Sunday, March 12, 2017

January, February, March...

First of all, can I just say how embarrassed I am that over TWO MONTHS has passed and I have yet to blog even a single time?! I used to blog almost every other day... I don't know what's happened! Well, I do- school has happened, that's what! 

This is going to be LONG... Good job if you can make it to the end!

 
In my last blog post, I wrote that it was time to renew my visa... I came here on a tourist visa, have had residency visas for the last 3 years, and now it's time for citizenship! Part of that process involves an exam on Bolivian history... I've attempted to take the test twice now and have been turned down both times... Maybe 3rd times the charm?! Pray for me on March 24th... the day I *think* I might actually be able to take the test!
 
 What little free time I have is spent at Sunshine House... The kids both drive me crazy and help keep me sane! 

 A new mall has opened up in Cochabamba with an ice cream shop that makes the ice cream right there on a cold plate in front of you... It's my favorite!

Back in January we celebrated 100 days of school... It was quite the celebration! As you can see, we wrote 100 words (a big feat for a class full of ELL students!) and we also counted out 100 snacks, dressed up as 100 year olds, sang a song about the 100th day of school and we paraded around the school to congratulate everyone on becoming 100 days smarter!
 
Keeping her boys entertained... This was taken before the diva learned to crawl and could actually be left in one place!

 One of my boys likes to leave me notes on the board. When I asked what this note meant, he said "I love you all the way to the number 21!" When I asked what was so special about the number 21, he said the numbers on our wall only go up to 20 so "number 21 is a really super big number!"

#facepalm   ...in case you've ever wondered what it feels like to pottytrain 4 toddlers at once!

 We have a garden at school, and when the veggies were ready to be harvested, we made k'allu, a traditional Bolivian salad with onion, tomatoes and fresh cheese. It was yummy!

 Love this city!

 We practice reading sentences with our sight words and vocabulary words almost every day. I'm always the one to write the sentences, but one day a couple of my kids asked if they could draw on the board. Being the good teacher I am, I told them they had to write me something on the board first... This overachiever wrote me a whole sentence!

I have maybe not been the most responsible dog owner as far as vaccinations are concerned, but you better believe Miel was getting spayed... No way do we need puppies running around! I didn't have a cone for her to wear but with the quantity of baby clothes at my house, these pjs worked just fine to keep her from messing with the incision!

 Edson turned 5 and requested a dinosaur cake... His mother (Sarah) took charge of that party and went all out with dinosaur figurines and masks for the kids to wear!

 Saturday afternoons like this are always my favorite :)

 I know I've mentioned before that we now take EVERYONE to church... so 20+ people usually a week. In the past, Sarah and I would go to the hogar early, change the kids who were going with us and then leave. Now that there's so many more to get ready, we've given up on bringing cute clothes and fixing their hair in cute little hairstyles and bows and instead, let the tías get them dressed in the morning and then we deal with changing a few of our favorites or the kids who really just look horrific in their outfit choices. A few weeks ago, it was a little chilly outside. We knew the kids would be bundled up and decided to let the tías have at it with the twins. They brought them out in these matching head-to-toe knit outfits. I itched just looking at them! Of course Sarah and I burst out laughing which I think the tías took as approval of the outfits. We were getting too much entertainment out of the outfits to change the boys, and they looked so ridiculous but everyone at our Bolivian church LOVED the outfits! Someone even asked Sarah if they dressed up so nice because it was their birthday... haha!

 Lindsey's mom came to visit a couple weeks ago and brought me a king cake from their bakery... It was SO good!

 While on the subject of food... A couple weeks ago, the tías taught us how to make tawa tawas and cheese empanadas for snack!

 The girls are loving going to evangelize in the plaza with our church... Four year old A. knows all the moves to this "Jesus is my Superhero!" dance and does it right alongside them!

 During the Carnaval vacation, we took all the kids and tías from Sunshine House up to the Cristo! Tía Patty's husband drove us in the trufi so there was no waiting in long lines for the cable cars or hiking up the mountain... Driving up is the way to go!
While at the Cristo statue, we decided we should get a group picture of the kids... This might be the worst one yet and also the best of the ones we took that day!
 
 After our big outing to the Cristo, Sarah and I stopped by my house before heading to Lindsey's house... I don't know what happened but my car alarm started going off and continued going off for about 45 minutes. Oh the embarrassment... The car locked up and some random neighbors tried to help us turn it off. It was not working at all and they finally decided to push my car into the garage and then they cut the cable so it would stop. I took it to the shop the next day and they replaced the alarm... Luckily, as I've been convinced it had never really worked right since I got the car!

 Playing with water in the rain during the Carnival holidays... Don't mistake this picture as us actually celebrating Carnival though- we're not heathens. 

9 year old B. was BEGGING to play in water and then I said "Why don't we buy foam too and you can really have fun?!" With the most shocked expression, she said "Tía Hannah, that's like celebrating Carnival!" My response was "Well, you do want us to buy you a water gun during Carnival... I think you're already kind of doing it." She insisted that was not the case and then after playing in water, asked again "We didn't really celebrate Carnival, did we?"

 Got to start the babies early on learning numbers and letters so they'll be sort of prepared for pre-kinder in a few years...

 After far too many months of not having a working stove, Pastor Fernando got it fixed for me a couple months ago. My mother was completely distressed at the thought of me possibly having a gas leak and not knowing it, so she decided to send me a smoke and carbon monoxide detector... When it finally arrived, it wasn't allowed out of customs... $40 later, I finally got the package. Not bitter at all...

 Yesterday was the long-awaited day of Tía Savannah's wedding! The girls were dying to go, especially after hearing that 5 of their former tías went, but unfortunately as the wedding was in the USA, that just wasn't possible. Sarah and I told them we'd have our own celebration so we took them to the pool and out to dinner... After a very fun afternoon, all were asleep within minutes of getting into the taxi to head back home!

Next time two months has gone by without a blog, please message me so you don't have to suffer through such a long post again ;)