Last night we had a discussion with the kids after Family Home Evening. Abi was sad and crying - she misses Joseph and Ethan and her
Monkey. Can't do anything about Joseph and Ethan, but they'll be here in a month, so hang tight. As for the monkey, I don't know why she didn't bring it. Abi kinda underpacked for this trip - clothes and toys wise. Lily stowed away her whole Zebra family. Anyway, we talked about when we will go back home, and we will go, but tried to remind them that they need to enjoy this cause we're never coming back to this moment of time, this is their only chance. Remember
the chacara? We drove by it, sure, but we didn't go in~ we can't to back to that experience, you gotta enjoy it now while you can, cause it's gonna be over before you know it.
Then we also told them that 3 months is hard, but they're already one month done, good job! Plus, guess what, Dad and I were apart for
three and a half years for our missions. Like, that seemed like such a long amount of time, I couldn't even comprehend it. But that, children... that was hard. This is easy. Then we talked again about the KEY to making time pass by with the least amount of misery. You all know cause we've talked about this before, what is it? That's right: you need to stay busy. So we made a list of things to do that didn't include youtube or food. I think that's really why Abi was sad. It felt to me like everything she asked me for all day I say "no" to. Well, I did say yes to making a fort, but then the maid cleaned it up. I told them they could do it after she finished cleaning that room, I thought it would be safe. But she cleaned it up so I told them to just wait and build it again after she left. And then I also gave my permission for everyone to watch
one youtube movie together, so they did that for their activity after dinner. (But she asked me if she could watch a movie on my tablet over and over and over again, it wears on my patience...)
But think generally their creative juices just haven't turned on yet. We talked some more and tried to help out a little bit with some brain storming and list making. Yes, you're right, we don't have a lot of toys right now. But what are things we can do here with what we have? We made a list of games and did a little searching on the internet for ideas, and looked at
some of the things the kids did when we were in Costa Rica. Check out those things Mel came up with using just paper and her little creative brain. Mel, you're the queen of creativity. So, no more complaining or opening the fridge when you're bored, kids, go use those brains of yours and come up with something fun!
As we made lists last night, I thought I should give them a few more supplies to work with, so I made a run to Walmart this morning. I was also thinking last night maybe we could let Wesley and Lily open their birthday presents early. I brought presents from the US in our luggage, cause I remembered that the bounty of the US is generally a lot more expensive here in Latin America. If we wait to open those present until their birthdays at the end of June, they will just have one week before we head home. That's two months of lost time when those toys could help create fun playtime. Maybe we'll open them early, have an unbirthday party today or something. At first I thought we'd let Lily celebrate today and Wes could be two days later, like their real birthdays, but then I figured why make Wes wait if I'm not making Lily wait. We might just as well have an unbirthday celebration for everyone today. So we did. I bought little presents for everyone, then came home and told the kids we were having an unbirthday party. I made lunches while Mel supervised making decorations. After 30 minutes we were ready to go. They set up the streamers in the kitchen ~
Decorations almost all ready... lunch is ready...
I had let Natalie open her present first to distract her and keep her out of the kitchen while I made lunch. It's a little stroller to push around the house. Easier than the laundry basket and carry on suitcase she's been using the past month.
The unbirthday lunch consisted of our usual ham sandwiches, then a treat of Pringles, yogurt, and lots o
Lacta Bis chocolate wafers. (They are our favorite Brazil treat.)
Natalie knows how to say "mess!" after eating the Bis.
I should probably get wafers that aren't covered in chocolate. Then one by one, as the kids finished their lunches, we sang "It's your Un-Birthday, shout hooray, we're going to sing to you today! One day older and wiser too! Happy Un-Birthday to you!" And they opened their presents which I had wrapped in plastic bags and blankets. Wesley and Lily got their real birthday present from Corey and I, then they also all got a simple unbirthday gift. Mel's gift was a book of lined paper with stickers and some office supplies to be creative with (paper clips, rubber bands and such). Next was Hyrum, he got a little toy bowling set.
Wesley's turn. Unbirthday gift - Uno cards.
Real gift - a bow and arrow toy. He got one of these last year for his birthday or Christmas or something, but lost and broke all his arrows. I brought the other bow so he and Hyrum can play some kinda game together.
Abi got some journals (one of the things she wished she has last night) with stickers and markers.
Lily - unbirthday gift - a mom zebra for her zebra family.
Her birthday present ~ Ariel's Underwater lego castle! I think she's excited.
Sophi got a Hello Kitty toy.
(Natalie's moving in on it already.)
Natalie got yogurt and melted bis chocolate all over her dress, so we stripped her down and she pushed around her baby in her stroller.
We've seen pictures like this before, of kids circled around the wonderful pile of legos, just waiting to be assembled. Must be a birthday!
Or an unbirthday. They stayed busy most of the afternoon. And Sophi spent a chunk of time freaking out when she had to share a mermaid with Abi.
She liked Lily's legos more than her hello kitty toys. Oh well, ya do what you can. I did have to put her in time out, she was more than a little out of control.
And, one more event - As the kids played this afternoon, Wesley accidentally shot one of his arrows over the wall. I figured we'd just to ask for it and got my key to open the fence and help him walk over. But then he explained it wasn't one of the houses on either side, it was the one north of us, over the
back wall. Hmm, a little more complicated. What should we do.... there's a roof up there, maybe it landed on the roof? We decided to go check. I very carefully helped him get up on the roof to see if he could see it. As he got up there and moved slightly out of my view, I told him to be careful cause I didn't know what was up there and couldn't help him. He decided to come back down and get his shoes on, so we got down, he got his shoes, and he went up again. I was standing up on a table to help him get on and off the roof. He went out of my view again to go see if he could see it. He came back after a looking second little ill, "Are you okay" "I touched the electric thing" (mom panic set in) "Are you okay?!? What touched it? Your hand? Can you walk? Are you going to faint?" He said his head touched it as he tried to look over, I was worried he'd pass out coming down off the roof. Gosh, why didn't I think about the electric wires around the houses? Ours don't work, I don't think (we've got a few broken wires hanging down in a few places...) so I think it was the neighbors electric wires. He was able to get off the roof fine, said he just felt a little dizzy, I had him take a drink of water and we said a prayer. He said it was fine and we could just not worry about the arrow, he was okay to just have two, but I said if he wanted it, we should try and get it today and we should go while before it got dark. Let's go try to buzz the gate if we find the house and see if they found it or not... it might have been on their roof and maybe they won't know what we're talking about, I didn't know. So we counted houses on google maps and figured it was the 7th house over from the corner on the street above us, the one with trees by the street. Wesley found the house, we rang the gate door button and talked to them through their gate speaker, I should have looked up what the word for "arrow" was before we left, but I just tried to say "We live in the house south of you, I think my son lost a toy over your back wall by your pool" and by some miracle it was communicated, they retrieved the arrow, and Wesley got it back. He was happy to have it back and is not going to shoot it outside again. I'm grateful he wasn't electrocuted up on the roof and re-learned a lesson I should have known - this is not the US where you can jump over your neighbors fence whenever you kick over your soccer ball. Remember Tiff, they don't have the second amendment and are all way worried about possible intruders. Do not go over walls and fences - electric wires are around all properties! Lesson learned, I won't forget.
