guys. They were indeed HUNGRY! The kids gave them a fresh green leaf and I have never seen a leaf disappear so quickly! I actually ended up taking a short little video...which makes me laugh a little because they are caterpillars, but I love the conversation between Regan and Benjamin about them in the background of the video :) Maybe I'll post it soon.
But THIS is what the kids have been waiting for! The pool is now OPEN! We got a few looks as the crazy foreigners were already swimming, but that's ok. We had the entire pool to ourselves :) Lauren as become quite the little fish and she is fast!
My 4 year old daughter "fussed" at me for not sending her to school with a towel in her back. She said that all of her other friends had them and I had not given her one yet. So, she wore her towel to school and was one happy little girl. It is supposed to keep them cooler. It absorbs the sweat and keeps their shirt a little drier. One the days when I forget to send the towel (which is often because it's just not ingrained in my own culture) her teachers will change her clothes 2 or 3 times a day (depending on how many shirts are in her bag.
This picture I could not resist. THIS is my Katherine! She is very independent and can do EVERYTHING all by herself. This includes getting dressed. She has actually been that way for quite some time, but this outfit just captures her personality so well :) She did not just pick out random things to put on...No, this was a well planned and thought out outfit...down to the mismatched socks! She may be shy but her fashion sense is one way she expresses herself well :)
Benjamin talked me into downloading a few episodes of the Avengers cartoon series. He loves super heros and this was no acception. I'm glad I got some for him...the girls are constantly watching girly movies, so he was glad to have some more boy movies...but as you can see, the girls watched, too. I'm still not sure how they all saw clearly on that tiny screen.
Benjamin has always been a inventor/creator...a think outside the box kid. This time, he decided to make banana chips. He sometimes comes up with some very strange things to eat, but I have to give it to him, if it is completely gross, he will still eat it because it was his creations. I don't think I could do that. Anyways, this time it was banana chips. He sliced, added some sugar (I think), and baked in the oven, and then served with our dinner. They were a little gooey, but had a good taste. He is like his Daddy....he will try to perfect them next time :)
Regan fell this weekend in a rollerblading race between her and some other girls. If you don't already know, Regan is my competitive one. She quickly found out the these little girls were FAST! So, she ended up skating faster than I have ever seen her go. The trick was, it was a go there and come back race, so she completely wiped out when she tried to turn. We originally thought she might have broken it because of where the pain was, the swelling, not being able to move it, etc. But we decided to wait until the following day to see if she needed x-rays. The swelling was down and she had movement again so I think she just sprained it. So, she is taking it easy for a few days.
And this was my pre-Mother's Day lunch. Papa Johns pizza! It was very good but a frustrating lunch. To make a long story short....we order 2 large pizzas, one a Papa's Favorite and one half pepperoni and half cheese. We thought it was very clear what we wanted because we even had the aid of a menu to show pictures in case there was any misunderstandings. (never assume) After an hour we got a supreme pizza and nothing else (which the kids will not eat). So we sent it back. A little while later, they brought a half hawaiian with no pineapple and half something else..I'm still trying to figure out what it was. We were starved! I told them it was still not right, but that we woul dkeep it, but we needed the half pepperoni and half cheese one. We want TWO pizzas? yes, PLEASE :) So, a little while later they bring us a Papa's Favorite. We gave up and ate. Just before we were going to pay and leave, they brought us the half pepperoni and half cheese one. :) What can you say. I think they were a little frustrated when we asked for a to go box for almost two whole pizzas. And yes, we did have to pay for 3 pizzas...but that's ok...it's great for leftovers. During all of that, I also made 6 different trips to the bathroom with different kiddos (and it was not close) That is actually why only Katherine is in the picture above...it was Jonathan's turn to take the kids.
Now you know just about everything about my Mother's Day weekend :) and I really did LOVE every minute of it!
