Waterfalls, bug bites, and a visitor

Hello to our family and friends! We miss you all! We are still enjoying life here in the boonies of Costa Rica. We have our ups (beautiful days on the beach ) and our downs (too many bug bites to count) but overall we are so happy here and are enjoying living a more simple and focused life. 

I have been doing homeschool with the boys for about a month now. It is going SO well and we all love it. I have a very laid back approach which is necessary because I also have a little baby and an unpredictable schedule, so we work school time into our days when it fits. We have been focusing on how the body works lately and I drew very rudimentary charts of the digestive system, skeletal system, etc. These little kids are like knowledge sponges, ready to absorb everything they can learn. 

We have a little library here in town which has been a great resource. They actually have a great selection of books, so we use that resource a lot. Another great resource is this blog written by a mother of 4 who travels and homeschools. I love her philosophy and ideas. Another great resource we use is the "Teach Me" apps. Jackson is doing "Teach Me Kindergarten" and Peter has worked up to "Teach Me 2nd Grade". The apps focus on reading and math and teach the kids in a really practical and fun way.  

We had our first visitor!!! Sean's mom Nora came to visit for a few days. We had such a great time with her and are so grateful she could make it here. She was a joy to have around and the kids really loved being able to spend time with her. She taught them music, sang lots of songs, jumped the waves with them, swam a lot in pools with babies, cooked and cleaned for us, made us delicious M&M cookies, and even defied death! Seriously...this lady's amazing. Here are the pictures to prove it.

 Swimming party at Cassie and Angelo's house after our homeschool co-op class.

 Teaching the boys about music

 Cooking our own style of bruschetta/pizzas

Dancing at the Layenda pool

 Elora loves hearing Nana sing!

 Hiking down to the waterfall of near-death. I'm not going to tell the story. It's too scary and gives me anxiety to recount what happened, or what COULD have happened. Let's just say that I'm sure glad Angelo is a good swimmer and that we are all alive and well today!

Nora was here for about 5 days and we were sad to see her go, but happy that we had such a great visit. Hopefully next year she can come back with Sean's dad too!

 We met some new friends who have two kids and one on the way. Elora really liked playing at the beach with little (or shall we say Big) Phoenix. What a nice little guy! It's so fun when kids play well together.

 Peter reading a book to Jackson. They're such good little buddies! I love watching them play and learn together. I'm so glad they have each other.

 And this little bug is getting so big! She stands unsupported, says lots of baby words (Mama, Dada, Haaa (for Hi), etc.), she loves to make up games, she has 4 little baby teeth, cute curly dark blonde hair, and such a sweet disposition. Her 1st birthday is in 2 days! We are not ready for our baby girl to be a toddler, but we are enjoying so much watching her learn new things. What a sweetie pie!

 Pretty eggs. All of the eggs here are un-bleached and it's fun to see their speckles and different colors. I'm not sure if they are free-range/organic or anything. But sometimes I have to wash chicken poop off of the shells before I store them...fun! We're so close to nature here :)

Another aspect of being close to nature: bug bites! Sean was fixing the car and must have laid down on the gravel on an ant colony or something. These little black ants look very harmless, but they are carnivorous and vicious. Poor Sean! Luckily Nora had brought a Therapik with her and that helped a lot! We get a lot of mosquito bites on our front porch, so anytime we want to go outside we have to spray down with OFF. There are also these awful biting flies on the beach (Purrujas) that give the worst bites. They itch for days and days and get really red. Poor us! We've been trying to find solutions. Let me know if you have any great ideas to bite prevention that we haven't tried yet...

One favorite activity at our house is buying baked goods from the German Bakery Truck that comes around. They drive right up to the house and have a whole truck full of sweets and treats. They aren't actually that good (excpet the Apfel Strudel), but it's fun anyway! The kids are good at tasting each other's treats and sharing with mommy. (yes, Jackson is in a diaper. Don't judge. We're working on it)

Here's a beautiful shot of the trees in our front yard. I look out my window every morning and think, "Wow! I live here!" It's so beautiful and peaceful. Like I said before, we'd love to have more visitors! Let me know if you want to come and we'll give you a comfy bed and some good Gallo Pinto. Pura Vida!