Guatemala!

We just arrived back from a big adventure in Antigua, Guatemala.  My intent was to improve Charlie's spanish while enjoying a bit of travel myself.  We rented a house which came with a cook, house cleaners and a little pool so I was happy.  This was the first time we had been back in 5 years but the town is very much the same sleepy town with beautiful architecture and amazing gardens.  The chicken buses still spout terrible smoke which is annoying and both my mom and Charlie got a Guate stomach bug.  Overall we had a great time.  The town is surrounded by 3 volcanoes and we had a beautiful view of the Agua Volcano from the house. Volcano Fuego is active and we could see it puffing most days.  Here was our house and view of the volcano.

volcano agua from the patio

the fish man would come to our doorstep!

One of the kids' favorite thing about Antigua was getting around in tuk-tuk.  It's probably very dangerous but these ubiquitous scooter mobiles were the best way to get around.  Charlie and Diego screamed and waved every time one passed.

Charlie enrolled in a Guate preschool and then took a spanish class in the afternoon.  After the morning school we'd go get fresh squeezed orange juice and then make it home for a big lunch.  It was a very simple preschool but the kids loved him and he made a best friend named Dennis -- who he says he is going to stay in touch with by email!  The preschool - and Charlie too - marched  in the parade for Antigua Day.  Guatemalans (all of latin america?) take their parades seriously so these 3-7 year olds practiced their parade dance every day at school and came dressed in suits and gowns and stood in the heat for an hour waiting for the parade to start! (Charlie of course cried about the heat and the wait....). They marched for a block and then got on horse drawn carriages.  Here is Charlie in the parade.

 

Charlie celebrated his 4th birthday there with the craziest, largest pinata I've ever seen.  We only got the medium size - not the large size - and it was bigger than him!  We had to buy a 6 pound bag of candy to go with it.  Here are some pictures/videos from the birthday...

  

with his classmates before the smashing began!

After smashing the pinata in the kids sang to him and lined up to give him a hug!

Diego became somewhat famous in Antigua.  As you can imagine there are not many blond hair, blue eyed babies running around Guatemala so he stuck out in a serious way.  We couldn't walk a block without some one wanting to touch, hold or talk to him - it was almost as if they thought touching him would bring good luck.  He was especially famous among the indigenous mayan women who would often pop out of nowhere to pick him up.  Carlos instilled a fear of kidnapping in me so I panicked the first few times this happened. 

Our travel there and back was a bit of an adventure.  We stopped off in Fort Lauderdale for a great 24 hours of pool fun only to be followed by 24 hours of hell caused by Spirit Airlines.  I will NEVER fly on Spirit again - it's a scam airline that preys on low income people.  After 24 hours of hell we cancelled our ticket, bought an American Airlines ticket and took a cab to the Miami airport.  Coming back was also an adventure as our 'trusted' taxi driver stole our last 100 quetzales along with my mom's credit card. It left us with a bad last experience and made me realize that although I'd love to spend every summer there I don't want to be there without Carlos.  Here are some more pictures from around town:

Ireland...a little late

This is a bit out of order but the only photos we had were on Carlos phone...which was in Portugal for awhile.  Carlos and I went from Woodstock, NY to Dublin, Ireland with a 2 hour stop in DC all within 24 hours. We had a wedding in Woodstock and then a work trip to Ireland. It didn't go as smoothly as possible thanks to a classic move on my part. I thought I booked a really nice stay at the Woodstock Inn for a weekend getaway, but when we arrived it appeared to be a motel. Turns out that I had booked the Woodstock Inn in VERMONT. The Woodstock Inn in New York is not as nice.... Despite that we had a fun time seeing old friends in a beautiful setting.


After a brief stop in DC to re-pack, we left for Dublin.  Oddly it took a trip to Dublin for Carlos to meet my boss.  My work meetings were at the Guinness Storehouse so we enjoyed some Guinness at the roof bar.  They say the Guinness served there is brewed less than 2 days beforehand so it is the freshest and best.  I'm not much of a connoiseur to know.  We did seem to enjoy many pints of Guinness given that you can't go a block without finding an inviting pub with live music.  This is how most of eating/drinking looked like:

fish and chips...not as gross as I expected!

We got to see Ireland play Italian in the Euro cup while dining on fish and chips in an irish pub.  Sadly Ireland lost :(

After Dublin we drove towards Galway and stayed overnight in a castle.  The grounds were beautiful and we seemed to go on an endless walk.  We didn't get to take a falconry class, but we did get to rent a boat and explore the lake.  We landed on one island and searched around for life form.  It was a little eery, but a fun adventure.  Carlos made the mistake of letting me drive the boat and when we came into dock the boat I managed to almost kill him.  At a poor angle I was attempting to reverse the boat but instead I put on the accelerator and he almost went flying into the freezing cold water.  Here are some pictures of the castle and our walk.

 Although I did like laying claim to a small irish island, my favorite part of the castle was TEA TIME! The tea and food were insanely good.

Early Birthday Party!

We threw an early birthday party for Charlie and Diego given that we'll be gone for their actual birthdays.  We made pinatas for the kids to decorate, rented a moonbounce and made lots of food.  It was a lot of fun despite all the weather and park obstacles.  Charlie really likes moonbounces but I never have patience to wait in line so we rented a big cake one just for him.  Charlie and I spent various afternoons making pinatas which he was great at....except that he got the flour/water mixture all over the house.  But he was very proud of his work. 
Unfortunately we've been having a record heat wave here so it was forecast to be 95 by 10am!! ahh!  On top of that when we arrived the sprinklers were going off so we couldn't set up the food.  I asked the park authoritarian if he could help, but he just shrugged and told me to wait another 30 min.  Carlos then went to talk to him....he turned off the sprinklers.  what's wrong with me that i have no authority?! 

pinatas in the making...

almost done...

ready for decorating!

 

Superman Diego!  we did capes as favors

Nevertheless it turned out to be a lot of fun.  Charlie really misses his classmates and is constantly telling me who he misses so he was super happy to see everyone.  Speaking of summer - I decided that I would prefer school to run year-round or maybe have an optional summer school verison.  I have a random assortment of camps and nothing perfect.  Charlie LOVED soccer camp but it only ran for two weeks.  This week we tried CHDS and I was annoyed from the beginning.  It seemed like glorified babysitting with field trips to places I didn't want them to go.  We dropped out after the first day....

Last Day of School

Proof that my children turn into monsters at bedtime

This was Charlie's last week of school and I am SO sad.  I don't usually mourn change, but this classroom has been so wonderful that I highly doubt next year (or any year) will measure up.  Plus there is something so emotional about Charlie finishing his first year of school.  Here he is on this first and last day of school




First Day!

 


Last Day!

We had a class party after the class.  Nothing says summer more than a slip 'n slide! 

Okay maybe a block party with a sprinkler says summer more.  Last weekend we went to a nearby block party and I spent the day bemoaning the fact that we don't talk to 80% of our neighbors.  They had pony rides, a fire engine and sprinklers with water balloons.  Here he is cruising Duddington on a pony.  

Diego and I took a day trip to Philadelphia last weekend to see my mom and we had the best time.  Diego loved having all of my mom's toys to himself and our undivided attention. It was so peaceful traveling with only one child!! Charlie also loved having Carlos' and Abuela's undivided attention.  Although Diego still loves anything with wheels - namely tractors, garbage trucks and fire engines - his new obsession is balls.  Often he'll try to leave the house carrying as many balls as can fit in his little arms.  Here is an example of what I mean - he is taking a bath with all the balls he could fit in the tub.

Surprise! Lawyers have heart - this race proved it and we survived it!

Summer Weekends



my delectable Diego



Eating strawberries while complaining

I did some more forced family fun and marched the kids to a strawberry patch last weekend.  I bought an ambitiously large box and Charlie, Diego and I climbed aboard a tractor to head to the strawberry fields.  It turns out Charlie's looks aren't the only thing that makes him a mini-Carlos; he melts in the heat just like Carlos!  30 seconds after arriving to our designated row of strawberry plants, Charlie started complianing.  Diego at least carried the box for a few minutes before joining Charlie on the sidelines.  I picked strawberries as Charlie and Diego stood watching me, eating strawberries and asking how much longer until we went back in the tractor.  I made them suffer through ~10 lbs of strawberries before I gave up. 

We were in Chestertown last weekend with my mom and the Kopp-Lloyds for the Tea Party re-enactment festival.  My mom packed the most amazing picnic and Charlie loved seeing people get thrown off the boat in the as part of the re-enactment.  Unfortunately it was so hot that Carlos and Charlie were both melting down.

This weekend was just as fun.  Charlie was so looking forward to seeing his friends Nora and Cici on Saturday that he stood near the door asking when they would arrive.  It was pretty obvious once they arrived...The house was turned inside out - all the musical instruments along with the kitchen utensils ended up in the treehouse and all the pillows from the house ended up in Diego's crib. 

They worked so hard destroying the house that Charlie passed out when they left and woke up with a sore

leg.  As if to even the playing field, Charlie scratched Diego's eye so we showed up at the Bowie Baysox minor league baseball game for a birthday party on Sunday with one limping child and one half-blind baby. 

I can't say that I am a total convert, but the game was a lot of fun and I realized that it isn't really about watching baseball!  After surviving 8.5 innings we decided to head to the emergency room.  After limping the ENTIRE day Charlie told the doctor that his leg didn't hurt! Diego on the other hand had a cornea abrasion. Diego was so tired from the weekend that he slept until 9:45 on monday!!!

Charlie recently called Carlos' mustang the 'mustard' which really made me happy.  Here he is singing equally incomprehensible things into his karaoke machine thing (notice Diego flexing his one word vocabulary in the background)...