Coloring Books

These little girls are serious about their coloring. At Christmas time, after taking my 3rd group of kids to Dollar Tree to buy presents for each other, I decided to stock up myself on the Strawberry Shortcake coloring books that they had there. They've been super busy coloring this past week, so I only have one more and might need to make another trip, but I love seeing them color. Here they are right before bedtime~ (Natelie is always attentively aware of what kind of work and which characters her sisters are working on...)

Sophi stopped to go to sleep, but not Natalie, so we left the light on in our bathroom and let her keep coloring in the dim light on the floor in our room. She was being sweetly quiet as she worked, so we fell asleep to the sound of little pencil strokes.

And then as soon as Natalie woke up, her eyes barely open and barely able to form words, she requested her pencil and coloring book as was back at it at the kitchen bar as she waited her breakfast..

Super cute. Abi and Lily are getting quite good at detail, as you can kind of see in Lily's coloring book. Lily also gathered the whole case of coloring pencils to have at her disposal. Sophi goes through most of the pages using just a single color. She's using a marker there above, but lately Natalie prefers using a standard led pencil or one single colored pencil for her artistic expression.

I walked over to the church today for a scripture study group and pushed the girls in the stroller ~ Natalie was in the front seat of the long double stroller, with coloring book and pencil in hand, coloring away. It made me laugh, I should have gotten a picture of it. Maybe we can recreate the moment next week. I love these kids.

Isla De Maipo

So, yesterday we went on an adventure. We were going to go to Pomaire, but since we were lost for 1 1/2 hours in Maipu (pronounced "my poo" to which my kids giggle everytime we say it) we decided we were good when we arrived at the Isla De Maipo exit. Maipo "my poe" - much better than "my poo".


We drove around the Isla de Maipo lost for a bit looking for some street, then just happened to see two women in skirts riding bicycles. Hooray! Sister missionaries! We pulled over and asked the Hermanas if they knew the street - they did and even gave us a map, which actually had the exact house address on the back of the person we were buscando. We drove straight there, clapped at the fence, Jose was home, and we were all invited in - major invasion of kids. "Tantos ninos! Uno, dos, tres... siete?!?" They were so nice to let us all drop in on them

They remembered Corey well, and quickly brought out a photo they have to remember him, which made us all laugh -

They also had a copy of one of our Christmas / New Years greetings letters that we sent out

Only Joe, Mel and Ethan alive at that time in 2002. The kids always like looking at old pictures of themselves.

Corey lived here with this family during his time in Isla de Maipo. He was only here for a month but said it was a such great pension and he has such great memories of his time here because of this family - they were so kind, he and his companion felt like they really enjoyed having them stay. It's nice to be loved! Especially for missionaries who work hard all day with lots of rejection their pay.

So we had a great visit, the kids fell in love with their dogs - one was a puppy that looks exactly like the Chloe we left 5 months ago.

Abi wanted us to take Chloe home with us.

The kids spent their time exploring their property.


We all went back and saw their lagoon.

Group photo!

Valentina and Lily enjoying some brevas (figs) straight off the tree - I had never eaten a fresh fig before. Have you seen figs? Tasted yummy, looked interesting.

Ethan was lost in play out in the yard and says this is his favorite house in the world. He was totally jealous of the kids' little club house area with the pond/lagoon right behind it and low reaching trees to climb.

He's ready to move in. We were lucky he agreed to come home with us!


So the kids played outside and explored. The adults and toddlers (and Hyrum cause he's afraid of the cat) went back up to the house to visit.

Everyone loves babies!

Lily stole Valentina's teddy bear and high chair.


Of course Abi found the stash of pink girl toys.

She was happily lost in play the whole time.

Hyrum started to relax and enjoy himself a little. Jose brought out toys for him


It was a nice visit. When we headed home, I am glad that Corey realized we were heading toward San Antonion, aka in the wrong direction. We paid the toll to get off, did a U-turn, and paid the toll to get back on. This way to Santiago, much better! Passing Isla de Maipo again. Tolls are worth it for a good road. We were able to drive straight home with zero mistakes, less than an hour. The kids all fell asleep. Much better.

The Party

Well, I had to suck it up this morning and figure out what to do for this birthday party. So Abi pestered so she could come with me, and I went to Dollar Tree, and I spent over $100 stupid dollars on a ton of cheap garbage toys that I'm sure will all be in the trash tomorrow. And I resented every second of it.

The cashier told me that I won the award for largest sale that my sales clerk had ever done. NOT an award I'm proud of. And I vented to Nicole via Marco Polo wondering WHY do I even do this?

Wesley there showing about how I feel. He was enjoying eating the Airhead candy as he made the saran wrap game. It's a game we do at Christmas time with the Wride cousins, which is what we decided to do for the party. And a fishing game with toy prizes. Just a bunch of garbage-y toys. 

Sophi working on the seaweed and fish for the fishing game decorations. 

I guess I should count my blessings that my kids are eager to help. Wes, Abi, Lily, Sophi were all helping willingly, then Ethan came and told me he was happy to take over and run the show till the party was over for a mere $50 bucks. I told him I'd pay $5. He said that was too cheap and left. Yes I am frugal. If I did pay anyone, it should be all the kids who were already helping. Thankfully they'll take sugar as payment. So Wes finished the ball. I think he used three rolls of wrap. 

Kids start to arrive, and it begins...

Abi brought kids inside to decorate their goodie bags/brown paper lunch sacks.

Then outside for the fishing game hosted by Abi, body painting by Lily, and face painting courtesy of Mel who is visiting home for her first weekend at college, ha.

Singing Happy Birthday to Sophi, thanks to my mom for bringing this cake yesterday, it saved me a trip.

Happy Birthday toooo youuuu.

And then the saran wrap game. It did not go well because some kids unwrapped lots of things quickly and other kids having their turn end as soon as it started because the person after them rolled doubles too quickly. So my kids were getting upset with each other for not managing it to make it fair and some kids were sad. Before the game was over one kid had to leave and he left in tears.

So kinda felt like a fail. But I was just glad it was almost over. I don't like birthday parties. It wasn't as crazy as the day I did two parties on one day - that was with Wesley and Lily in 2016 . I think I'm going to revisit our family birthday policy. I propose that it no longer be "Each kid gets two friend birthday parties" and maybe I'll change it to (as Nicole does) a family day and a celebration of that kid - like we can watch family videos and look at blog posts and old scrap books, and then let that kids choose a family activity or family experience. Hopefully we'll start something better. But as for now, I'm grateful that we only have Daniel left, and his birthday will be low key, cause 3 year olds don't care, hallelujah. And then the next birthday is Mel is December! and since she's at college that will be low key here at home too - then Peter and Joseph in January, which will also be low key since it's a baby and Joseph who is also gone, then Ethan in March, but his will probably be just a mission prep birthday... And then my birthday in April - maybe that can be when we start the new policy. So I'm basking in the thought that there might not be any birthday expectations until June, yay.