9/1/09-9/7/09

Tuesday 9/1/09

It can't really be fall!!! I have absolutely no concept of seasons/time here. It is so different here. We are so close to the equator that the days don't get much shorter/longer. It is so crazy to think we'll be going back to the states to visit at the end of next month!! We're all getting pretty excited!

Today at school, Cole was having fun playing soccer with his friends. It made me so happy to come down the stairs and to see him out with all the other kids running around and smiling. It sure helps on those days when you wonder if your decisions are having negative effects on your kids!!

(Morgan was smiling and playing until she saw the camera!!)

Wednesday 9/2/09

The kids science fair projects are due on Friday and we haven't really gotten started. The fair isn't until Tuesday but we have a lot of work to do! Morgan's science fair group has most of the stuff done. Morgan (and me as well) decided to go ahead and do an additional experiment for her project. She is collecting rain in her homemade rain gauge. It's been out for 24 hours and we haven't gotten a drop of rain in this so called "rainy season"!! Apparently it's been pretty dry here this year! With our luck we won't get any rain until Saturday when we try to do Cole's project (solar energy - we're making a solar cooker to cook a hot dog!!) when we need the sun! It'll rain the whole day!!

The kids continue to have lots of homework. I am pleased with how excited Alysa is to do her work. She has it down to a system and knows what needs to be done so she doesn't need as much help. Laina's homework is pretty much cut, paste, color, etc. Cole's and Morgan's is what is killing me! We're slowly but surely getting there though!

We had our last day of the school "clubs" today. My quilting group worked on tying the bumble bee quilt that they made for the school. I have to do the binding and the hangers and then it'll be done and ready for the presentations next week. Hope it looks good!! I've also decided that stuff like this is much easier to do with calm 4th grade girls than with out of control crazy 3rd grade boys!!

After school, Morgan had her Activity Days/FIG group. She continued working on her crocheting. She once again had a great time and was especially excited that the girls want to learn their Articles of Faith in English. They asked her to say the prayer in English so they could hear it. I think this is going to be a win-win situation for all of the girls!!

Thursday 9/3/09

Everywhere I go there are people cleaning under my feet!! Ahhhh!! There is definitely a different attitude towards people here. The "cleaners" are expected to clean up after everybody. I think everybody should clean up their trash and then let the cleaners scrub the floor at the end of the day. They are ALWAYS CLEANING!! It is pretty sad to see how different the social classes are here. There are the very well to do and then there's those that have hardly anything. There's not a lot of middle class!

Friday 9/4/09

Next week the school is having a parade for the independence day. All of the 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade is wearing traditional dress. Since we're fresh out of traditional clothes, one of the other teachers is letting us borrow some. I can't wait!! Alysa has to dress up as the country tree (yeah, that'll be fun....said with sarcasm!!), and Laina has to be the Quetzal bird.

Each month the school has a "Civic Act" with a different class in charge. This month it was Laina's class. They do a little play and the anthem (the longest in the world!!) and pledge. Laina was such a ham during the practices but got a bit of stage fright today. She is in a class with the kids that are starting kindergarten either next year or the year after.

We had a fun campout for class today since we've been studying camping vocabulary. We told camp stories and had (microwave) smores. It was great!! We even made extra smores for all of the teachers. Most people here have never experienced the pure enjoyment of eating a smore!

After school there was a Primary activity but Morgan was the only one that would go.

Saturday 9/5/09

We started building Cole's science fair project today. He's making a solar cooker to cook hot dogs. It was gorgeous weather while we were building it but I forgot to get the hot dogs. While the kids went to another Primary activity only for the older kids, I ran to the store to get the hot dogs. The older kids were working on their Faith in God goals and learned how to make animals out of potatoes and carrots.

When we got home, it was cloudy and remained that way for the rest of the day. It's pretty funny how Morgan needs rain for her project but hasn't gotten any and now that we need the sun for Cole's project, there isn't any!!

Instead of cooking hot dogs, we played outside, rode bikes, played tennis, and washed the car.

We really do love having the whole development to ourselves! We can be loud and nobody cares.

Sunday 9/6/09

Clouds, clouds, and more clouds. Hopefully we can get some sun tomorrow so Cole can cook his hot dogs.

Morgan is really having a blast and finally making friends at church. I'm glad to see that she's making friends there and not feeling isolated!! Alysa and Laina's teacher was not there so I taught them by myself. Alysa said that they had the best teacher today!!

Our little ballerina. She loves dancing to her Barbie CD!!

And with our ballerina, our little student!! Alysa LOVES school and learning!

And we can't leave out our crocheter with an attitude!

Monday 9/7/09

There is no better feeling than remembering 5 minutes before the kids are to leave that one of them is supposed to be dressed as their favorite fruit. Luckily for me, Laina wanted to be a strawberry and we actually had red clothes and some green fabric to make her leaves! We even put makeup polka dots on her cheeks for seeds. I have to say that she made one cute little strawberry!!

This may sound selfish but it is so nice to say good bye to Chris and the kids in the morning and to be able to have some alone time to exercise, clean, sew, work, etc. It's not a ton of time but it sure makes a huge difference!! I feel so much more productive!

The quilting club finished it's quilt and it is ready for the presentation on Wednesday. I wish I could get Morgan to smile in a picture once in a while!!

Morgan's science fair group had another meeting after school today. The group received their papers back from the teacher with negative comments about the hypothesis, experiment, and conclusion. The other parents asked me for my input again. I told them that Morgan had gone ahead and done the experiment that she wanted to and explained what she had done. They asked if they could use it for the fair since they only had one day to prepare. We were actually able to get the kids involved and it was a little more of what I had envisioned a science project to be.

After Morgan's group, it was a frantic night trying to get Cole's project ready. There has still been no sun to cook his hot dogs so I'm not really sure what we are going to do!! I'm sure we'll come up with something!