Mid August

Some shots of us visiting the baby sea turtles at the turtle sanctuary. And of the kids collecting shells on the beach. I kept trying to take a pretty picture of Audrey, but couldn't get her to smile.

Elliot's Curso de Verano teacher, Maestro Kique, with some of his classmates.

Elliot's Curso de Verano buddies.

Audrey's Curso de Verano friends.

Audrey's whole Curso de Verano class, including her teacher, Maestra Erika

A frog up high on the wall in the bathroom.

How much is that froggy in the window?

Cec wandering around with Axel at the clothing drop-off.

THis gives you an idea of how many articles people donated to Colonia Rotaria.

Hermana Wendy explaining how the process was going to work.

This past week was the last week for the kids in their Curso de Verano. Well, we knew that, but that was about as much as I understood about what was going to happen this week. So Tuesday morning I took the kids down and dropped them off for class. When I returned to our house about half an hour later, Rosi, who cleans the house, said that they had called from Curso de Verano to tell me that they didn’t have class today and I needed to pick the kids up. Cec and I turned back around and got down to the office and apparently the kids had been given a sheet where it was explained that they were having a sleepover that night, so they had cancelled class, and they also let me know that I hadn’t signed the permission slip, so did I still want Audrey and Elliot to participate? SO we signed all of the forms and the kids came back up to Cofradia with me. We got them all packed up to be dropped off at 5. As soon as we got there, Audrey started tearing up and said she didn’t think she could do it without someone helping her with her Spanish. And then Elliot started to cry because he did want to camp out, but wanted Audrey to be there too. So I told them that I would come at 7:30 and see how they were feeling, because they said that they would be opening the doors for the preschool aged kids to be picked up by their parents. All of this was taking place on the basket ball court of the University- they were all just rolling out sleeping bags for a huge slumber party. So Cecily and I showed up in time for the gates to open and we were ushered to the bleachers, which all filled up and at eight, this huge presentation started where they had jugglers and sparklers and fog machines and people running around on those pogo-stick-leg-extension things. And then each grade level went through and performed in some way to show the parents what they’d learned. Elliot’s class showed off their boxing, and Elliot was one of the main boxers, who actually got out and sparred with another kid to the music of “Rocky”. And Audrey’s class did some dance with flashlights to the Mission Impossible theme. And I didn’t have a camera because I had sent the cameras with the kids. Oh, and they were supposed to wear their Curso de Verano Tshirts, and we didn’t know that. But that’s okay, because then we found out that Audrey’s class was supposed to dress in dark colors. Sigh. So anyway, we sat through a two hour program, and I hadn’t brought anything for Cecily to eat or drink, and she was miserable. And then at the end of the program, it was still just pouring outside so they cancelled the sleepover. So then there were about 400 kids wandering around looking for their bags and sleeping bags and then trying to find their parents, and then looking for their cars. It was a nightmare. But the next morning we got to sleep in because there was no Curso de Verano to get up for..

Monday after Curso de Verano we went down to the turtle sanctuary again. This time the baby sea turtles were hatching. They’ve dedicated one of the swimming pools there to the babies and when they hatch, they just throw them in that pool. Then, every Saturday, they let people come down and help release the babies. They give each person a bucket with the baby sea turtles and we take them down to the beach. We’re going to go down the Saturday that Dad’s here. We looked at all of the sea turtles and played on the beach for a while. Elliot found a bunch of empty crab shells.

Our branch really wanted to do something to show Project Amigo how much we appreciated their letting the Primary kids stay in the hacienda, so they organized a clothing drive among the members. They collected between 700 and 800 articles to give to Colonia Rotaria, which is a little community of houses built by Project Amigo and Rotary Clubs for families in difficult financial situations. So we went with Jorge and his wife and son, and some of the members of our branch to help hand out the clothes. Presidente Cortes and his wife and kids were there, and so was Hermana Wendy and her kids and Don Jose. They did it lottery style- had the families submit their house number, and the president drew numbers out of the bag, or let the little kids draw out a number, and that person got to come through and pick 6 articles. They ended up being able to do this twice, because we had so many articles donated. I knew the back stories of a lot of the families that are there in the Colonia, because I’ve been helping to file information on the students from there. And a lot of the families have really really sad situations, and have had a lot of really miserable things happen to them. So I went expecting to find a lot of people with long faces, but they had so much fun, and they made the whole evening so much fun. They were lively and laughing and joking, and they made it seem like a party. It was great. And Jorge left with a great impression of the people in our branch, and the people in our branch left with a great impression of Jorge and Project Amigo.

We’re starting to be overrun with frogs. First we found a couple in our house- normal-sized frogs. But lately we’ve been finding tiny frogs everywhere on the walls and windows. At first we thought they were moths- they’re only about as big as a dime. But they’re tiny little frogs. They’re so cute! We can’t get a picture to turn out, because they’re too small.

Saturday Audrey had YW in the morning at the church, and Elliot had a district Primary party in the afternoon. They had a big blow-up bouncing thing on the basketball court and a piñata. Elliot was just breaking open the piñata on his turn when it started to pour rain. So everyone moved indoors and had cake and watched “Zathura”.

Sunday was our last Sunday with our branch. Next week we will be here, but it is District Conference. I ran between the nursery, where Cecily was, and where we were in charge of the treats this week, and Primary, where I was playing the piano, and Relief Society, where they wanted me to give an update on the project with Project Amigo. Cecily stayed by herself in nursery for a whole hour. Great. Now we’re going to have to get her used to our ward in Logan… I’ve been playing our electric piano for the Primary kids to learn new songs. They have a CD with the songs on them, but they have a really hard time picking out what the melody is when there is accompaniment, and sometimes the voices are even in two or three parts. So I just pound out the melody so that they can hear what JUST that sounds like. And I went in and talked about how well the clothing drive went with Project Amigo, and the Relief Society sisters decided that they want to go up to Queseria this week and cut hair for the kids up there, so that they can all look dashing for the beginning of school. They’re so awesome.

We’re having a party for our branch to say goodbye to them this Saturday, so I stayed after for a while to talk to some of the sisters about it, and Erick’s family came to pick him up, and Elliot started playing with Alexis, and asked if he could come home with us. So Erick and Alexis decided to come home with us, since I had to go back to the church at 6 to help with choir practice. So then Hermana Wendy’s boys, Axel and Brian, wanted to come home, so we brought the four boys home with us. We had lunch and then Cecily and I snuggled on her bed, trying to get her to take a nap. The other kids took the walkie-talkies and wandered out into the jungle behind our house playing war games or hide and seek or sardines or something like that. I was laying there with Cecily when suddenly it just started pouring rain. The kids came back from playing in the trees and were just drenched. In their Sunday clothes. So while I was getting the three littler boys- Alexis is 7, Axel is 8, and Brian is 9- into some of Elliot’s dry clothes, Erick and Audrey and Elliot decided that they weren’t wet enough, and that they wanted to see what our little stream looked like in a horrible rainstorm. SO as soon as the little boys were dry and I’d made them hot chocolate, those three came in looking like they’d walked out of a swimming pool. And so we had Erick sit on a bunch of towels, because I was already running late to get them back in time for me to go to choir practice. So we got down to the church with Erick soaking wet and the three other boys in Elliot’s clothes and their wet clothes in bags, and Colima was dry and sunny. I felt so silly- like I had made up a fantastic story about some imaginary rainstorm to explain how I could have let their kids get so wet. So the little choir practiced their two songs, in which they’re both just singing the melody, for two hours. I finally got home at 9- I had left Audrey and Elliot and Cecily at home. And when I got home all three were in tears, because Audrey and Elliot didn’t realize that I was going down for choir practice. They thought I would drop the boys off and come right back up. When I didn’t show up three hours later, they got really scared. I felt really really bad.

So as far as mothering goes, this hasn’t been one of my best weeks. If we were to take score: complete ignorance of important Curso de Verano details, depriving a 2-year-old of food, drink, and sleep, letting friends run around our jungle in the rain in their Sunday best, leaving my kids alone for hours while they think I’ve wrecked the car somewhere….. Add to that the fact that Elliot still doesn’t have an Xbox, and I still haven’t taught Audrey to drive a car, and I’m still making Cecily take naps and wear clothing, and I’m not doing well. It’s a good thing James is coming tomorrow.