Flat Stanley comes to visit

So, many parents may already be familiar with Flat Stanley, but for those who aren't, let me elucidate (sorry for the big word, I've been watching Disney's Aristocats lately). =)  Anyway, Flat Stanley originally used to be a way for elementary classes to find out more about different places in the world.  He was a laminated figure that would get mailed to different people (connected somehow to the students in the class) and those people would take Flat Stanley around and photograph him out and about in different places where they lived.  The pictures and Stanley would be mailed back to the class and then Stanley would go out to conquer a brave new corner of the world.  Here, Flat Stanley works a little differently--he just likes to go and visit each student of our eldest son's class.  Stanley comes for a visit and then the students paste the pictures of what he did along with a written description of the visit in a class book.  Unfortunately, I don't have eldest son's written description, but I do have a few photos of our visit from Stanley...

Fortunately for Stanley his visit coincided with a business trip to the capital city or our country.

  

It's crowded but we squeeze Stanley in 

McDonald's--Stanley's lovin' it

 Our business trip made room for a family day at the beach, but Stanley forgot his swimsuit so he climbed rocks and dug holes with eldest son.

The beach was beautiful, and a good time was had by all.  Thanks for the visit Stanley!

YUM!

So, I got inspired to make a special treat this week:  chocolate peanut butter cups and, oh my, are they delicious and easy to make.  I made them with "help" in under 20 minutes and the results are so, so good.  I made a few substitutions from the recipe given in this link  http://www.nobigdill.com/2012/03/homemade-peanut-butter-cups.html (i.e. ritz type crackers for graham crackers, which made the PB center saltier but that offset the sweet of the chocolate, so it worked well for us).  I also made them in mini muffin cup papers, and as I did not have a mini muffin cup pan I just used 4 or 5 papers to add sturdiness and it worked perfectly.
Seriously, these are so much better than the ones you buys and the possibilities for how you tweak them to your tastes are endless--think of it as a mini chocolate canvas awaiting your inspiration...
Convinced?

A day in the life of...

My posts are so often full of our weekend adventures and activities that I thought you might like to see what a “sort of” typical school day looks like for us.

5:00 am:  My alarm goes off for the first time, must it go off so early?  A couple of snoozes later I’m up and in the shower and getting ready—trying to be as quiet as possible so my children with supersonic hearing do not start stirring earlier than necessary.

6:00 am: Husband dear’s alarm is going off for the first time—several snoozes later he’s up and going. =)

6:40 am: The children are allowed to get up and get dressed in their “Eewniforms” as youngest Imp calls them.

7:00 am:  The next few minutes before and after this include breakfast choices/arguments, first spills of the day, lunch choices/arguments, occasional ant-killing, shoe-selection/indecision, hair-brushing/torture and general chaos.

7:15 am—7:25 am:  The school bus comes to pick up the kids and we leave for our school shortly after.

8:00 am—1:00 pm:  We hit the books and work hard in class and return home just minutes before the kids’ bus arrives.

1:00 pm—3:30 pm:  Imp takes a nap, sometimes she is joined by eldest daughter.  Eldest son does homework (which sometimes requires our presence) or draws, etc.  This is the quietest and often most productive time of the day, and we try to cram as much into it as possible:  washing all dishes (no dishwasher), washing and hanging out clothes (no dryer),  homework, exercise, preparing dinner and/or snacks (convenience foods aren’t readily available, nor do I really like them much--at least that’s what I tell myself =)).  Needless to say this time always flies by.

3:30 pm—5:30 pm: Snack time and then play time.

5:30 pm—6:30 pm:  Dinner happens somewhere in here.  Or sometimes we go out as a family to visit some local friends—in which case the entire schedule pushes back a couple of hours even later.

6:30 pm—8:00 pm:  Bath time, clean up from dinner, lunch preparation, reading books and Bible and goodnight prayers

8:00 pm—10:00 pm:  More study time or catch up on whatever was left undone until now (no surprise, I guess, that a lot can get pushed back to this time).

10:00 pm—10:30 pm: Time to unwind my brain and get ready for sleep—the morning comes so quickly!

Seven times around the sun

I cannot believe he’s seven, it seems so old.  Husband Dear assures me that 8 seems much older, but, well for now anyway, I’m stuck on 7. Perhaps it’s because of the places we will go, and have been, that just makes him seem older.  I mean at 7 I had changed states, but he’s changed countries, cultures, languages, norms.  It is one thing to read Oh, the places you’ll go and it’s another to put shoes on it, so to speak.  At 7 he is serious and sensitive, prone to daydreaming and hours of drawing, but when he laughs it is like water spilling through a happy waterfall and you know you’ve accomplished something.  I hope, more than anything, that 7 will be a bright year for him…

Beautiful boy, I love you so.

Camel rides

  I just realized I never posted these fun shots.  First of all this is not the first camel ride for our kids, but it is the very first camel ride where there is grass!  Live here long enough and you understand the power of the color green...

Imp and eldest prepare for takeoff.  Honestly these creatures are tall and they sort of swoosh up in two movements as they stand. Thankfully this camel came equipped with a "safety belt" of sorts. =)





The operator even refused to let K-bug ride--apparently you have to be "this tall" to ride this ride.=)  We were shocked by his safety principles considering this is a land where kids practically ride hanging from their parents ears while they zoom past in speeding cars...but ok.

And what can be better than riding a camel with your brother or sister?  Riding one with your friend.  Eldest daughter and AG have a great time giggling and careening around the park.  What makes it even better is that we totally, randomly, ran into these dear friends at this park in a different country...I love God's timing. =)  Seeing friends, especially when least expected, is like a drink of cool water in a dusty land.








And it makes for some really good memories.  To G,J,AG,AJ  we love you guys, thanks for all the fun!

Good till the last drop

 This is after the wrestling match, ahem, photo shoot, just to let you see that all's well that ends well.  Actually it makes me ache to see those chubby little K-bug arms wrapped around eldest daughter, just want to reach in and hug them tight like this forever.

 Got your nose!

If exhaustion is a sign of happiness spent then we we're never happier.  Love you so much LJK, thank you for crisscrossing the earth for us!

Bright lights, big city

A few more from our adventures...

 These artsy shots are courtesy of husband dear, can you spot our eldest son anywhere?

  aha!

 We had to take this one for L--who'd have thought they made signs like this!  Also I wanted to actually prove that J was here and he did make it into at least one picture.

 The photo shoot appears to start well... but you know five minutes in toddler/kid time is akin to days, and well things start to unravel...

 We sort of set K-bug free, with cousins like this...

I love how eldest son is not even paying attention to the tug of war in front of him.

Just a few...more...

 Safe and sound in her daddy's arms.

And here's the view without us. =)