Thursday, April 15, 2021

Random nothings

My daughters decided that they wanted to go cool with their hair.  Here is so much cheaper so I said they could.  You can tell they are both happy with their new hair.


This is at one of the largest lakes here but the interesting fact is it is one of the shallowest lakes for it's size.


Just our touring.  There are so many beautiful buildings here.  I have enjoyed looking at these buildings and thinking about the history and all the people that have seen them.  My kids find it boring.


Here we were visiting an old friend from college.  It was crazy hanging with each other after so much time has past.  Who knew we would ever hang out here.


Getting professional pictures done.  This was a lot of fun.  She turned out so pretty.


This was a fun picture.  I love having the kids actually see how different produce grows. 

Not much has been happening. The kids have been enjoying soccer and as parents we have enjoyed cheering for them.  It has been fun watching them each develop in their own ways.



 

Friday, February 26, 2021

rainy season


 The rainy season was surprising.  We had no idea it could rain so much so quickly here.  Before the season we saw no rain.  But this puddle developed in 10 min or less.  The kids loved the season.

Wednesday, September 16, 2020

Pets


This was our first pet.  It was a lizard that we found under the washer.  We had several lizards there, I think.  The only problem with wild lizards is they are great escape artists.  We couldn't keep this thing in our makeshift lizard terrarium.  We have had several lizards and even a gecko but they all got away!

This is what the lizard terrarium looked like.

Since we couldn't keep a lizard we thought a turtle would be a great pet. But my one rule for getting a pet was I was not going to buy anything for it and I was not going to buy a terrarium.  So the kids made a terrarium out of recycled material.  Then they pooled their money to buy one plant and turtle pellets.  It turns out that the turtle does not even like the pellets so he/she eats flies every morning.  It has turned out to be  a great/cheap friend!


 Here is a short video of our little turtle.  It really is cute!

Monday, August 24, 2020

Store

 My kids have always enjoyed playing store.  They would collect things around the house and set up a little store.  Then we would have to go and buy something.  Things have changed lately with going into stores, so has the kids play.

This is how it is here.  Someone is at the door making sure you put on sanitizer. There are always sign letting you know that you need to wear a cubreboca (face masks).  There is also signs saying how many people are allowed in the store.  It hasn't been as fun shopping because usually only one person per family is allowed in the store so the kids usually have to wait outside.  Because of all these new rules they usually prefer to stay at home.  I can't really blame them.  Who would want to walk somewhere only to have to wait and then walk home.

I guess one never gets too old to play store.

Notice Z in the back is not wearing a cubreboca, so his shirt is over is face.   It is a good thing because he would probably get kicked out!

Friday, August 14, 2020

Science, nature

H. ready to catch anything with his homemade bug net.



This butterfly was so beautiful.  We let it go after awhile.  We just couldn't keep it.

This is a river bottom.  It really stunk in the winter, but now that it is the raining season the foliage absorbed a lot of the smell and it was so beautiful. We found this butterfly at the park next to this river bottom.

This is the release of the butterfly.

The kids found a tree at the park.  It has been fun to see the beautiful trees here.  There are so many with such beautiful flowers.  This one grows purple flowers. They spent a long time in this tree just playing.


S.  even took his hand at tree climbing.  I couldn't, it was too tough on my knee.


We found these tadpoles in a puddle.  The first time we found the tadpoles the puddle, they were swimming in, was huge. When we went the second time, the puddle had shrunk quite a bit, so when we put our container in the puddle the bottle came up with sooo many of tadpoles.  The kids were so sad that I didn't let them keep all of them.  Only a few.


This is a tiny cute frog.  The kids caught a whole bunch and were again sad when I wouldn't let them keep any.  Frogs are too fragile.

I am sure that these little frogs were some of the tadpoles from the puddle.

I didn't know there were such things as chili trees.  Poor X one day picked a chili from this tree and tore the chili apart.  When her face got sweaty from her facemark, she wiped her face off with her hand.  Poor girl was in so much pain from that chili that she tore apart. I think she learned a lesson.

Siamese banana.  The kids enjoyed eating it.

 There are a lot of ugly bugs here, but this is not one of them.  This beetle was so pretty I couldn't resist a picture.

We have also learned so much about ants. UGH!!! I think in our yard alone there are more ants than there are people in the entire country.  Today I saw about 20 ants caring a dead maggot up a wall.  I was just as disgusted as I was fascinated! But disgust won as I killed the ants and refused
 take a picture.

food

This is me walking home from the market.  It doesn't look like I was carrying that much, but it was heavy!!!


This is what I was caring in my backpack and bags. 


We have enjoyed all the food here, but I do miss asian food.  I did find a good sushi place here but somehow the kids all started liking sushi too.  Well it is way cheaper here than back home, but still too expensive to feed four hungry kids.  So we made it for the first time ever.  They were pretty basic rolls but really good.  We are going to have to make sushi again.  


This is one of my favorite dishes from Taiwan.  Oh I can't wait to go back one day.  This turned out alright, but the recipe I followed didn't have any measurement, so I just guessed.  But after this meal all the kids decided they ready to move Taiwan too!


C, ordering burritos.  She does a good job speaking Spanish, when she is getting something that she wants, otherwise she is pretty quiet when it comes to speaking.


This is sooo yummy.  It sits by all the check-outs at all the abarrotes.  It is impossible to resist.  If you are ever having a bad day, a caramel filled churro will make your life better!


This is a stuffed fried quesadillas!  The name explains it all.  I don't eat enough of these!


Lichees are amazing and were a splurge.  But well worth it.  I first had these in Taiwan. I was so excited to find them here. We bought some every Friday at the market until the season was over. 


Nothing like a late night street taco!


Mango razpas! A nice summer evening treat.


Chaskas are my food nemesis.  They consist of Doritos, fresh roasted corn, fresh cheese, and a huge lump of mayo.  They are so good but eating Doritos and mayo, I am sure is not good for my health.  But when you are eating them, somehow it doesn't matter.  It is a good thing they are a little expensive.  That is the only thing that has kept me from eating these things daily.


Coconut water.  So good.  The only problem with my kids liking to drink coconut water is there is less for me. :)

This is C.'s birthday gift.  This is the one thing she wanted, a triple decker hamburger.  She ate it all, without sharing.  S. was so proud of her. :)

Saturday, May 23, 2020

Boredom

Since quarantine things have gotten a little bit boring for us.  All our our toys and craft supplies are packed far away.  I don't want to buy too much either because we will eventually have to pack all our stuff back into 9 pieces of luggage.  So the kids have been pretty imaginative with keeping themselves entertained.


 This chess board is on the back of a lotaria card.  H-man had to come up with all the pieces for chess.  These piece are from Z's small lego set that he brought. See if you can figure out and remember which lego piece represents what. :)

The girls are not so imaginative but C. took her hand at cutting hair.  Luckily she has a kind little sister that allowed her to try. She did alright, that is until we straightened X's hair and it was actually pretty bad. :) But when it is curly it looks cute.


It is amazing what you can make with a small amount of legos if you don't have anything else to do.



When you are bored sometimes you do crazy things, that you wouldn't normally do, for good food.


We were at the park and H-man was resourceful and found seed pods to use to play checkers.