Library and Loft Construction, Celebrating Ds Birthday at the Beach - September 2017

This is the start of our library being built in the hallway of our house. It is massive.

 Ben had this idea to build a loft up to the lookout in the area that is now the kitchen. The kids are so excited about this project. It will be large enough to hold a twin size mattress and makes a great reading area. You can see that they can get up into the window/look out area.

 This is one of my favorite pictures taken in David. As you can see, one of these children wasn't loving being on top of the bike rack.

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For D's birthday, he wanted to go to the beach, so we set up a time to load up and head down with some friends. We went to the beach, Las Lajas, which is about 2 hours away and really nice. The waves are really small and undertow isn't bad. In this picture, I should have already put sunblock on all of us...

 This child hated the water and screamed if I went near it. Needless to say, he may be my child. I am not a fan of the ocean either!

 We got this super awesome umbrella for Christmas last year from Nana and Pop and got to use it today. It worked great until the tide rose and we had to yank it up and run!

 We had fun digging in the sand with our friend! The kids love getting dirty and then playing in the water!

 We found a ton of shells and sand dollars. This black sand dollar had just died. After we got it home, it turned white! It was really big too - about the size of my cell phone! M and I spent a lot of time looking for shells since we didn't go in the water.

 We had a picnic lunch with our friends under this little covering.

 Everyone had fun playing in the water. It was low tide, so we had to walk really far out to get to the ocean. They could have played here all day!

 And we could have sat under the umbrella all day!

 He sure is a mess, but he has a lot of fun and he sure loves his mommy! He usually sticks to me like glue! He was totally covered in sand since he stuck his head in the water puddle he was playing in. Black sand was all over everything!!

 Here are some of the sand dollars we found that were still alive. We threw them back in the ocean. There were tons of them on the beach that day.

We had a great time celebrating D's birthday and playing in the ocean with our friends! Can't wait until we can go back and do it again! The place we parked had little cabanas you could rent for the day, showers, bathrooms and a little restaurant. It was really nice!

Volcan Flower Festival - September 2017

We met some friends and headed to the Volcan Flower Festival in September. It was a lot of fun. It only poured on us for a little while when we were in the festival. The parade started some two hours later than it was supposed to and was slow slow slow!! We had a great time though!

 There were a lot of structures that were made entirely of flowers, like this horse.

 I got to be a flower woman for a few minutes. Isn't it lovely?

 H did a short zipline they had set up and he had a blast!

 D tried it out too. It was on his list of things he wanted to do for his birthday, so it worked out perfectly that he could try it out at the festival.

 Look ma, no hands!

 The parade was loud. The bands were super loud but they did a good job.

 The floats were all really nicely done. Think Rose Parade on a tiny scale.

 Traditional dancers were also part of the parade. So this was one of the reasons it took so long. They had to perform a dance or two in front of the grand stand and everyone else had to wait.

 This was a cool John Deere float. The guy standing there was turning it himself.

 I love the traditional dresses these dancers were wearing. And the pins and beads in their hair.

Ben and I got to be Ngobe. Everyone thought his gorilla length arms really went with this cut out. Ha! And M sticking his head out from behind me fits in perfectly!

 These are my fellow Panama Mamas! Lots of sweet ladies!

 Here is most of our crew. Can you tell why we appeared to be more of a parade walking down the street than the actual parade? It was fun - so glad we have these kind of experiences while living here!

Meet The Newest Member Of the Family - Big Mac

A friend told us the other day that she had a worker who could get us a cow for $30 from a dairy. They sell off the male cows that are born since they can't milk them. So, we asked a few questions about raising cows and I convinced Ben that we needed to get a baby cow! Today, our cow arrived and we drove over to her house to pick it up. Here is the sweet cow being lead to the car, even though you can't really see him.

 It was quite an adventure to drive over the bumpy roads with a cow in the back end of the car. The kids just loved it! He was a little wet because, of course, it started pouring right as we got to the house.

 He really liked D when we got home. He was sucking hard on his thumb, so we knew it was time to get his milk ready! D dressed like a cowboy for the occasion! Everyone really seems to like him so far.

 Isn't he cute? His nose is mostly pink with a little black. Ben was able to pick him up, so I'm not sure what he weighs. He's a few weeks old, still drinking milk.

He was one hungry fellow when we got the milk going finally. We bought a bottle and mix from a local pet store. We also got him a rope. He will stay under the pavilion most of the time but on a long rope. We can move him around the property and tie him to a different tree during the day. 

 Everyone loved feeding him and everyone got a chance. E really liked it and this was her stance. He kept butting at the bottle so she was trying to hold it really steady.

 D really liked feeding him too. He looks like a natural!

 He looks pretty tiny, huh?

 Cute little face.

So I guess we will see how attached we get to him in the next few months or so. Hopefully he will turn out to be a pretty good weed eater and have a good temperament. This is new territory for these city slickers, but we're willing to learn.

Quick August Report of House on the Hill Progress

This is a picture run through of what our house looked like at the end of August. I'll try to point out some of the things we have changed. In case you are wondering, we did move into this house already, so more pics to come in the future, but we are still working on getting the kitchen built, boxes unpacked and things put away. It's super fun living in a construction zone...in Panama...with 5 children...who you homeschool. 

This is the current kitchen/future homeschool and crafting room.

 Here is he ceiling in this room - they're putting up sheetrock and putting windows in the little lookout area (that's green in this pic).

 The part that will have the windows where the light is hanging just got cut out and windows will be installed. This is the glassed in room that will eventually be the kitchen, living and dining room.

 A view of the hallway where there used to be a wall leading to the current kitchen.

 These are the metal doors we had installed to separate the glass room from the rest of the house. We can secure that side of the house whenever we need to because these doors lock. Ben designed them and we had them built.

 Here is the outside from the covered pavilion. We are making the walkway into a part of the driveway that we can drive over (eventually). The roof is also currently green, but the plan is to paint it red to match the other houses in the neighborhood.

 Here is the wall that is being built and where the fridge will go in the glassed in room.

 Yes, many boxes and lots of random stuff in the house during all phases of construction!

 Here is the mostly finished sheetrock in E's room that is off of the current kitchen.

 Putting stone on the column to match the other side of the room. Lots of work going on.

 Always a mess. This was the rock for the column, chipping up the red tile (that was in the hallway only). So when we took out the wall, there was gray tile right up next to red tile, so we tore out the red and replaced it with matching gray throughout.

 The fridge wall is finished. There will be a cabinet there as well.

 The finished stairs going down to the current kitchen. Red steps with gray tile on the bottom part. Ties it all together (the glassed in room is all red tile).

 E's bedroom walls are painted this blue color which looks nice and she likes.

And to end, two sweet brothers. The bigger one is pushing the smaller one on the swing. So nice to see they can get along sometimes!! ;)