Orleans

In an effort to try to return some normalcy to our lives and to break out of our funk, Meghan and I went out to the restaurant district of Parque Lleras for dinner.  We ate at the Orleans restaurant, which was delicious.  And you can't go wrong with sangria.

Baskets on Wheels

We needed some food for the apartment, so we went to a grocery store called Pomona.  Most of the grocery stores here have these baskets on wheels, which are handy.  There have actually been quite a few times in the US where I thought that I didn't want something as big as a cart, but I didn't want to haul a basket all over the store.  Convenient.

Caballito

One of the kids' favorite games is for me to be a caballito (little horse). I take one of them on my back and bounce around like a horse while occasionally neighing. Tonight we had a CaballitoFest, as I did it several times for each kid. I think my back is already sore.

Story Time: Automated

We don't have a whole lot of books here, so they've heard each one several times. The oldest is almost able to read, and she combines that with remembering what she's heard, and she's able to sort of read to herself and the others. We now spend the first ten minutes or so with her going through one of the books, and then I take over and read another one.

The Beauty of the Internet

We don't get CBS down here, so we have to watch all the K-State games online.  Thankfully, CBS streams them all, and we have a great wireless connection.  For today's game, the kids were excited, and we watched it together.  It didn't exactly go the way we hoped though.

Jonah

Tonight we watched Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie as our Friday night movie. C was too tired and conked out right away (you can barely see her black hair and white shirt on the left side of the couch). L snuggled up in a blanket on the couch. J, who apparently isn't a big fan of comfort, watched while laying on the cold hard floor, despite our attempts to persuade him to do otherwise.

They Could Just Sense It

Because today was a big day for K-State (NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 game against Xavier), I wore my K-State shirt. I didn't prompt them at all, but these are the shirts the kids decided to wear today. Good kids. The oldest didn't join in the fun, but two out of three ain't bad, as they say.

Little Helpers

The kids, especially the oldest, really like to help around the apartment. Here the older two decided they would wash the dishes (as we don't have a dishwasher). This was sweet of them, though we ended up re-washing most of them, as their skill doesn't quite yet match their desire.

Story Time

Tonight we read "¿Eres mi Mamá?", which is one of their favorites. While the older ones usually pay attention, the youngest usually does something else but stays near us. Today's choice: sleep. I can't blame her.

Colombia's Got Talent

The kids has some extra energy tonight and decided to perform for us.  One sang and danced to some song she already knew, another would repeat the lyrics a second or so after her, as he didn't know the song, and the third acted like a backup singer, as she would just repeat a few words here and there as she heard them.  We were entertained.

Fresh Gear

Today during arts and crafts time, the kids made us some paper jewelry. Here I'm wearing a paper bracelet, arm band, and ring.

Botanical Gardens

Today our translator/guide Alfonso drove us to the Medellin botanical gardens. Although Medellin is famous for their flowers and the Festival of Flowers in August, there wasn't much to see while we were there this time. We walked around the lake on the grounds of the gardens. Here we are with Alfonso looking out over the lake.

The First Family Night

We hope to have a tradition where Friday night is Family Night where we all eat pizza and popcorn and watch movies together.  Since tonight was Friday, we decided to try it.  Unfortunately they don't really like pizza at all, which is weird for an American kid, but maybe it's just not their thing in Colombia.  We watched Veggie Tales: The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything.  Here the kids watch (well, sort of watch) the movie.

Lola

Today we tried to have more positive interaction with the kids. It's tough because if they act out we have to address that, but there were a few moments that went well. This is Jason reading Lola, a book in English and Spanish about a chicken, to the kids.

St. Patrick's Day

As we've mentioned, we brought a week's worth of regular clothes and then two special shirts for each kid.  One of the special shirts was the K-State shirt to be worn on game days, so our whole family matches.  The other was a green shirt for each person so we could all wear them on St. Patrick's Day.  I had hoped for today's photo to be a family picture with all of us wearing green.  That didn't happen, as S threw up all over hers, L was still a little too bitter to pose for a photo, and J simply refused.  So instead of our awesome family photo, we ended up with Meghan taking a picture of only me.  Here I am showing how I feel about how it worked out.

Kids

We got the kids today. We went to ICBF around 7:45 for our 8:30 appointment. We have had the kids since then. It´s been a day of both highs and lows. This is our first family picture.

Triada

As mentioned in our family blog, we went out for a nice dinner tonight to enjoy our last night out alone for awhile.  We ate at a tasty restaurant called Triada.  It's an open-air restaurant, and as is always the case in Colombia so far, the temperature was just right, and there was a nice refreshing breeze blowing through the dining area.

So Tired But We Can´t Even Sleep

We have arrived in Medellin safe and sound. Last night was another long night. By the time we got in to Ft. Lauderdale and arrived at our hotel and found food, it was close to 3am. We had to get up at 6:30 for our flight. We got to our apartment in Medellin and the people who were supposed to check out today have disappeared but left their things. The manager is trying to find them, but in the meantime we are just kind of waiting for that to happen so we are exhausted but cannot sleep, except for 5-minute naps like Jason managed to get here.

Minute Suites

Today we ended up spending A LOT of time in the Atlanta airport due to flight changes. We were also exhausted due to not getting a lot of sleep the past few days. So we rented a Minute Suite which has a twin-sized bed, desk, and tv/internet for a few hours. It was well worth it to get some sleep and have a quiet place to hang out. This is us in the suite.

Pugs in Lawrence

Mom and Ron are graciously watching the dogs for us while we're gone. Today I went to Lawrence to drop off the dogs at their house. My sister Joanna was there, and here's a picture of her and I and the dogs before I had to leave.

Group Hug

This is me with our guys. I am so sad to have to leave them for a whole month. Even Alex, the uncooperative cat.

New Old Phone

Tonight I got a new phone.  Well, sort of.  Recently the vibrate function failed on my phone.  I took it to the Sprint store to have them look at it.  They did, and apparently decided the best plan was to replace it.  It's not under warranty, but they didn't charge me, so that was a pleasant surprise. So here's a picture of my shiny, new, plastic-still-on-the-front phone that's, well, exactly the same as my old one, except it works.

Childproofing

Tonight we put the finishing touches on our childproofing around the house.  I had already anchored some tall pieces to the wall, but we hadn't yet put the locks on certain doors (the medicine closet, shown here) and put the covers on the outlets, so Meghan finished up those tasks.

Clean Sweep

This week one of the many things we are working on is cleaning our house since it is a terrible feeling to come back from a trip to a dirty house. Plus it might be awhile before I get back into my regular cleaning routine. Here Jason is steam cleaning the carpets.

Paring Pints

We need to create some space in our kitchen, so I realized I was going to have to cut down on my glassware.  I have bunch of different types of glasses, but most are pint glasses which I've used as my standard kitchen glasses since we've lived here.  Many of these were from Pint Nights in college at Scoreboards with Sawyer, Rosol, and Barton where they let you keep the glass.   But it's time to pare these down.  I'll keep a few, but most of these are going to goodwill to clear space.  Good-bye old friends!

Pizza Palz

Today we had planned to eat dinner with our friends, the Hansons. However, there were several things that made the original plan not work out schedule-wise, including Jason Hanson having to go out of town. So we met for a late lunch with Callie and Vincent so we could at least hang out once more before we go to Colombia and it was fun catching up.

My Two Favorite Girls

We had a long week, so tonight we took a break from working around the house and just hung out and watched TV.  My two favorite girls began to get sleepy and started to fall asleep together.

Closet Full of Clothes

Tonight we loaded up the kids' closet with the clothes we've acquired over the past few months.  We'll pick out a select group of outfits to take with us to Colombia, and the rest of these cute clothes will be ready for our cute kids when we get back.

Studying

We are trying to review some of the books we have read and liked in these last couple of weeks before we leave. Here Jason is reading The Connected Child, which we both think we'll use as a starting point for our parenting strategy.

Wire Hangers

Today Jason installed the shelving in the kids' closet. Annoyingly, the last owner removed the rods and shelves so we needed to put in something that would allow us to hang clothes.

Wardrobe Planning

Because the kids will only come with the clothes on their backs, we need to bring about a week's worth of clothes for each one.  Here Meghan sits behind a tablefull of clothes with one of the most important ones of all right on top.