A Trip to MAC-Donald's

Last Friday the six kids and I headed to Nogales for an end-of-the-Swine-Flu-break treat. Ronald happens to be one of their favorite people (not for the food, not for the drinks -- definitely for the Play Place!) -- so we did a lunch date. :)

On the way there, Candi fell asleep -- and on the way back, Candi fell asleep. If she hadn't been stuffing fries into her mouth, she might have fallen asleep at McDonald's, too... ;)

I think she's starting to resemble a certain sister of mine...!

Diego in the red slide, and Jose in the yellow.
The kids -- of course -- hardly ever go down the slides without running up them first. This results in inevitable collisions, and lots of yelling. I'm sure the McDonald's people all breathed sighs of relief after we headed out... ;)

Nere (at left) with her Cajita Feliz (Happy Meal). All the kids had the option of choosing a bigger meal to get more food, but couldn't stand the thought of not getting a toy -- so they all got little kids' meals... :)
I don't know why I even asked, actually...

And (at right) Candi got her face painted like a kitten; apparently one of the girls who works at McDonald's gets paid specifically to do this job! So, as you can imagine, all six of my kids lined up and waited to get their faces painted...

Aaron (left) with his Batman face-painting, and Poncho (right) as a bunny rabbit sporting Ponch's habitual camera move.

No worries -- the Batman trio is here to save the day!
[Or the fries that have fallen on the floor... one of the two... ;)]

And -- this was our car-full on the way back... completely sacked out.
Which was nice... because then I had thirty minutes of free time while I was driving... :)

Time Away...

... from campus was what I was craving the other morning!

So... we left.

And went to the ranch for a few hours!

It was actually a great time, and I thoroughly enjoyed being able to stretch out on a blanket in the shade of the trees along the sand-filled river bottom and just... be present... with the kids. :)

And -- like kids -- they found climbing, building sand, pebble, and twig forts, jumping off [and into] things, and generally running around in the open yelling their heads off... an exhilerating experience... lol.

Nere and Aaron on the other side of the river from where we camped with the blue, blue sky above [not azure -- that's still reserved for Kansas descriptions! ;)].

What is it about little boys feeling more manly if they take off their shirts?!?
Apparently, as a now-woman-then-girl, I do not understand this rite of passage, but they do -- and they make the most of it by suddenly gaining super-human powers [like super-sonic speed and super-bone-crushing-strength] and crashing into stuff.

It's very entertaining, actually.

We also had [literally] thousands of treasures that the kids would have liked to bring back with us -- but I had to put my foot down. Amy, you would have been proud! ;)

So, these were some of our collectibles -- and I loved seeing which shape, color, texture, and size attracted the different kids...

As I said -- [wrote?] I was on a blanket under the trees. My view up through the sun-spangled branches was periodically broken by one or (generally) six of the kids surrounding me and demanding that I smell this rock, explain that insect, or admire their battle scars... :)

Candi -- is part camel.

Seriously.

If you ever come visit, she will steal your water bottles or your cups or - sometimes - your coffee mugs [she also is quite good at manipulating them away from you with a little dimpled smile] and then chug the entire thing.

You have all been warned.

This is Aaron.

Aaron looks big and brave atop this tree branch.

What all should know, however, is that it took ten minutes or more of waiting around for him to climb down from his perch three foot above the ground -- even though he had climbed up there in the first place!!!

This was one of the war wounds.

Captured exactly in the moment of his re-telling the horrid, debilitating event.

And then he recovered as Aaron yelled to him to come smack into more tree trunks...

Jose found this caterpillar, which he called a gussano feo [ugly worm] -- and he was captivated. I love it when these children are captivated by nature -- God has given His children such an incredible world to explore and discover; if only we could keep the eyes and hearts of children forever...

I'm going to keep trying.

We - of course - took a lonche of juice and granola bars, so the kids happily slurped and chewed and watched the two cowboys that rode by on their mis-matched and [seriously] mis-sized horses. The one cowboy's legs nearly dragged the ground on either side of his pony-sized horse... :)

IN MEMORIAM

Yes... they had to go.

This picture was taken a week before the official retirement, which happened when the middle thingy-ma-jigger pulled through the sole and broke.

There is such a thing as wearing a pair of flip-flops into the ground, and these were not so much flip-flop on the heel as just -- ground. :)

The kids returned to school today, and though it's still a little chaotic with extra protective measures being enforced, I was happy to wave them off in their freshly-laundered uniforms...! Thanks for all your prayers, everyone... please continue to pray for those in administrative positions that are handling the after-effects of the "near" pandemic both in schools and the community. And that we, as workers here, could show compassion and patience...

Big Swiners

As I'm sure everyone knows, Swine Flu has (had?) the country in an uproar -- maybe even moreso in the States than here in our part of Mexico. The kids were out of school an extra couple weeks, though, and it's been quite the break... ;)

Thanks for all the prayers for extra patience that I know some of you were praying...!

Definitely was needed...

Last week, Joan and the girls' house decided to host a party in their "restaurant" called Messy Pork Kitchen. :) All the kids dressed up in costumes, and my kids and I went as a brood of pigs. Just to stick with the theme, you know???

The backside of the little piglets, waving their little piglet tails... :)

The "restaurant" sign -- notice the "X" in place of "pork"!

And then... the odd Chinese character at the bottom... lol; eating here was apparently a multi-cultural experience... ;)

Joan -- the Chief of Operations! -- with Nereida.

Carissa -- who went as a super-super-super-sleuth detective (is that redundant?) posing undercover in everyday clothes; you'd never know she's a ruthless killer underneath all that niceness. :)

And Katie May -- the cutest Pig Farmer I've ever seen... ;)

Julissa and Nereida -- they are just... beautiful, aren't they?

The older girls presenting their Menu and program for the night -- they did a great job, and it was fun to see them get into the "celebration."

Yaneli decided to make her own pig nose out of a marshmallow and raisins so she could be part of our piglet family... ;)

Bere and Gloria -- and this little girls is growing, growing, growing!

She would rather walk than crawl, and is already trying to take steps without help -- and admittedly falling alot, but it's fun to see her perseverence... ;)

Fede and Jazany enjoying the pig snot, poop, and other gross-ness that was listed on the menu... :)

Fede chose a -- syringe, I believe -- for his eating tool, and got a straw as his eating utensil... lol. Hence, "sucking up" his Jello!

And these two -- Zulema's little boy, Angel, and Candi -- were "sharing" the little kid lawn chair. I say "sharing" with quotation marks because Candi would sit in it, and then pat the arm of it for Angel to sit down, which would inevitably tip the chair one way or the other! But it was fun to watch them continually tip over... ;)

And this guy -- Jose Mediano -- just made my entire night with his costume! He actually walked/stomped around pretty well in his high-heeled boots, and I gave him first place for costuming... who else could pull this off??? Seriously... :)

Too Many Fun Pics...

... not to post some of them. :)

And I know I titled the post-before-last "Catch-up blog," but this one kind of is, too. Enjoy!

The above photo was when Mario was sent home from school because he was still "contagious" with chicken pox -- which, being interpreted, means: "We don't want the other mothers seeing your child had chicken pox, and freaking out on us." :)

So... Mario was home for an extra week for Spring Break -- and now he's been off for another week and a half for Swine Flu. So he really has almost missed an entire month of school... that is the way to do it if you're going to be sick...! -- but anyway, this photo was when he and Candi decided they were going to do this weird foot-hold thing all around the house... ;)

I... seriously don't know how this happens. I think I have every pair of socks in the laundry, and then it comes out like this. Matching pairs of socks can make this perfectionist go insane... and since I'm already close, I predict it won't be long... ;)

But seriously -- where do they go???

I'll give a standing ovation and three of my Japanese peanuts to someone who can give me the best answer to that...

Nereida informed me that this is what I look like in the mornings.

I disagreed.

I told her that I certainly don't smile like that (at least for an hour or so) and she's missing the bleary-eyed, dazed expression and the exploding hair that it's my fortune to wear... ;)

This past week was the Mexican celebration for "Day of the Kid" -- which is actually week/month of the child... or you would think so with all the festivities.

Part of the "fun week" for the kidlets was to dress as "crazies" for a party... and above you have the two crazies that I take care of... :)

Jenna and I were signed up to help -- her doing hair (gel, glitter, braids, etc.) and me helping with card games like Memory.

It was... mass chaos.

Seriously.

But we're still alive -- barely.

Diego, Mario, and Jose upon returning to CVE -- filled with candy, sugary juice, and gross chile suckers... yum.

Diego -- is going to be 6 ft. tall, I think... lol.

He has shot up so much in the last year... all his shorts are super-short, and yet he's still teeny-tiny around the waist...

It makes him look really, really nerdy...

... but still pretty cute. ;)

Look familiar, Dad?

Bill?

Other door/post back-scratching males???

Last weekend the kids and I had a "sleepover" in the living room of the house. It was actually a lot of fun... except sleep doesn't come that easily when you have two or three little hot, squirmy bodies jostling to sleep as close to you as is physically possible... ;)

Grandma Mildred -- you are my new heroine! How in the world did you put up with that every single weekend?!?

One day last week I decided to braid Candi's hair in dreds. She looked really, really good -- like a little Jamaican girl someone said! And with her dark skin, she was really cute, I must admit... :)

Upon taking the braids out, she was delighted to have pelo chino (curly hair, which in direct translation is actually "chinese hair"; don't ask me, I have no idea...) -- and so, of course, we took pictures!

Mom, I can't get this photo to upload correctly... but this was Diego's birthday gift to you! He came in one day and told me to get my camera. I asked him why, and he said, "I have a present for your mom." I followed him outside with the camera, and this heart was drawn! At the top you can see his name, which he has almost learned to write by himself... ;)

Pic-Juan with Jenean

A couple weekends ago, Jenean and her niece Heather came to visit us. It was a beautiful weekend, and we all (Jenna, her kids, my kids, and the visitors) headed to the river Saturday afternoon for a picnic, and - inevitably - "adventures" in mud and water... :)

Jenean and Heather -- you might have noticed from the above picture that there are no blankets... hmmm. Yep. We were the bright ones that forgot to bring blankets... ;)

So rocks and... well, mud... became our chairs!

We also strategically chose the spot where we would eat so that it would be the most hygienic -- please note Diego's three eating companions to the right. :)

However, this did not seem to deter the children from literally tearing into the bologna Jenean bought in town... lol.

I love this picture of Jazany -- I think she looks like an elf!

An adorable elf... but still an elf. :)

Diego and Aaron -- sporting their Spring Break haircuts... a.k.a Non-existent Haircuts. ;)

I think Aaron ended up winning the No-Hair-Cutting contest when we finally cut it all off!

After eating, the kids looked for more entertainment, which included (but was not limited to):

Jumping off dangerous-looking broken, tree limbs into 3.5 cm of water...

(Yes, there was more than that... but not much [sigh].)

Skipping rocks...

Napping and playing "phone games"...

And then... clean-up! Although Ponch's attempts here with the rock were not that effective, if you can believe it... :)

The "mud" actually smelled incredibly, incredibly horrid. Maybe because it wasn't all "mud"... lol.

Thanks, Jenean, for coming -- good times!