M&M's: Escolares

The biggest news of the week is that the big kids started school!! Let me tell you, we were all looking forward to school! Last Sunday evening Mitchell asked each of the kids if they were nervous to start school in a new place and not a one of them said yes. They are so ready for some more diverse social interaction (apparently they need more than just mom and baby brother) and they are really looking forward to improving their Spanish. After the first day I asked Redick and Reid what was their favorite part about school and they both, in unison, said "Everything was our favorite!" We all shared that excitement all week long! Don't they look so adorable in their uniforms?!

With the start of school we also implemented a little more organization and structure to this crazy tropical life. R&R get out of school at 11:45. When they get home they change clothes, eat lunch, clean their room and do one chore. When they finish all of that it's about time to pick up Audrey at 2:00. She has the same routine of change clothes, eat snack, clean room and do a chore. Once their responsibilities are complete they have earned activity time. Some of our afternoon fun activities include collecting Pokemon (yes we joined that bandwagon and we love it!), swimming, watching a movie, riding bikes/scooters outside, playing with friends etc. So far, so good on our routine! I even overheard R&R talking about a brilliant idea one of them had "How about we just keep our room clean all the time? Then we won't have to clean it!"

Mitchell snapped this picture on the first day when we dropped her off!

I made my first authentic Nicaraguan dish! It's called Piñón. Essentially, it's shepherd's pie within a sandwich of sauteed platanos and baked. It's going to be a regular staple, very tasty!

Of course, I've been making rice and beans all along. Layne is definitely a fan!

Friday was my birthday! It was a really lovely day! While the big kids were at school I got to talk on the phone with one of my very best friends then Layne took a 2 hour nap! I completely absolved myself of any other responsibilities I may have had and sat out on the covered patio enjoying the breeze as I read a good book on my Kindle. R&R helped me pick out a cheesecake at Costco and I even splurged on some delicious pre-marinated mahi mahi filets for an easy, no-prep dinner at home. When I walked in the door of Costco the bakery was just bringing out freshly baked hot cinnamon rolls! You know what that smells like! Yummmmmmm. I took it to be a sign that even the Costco bakers wanted to wish me a happy birthday! Who am I to throw a birthday gift back in their faces? We went home with a pan of those as well. When my sweet housekeeper Carla came, she and I enjoyed a warm cinnamon roll and chatted a bit before she cleaned the bathrooms and mopped the floor. I love her! Mitchell surprised me by showing up at home 2 hours early and when I told him how much I had enjoyed my quiet morning reading he took all of the kids to the pool and tucked me in bed with my book for a while. The evening ended with a heartfelt and so appreciated letter from another dear dear friend! I am so blessed!

In honor of my birthday I picked our family excursion for Saturday. We drove to Matagalpa to go for a hike. We were going to also tour a farm but we didn't get to that since we had so much fun on our hike!

We arrived in Matagalpa and on the top of a tall hill was a large blue cross. Since this is definitely a Catholic country there are lots of religious statues and icons everywhere, especially on the top of tall hills! It caught our eye and we decided to try and drive to the top of the hill and check it out before we found a hike to take and hopefully see a waterfall. We just started driving uphill. Haha! No directions, we just always chose the road that went up! After a while we saw a guy on the side of the road and I asked him if we could drive to the cross and he said yes! He told us to keep going on that road and we would see a little house and we could ask the caretaker there. A little way up the road we saw a sign indicating that there was hiking, camping and a waterfall up ahead! We found the caretaker and he told us that we could hike to the cross and that there would be a waterfall on the way. Perfect! He said he thought the kids would be fine on the hike. So off we went!

It was a steep and difficult but absolutely GORGEOUS hike! We were solidly in rainforest and it was amazing to see the variety in plants. Many plants actually grew out of other plants! There were aloe vera plants literally rooted in the limbs of tall canopy trees and snake like cactuses draping all over the forest. The hike turned out to be harder, steeper, longer and much more difficult than we anticipated. In fact, on the way down Mitchell and I both agreed that had we done this hike alone first we would have definitely said it was too hard for the kids. This is the best part: the kids did AWESOME! Seriously. No whining, no crying, no asking to be carried, no wandering off the trail, no lagging behind....nothing but smiles, laughter and a huge sense of adventure! It was wonderfully impressive! It was a perfect day.