Photos from the Phones

A little collection of photos from Mark and I's phones shows what we have been up to in the past few weeks.  Besides the big holiday events that is.

We went to the circus on Nov.22 with friends.  Sorry the pictures are terrible, they are from my phone.

Look!  I bought turkeys and they were from North Carolina!  Even had the little things that pop up when the turkey is ready!

So I always load up on random things while in the States, this is why!  The cream cheese, I bought here, that doesn't come in the suitcase.  We can keep our food traditions during the holidays this way.

Hanging at the park with friends.

Cub Scout camp out this weekend (Dec. 6-7) at Yerba Loca.  Eating breakfast.

Unfortunately we had three sick boys, so it was just Drew and I who made the three hour hike with the scouts.  This valley was made by a glacier long ago.  We learned about the geology  as we hiked thanks to the parent of one of the scouts being a geologist.

This is what Easton did instead of hiking!

What a great view to wake up to!

10 Princes

Each year Easton's preschool has an end of the year presentation.  They do a little show, in which they act and sing, while their teacher narrates.  Each class has their own time slot, so it is just your child's class performing for about 15 minutes and then you go.  This year however, there was also graduation certificates.  Easton will still go next year March-May, but because of the Chilean school schedule all the other students (who are not gringos) will go on to start kindergarten.  The three other gringo kids will stay on for the few months in 2014 as well.  They will all be old pros together.

This year's story was, "The Mystery of the Magic Dancing Shoes."  It told the story of 10 princesses whose parents gifted them each with a pair of ballet shoes.  But the princesses found they were magic and each night they would sneak out to a meadow to dance the night away.  The magic of the shoes let the princesses escape without detection. While dancing, they were discovered by 10 princes and the princes joined them each night after that.  One night the king discovered that the shoes were all dirty and he wanted to find out why.  He did some investigating and learned his daughters' secrets.  Everything turned out because the king found the princes to be honorable and they all lived happily ever after.

My little prince!

Notice the other couples, apparently Easton and Bella were just a bit tighter than the other  princes and princesses.

They danced to Gangdam style!

Receiving his diploma.   

I love this picture, this is right after he got his diploma, running back to his seat.

Singing the final…he knew his Spanish songs.

The three amigos (there is actually one more little English speaking boy in this little group of friends, but he is in a different class).

Traditions in the Sun

The Sunday after Thanksgiving we put up the tree and decorated.  But first the kids got to break the wish bones from our Thursday Thanksgiving dinner.  And since I prepared two of the turkeys, we had two wishbones, perfect for our four boys.  This year our two youngest got their wishes with the wishbone breaking.

On to the tree...

This is excitement! 

And our annual in front of the tree pics!   And it only took 20 pictures to get all of them looking and smiling.

Thanksgiving 2013

We had "una fiesta grande" here for Thanksgiving!  It was a lot of fun with great friends and great food.  We are truly blessed to have such a wonderful group of friends that we can spend the holidays with.  The weather was perfect for eating outside and even lots of kids in the pool!  There were people all over the place (69 of them) and it was perfect for this holiday all about family and being grateful for those true blessings in your life.  We ate all the American favorites from turkey to stuffing to pumpkin pie!  And we ate and ate and ate.  And all the while there were kids running, people laughing, and lots of hugs given.  How blessed am I?