Today marks 48 days since we got here in Brazil, and tomorrow we have 48 days left, so midnight tonight is our half way mark. I have various countdowns in my planner - of course there is the weekly and monthly pregnancy countdown, then there's the "how many weeks we've been in Brazil" count, along with the "how many weeks we have left" countdown, and a "how many weeks until Joseph and Ethan come to Brazil" countdown. I guess I just love to count. So yesterday marked 7 weeks until we go home, and Saturday we've been here for 7 weeks. So I knew by that we were halfway this week, and I did a day by day count to find out for sure what the exact day is. Anything for an excuse to celebrate, right? Maybe with some ice cream. We were going to go out to lunch, but the kids were in the zone with an imagination game outside - princesses and princes.
This was bringing back flashbacks from 7 years ago when our little people were making paper crowns and playing a game with the Water King and Ice King, which I think was inspired by
Avatar, (Joseph was into that show in 1st grade). Here they are at the old chacara - Little one year old Wesley in front, followed by Joseph and Ethan who appear to be doing some water and ice rain dance...
I'm sure Mel was the one who began making crowns back then, and she was at it again this time making paper crowns for her sisters and then saying "Let's play King and Queen" ~ soon all the princesses joined in. They used the rodizio bbq skewers as swords. Hyrum said he wasn't a prince, he was actually a Robin Hood -ish guy.
Natalie was a little forest fairy who wasn't really in the game, she was just following them around like fairies do.
Here they are in the maid quarters near the back of our lot, which was the secret forest hideout of Prince Derek (Wesley) and Richard Took (aka Hyrum).
Hyrum clarified to me that Prince Derek lives in the castle, but comes and helps out Richard now and then. I interrupted their game to take a few pictures and feed them some cookies - food for their princesses.
Corey worked from home today. Around 5:00 he was done and the kids were done with their imagination games and music and reading, so... time for a half-way party! We headed to the Dom Pedro mall. First stop - Parking Kids! Just look at all the colorful contraptions waiting to be explored!
This is a place we brought the kids to 7 years ago. Melodie remembered it, but opted to no be parked this time around. But this is a great place - need to get some of these in the US. You can park your kids for a half hour or an hour or more and they will have a ball. Who wants to stay and play on the slide and in the ball pit? Abi can hardly contain her excitement.
Ok, let's park the kids. Natalie was too little to stay. So sad. She didn't seem to mind for now.
In they go - Lily already took off running in front, Abi and Wes go in with Sophia.
So, what should we big kids do with our time? Corey and I decided to show Melodie and Hyrum what we do on date nights: Go sit down, enjoy a meal without kids squirming or asking for stuff, just sitting and relaxing for a nice quiet meal.
Only I had Natalie on my lap, so it wasn't exactly how our date nights are for me, but they got the picture. We ate at
Fogão Mineiro, kinda like a buffet place where you pick your food and weigh your plate. Good stuff.
After we had our fill, we went back to Parking kids. We had about 5 minutes until they were done with their hour. Sophi was in heaven, riding a big toy car thingy that went around and around like a mini ferris wheel, throwing balls into the pit when she got up high.
Lily playing some computer game.
Natalie started to ask so sweetly "Play?" You want to play? And she'd nod her head and again say "Play?" It was too cute. But alas, you are too little to be parked.
She didn't like that answer.
She was just too cute, and when Corey went in to get the kids, they said Hyrum and Melodie could take Natalie into the ball pit while we got socks and shoes on the other kids. She was a happy girl!
Sophi doesn't want to leave.
Well, I think that was a pretty good celebration, if the kids loved it so much they didn't want to leave. I promised them that we will come back again before we head back to the States.
Then I ran to Walmart to buy juice and tp while Corey took the little kids to Habib's for dinner.
Habib's is an Arabic Fast food restaurant. Corey and I had a fond memory of our first time taking the kids there, and we were so pleased that it was so inexpensive. So it was on our list of things to do again. So now we got that checked off the list. Corey wanted a picture of the kids in front of the restaurant sign and instead of telling them to "say cheese" he jokingly said "Everyone say Death to America..." Kinda funny.
Then, as our last treat for the night, Corey found a store that had some special "death to bugs" racquets. He told the kids this morning "I know something that will make you miss all the bugs in Brazil." The kids didn't buy it. Hyrum said "No way is there
anyway in the world that I am going to miss the bugs here!!!" Then he told them about the electric racquets... "OH!!!!! YEAH!!!"
They've been on the hunt since we got home two hours ago and are now all mourning that there just aren't enough bugs to kill! How right Corey was, yes, they wish there were more bugs already! Happy Half Way day kids! And with these racquets, I don't think there is anything they don't like anymore, they are already saying it's gone by too fast and are wishing we could stay longer. We'll see how fast the times zooms by now, I bet it's gonna fly, better enjoy it!
