Taking a Little Break

I am sad to say that I am taking a little break from this lovely space here.  I have absolutely loved my time spent blogging - it's helped me to process, to document, record and remember all the precious moments of our days and learning.  But, I have another project that is consuming me and every spare moment that I have, so I'm going to have to put this on hold for a little bit. 

Thanks for bearing with me, I'll be back soon!  And in the meantime, I'm sure I will find time to at least post some fun pictures every now and then, because I won't be able to help myself! 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Science at Home

We have some fun science projects going on around here right now.

We decided to try making our own bean sprouts using lentils.  Soak them for a day, then drain and keep them in a jar covered in mesh or cheese cloth and rinse them out each day.

Here they are starting to sprout!

The most exciting thing in our lives right now is that daddy brought home a bunch of tadpoles from the river.  We made them a little habitat so we can hopefully watch them sprout legs and turn into frogs. 

The boys are absolutely amazed and completely thrilled.

  "I can't believe we have these," Ezzy says in an awed whisper.
 

Reading "Tadpole to Frog," which is very important reading right now!

A Colorful Week

A theme of our week might be shaving cream and food coloring.

I made this batch of shaving cream with food coloring for Jude to play with. I thought it would be fun to squish and mix it. Doesn't it look delicious? Don't you want to just dive right in?

Jude had a lot of fun with this.  So what else have we been up to?  Well....

We played in the rain.

I made spaghetti for dinner and dyed it different colors, just for fun.

They just thought this was the greatest thing ever. I have never seen three boys eat spaghetti so fast.

Ezzy painted his face red- that was a surprise.

Kai made scrambled eggs by himself.

 We made tin can telephones - they actually work!

 Another shaving cream activity (see, I told you it was a theme for the week).  This one is a little different in that it is half shaving cream and half white glue.  This makes an incredible finger paint!  It could also be used to make a collage, but we didn't do that.  (Ideas from:  Not Just Cute)

Ezzy's making a sunset.

We went to the Farmer's Market and bought lots of fruit, then had a fruit-cutting party.

Now we have bags of fruit in the freezer ready for smoothies!

Some Fun Videos

The boys skateboarding



An obstacle course in our backyard



And a fight at the mall

The Binder

I got this idea from Thomas Jefferson Education and started it right away - it's great and so simple! I got a three ring binder for each boy and put some fun pictures of them on the front. Inside I filled it with empty clear plastic sheet protectors for them to keep their finished work in. Each boy has a calendar in the front. This is a place where we can practice planning as well as recording. To Kai's binder I added his reading list and a place where we write a paragraph each day about what he learned that day. They all love it and are busy filling it up with all their work and special papers. It's unleashed a new wave of creativity in the house and I have more ideas too.

These are the covers I made for their binders:

Crazy Storm

So I don't know if it's on the news or not, but we're having a really crazy storm here on the Pacific side of Costa rica.  Did you see my turtle post from yesterday?  Well the photo below is the EXACT spot where two nights ago we watched the turtle lay her eggs.  It has now turned into a river!

We went to check out the devastation on the beach - it's pretty crazy!

Kai found a light bulb!

On a more serious note - one of the communities my husband's been working with lives right on a riverbank - they had to be evacuated and are in a temporary shelter.  Many people have lost their homes and even their lives.  And the rain continues.  Tonight it's supposed to rain even more, so we ask for your prayers.

Amazing night

I love the spontaneity of living here. I never know what each day will hold.  The other night Scott called me, "There's a turtle on the beach, I'm driving by - get the boys and jump in the car."  Sure enough, about one minute later we were jumping into our '98 Chevy Astro and booking it the short three blocks to the beach.  Scott drove right out onto the compacted sand, we ran through the misty rain and this is what we found.  

It's turtle season in Costa Rica, so every night mommy turtles are coming up onto beaches everywhere to lay their eggs.  There was a man working with a turtle reserve not too far away and he was looking out for this one.  After she dug her hole and settled in, the boys moved closer to see the eggs dropping into the hole.

After she finished laying her eggs, she moved her flippers and covered the hole with sand.  Then she rocked back and forth and did a little dance to smooth the hole to make sure her eggs were covered and safe.  When she moved away she had done such a good job you couldn't even tell anything had happened there.  Then she turned around and headed back to the ocean.

There she is, swimming away.  She is an Olive Ridley Sea Turtle for those interested.  (My camera battery was basically dead - it was really hard to get pictures!)

After she left, the man from the turtle reserve went back to dig up the turtle eggs.  They would not be safe on the beach here in Jaco, so he takes the eggs over to the reserve, protects them and then releases them back into the wild when they hatch.  The man from the reserve only had two gloves, but he let the boys take turns digging up the eggs and placing them into a plastic bag.

We counted 116 eggs!  Isn't that incredible?  Kai was especially thrilled to do this.  When he saw the turtle laying eggs he was very concerned.  He told me he was thinking right away about the eggs getting destroyed.  He was remembering another scene from a few weeks ago, talking to a homeless man.

The homeless man said he was laying on the beach at night and watched a turtle lay her eggs.  He was hungry so when the turtle went back into the ocean, he dug up the nest and ate the eggs.  Kai watched him squeeze lime onto an egg and eat it right before his eyes.  So I'm pretty sure that's why he was worried about this mommy turtle. 

It's for reasons like these that the Hermosa Beach turtle reserve is working to conserve these turtles and their nests.  The man from the reserve said they have already cleared over 150 nests from Jaco beach and taken them to the reserve.  It was really exciting to be a part of the conservation efforts and help to save this mommy turtles' eggs!   I was just having visions of my boys all working as little ecologists. 

Another thought, I was just reading in a book about the importance and spirituality of caring for creation.  The author was saying that, "Modern men and women have lost their connection with creation.  We're always insulated from it by shoe leather, cotton-polyester, glass, metal, plastic, HVAC, and screens of many kinds!  ...I can't help but believe our souls are starved for the company of God's creatures." 

He goes on to say, "If I could live another life, I think I would devote it to ecology, because I also believe that this is a truly spiritual and Christian work.  Genesis begins with our mandate to take care of God's creation, and never has our failure to do so been more acute than now.  Learning to live as caretakers of creation and friends to fellow creatures must be at the core of Christianity."  Interesting, huh?

Koa's Birthday

As promised... photos from the "BIG" day! 

The birthday boy waiting for his pancake.

Our neighbors had pancakes with us!

 I felt adventurous and took the boys to Parque Carara with my friend Renate, who's visiting from Norway.

 The rainforest is so beautiful!






More neighbors came over to help celebrate and wear costumes.

 

Singing happy birthday!



Koa really enjoyed eating a piece of birthday cake!

What a special day!