Welcome Easter...

It's late Friday night...the Elders just left and the town has basically been shut down since Thursday.

When my honey said the town shut down for the holiday, I didn't know he meant "shut-down" completely from Wednesday to Sunday. Did you know that it is illegal here to drink from Wednesday to Sunday? Did you know that you can be arrested if you are caught?

Not that I plan on drinking...just thought that was interesting.

So the stores around us are closed but for the Easter Bunny's sake (and the tradition) I hope I can find a few of the bigger ones opened tomorrow.

So if you are like me and have yet to prepare for Sunday morning festivities...you might want to check out my gringo friend Robbie's blog. She had the COOLEST idea for dying eggs.

Can you guess how she did these???

Me neither. So head over to "hotmomsrus.blogspot.com"

U.S. Map Game...

Think you remember where the states reside in our beautifully designed U.S. of A.?

Check out this game I found from www.rocksinmydryer.com . The object of the game is to place the state where it belongs on the U.S. map.

Easy enough, right?

The problem is that the borders aren't outlined like our tests from 5th grade. Remember those?

I did really well with the states that were around my home state. I, of course, got Texas and Florida. But finding exactly where Delaware lives....hummm. Or South Dakota.

Enough introduction...enjoy the game !

Happy Days Are Here Again...

Do you know how easy it is to let your kids play clown for a day? Or for 5 minutes before they get bored and go on to something else. I would recommend getting the face paints (you can stock up on them now with the Halloween season upon "you") We have All Saints Day/Day of the Dead. Here I used my lipstick (that wasn't quite the right color for me) and eyeliner. This is so much fun for kids. I highly suggest it.

WARNING: Don't ever use a long wear lipstick that comes with gloss on one end. Never, never, never use that! Paige decorated Aiden like a vanpire in the back of our car on the way to church last year. So funny except it didn't come off for 4 days. Yep for 4 days he looked like he was on his death bed. Paige is a very good artist. We tried soap and water, make-up remover and even (fingernail polish remover); but I won't tell you that last one.

Do you think CPS reads blogs???

Probably.

Enough of the clown stuff. My adventures in suburbia went well. Just like my sister-in-law warned things were crazy. I had to shop for kids clothes, school uniforms, groceries, business casual clothes for my sweetheart, a few items for me, books and on top of that I needed to file our taxes for the past 2 years. Yep, I said 2 years. We always get money back so it's not that bad of a situation, but really, who does that? I also got to attend a baby shower (luncheon) that was beautifully perfect.
These are some of my favorite women on Wes' side of the family. Marissa, Jenny, me, Wes' grandma Ruth and his tia (aunt) Lydia. The way my sweetheart's family has welcomed me with open arms since the beginning should be a wikipedia entry under "welcoming an in-law". They are just good people. Love ya and miss ya!!! Sniff, sniff.

So you know, I haven't been lacking in my desire to post, just the time. Since walking in the door here the first night I have been inside a hurricane of reorganization, cleaning, homeschooling, cooking, and looking for a place to move! Yep, that's what I said, MOVE. I have never been more pleased to say that word in my life! I'm not even sure I can say I have a LOVE/HATE relationship with this house. I guess I can be thankful that it kept the pouring rain off of our heads, and believe me I appreciate that, but I"M OUTTA HERE!!! YIPPEEE!!!

The "tico" style homes here are all built without closets. Let that sink in. What would your home be like without any closets. Messy? I've found it difficult to have this small home look tidy, ever, with everything out in the open. Even the bathroom doesn't have a cupboard in sight. Let's just say I'm a wise women to figure out a way to leave my husband home for a week to experience my environment. He had appointments set to see rental homes before I got off the airplane. I love that man!!!

I promise I will do a goodbye post of this house, hello new house before we move. Right now they are digging up my backyard sewer system and fixing it, gross. Wes even caught them with buckets trying to dump the "black" water into our front yard. Yeah. Lovely.

So things are starting to get back in order. The kids have realized the rules I established in this home are back in force now that I'm back. No more popcorn and pizza parties on the "nice" couch!

As far as my week in the "states of luxury", it was divinely wonderful!!!! I had my night with Borders. By the way the Riverside Borders is having a party for kids today!!! I forgot to mention that earlier. Opps. I enjoyed a girls night out, had my Ruby's malt (which was as delish as I remembered it) and spent tons of time with my family. And the taxes, I just mailed them in! :)

Tonight, Women's Conference on my computer. I can't wait, more spiritual enlightenment in English! If you want to watch too you can see it at www.byutv.org (if you don't get it on your t.v.)

If You Have a Girl from 5-10 years Old...

You need to check this site out. It's from Precious Moments. Remember them? The cute statues with the large heads and even larger eyes.

Well, they have new books out that promote virtues. And the best part, as far as my girls is concerned, they have a virtual world about to launched any day. If you sign up before it opens, you get 25 extra virtual points and a limited tee shirt for her character to wear. They can set up their own room, and can receive emails from us, their mom's, giving them extra virtue points for something they did good at home. NOW THAT IS COOL!!!!

So if you and your daughter are interested, go to www.preciousgirlsclub.com and sign up. It's free but I'm sure they have an upgraded membership like all those websites seem to have. No mention of it yet.

Enjoy and if you sign up and want to connect with Paige, email me and I'll give you her name. photomom5 at gmail.com

Crafts are keeping me sane right now. No one is in school as of yet. Get this, I have to get the kid's sealed school transcripts, both from the district and from the school, take them to the Costa Rican consulate in Los Angeles and get them o.k.'d and the birth certificates stamped (and show Wes and my passports) along with the kid's passports. Then I get to pay $200 to a translator here in Costa Rica to translate them to Spanish. Of course they won't let "mi esposó" do it. I need to do the same with the vaccination records. I also have to have an electric bill in our name among other things. And all this just to have our kids pick up the language fast. Hummm. I might just need to find another way to accomplish that one.
So to keep the kids entertained we have been doing some fun things. Did you know you could make fun coloring pages out of your kid's favorite photographs? Imagine the benefits of this. You can take them to the park dressed as Spiderman, superman or a princess then snap away.

When you get home open your pictures in a Photoshop type program and do this:

1. open your picture on a page the size you are going to print. I did 8.5x11
2. make sure the picture is selected and not the background.
3. Go to filter>sketch>photocopy
4. You will now have something close to a coloring book sketch.
5. Play around with it, I kept the DETAIL around 8 and DARKNESS at 5.
6. That’s it. So easy.


Think about the possibilities.

*You could have a coloring contest at a baby shower with one of the pregnancy portraits.

*You could create a "choosing the right" coloring book for Sunday with your kid as the star.

*You could use them for a birthday party.

*You could create a “thank you” coloring page from a photo at your child’s birthday party.

*You could use it for a young women’s, primary, scout or achievement day activity.

*Ohhhh, how about a coloring book for a 50th wedding anniversary with pictures for the grandchildren and great-grandchildren to color about the couples life together. That would be awesome.

In fact if you think of a more creative way to use it, please let me know! I’d love to hear.

This is one we came up with.

Where The Wild Things Are...

Do you remember this book? I love it. It's one of my favorites. The little boy gets in trouble and gets sent to his room. He, like most children, decides to run away. He uses his imagination to transport him to "Where the Wild Things Are". My guess is that in his mom's wailing attempts to impress upon him the seriousness of what he did, she might have used the term, "wild thing". He is off on his adventures until the smell of food brings him back. His mom has made him dinner and he heads home. See how important family meals are?
I found this idea on "skip to my lou". {Sorry I can't recall if it's blogger or typepad} She had her little ones create their own monsters then she sewed them into pillows. How adorable!!!

I had to be just a tad more creative and use a sheet that we didn't need. Then in place of fabric paints we used watered down acrylic paints. It isn't the softest pillow {quite scratch actually} but the kids LOVE them. They like the idea of taking their monsters to bed instead of being scared by monsters. The older three also got a sewing lesson out of it. Yes, Troy made a pillow. However he disappeared when my camera came out. His pillow was a grousome football player.
My two youngest enjoyed this craft the most. I remember in kindergarten loving to paint, but we only got to paint once. Everyday I wondered if today would be the day we got to paint again. It never came. It's amazing how quiet the house was for such a sustainable amount of time with paint brushes in these guys hands.

I need to get Troy into this blog somehow.
Landon just crashed on him the other day. How adorable is this? The beginning and the end. My oldest and the youngest.
Isn't this plant the cutest little thing? It came with a pink and white striped bag {everything here in Costa Rica comes in this bag}. I bought it at the farmers market and carried it all the way home. If I blurred my vision and pretended the humidity away, I felt like I was in a Venician city carrying home my treasures from the local market.
I bought this plant to remind me of my treasures, my friends. I was so happy walking home imagining how I would nurture it and watch my "friendship" plant grow. Oh, I had such great plans.

Then I went in to take a quick shower, came out and found my plant stripped of almost all it's glory! Who would do such a thing? Who would be such a monster?

It was Paige and Aiden. They were having fun making snow with the delicate petals. Let's just say I didn't handle the situation so well. I have a friend who is having a tough time right now. I specifically thought of her as I bought it. Now it has been destroyed and mangled and I wasn't there to protect {her} it. I really didn't get mommy points on how I handled this one.

Now I am happy to say that with a little LOVE and care, my friendship plant is even better than before. She has more blooms, more leaves and is a bright green. She has weathered the "storm" of an 8 and 4 year old and is stronger because of it.

If You Give a Kid Some Gum...

Remember the book, "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie"? Does it sometimes feel like your life is like that? A series of events all connecting to one another, where you might wish you could go back and change the first {mistake} event?

Me too.

Here's one of mine from last week.

If you give a child a 100 colone {about 25 cents), he'll want to buy a large bubble gum. If he tries to buy a large bubble gum the gum will get stuck in the machine. If his gum gets stuck he'll stick his hand up the machine to get his gum. If his hand gets stuck you'll try and get his hand out. When both of your hands are stuck the nice "Spanish only speaking" store manager will try and rescue both of you. You will be of no help because you have no idea what he is saying. When you are finally rescued you will make it home just in time for your sister in law to drop off her large dog for you to watch. Her large dog that you are watching will of course find the large chewed up bubble gum and lay in it. You will spend the next 20 minutes up to your elbows in peanut butter {to get the gum out of dog fur}, dog hair and bubble gum. When you have peanut butter,dog fur and bubble gum dripping off your arms, it will remind your little guy that he misplaced his "gum" and would like some more.

Do you think I have a book here????

Summer Surf Camp has Started

Summer surf camp, summer surf camp, summer surf camp. Say that three times fast!

The older three started surf camp on Monday and my life keeps getting better. It goes for a month and they attend Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Can I get a hallelujah? It was a special moment for me to be adding an event to my computer calendar. I even highlighted it in purple, the color that represents an activity for the kids. In my previous life I had our events color coded so I could see in a glance who needed to be where and when. Now Im just happy to have an event on the calendar.
Here are the pictures. All three of them fell in love with surfing. Its all they talk about. I know its a little early for this relationship, its probably only a case of puppy love, but its been great for our family.


My oldest really enjoying himself in Costa Rica. I'll have to tape this to his wall to remind him he does like it here!




The two oldest "surfers" in the class.


I love this shot of Dallin running with his board. He was in a contest and determined to beat Troy. Oh, that brotherly competition.



Paige was just so stinkin' cute.



Paige again.




Younger brother hanging ten.



I love shots like these. Can you tell life is getting brighter for us? How many times have I used the word love in this post alone?

We've Had to Be More Creative...

We all have, including me. I've had to come up with ways to keep my little ones attention.

We've:
1. made play dough {3 times}
2. colored salt
3. made tents, forts, clubs and houses
4. cooked cookies
5. played with noodles
6. filmed a play
7. made a cake
8. captured bugs
9. took apart an alarm clock {on purpose}
10. fed a dead dragon fly to our killer ants
11. made an obstacle course
12. made clouds
13. finger-painted


and now we add number 14

14. built our own train track


I'm sure to my ultra creative friend Cindy, this list might not seem to interesting. In fact she is such a good organizer of play, she even has one of those "cool" aprons with all the pockets. {I've tired not to covet it}. For me, it's been a challenge to come up with things for my guys to do everyday. They each brought 2 toys so I've had to use the things that we already have to make it more fun. I have enjoyed the challenge!!!



Aiden loved to play with his GeoTrac train in the states. So we used Landon's train set, packaging tape and household items to create this world. The kids played for about 3 hours with this. Do you see the HIGH heeled shoe? (tan) Wes' sweet sister Rusti gave me these. They are so cute, but let's just say in a country where women are so short, I look ridiculous in these.

Ridiculous!

So we used them as garages for the cars. They are perfect with their peek-a-boo toes.

The other day Aiden was entertained with dental floss, 2 matchbox cars, 3 pencils a shoe and an ice cream scoop. Now, to some of you that might sound sad, even bring a tear to your eye. {Don't worry we could buy more toys if we wanted to} But for me it was beautiful! His little imagination was just blossoming. I didn't set it up for him, he found these specific things that he needed and went for it. Creativity is a beautiful thing. Don't you love it when your little ones play like this?

Do you have any easy ideas for creative play? What has worked for your kids?

The Best Sites for Kids...

Rocks in my Dryer, who has tons of followers, just did a post on her reader's favorite websites for kids. How awesome is that. I've bookmarked them all. They even have a CIA website for kids. So head over here to check it out.

Oh, What I Let my Kids Get Away with Here...

Because it's so hot outside, I don't have transportation, I'm home schooling Paige and I don't know the language, we are home {inside} most of the week. {Besides my infrequent rendezvous to the grocery store.} I'm not complaining just stating some facts. I thought it might be interesting to mention some of the things I've let my children do in the name of exercise or learning that I wouldn't if we were in the states. This might not be so shocking to some of you who know me well; I am a pretty relaxed mom. When a mess is made, I usually think of all the brain cells that were built as they were making the mess. Usually that is. Sometimes I don't pick up on that point until after I've done the" mommy freak out", "what have you done" and "what were you thinking" act!

1. Jumping on the bed. Not only do they jump on the bed but I encourage it. I've said things like, "I'm trying to get dinner done. Why don't you go jump on the beds with your brother?" I've pushed all three beds together to make a larger playing area for my guys. I've even jumped with them! Hysterical laughter came spewing out of me last week when I thought of a few of my friends doing he same thing, then imagining the look on their kid's faces. Now that was funny!!!



2. Playing in the sink. The youngest two love to do this. {See above picture} Oh, and I need to mention that it was before 8am when this picture was taken. That is why my children aren't impeccably dressed.

2. Using the dishes to make castles. My only complaint about this one is having to {hand} wash everything afterwards. Opps, one other complaint! The noise on the tile floor is deafening.

3. Spread dishwashing liquid on the floor to resemble an ice skating rink. (Don't try this on carpet, unless you need your carpet cleaned. Then you can multi task. Oh this is such a blast!!!! My guys are going to have such balance! I was on my rear most of the time. Advice if you try this one, keep the munchkin's hands out of their eyes. Good luck with that one!

4. Race car blankets. Have one child lay on a sheet while the other child holds an end and races around the kitchen table. Make sure that the child pulling the blanket goes both directions or he/she will have disportionatly large muscles on one side of his/her body.

5. Catch dead bugs out of the pool to study. How ingenious is this. You don't have to feel the guilt of killing an insect. The pool has done the murdering for you. (We've found frog(s), dragonflies, grasshoppers, huge wasp looking things and small colorful creatures.

So, is there something that you let your kids do that most of the world might be surprised by?