Parents First Time To Visit

We started our string of visitors in mid-March right after Emma's birthday. Will's parents were the first to come. They spent a week with us and we had a great time with them! It has been so much fun showing our family our new life here and for them to be able to see it for themselves. We took Will's parents to La Paz waterfalls and zoo, La Cumbre Adventure Camp and to the Savegre River to see hummingbirds.


We love getting goodies from home!

Family picture at the waterfalls

Those butterflies loved Jack

In Costa Rica the animals are only separated from us by a cage. They expect you to use your brain and not touch them. Cool picture huh?

Humongous leaves

Ox cart ride...always a visitors favorite

Close up hummingbird

A week after Will's parents were here, my parents came in town for 12 days over Easter week. It was nice having a break from school too to be able to spend time with them. We also took them to La Cumbre and La Paz, but we also attempted a day trip to the beach and some time downtown. We had a lot more "hanging out time" since they were here for a while. 

Family picture at La Cumbre

River at La Cumbre

Famous downtown Central Market...a must-see

Dad trying to order at McDonalds...hahaha

Jack loved Pappy's binoculars

La Paz Waterfalls

Hammock on the balcony

We played LOTS of dominoes and Jack always got really hyper about it...can't you tell?

Day trip to Playa Bejuco

With a stop afterwards at Villa Caletas to eat dinner, watch the sunset and swim in the pool

Such an awesome pool. We have found they don't mind us being there as long as we're ordering stuff

Beautiful sunset

We loved our family being with us that month. The time went by fast and it was so neat having them here. We had just told them we were having another baby so that was fun to talk about. I was still feeling pretty crummy during both of their visits, but everyone was understanding. We can't wait for them to visit again!

Emma Turns 8

I realize that I'm falling way behind in blogging, but I promise I'm going to catch up!

We had Emma's 8th birthday party on March 10th right before our huge string of visitors started coming. Her actual birthday is March 15th, and she was wanting a Webkinz birthday party. Now, if you know me at all, you know that I am a very non-creative type and I usually like to have birthday parties away from my house where others can do all the planning. But this year I was going to attempt this.

When I was thinking about plans, I had no idea that I would have the worst day of pregnancy on the day of Emma's party. I seriously felt horrible and wasn't sure how I would make it through the day. This is when Will and my friend, Claudia, really came through for me!

Will made this awesome cake for Emma. She loved it and I have a feeling he will be making birthday cakes for us from now on. We have a horrible oven though, so he had to bake it at a friend's house then bring it home to decorate it. He wanted to do the old-school icing and it was so good!


Emma's a big fan of peace signs and strawberries

Will decorating her cake

I had to include a picture with my friend Claudia. She saved my life this day. She used to work in childrens ministry in Canada so she planned all the Webkinz games and activities. I couldn't have done it without her!

When the girls first arrived, I braided their hair...cause it's fun

Next they decorated headbands to take home with them. Party favor? Check! You like my balloon decorations on the table? haha...so lame

 

 

Next they played "find the webkinz". Claudia made "wanted" posters for all of Emma's webkinz with different points assigned to each of them. The harder the webkinz was to find, the more points they got. We divided them up into two teams and they were off!

 

They found them all and had the best time. It was really funny how into it they were. At one point, Emma looked at me and said "Mom this is the funnest party ever"...whew

Then we played "webkinz memory"

We lined up all animals on the upstairs ledge and they had to remember what order they're in

The team that remembered the most correctly got some points

After they played "webkinz hot potato/musical chairs". A very fun & easy game

Then it was time for cake!

Look how big she is

Family picture

Opening presents!

Finally they played a game that Will & Jack made up. The girls went to the outside balcony and threw water balloons on Will & Jack down below. 

Each girl got 2 balloons to throw and it was a definite hit! Who doesn't like to throw water balloons on people who can't fight back?

The girls...Emme, Isabella, Emma, Bethany, Olivia and Ashlyn

What a great 8th birthday!

Emma we are so proud of the young lady you are becoming. Daddy and I always talk about how you are truly the kindest person that we know. You always think of others above yourself and you have a keen awareness of other people's feelings. You love life, having fun, being goofy and acting silly. You truly love your brother like nothing I have ever seen. I love how you always think of him when you get little items in Sunday School or other classes and ask for an extra one for him. You are so smart and super brave to be going to a brand new school all by yourself across town in a foreign language. You have never cried about it and look forward to each day. You inspire me to be better in my language learning as well! We love you so much Emma and hope you love being 8 years old. We are so blessed and honored to have you as our daughter.

Getting The Ears Pierced

We took Emma to get her ears pierced for her 8th birthday. She knew it was coming and had been talking about it for months. There are no "Claires" around here that pierce ears because every baby girl just gets their ears pierced in the hospital here. So, we had heard that we would have to go to a tattoo parlor. I had to let this sink in for about a month, and then decided that they obviously know what they're doing, and what a fun story to tell. The tattoo parlors by our house didn't have the correct earrings, so we were told to go to the big mall in San Pedro where there is a jewelry store across the way from a tattoo parlor.

We bought the $30 gold earrings from the fancy jewelry store and walked across to the funky tattoo parlor. That's when Emma panicked. Here is Will having a talk with an uncontrollable Emma for almost an hour. She was hysterically crying, but wanting to get it done so bad at the same time. We finally told her that we were leaving and not coming back until she was 9. As we were walking into the parking garage, I looked at her and said, "last chance". She became really calm and determined and said "okay...let's do it".


She marched right in there and sat down to wait her turn. You can tell she's been crying for forever, but she is finally calm (thank goodness). Those guys in this shop were so patient watching us crazies walk in and out that store with a hysterical daughter for over an hour. 

I love all the tattoo options in the pictures on the wall behind them! haha


Nervous crying, but not hysterical. There are no ear piercing "guns" here. Just a gigantic, enormous, humongous needle that he shoved through her ear after pinching it first with pliers. She actually quit crying when he pierced them...she was more nervous crying before it even started. 

Jack thought the whole thing was awesome. He was such a trooper just hanging out in the store watching his sister be crazy. He says he would like one ear pierced when he's older so he'll look like a "rock-n-roll dude". Great.

Finally calm. But check out those pliers!!!! There was a huge mirror right across from her, so we just told her to keep her eyes closed. It was for the best.

Putting the earring in

Screwing on the back of the earring

Ahhh success!!! Whew. She was so incredibly happy when it was over. And so was her mom.