A little of this, and a little of that

Yesterday.

We started off the morning watching a surf competition.  

Zeke has been fascinated with the "caballos" on the beach since we got here.  He finally decided he wanted to sit on one.  Don't let this picture fool you.  He loved sitting on the horse, he did not love having his picture taken.

The kids enjoyed going to a birthday party of one of their friends from school.

They played games like musical chairs, jump rope, hot potato (with a futbol)...

cracked open a piñata

Genevieve & Dane with Dario - the birthday boy.

Right after the party we went home to find that daddy had just arrived!  He braved the local busses and saved about $90 getting here.  I think Dane's face says it all.

Today was a leisure day of beach, pool, eating, repeat.  I was happy to share the parenting duties privileges once again.

Tonight there was so much rain the streets were literally flooded.  The gutters had white water rapids. We walked home with water above our ankles in some parts. Ahhhhh the joys of the rainy season.

7-9 hours

That's how much longer until Luke gets here!!!!!  Can I get a woo-hoo and an amen????

Another rainy day in paradise

It has pretty much been raining for 2 days straight.

Yesterday, I took the kids to the neighboring village of El Torito where CREAR was putting on a day camp this week.  The kids did crafts and stuff.  One of the volunteers was a mom from Florida, and she is here with her 2 sons about G & D's ages.  She is putting on a computer class for the local kids (through CREAR), and invited us to join them that afternoon.

Today we met with them again.  The kids swam at the beach in the rain, then swam in the pool in the rain, then had lunch and ice cream at Coco's in a torrential downpour.

At Coco's we were spotted by a friend of a friend from Pleasanton.  We had e-mailed one another once we found out each other was here, and had planned to get together but hadn't yet.  Keira recognized us from this here blog and came up to say hi.  We got to talking and found out her host brother was in Dane's class in school, and was in the computer class with the kids the day before (there were only 2 ticos in the class).  This town is so stinkin small!

I finished off the day with getting asked out on a date.  I had gotten the kids settled to watch a show before bed and ran to the store with my giant umbrella (just 2 doors down) to pick up a few groceries for the morning.  One of the tico surfers I have seen around town stopped me and started talking in a spanish.  When I asked him "que?" he reverted to broken english and started describing some pasta dish with a red cream sauce.  I had no idea where this was going until he said he would like to make it for me, and would I join him for dinner.  Ha!  I then had to tell him that I was married, to which he looked surprised.  He apologized, said he hoped he didn't offend, but then asked for a hug.  I politely declined and put my hand out for a handshake.  It was about that time I caught the big whiff of alcohol wafting from him.  Nice.

So the crazy thing is, EVERYBODY in this town has seen me traipsing around with 3 kids.  How is that not a deterrent?  I don't know.  But in hindsight I wish I had accepted the offer....and then shown up with 3 kids!

A free dinner is a free dinner, right?

PS - The kids got invited to a birthday party this coming Saturday.  They are pretty excited. =)

A little bit of Sámara....

This is on my walk back from Zeke's preschool.  I think it's about a mile (that feels like 5) from door to door.  Some days I walk to take him and pick him up.  Some days I feel like I am going to pass out from the heat & humidity on this mile walk, especially when pushing the 30 lbs in the stroller.

And this is Zeke's favorite spot to stop and look at the crabs down below.  You know, right at the edge of the rusty rebar and broken chain link fence.

This is the long hot stretch of the walk.  One day we saw a monkey in the trees on the right. 

The Catholic Church. I have yet to see anybody coming or going from it.  But I have never been over there on a Sunday.

The town's soccer field.  I have not seen anybody on this field.  It's pretty wet and muddy.  I'm thinking they don't use it during the rainy season.  We do see informal games going on at the beach when the tide it out.

The view of the main drag with the beach at the end.  It looks like a pretty good hill, but it's not much of an incline at all.

Dr Freddy's medical office.  Knock on wood we have not had to go there (yet).

Here is one of the two pharmacies in town.  I have been in there plenty.  This is the place to go for anything you would pick up at Longs or Walgreens.

And here's the butcher.  You'll thank me for no indoor pictures.  Actually it's not that bad.  I've seen worse.  Much worse.  In fact, I thought I was going to vomit at the one in Kenya.

And here is the "big" supermarket.

 The food is on the bottom level, and the top level has non-food items (bed nets, clothes, and other random things).

It is not unusual to find outdated food, moldy bread, ants crawling on everything, and stray dogs and cats wandering the isles

Last Day of School

Costa Rica has a 2 week mid-year break, so it was the last day of school yesterday.

Genevieve and Dane's school had lot's of festivities with face-painting, music, dancing, and treats.

Zeke's school had a little performance in the evening

 Here he is with his teachers: Miss Hazel, Miss Nicole, Miss Laura, & Miss Katia

bummed

Took a ton of pictures today, but can't find my card reader to get the pics from my camera to my computer.
Will look for it in the morning when I'm less creeped out by finding creepy crawlies under the furniture.

Today was the kids last day of school.  They had lot's of fun (as the pictures would show).

Yay for tomorrow and NOT having to get the kids out the door by 6:55am.

Hoping and praying for a sunny day all day.  Give me the beach!

Luke will be back 1 week form tomorrow =)

Only 17 days left in beautiful Sámara =(.  It's starting to feel like home.

Please let the kids sleep in tomorrow!

Buenos Noches!

Alarm Clock

Know what my alarm clock was this morning?

The feeling of something munching on my inner bicep.  I brushed my arm and felt something. I opened my eyes to see a giant ant having a flesh breakfast.  I swear I felt it's huge fang teeth sink into my skin.

The one thing I won't miss about Costa Rica?  Hands down, the bugs.  And the geckos.  I'm over the ants all over the counters. The ant trails on the bedroom walls and occasionally across the bed.  All the unidentifiable bugs that I find inside the villa everyday.  I'm obviously over the mosquitos.  They are my nemesis.

I love it here.  But I am over the bugs.

Playing hookie

No pictures tonight.  Did I mention that my point & shoot camera broke right when we got here?  So I have to lug around my big camera, and it's kinda heavy and hard to be discreet.  So it doesn't get taken out every day.  I'm kinda bummed because I have missed some great shots.

The kids were sleeping like the dead when I got the wake up call this morning (at 5:55am thankyouverymuch), so I decided to just go ahead and let them sleep.  Secretly, I wanted a little more sleep too.  And if there was ever an excuse to play hookie, I think living across the street from the beach in Costa Rica is a darn good one.

We went back to the surf school, because once you take a lesson you get to use the board for a full week for free.  I really didn't think the kids would have any luck catching waves without and instructor, but I decided to humor them.  The kids took their boards out, and I went out there to help them.  Because they are on hard boards they really need to stay away from each other, so I could only help one.  I went to help Dane first when I look over and realize that Genevieve went out and caught the first wave she tried.  I continued to help Dane (who was also catching waves with my help) and Genevieve was catching wave after wave.  I helped Dane for about 45 minutes until he got popped on the cheekbone with his board and was done.  Genevieve stayed out there for a good hour and a half to 2 hours surfing.  She is really hooked.

We got a little too much sun today.  I forgot to reapply the sunblock.  I really haven't had to before this point because the rain usually comes in before we are able to get too much sun.

This afternoon the owner of the villas came and got us because he knew the kids have been wanting to see monkeys and there were some outside his house.  It was a short drive away and the kids loved it.  Zeke came back imitating them "hoo hoo aah haa".

What else, what else.

Still getting eaten alive by the skeeters.  Just me and Dane for the most part.  The itching is driving me crazy.

Still loving it here.

Goodnight!

My baby is 3

Zeke had the little celebration at his preschool on Friday, so we decided to make his real birthday a family party.  Honestly, I couldn't handle the stress of trying to get food and people to another party, and I think this was more Zeke's style.  

Here he is modeling the shirt I made for him.  He's a pretty cute 3 year old if I do say so myself.

This is a Family picture.  Luke was video-chatting with us so he could be a part of the "party".

We got him a little bug catcher kit, as we thought he could really find some good ones here in Costa Rica.  He loved it.  

Thanks you Uncle Brian, Aunt Lisa & Jake for the puzzle book.  He already played with it tonight.

It was a mellow but good day.  Not one tantrum.  Yay for me =)

Happy Birthday to my baby.  I love you more than you'll ever know!

Hang 10

Didier was a great instructor

and the wipe-outs

They both had fun, but Genevieve was hooked!  She is anxious to get out there again!

10 minutes

That's about all we got for beach time today.  10 minutes.

I was so looking forward to a lazy day at the beach this Saturday.

But it rained.

And rained.

And rained some more.

But I managed to snap this picture in those 10 minutes.

This is in front of C&C's Surf School, which is right across the road from where we are living.  This is the spot on the beach where we usually hang out.  If the weather holds out tomorrow, G & D are supposed to take surf lessons.  Dane is still unsure about it.  He's a little nervous about being out where he can't touch the bottom.  We'll see.

We went out to dinner tonight just to get out of the villas.  We went to Coco's and had the "typical" dish or "casados" - rice, beans, meat, fried plantains, salad, and an order of fajitas.  The food was really good.  Genevieve  (our pickiest eater) has been trying new foods.  She is doing pretty well here because she like rice and meat.  The boys are hit & miss.  Last night we went to Jardin Marino, a "soda" on the main street. I ordered a cheesburger and casados.   The 4 of us can share 2 dishes with food leftover.  Our meals were good there too.  I think the kids favorite thing was the talking parrot at the restaurant (and counting the geckos - but that's everywhere we go!)

Tomorrow is Zeke's birthday.  I will consider it a success if we don't have any tantrums or major meltdowns.  Wishful thinking?  I baked another batch of toaster oven cupcakes.  I think these ones turned out much better.  I think I'm getting the hang of this toaster oven baking ;) .

School celebrations

I took cupcakes to Zeke's preschool (his birthday is on Sunday).

Don't let the picture fool you.  He had a total meltdown, didn't blow out his candle or eat a cupcake.
I can't begin to explain why.  Such is life with Zeke.

I guess he was hot

***This was from a few days ago, just haven't had time to post it.