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!! ;) 

August 2017 - Field Trip, Cute Kids and Picture Purrfect Cats

To really finish out August, we took a tour of our friend's flower farm. It was really cool. They export to a lot of different countries and their place was huge. It was so nice of them to give all of our homeschool friends a field trip! 

 This is Jenny, the owner. She's telling us about this fern. The kids did a good job of listening...for the most part!

 They also go to pick fresh strawberries at the end of the tour. That was really a highlight as everyone was excited to get to do it themselves.

 It was a fun time with our other homeschooling friends!

 We bought some appliances for our new house and they gave us some entry forms to win a shopping spree in the store. D was really into and super excited that we were going to win. He really wanted Daddy to get him a Nintendo Switch if he won the shopping spree. So he sat down and filled out all the forms and then we turned them in...and then he asked a million times if we won. Sadly, we did not.

 To finish out our paperwork to get our license plate registered, we had to go to the DIJ in David. Can you tell this was an exciting time for the kids? Yes, it was hot and we had to wait around for a long time. They only give out 10 spots and you have to arrive at 5 am to get a spot, but no one told us. When we arrived at 7, I pleaded our case, and they gave us #11! This was one of the many steps to get the license plate transferred, but at this point, we were hopeful to almost be done. Let's just say the ladies at the other office were hopeful we were almost done too. We had to go visit them multiple times...sometimes even multiple times a week (and it was a one hour drive to get to them).

 This kid was determined to get his bike on the porch and he was so close before he gave up. But I still think he's cute.

...and he knows it.

 I had to poke them in the belly to get this pic, but it's the best one I've ever taken of them.

 Our two pretty, but relatively bad, kitties had to make the post. They were picture purrfect this day!

I'm trying to catch up on the blog. Quick updates with pictures thrown in. Only 2 months behind! :)

A Trip to Panama City - August 2017

We had to take a trip to Panama City in August to get our cedulas done for the government. And to get our license plate transferred to our province. As you can see, the car was packed and everyone was pretty excited...especially the driver! Ha.

 One thing I LOVE about Panama City is all of the American places to eat. I had a list of a few fast food places I wanted to make sure to hit. One was Taco Bell which may sound crazy to most of you, but getting (sort of) real Tex-Mex here doesn't happen. They had a Double Decker Taco - my favorite!!

 We went to a huge mall called Allbrook Mall. It is supposedly the largest one in all of Central America. The kids all got to ride on the carousel and had a fun time playing around here and eating a yummy lunch (I think they had Dominos and Ben and I had a burrito like Chipotle).

 Then time to get our cedulas taken care of. We met the lawyer's helper at this cool building and started the process. It took a few hours, but we kept everyone busy and entertained.

 It was great to see they had a small kid area with books and magazines as well as some pages to color. It was nice because it was in the air conditioning. Panama City is pretty warm compared to what we are used to!

 We also found a random turnstile to play with for a little while to burn off some energy.

 Here we are with a big Panama flag.

 Then another trip to the mall. It had this huge Godzilla thing which the kids had fun playing around.

 Another mall had the Lego store, which was a big hit, although the prices were insanely expensive. I'm glad we brought a million pieces with us. Or maybe it just feels like a million pieces since I find them ALL OVER the house.

 We also got to hang out at Chuck E. Cheese's for a little while one afternoon. It also cost a little more than one in the States, but it was still a lot of fun for the kids.

 Of course we had to spend quite a while figuring out what prizes we needed.

 Then, another thing we had to accomplish was getting our license plate taken care of. We needed to transfer it from Panama City (where we bought it) to a province near our house. It involved a whole lot of Spanish, so I was pretty excited when we were able to accomplish this goal...well at least this step. Thankfully I checked with our friend before leaving. We almost left Panama City without picking up the new license plate. We were driving out of the city when I asked her if they would mail it or what and she said we should have picked it up. We had to turn around and go back. Thankfully they were open and the plate was waiting for me!!

 We stopped by the beach on the way back. This is a really nice beach outside of Panama City.

 The kids had fun playing with a crab that Daddy found. They love playing at the beach. It never is long enough!

 They could stay here all day long!

Panama City is a fun place to visit. There is a lot to do and a lot of places to eat. We like going there, but it is so nice when we can return home, too!