April and Spring Break

I'd planned on writing about spring break this past week but realized I had lots of other pictures so thought I'd go ahead and post those too...

 There's a new food court in Cochabamba with a restaurant called Louisiana Fried Chicken... Obviously I felt obligated to try it. As the paper plate and name suggests, they serve fried chicken and fish & chips. 

 On March 19th, we celebrated Father's Day. It happened to be on a Sunday and our church had all sorts of presentations that the kids put on for their dads. It can be a hard holiday for our kids at Sunshine House, but our church does such a great job with our kids... and they have many beloved father figures at church! O.'s dad has been working on his family reinsertion for several months now and joins us at church each week, and it was special that he and O. were able to spend time together on that day!

 Miel has a bad habit of eating things she shouldn't, and one day while I was at work she chewed on some clothes. She got super sick and the vet requested an x-ray because he thought she had an intestinal blockage.  The place he sent us to for the x-ray is in the far side of the city and I really had no idea how to get there. We had 40 minutes before they closed and I thought we made it just in time... Until we arrived and it was locked up! Luckily the x-ray tech was on his way back and we didn't have to wait very long. To make a long story short, she ended up being just fine!

 Celebratory dinner at our favorite restaurant- I passed my Bolivian citizenship test and Sarah started the adoption process!

 Showed up at Sunshine House before church a couple weeks ago and realized my girls and I were matching!

 Dyeing Easter eggs at school... We didn't quite get to that at Sunshine House before today, so I've promised the kids we'll do it next weekend... Better late than never!

We had a visitor to our class... He's a turtle and his name is Rayo Veloz. He was very quiet and a good listener... and a good example to his owner :)

One of my kinder kids gave me this "wedding ring" and said "I made it because you're getting married!" ...Does she know something I don't?!

  

 B. insisted on using this glass to drink her juice. She was pretending to serve everyone communion with it before she dropped it and it shattered everywhere... Oops!

While on the subject of B., this picture was also taken after her first performance as "Marcelita" in our church's evangelism drama "Jesus is my Superhero." She's been practicing for awhile now and was SO nervous! She really did well, although she thinks it was awful and that she needs to practice more. 

 On April 12th, we celebrated "Children's Day." Many people were very generous to our kids at Sunshine House and they had parties all week long. This cake and goodie bags were donated by Tigo.

 There's nothing quite like the chaos of a Children's Day parade! Also, can I just say that it's so much more enjoyable playing "mom" at the parade instead of "teacher"?! 

 Tía Patty said "I can't feed them real calamari so this is as close as I can get!" Needless to say, the kids LOVED their lunch!

Our twins went back HOME with their mom in what had to be the happiest reunion I've ever seen! She couldn't stop smiling and was SO excited to take them home!  They went home on Children's Day... what better day than that?!

 The tías had a morning workshop last week and a couple volunteers and I were in charge of the kids... Clearly O. was having too much fun with us ;) 

 On Thursday, everyone took kids home for the long weekend... I got A.! You can't tell in the picture, but she was asleep about 2 minutes after we left the hogar.

 First stop was the grocery store... I had no food at my house for her! She loved riding in the cart and picking out food for us to eat... something she NEVER gets to do!

 One day when I have my own little girl, she better be this sassy!

 Last year on Good Friday, Sarah, her mom and I took kids to the water park. This year on Good Friday, we met up with Sarah and the 2 she had for the weekend and Rachel, Gabby and Benjamin (former CDA volunteers- recognize those 2?) at a different park... I think it's becoming tradition! The kids had a fun afternoon swimming and playing together. 

I couldn't post about A. staying with me and not also post about her obsession with my dog! It was very mutual... I don't know if she or Miel was more excited about our temporary living arrangements! Initially I was a little worried she'd be lonely as there aren't other kids at my house, but Miel was a great playmate for her. She carried her everywhere (Miel's paws barely touched the floor!), blew bubbles for her, took her on a walk around the apartment, watched movies with her, and cried when she told her goodbye. At night, as she laid in bed, I could hear her quietly snapping her fingers and calling Miel's name so Miel would jump off my bed and lay with her. While eating, I gave her strict instructions not to give her food to Miel, but she tried sneaking it to her anyway. Then she'd pat her leg so Miel would jump up before saying "Miel is bothering me. She jumped up here all by herself!" They were quite the pair!

One more picture of the two before A. went back to her house... Watching Peppa with Miel close by!

Never too old for an Easter basket!

I wish I had more pictures from today but I realized after church that I hadn't taken a single picture of the kids. Our church doesn't really celebrate Easter so there wasn't much to take pictures of. On Friday night, they played the Passion of the Christ movie in the park, so A. and I went to watch it. Other than that, Easter was barely mentioned today (It's more of a Catholic holiday here... Evangelical churches don't seem to do much for it). I bought chocolate eggs for the kids and then accidentally left them at my house so I told them we'll dye Easter eggs and eat chocolate next weekend... Hopefully I'll be better about taking pictures then!