Onca Costume

Around the beginning of November Isaac came home with a note from school that I was supposed to sign and return.  I laid it to the side and waited until I had time to translate it before I signing and tried to forget about it (because I kind of knew what it said).  Around the end of November I found the note, translated it, and realized I needed to make a leopard costume for Isaac by, the day before.  The leopard costume was for the end of school play called "The Dream of the Tree Trees".  I normally enjoy making costumes, but things are different in a different country where you do not know the words for "leopard print fabric" and "pillow stuffing" and "fabric glue" etc.  Anyway, I sucked it up, took my dictionary along and went hunting for costume supplies.  In the end it was fun and Isaac loved his costume. 

 The play was by far the best school program that I have every seen.  There was beautiful singing and each class did a little dance routine.  I was amazed at how much the boys even got into the show.  Isaac's class did a little jungle scene.  First some boys dressed as frogs jumped on stage, then Isaac and buddies dressed as leopards crawled around.  The girls came out dressed as flowers and butterflies.  There were even kids dressed as alligators.  (I was jealous of the flower parents, but glad to not have to make an alligator costume.)  It was extra special because Mom, Dad and Traci were all here to see Isaac in the play.  They loved it, and Isaac felt very special to have them here.

The kids all sang a song together at the end that is about Jesus.  Isaac and Ethan sing it all the time.  I love hearing their beautiful little voices signing about Jesus and in Portuguese, too! 

Ethan's got a Girlfriend

Here is Ethan with his friend, Emma.  They have become great buddies lately.  Is she adorable, or what?  Emma is in Ethan's class at school.  She is an American living here in Horizontina.  She speaks awesome Portuguese, and helps Ethan at school.  The other day Ethan tells me, "Mommy, when it is snack time I watch where Emma is going to sit, and then I sit next to her."  Then after school I was talking with Emma's mom and Emma comes over and tickles Ethan and just giggles.  Ethan tickled her back, and we just laughed.  Last week, my family got to sit in on Ethan's class for a little bit.  Traci said that Ethan and Emma were sitting on pillows right next to each other, and Emma was sitting as far on the edge of her pillow as possible to be closer to Ethan.  How cute is that?  They have a ton of fun together.

Brazilians Know how to Party

 We went to our first Christmas party here in Brazil, and it was fun!  It was even better that my family was here and we got to share it with them.  This was the Christmas party for the Manufacturing Engineering Group at the Horizontina factory.  Since Scott heads up the Manufacturing Engineering group, he had to give a speech...in Portuguese.  I was so proud of him!  He did awesome!

 Owen loved the chicken drumsticks that were served at the party.  Here he is double fisting them.  At one point, I had to take one away because he was starting to eat bone!  Eww!

 They kicked off the dancing with this fun couple dance where we walking around the dancefloor and went under eachother's arms.  It got everyone out on the dancefloor.

 The party got even better when they brought out props for everyone to dance with.  We got boas, hats, silly glasses, lightup necklaces and all kinds.  Traci and I are showing off our goods.  Isn't my sister cute?

 Mom and Dad got into the silliness with their props!  They loved the party!

Isaac and Ethan had fun at the party running around with the other kids and dancing.  They like the lightup necklaces and glowing bracelets.   We all danced for a long time.  There was some Brazilian music and lots of English music.  Traci and I were the only ones singing the words.

Pictures of Owen

Owen has grown up so much lately.  He is going to be 18 months old soon!  Hard to believe.  He talks a lot, and knows exactly what he is saying, too bad we don't.  He is not talking English or Portuguese.  We say he is talking Owenese.  He has a loud, low voice.  It is so cute!  He has also started to copy his brothers.  The other night at dinner Ethan put his fork and spoon in his mouth and said he was a walrus, and we look over and there is Owen with his spoon in his mouth the same way.  Tonight Isaac was being silly, standing on the bed, making funny noises and falling down on the bed.  Next thing we know, Owen falls down on the bed and laughs.  I love it!  Owen has a fun silly personality, and an awesome belly laugh.

 Owen showing off his first piece of artwork.  He sat on my lap for a long time getting different colored markers and scribbling in the same spot.  He would grab a marker, give me the cap, color and then give me the cap back before getting a new color.  He also got some marker on himself.

 Owen playing with Scott.  Owen loves it when Scott comes home.  He runs outside to see Scott and jumps up and down until he gets to hug him.  He loves his Daddy!

Owen loves to play with Isaac's DS.  He seems to find it everytime it is within his reach.  Caught a picture of him in the act.  Looks like he is really into his game.

A Different Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving this year was quite diffent for us.  Being on the opposite side of the equator can do that to a family.  While we totally missed, and would prefer, time with our family, we made the best of it.  We definitely have some memories that will last a lifetime.

 The first Thanksgiving excitement came with our Thanksgiving party on Sunday.  We invited all the Americans living in Horizontina over for some turkey and pumpkin pie.  We did not invite the enormous lizard that showed up as all the guests were arriving.  The kids were entertained for a long time watching the lizard crawl around our pool and through the yard.  He was enormous, and we have since seen him and his buddies several times since.  Not getting used to it yet.

I was starting to dwell on the fact that we would not be with our family on Thanksgiving, and decided that I needed to get another plan going.  The night before Thanksgiving I decided to spend our whole morning doing Thanksgiving activities.  I came across an awesome website by Scholastic and The Plymouth Foundation that talked all about the history behind Thanksgiving.  The boys and I had an awesome time.  We learned all about the Mayflower voyage, the first Thanksgiving, and the Wampanoag Indians.  The boys were awesome, and totally into it.

 Ethan is showing off his Native American hat and Mayflower picture.  He could not wait until Scott got home for lunch to show him his creations. 

 Here is Isaac with his Native American hat and Mayflower picture.  I love how colorful his picture is.

We had a tired little Indian after the busy morning.

Another unusual thing about this Thanksgiving was that we got to go swimming outside in our pool.  We are loving the pool!  Owen decided he liked swimming in the floatie.

 Nice action shot of Ethan doing the backstroke.  He is a fun little swimmer.

Love this picture of Isaac.  It shows his sweet, fun personality and beautiful blue eyes.

Happy 7th Birthday Isaac

Issac had his 7th birthday earlier this month.  I cannot belive he is 7 years old!  It does not seem possible.  We did lots of fun things to celebrate the occasion. 

The school lets parents have parties for students at school during recess, which is what most parents do.  I thought that sounded pretty easy and decided to go for it.  It was really cute.  First, all the kids sit around in a circle and the birthday kid sits on a special chair.  So Isaac sat on the chair, and then he was supposed to call each kid up one at a time.  They each gave him a hug and a present (if they brought one).  Brazillians are big on hugging.  Then they sang "Parabens para voce", which is their happy birthday song, and then they sang "Happy Birthday" in English for Isaac.  I brought cake and treats.  I made a snack mix with M&M's in it and the kids went crazy for the M&M's.

Here is Augusto hugging Isaac.  Augusto liked my cake and at 4 pieces at the party.

On Isaac's birthday we had some friends over for swimming.  We told Isaac it was his only chance to have a swimming party for his birthday.  The kids swam and then we played "Just Dance", which Isaac got for his birthday.  Isaac wanted a blue cake because he has decided his favorite soccer team is Gremio and their color is blue.

We got to talk to all of our family on Skype on Isaac's birthday.  It was like a virtual party.  Here, Isaac is opening his present from Traci while he talks to her on Skype.  She gave him a Gremio outfit and cup.  He wears the outfit as soon as it comes out of the wash, and sometimes when it needs to be in the wash.

Isaac's birthday was a little bittersweet.  We had a really fun day, but we were all missing our family.  We would have normally had a big party with our family and lots of food.  I have a feeling that is how all the birthdays and holidays may go while we are down here.

Riding on 2 Wheels

Wednesday was Brazil's version of Memorial Day, so everyone had the day off.  One thing that I love about holidays here is nothing is open, so all you can do is spend time with friends and family.  We had a wonderful day on Wednesday.  In the morning we went for a bike ride to the park, but the park was closed.  We just went for a longer bike ride.  Then we ate lunch and took naps.  In the afternoon we were looking for something to do, and decided to talk Ethan into learning how to ride a 2-wheeler.  Ethan was hesitant, but with some encouragement from his big brother, he was ready to go.  Ethan likes to tell the story of how he learned and he describes all the steps below every time he tells somone about it.

 "First Daddy showed me how it felt to balance on the bike."

"Then Daddy ran while holding onto the back of the bike."

 "Then Daddy ran and held onto the back of my shirt"

 Isaac was riding around giving moral support and encouragement to Ethan.  He is a good big brother.

 "Finally, Daddy just ran next to me while I rode all by myself."

Ethan was so proud of himself.  We are proud of him, too. 

School Uniforms

They boys finally got their school uniforms last week.  I ordered them three days after we got here, and it took a month to get them.  They have to be ordered at a tailor's shop where they sew the whole thing.  The boys like them, and they are great for playing.  Their school's name is Colegio de Fredrico Jorge Logoman, and everybody calls it Logoman.

Ethan is wearing the t-shirt with "Freddie" the school mascot.

Isaac's shorts are really long on him, but he likes them and that is the important part.

Enjoying the pool in October

 It has been warm enough in the afternoons to swim in our pool, so we decided to run the heater and get the water warm enough for swimming.  It was SO much fun, and helped us feel better about not being able to go to a pumpkin patch (one of our favorite October activities). 

Here is Pool Boy Scott cleaning out the bugs.  We actually have a real pool guy named Joao.  He seems very nice, but speaks absolutely no English.  Someday I will get to talk to him and understand,hopefully.

Here is one of Pool Boy Scott's finds.  That is Ethan's hand in the picture.  Gives me the shivers just thinking about it.

Owen and I in the baby pool.  He loves to pour water with his bucket.

Isaac and Ethan's favorite thing is to jump in the pool.  Isaac is getting good at canon balls and brave about flipping. He tried to do a front flip, and ended up doing a back flop.  It sounded painful, but he did it again.

I tried to teach the boys the enjoyment in lounging next to the pool.  I told them how much I like to just relax by sitting next to the pool.  They said it was nice, too, and that lasted for a whole 5 minutes.

Ribfest

Sunday we were invited to attend a "Ribfest".  It was a fundraiser put on by the local Rotary Club.  The food was delicious.

Now those are some ribs!  They had been cooking over the fire since 4:30 in the morning.  The men would turn them occasionally.  Isaac LOVED the food!

Here is Scott and Ethan enjoying their food. 

Owen got to enjoy a nap.

The boys' favorite part of the whole thing was eating the meat off the
bones.  After we were done eating the cooks let them clean the bones.

Isaac's first Brazilian Playdate

Isaac had his first Brazilian friend over last Thursday.  His name is Augosto, and he is a special kid.  He has been the sweetest kid to Isaac and one of the keys to Isaac's success at school.  He took Isaac by the hand and took him into the classroom on our first day when Isaac was shy and scared to go in.  He has been very kind to Isaac and they have hit it off.  Augosto played at our house after school and stayed for supper.  We ate lots of pizza, and tried to make some conversation.  Augosto speaks about as much English as we speak Portuguese.  The plan was for us to walk Augosto to his Grandma's house, which was supposed to be close.  After following Augosto's directions for about 10 blocks we were hoping that we got across to him that we were supposed to be walking to his Grandmothers.  It all worked out, we were headed in the right direction and finally got there.  It was a fun night, and we will have to do it again.

Day of the Children (Dia de criancas)

So much has happened since my last blog post that I do not know where to start, so I am going to start with today and hopefully fill the gap in as I go. So....

On Wednesday, Brazil celebrated Day of the Children. It is a national holiday here. Scott did not have to work and the boys had off school and EVERYTHING was closed. We had a fun day planned of soccer and jumpy toys in the park, but it rained all day. Oh well, we had fun playing games inside and just relaxing, it was nice.

In honor if Dia de Criancas the boys had something going on every day at school this week, and it sounds like the entire week was a party. Thursday was crazy hair day. We spent the morning walking around downtown visiting farmacias (pharmacies) looking for colored hair spray. We found green, orange and silver and called it good.

Here are the boys acting crazy with their crazy hair. When I picked them up from school they both said that "crazy hair day" was really fun.

We kept our hair design pretty tame. We were not sure what to expect since we are new to the hemisphere, but I should have known...the Brazillians really got into crazy hair day.

On Friday, the kids had a costume party, festa de fantasia. We do not have much stuff here since our shipment has not arrived. We only have what we took along on the plane. I am pleased with our creativity because the costumes are made entirely from stuff we had here at home. Hopefully Isaac will not have to discuss in therapy someday how his mom tied black pantyhose around his waist and head and sent him to school in a forign country.

The boys had a blast at the costume party. They are both doing excellent in school. I am so proud of them and feel very blessed that they are taking the move so well. They are both very brave and adventurous. Isaac's teacher says she sometimes forgets that he does not know Portuguese because he interacts so well with the other children. Ethan had a little bit of a hard time at first, but told me Friday, "Mommy, I really like school now."

Monster Truck Birthday

Ethan had been saying since January that he wanted to have a Monster Truck birthday party. The week before his birthday I saw a commercial for "Monster Jam" at the I-wireless Center the week of his birthday. How cool! We totally surprised him with the tickets.

OK, I know he does not look very excited in this picture, but he really had fun. I will add though, that his favorite part may have been the soda, nachos and pretzels.

This crazy thing was the boys' favorite part of the show. This dinosaur morphed out of a van and then "ate" an entire car. The boys talked about for days afterward, and both agreed it was the coolest part. I do not understand how little boys' minds work because I thought it was the most boring part.

Here is Grave Digger doing the donut contest. Grave Digger did 27 donuts in a row. He was definitely the crowd favorite.

Aunt Traci came to enjoy the monster trucks with us. The boys love their Aunt Trace.