time for a change

First day of Easter break.

Forth day of us at home (with two days of school in between), without daddy and without a car.

Time for some boredom busters.

Since I've changed the curtains and bookshelf in the aquarium, I figured we may as well change the artwork to coordinate a little better.... and ta-da, perfect rainy-stuck-at-home-and-inside activity.

We took down the paintings they did this summer and started over.

 I gave them my paint preferences: blue/turquoise, red, white as the predominant; orange and yellow next and; green, brown and black allowed, but not too much.

Well, they listened to the blue part, but that was about it (okay, Maddy did listen...).

So it wasn't exactly what I wanted, but hey, that is okay.

They are absolutely beautiful, even if they aren't the colors I wanted..

The "theme" was simply nature.

Here is what they painted.

Mia:  waterfall, cherry tree in blossom, and a field of butterflies

 Lucy:  waterfall and a field of flowers

 Maddy: birds on a branch

 Cade: waterfall with a grizzly bear 

 Mia had the idea of painting a waterfall.  Cade and Lucy thought it was a great idea, so they did it too.... but at least they added their own flair.

And all hung on the wall:

Looks like we have four budding artists!

cutest little deathtrap this side of the equator

We've had a lot of rain lately.

Have I mentioned that?

I'll mention it again:  we've had a lot of rain lately.

Note the following picture of our back yard:

No, not snow - hail.

It is from Saturday.... lots of hail, lots of rain, lots of thunder and lightning.

The kids went out and collected some hail from the roof.

There was so much rain, in fact, that school was cancelled this past Monday due to flooding.

And in the same way that we were thrilled as kids with a snow day, the kids were thrilled with a flood day.  And in the same way my mom was probably not thrilled (I don't ever remember her letting on... I'm not quite as good an actress.  Either that or she was a saint.) with a snow day, I was not so thrilled with a flood day.  

The weekend had been plenty long enough. 

Enter Mari.

Ah Mari - the same gem of a friend that had the Easter party - invited us to go to the zoo.

Bless her heart.

I'm pretty sure God told her to call us and help get us out of the house - I'm so glad she listened!

So we all piled into her car and headed off on the 1/2 hour or so journey to the zoo.

We arrived at the zoo (not a simple, easy place to get to....) to find a sign that read:

lunes: cerrado

Translation: 

Monday: closed

Okee-dokee.  Plan B.

We brought a picnic lunch along, and it was close to lunch time, so we began the hunt for a place to have a picnic.

Not the easiest thing in the world.

After a good half hour of driving around, we spot this place tucked in behind a restaurant.

We're pretty sure the park was part of the restaurant complex, but we took our chances.

And it was quite lovely.

Lots of benches, trees and play structures.

This was the favorite:

 It is what I now refer to as (see the title) the cutest little deathtrap this side of the equator.

A mini ferris wheel.

 There is no way in the world something like this would be found in North America.

It has personal injury lawsuit written all over.

In fact, it screams "better have a million dollar policy".

 But boy did the kids have fun.

 And we had some lessons in balance and counterbalance.

And the moms had a good arm workout, hauling the thing around to load kids, spin them around, and then unload kids.

 But look at all those happy faces!

They did have a few other more safe structures like swings and such.

 I love it when the kids are still young enough to not mind having friends of the opposite gender.  It makes life so much better..... and easier.

 They even had some good climbing trees.

And we never got kicked out.

So we may not have been able to see monkeys in the zoo, but we still had plenty of our own.

treats

The man of the house is back.

It is wonderful to have him home, but let me tell you, it is wonderful to have all the "company" that he brought with him.

 Great, old familiar faces.

Faces we wish we could see more often!

And the best, as far as I'm concerned:

I think he likes me.

Easter picnic

Sunday we were invited to an Easter picnic.

So we played the rebels, skipped Casa G., and joined in the revelry.

Okay, it wasn't really "revelry" in the sense of you know, revelry, it was a just a fun family party.

I had a hard time deciding what to do as I really still wanted to do our regular Sunday at Casa G.   I wanted the boys to see that we still want to be with them regardless of whether Eric is there or not.  But the kids (and I!) really needed a distraction and fun, so we choose the picnic.

It was a good choice.

While very soggy - we've more rain than anyone cares to have - the spirits were certainly not damp.

We dyed eggs -

with the coolest little egg-dying contraptions I've ever seen.

As another party-goer said - they looked like little individual spas for the eggs.
I would be very happy to have one my size, minus the food coloring, naturally.
Of course, if they had a natural tan color, I might be up for that.

Lucy got to bring Bubbles the Monkey...  Bubbles is her kindergarten class' friend whom they take turns bringing home on the weekends.

Bubbles had a fabulous time, let me tell you.

(Side note: Do kids get any cuter than that?
I mean seriously.  I really don't think it is possible.)

We hid eggs.

We looked for eggs.

We found eggs.

(Cade is trying to show off all the eggs he found.  Apparently I should have had him turn around so he was not looking into the sun!)

A little better....

We ate eggs.

Cade forgot to peel his first.

I jest...

We cracked eggs (on each others' heads).

And pretty much did every egg-type activity you could want.

Lucy got a little magnifying glass in one of her eggs.

Either that or she as an abnormally sized eyeball.

Our friends even had a parachute.

Mia was giggling so hard to couldn't hold onto the parachute.

The only downside of the event was that Cade became a member of a gang.

They are pretty terrifying.

But I'm willing to take the bad with the good.  

It threatened to rain on and off the entire afternoon but it didn't actually start until we were done.

Once again, we were so thankful it held off - it was great to be able to get outside, be with friends, and have a fun something to get our minds off of our woes - it had been a tough weekend.

weekending

Weekends have often been tough here.

This weekend is no exception.

I've been pretty down this afternoon and evening as I have watched my kids feel rejected and deal with loneliness, again.

Before we left for the mission field,  our kids (the ones old enough) did a lot of sleep-overs on a regular basis.  Friday or Saturday just naturally meant calling up a friend or two to get together.  We never really thought much about it, just taking it for granted.  No, it didn't always happen, but it certainly did happen a lot.

Here and Costa Rica, not so much.

And it has been hard.

These same kids do have good friends but they seem to either be occupied with other friends on the weekends, or maybe not too interested in moving friendship beyond the boundaries of school.

Time and time again, just like today, I watch one child feel very sad and lonely as she sees two other friends leaving together, knowing they are going to be hanging out this weekend. She initiates a lot - asking friends over - but it often doesn't work out.  Then I watched another child who waited and waited for her friend's promised call, finally called her instead, only to receive a "no" - once again.  It seems that her friends don't like sleep overs.  Perhaps they are nervous about being away from their families for night.  Twice, one friend has come over, planned on spending the night, only to leave early in the evening without any explanation as to why.  She just says that she has to go, and within minutes she is gone.

And my child is left with a rumpled heart.

It would be so nice to have an explanation, at least.  Just a few words to elevate the pain of rejection.

While most people look forward to the weekends, I am beginning to dread them.

I know that it is important, in order to grow and mature, for the kids to have hurt in their lives.  It sure would be nice, however, if it didn't have to happen so often.

Perhaps I feel these things more deeply than they even do.  The loneliness and rejection they feel is mirrored in my own heart.  Feelings like this have been carried through a long journey in my own life - a roller coaster of ups, downs and quick turns.  I know I've grown in it, and am still.  But the road is not an easy one and it pains me to watch the kids go through that familiar journey.

Constantly God is teaching me to find my all in Him.

I pray my kids won't be as slow to learn it.

round two - ding, ding, ding Maddy: the clear winner

I thought Cade couldn't be beat.

They said it couldn't be done.

But then came Maddy.

She went to some seriously extreme measures to weasel her way into not just my bed, but Daddy's blankets as well.

She loves our down comforters and the sweetness of it is that when she climbed into bed and snuggled up with Eric's blanket, she said, with a big smile on her face, "It smells like Daddy!"

Sweet and cute?

Yes.

But don't be fooled - this one is a schemer.

Her plan, to sleep in the master (therefore: best) bed must have started days ago.  

She's a thinker, that one.

She managed to convince some people to back out of chaperoning a band trip so that our friends, the Douce's had to go instead.  Then she manipulated our other friends, Miguel and Desi,  to have their bible study go late so that Miguel couldn't go all the way home so late at night.... therefore requiring to stay at the Douce's house while they weren't there.   He therefore then needing to kick his fiancee, Desi, out (who lives there), so as not to be inappropriate, and causing her to need a place to stay.  Then Maddy twisted Desi's mind into believing that our house, and her room, in particular, was the best place to stay. So Desi called to see if she could spend the night.  Naturally, Maddy then needed a different place to sleep and my big bed was the best option.

That is some seriously detailed planning just for one night of sleeping beside her mother.

Who knew I was so wonderful?

Do you see the complicated lengths these children will go just to be with me?

I must be one amazing mom.

On the other hand, simplicity works as well.

Lucy, for example, has spent part of both of the last two nights in bed with me.

Night number one: bad dream

Night number two: had a little accident

Maybe in light of that, Lucy is the most clever of them all.

So here are the stats:

Mia: 0 for 2

Cade: 1 of 2

Maddy: 1 of 2

Lucy: 2 for 2

Those children might just be seriously underestimating their baby sister!

After keeping the stats I wonder:

Does Mia really love me?.....

ding, ding, ding.... round one goes to Cade

Eric is gone - went to the US for a week.

That means I get a big huge bed all to myself.

Or not.

I was wondering who was going to finagle their way into my room and by what means they would make this attempt.
They like to kick Daddy out of bed and snuggle up with Mama on the best of days, but when they don't have to go to the work of finding a reason why they should share our bed, life seems to get better in their eyes.
(I don't quite get the whole thing anyway - I mean, we're just sleeping - or at least they are.  They sleep and don't even realize who is sleeping beside them.  I sort of sleep and realize that one of them is thrashing around next to me.)

Well, attempt number one was a good one.
It will be a tough act to follow:

Cade, after already being told he needed to sleep in this own bed, "accidently" spilled his entire water bottle full of water on his bed.
I asked him what happened and he said:
"Well, apparently (yes, he said "Well, apparently"..... apparently he listens to how I talk....) the lid on my bottle wasn't on all the way and all the water spilled out."
And apparently he turned his water bottle upside down in the middle of his bed.
The miraculous thing about this accident is that only the sheet got wet....one big pile of water.
The blankets - completely dry.
The pillow - completely dry.
His pajamas - about four drops of water on them.
(That must have been where the "accident" happened.)

I was in the middle of bible study with 6 wonderful women, so I didn't want to take time to change the sheets...... besides, the mattress was probably wet too.
Therefore, to reward his creativity in deception skills, I let him sleep in bed with me.
Parenting at its finest.