Lots of Pictures

Lots of random pictures so I´ll just post them with descriptions underneath...

When I went to pick up Ana María from school on Thursday, one of the teachers told me to go to the basketball court and I could find her there. Everyone was practicing for the 6 de Agosto (Bolivia´s Independence Day) celebration. Most of the children were walking with their class, but some of the older students were playing drums or twirling batons!

 A. celebrated her 10th birthday on August 1st!

 It´s a Bolivian tradition to ¨bite¨ the cake. What really happens, however, is when you lean in for a bite, people near you shove your face into the cake! A. begged Tío Jake and made him promise that he wouldn´t do it to her. She actually refused to bite the cake at all, and this picture shows her face as close as it got to the cake!

 Tío Jake trying to ¨force¨ her into biting the cake!

These were the chosen 3 for church this morning! People in the street assume that they´re my kids, and I always get comments about my ¨twins¨ (It´s pretty common for me to take 2 toddlers out at once). Today I had twins and their baby sister ;)

Young love

 She has such a rough life!

 My inability to cook is a pretty frequent topic of discussion among the tías. However, I have perfected how to make a boxed brownie mix! I think this is the 3rd week in a row that I´ve made brownies... I spiced these up with dulce de leche, chocolate chips, and M&Ms! I wouldn´t be surprised if I´m the reason M&Ms can stay in business in Bolivia.

He was trying to climb out of his crib and got stuck!

 E. tries to be such a big helper with the babies!

 Nobody can do a pouty face quite like she can!

The escapee! We got a new highchair with straps, so we thought it would be perfect for him... and it was... for about one meal. Then he figured out how to slither his way out of the straps no matter how secure/tightly fastened we think they are!

This cutie and I spent a couple of fun hours together last night! I needed to go to the grocery store, so I decided to go to one I hadn´t been to before. I didn´t realize that shops, restaurants and a movie theater are a part of this grocery store, so we really had a fun outing! After a pizza dinner, I bought her a cup of ice cream... she never eats ice cream and her faces were priceless after every. single. bite. I have a video, but videos never upload here... We then spent some time wondering around the actual grocery store and that´s where we bought our brownie ingredients!