Winter Vacation 2006

On our way to the Buin Zoon on the Metro Train. It was a very nice 30 minute train ride from downtown Santiago to this nice newer zoo. We were accompanied by our houseguests for the week, Tim and Annette Gulick. It was a very nice day.

Mazie, Sofi, Ozzy, Cocoa and our friend Annette Gulick. Tim and Annette Gulick, former missionaries to Mexico, found themselves stranded in Chile during the last week of August. We were more than happy to have company as Aaron was in Bolivia the whole week and the girls were on a school break.

I absolutely love this picture of Sofi. Probably one of my very favorites ever. It was taken at a park outside of Los Dominicos artesan village by our friend Tim Gulick. Thanks Tim!!!

I have no really good reason to post this picture and no interesting story to accompany it. I just like it because I look skinny.

Crazy Child Celebrates 7th Birthday

Sofi is now oficially 7. It's hard to believe, but it's true. Today, May 27th, she had a Cooking Party. There were 15 guests mostly classmates and they cooked mini-pizzas, fruit kabobs, and decorated cupcakes. There were also carnival style games and everyone enjoyed themselves. Mommy was very tired afterwards and wished she could have had a spa day. But, it didn't happen. Poor Mommy.

Sofi's group is at the fruit kabob making table. From left to right...
Sofi, Camila, David and Benjamin.

Mazie was a huge help at the party. She was in charge of the pizza making station. We used pita breads for the crust and each kid decorated their pizza with ham, corn, sausage, cheese and mushrooms. This was a big hit.

Mazie also helped out on the make the pizza blindfolded game. This game was the most popular and had a very long line of patient children waiting to play. The little boy playing is Benjamin Arrue. His dad is a professional soccer player here.

This is Sofi's australian friend, Emma. She is playing the ice cream game. The object was to throw the balls through the holes in the scoops...obviously.

After the cooking and the games came the eating. Surprisingly almost all the kids ate everything they had made. Even the ultra sweet lemon cupcakes with cream cheese icing and mountains of colored sprinkles that they had decorated themselves. We put all the cupcakes together on a pedestal to make them appear to be a cake. One of the kids said, "this is a very modern birthday party." Ha ha ha.

More hungry kids and hungry parents in the background. This party was so original that many parents stayed to whole time to observe. Lucky me. Good thing I had thought ahead and bought extra food to serve them.

Lighting the candle was a challenge... the wick was so short it kept going out. So the kids sang very fast and Belem (my very able helper) kept the match on the candle until the last moment and we all clapped and laughed when she couldn't blow it out on the first try. The little girl to the right is Maria Jesus, sofi's best friend. They call each other "hermana" which means sister.

Present opening was a much anticipated activity.

Thank you for your present. I love you.
This little girl is Coni. One of Sofi's other good friends. Oh...we also did face painting as the kids were arriving.

Thanks for the present.

The guys ...most likely chatting about the weekend soccer scores. From left to right; Simon, Benjamin and Andres.

Group helpers...Belem, Mazie and Daniela. They were great and even did most of the cleanup after the party as I was saying goodbye to the parents.

Kitchen helper, Maca. Thanks Maca...you saved me from going crazy and kept the adults fed and tended to.

We Have a New Family Member...

Cocoa Kitty came to live with us yesterday May 26th, 2006. She was a birthday present for Sofi that arrived at nearly 10:30 at night. She is what they call a Jasper Cat here. I'm not really sure what her color is called in English, but she is very pretty.

Here she is trying her food for the first time. She liked it.

Cocoa playing with Sofi. She is really playful, especially after a day or so with us.

Watching TV from Mommy and Daddy's bed.

Technically it's Sofi's cat...but Mazie has become quiet attached to it quickly.

Mazie's Eleventh Birthday Party

The cake (self explanatory). It's really a round brownie base with scoops of ice cream on the top that the girls then decorated with chocolate sauce, m&m's and sprinkles.

Eating the cake. It was so pretty they didn't want to cut it. They just all ate off the plate. That was all the fun.

You may ask yourself, if you don't have children this age, what exactly do 11 year old girls like to do when they get together? They think it is hilarious to have a "boob Contest".

Even Sofi wanted to get in on the action. She is posing so seriously, we may have an actress on our hands. Or a supermodel, I certainly hope not.

The 4 girls all slept cramped up on mazie's tiny bedroom floor. No one slept in the bed. Go figure. Actually, no one really slept much at all. Especially Aaron and Angie.

More morning after bright and shiny faces.

Mazie's birthday present from mom was a partial room makeover. I painted the walls and bought her a new bedspread and lamp.

Here are the final products. They look pretty good for a first try I think. They taste good too.

Mazie decorating her giant m&m filled chocolate egg with white chocolate decorations.

EASTER ACTIVITY

Here is Sofi modeling with her gigantic chocolate egg full of m&m´s. Mommy decorated these eggs.

Well this is the new me. People say my face looks a lot thinner, I guess they're right. I just hope my butt looks smaller. It should, I've gone down two pants sizes almost 3.

Here I am after 3 and a half months of weight loss. I'm down to 143 from 160 and I have about 10 pounds to go. I still need to work on those hips.

The first day of school is here again. Wednesday, March 1st, was Mazie's first day of 6th grade and Sofi's first day of 1st. It's hard to believe they are so old. Mazie is less than thrilled to be going back but Sofi was estatic.

SUMMER VACATION 2006

We decided to take a 5 day trip to a town on the coast called Pichilemu (pee-chee-lay-moo) the week of February 14th. This are is world renowned as being the best surfing in South America. It was fun to watch the surfers and bodyboarders doing their thing. The town is full of young and old surfers from all over the world...so it was nice to hear all the people speaking english. We had a great time on the beach and eating good food. Here are a few of our pics.

We spent most of our time on vacation at this beach...It is called La Puntilla or small point in spanish. It is rocky but that is good considering the rocks break up the 10 foot waves rolling in. It has lots of nice pools and nooks and crannies where you can play in the water without worry.

The beach is one place that the girls never get bored. Especially Sofi...she could just sit and play in the sand for 8 hours straight.

Mazie doing her best to pose like the girls from Americas Next Top Model. I love this rocky beach. It is an absolutely gorgeous paradise.

Sofi posing with her braid in her face. She wanted to be sure everybody could see it.

There is so much more to do at the beach besides playing in the sand and getting a tan...Mini-4 wheel drives are great fun.

Mazie enjoying one of her favorite vacation activities...shopping. She is looking for some earrings for her friends back at school.

Sofi watching some fishermen in the background working on their nets after bringing in the morning catch.

Aaron's favorite beach activity