First Day of School, Tortugas, and Quesadillas

Our first day of Spanish school was a great success. Brett and Lily had a great time this morning. Both liked their teachers, and despite the fact that I never dreamed one teacher would be able to keep Lily entertained for 4 straight hours, she sat at her table with her Cece, her maestra, and never moved the entire time. They did lots of activities and she came back with a notebook filled with art, animals, colors, numbers, letters, feelings, and a few doodles here and there (:  She also was very excited to find out that the school has pet fish (pescados) and turtles (tortugas). So they got to go for a little scavenger hunt around the school courtyard for the two tortugas. She is exceptional at conversation and is fearless when it comes to striking up conversation with random people and any children. This naturally leads to US having the same opportunity to converse with the parents of said children whom she initiates conversation with. There really is no better way to learn a language I think. There's something so beautiful about the fact that no matter where you come from , or how different you are, you share the common adventure of parenthood.

I loved Spanish school as well. We dove right into tenses and I feel like I'm in high school English class all over again. So not only am I remembering my Spanish vocabulary, I am also remembering my English grammer and words like: conjunctive, preterite, and subjunctive. We took a little trip to the market at the end of class and did some grocery shopping vocabulary. Since we don't have school on Wednesday because of the New Year, my teacher and I are going to go to the big market on Saturday which is our make-up day. So I am excited for my first grocery shopping adventure and being able to cook real food for my family. It's been killing me eating out and eating things like noodles, cereal, and peanut butter sandwiches when I know that a whole ploethra of fresh fruits and vegetables are at my finger tips if I could just get up the courage to ask what the heck that weird looking green fruit is and if my children will survive eating it! (;

Healthy, happy, and learning. Looking forward to lots of fireworks and celebration tomorrow night and Wednesday.

Not many pics from today. A few for fun below.

Much love from the land of eternal spring.

Lori


Needed down time. Being together 24/7 necessitates some "zone out" time. We realized that after having not watched tv for 4 days straight, Lily was becoming quite clingy and needed something familiar. Unfortunately (or fortunately), "alone time" when you're a big sister rarely means being completely alone (:

Luna de Miel...the Nutella capital of the world (OK, maybe just Antigua) for crepes tonight for dinner. We thought Lily might like something she could liken to pancakes back home for a familiar cuisine. For some reason crepes smothered in whipped cream and chocolate were no good for our 6 year old, and ended in a knock down drag out about why it's important to clear your plate. Fortunately despite the fact that she wouldn't eat, she struck up a conversation with the family next to us and got some good spanish practice in. Little shit always makes up for it somehow (;

Le wall de Nutella!

After our "knock down drag out" about not finishing her plate and therefore no treats before bedtime, we happened upon a young girl making tortillas in the street. So I got creative and asked her if she wanted to "earn back her bedtime snack" Naturally she replied "yes," so I gave her a few Quetzales to buy some tortillas to bring back to the room. Hilariously she told the girl "I would like a cheese quesadilla please." Nearly peeing my pants I explained it was "just" a quesadilla...nothing comes on it. Below is a picture of us enjoying our warm, chewy goodness. She told me: "mom, even though I really don't like this, I'm chowing it down! See? Watch me chow it down mom!" Begging for positive reinforcement a little ya think?