Getting Dirty

One of Eli's favorite pastimes is getting dirty, probably like many 3 year old boys. So last weekend Eli was in dirt heaven. We took a trip with some other families to a coffee farm about an hour outside of Managua. The couple who owns the farm lives down the street from us and we buy are coffee regularly from them...and it is maybe one of the best coffees I've ever tasted. Their farm is organic and they pay meticulous attention to the details of farming coffee, like an art, and perhaps that is why it is so delicious.  Unfortunately, they have suffered with their crop recently because of the shortage of rainfall. But, in an attempt to utilize their land the best they can, they've begun to grow vanilla which is not at all a crop common to Nicaragua.  It will be a process of several years before they yield a crop but I found it so interesting to see the ingenuity given uncontrollable circumstances.


The land they have is beautiful and we got to take a little hike through it with the kids in tow.  We were a slightly unprepared for the walk and Isi got passed around a bit so no one tired too much but it was worth it.

Afterwards we gathered in their visitors' center for a potluck lunch and for some getting dirty time. I think I'm still cleaning off the dirt on Eli from that day.

 Isi got in on the action too.

 

Happy Birthday Isi!

My in-laws just left after visiting with us for about a week. They got to help us celebrate Isi's first birthday which turned out to be a little thrown together but we managed to get in a cake (a delicious carrot cake from a local shop) and a rendition of "happy birthday" but with Eli throwing his dinner on the floor and Isi less than enthusiastic about it being his birthday, we were lucky to get a candle in the cake.

 

Mothers Day on Steroids

Last Friday was Mothers' Day here in Nicaragua. It is always May 30th and is always a really big big deal! I thought us Americans were a bit crazy with regards to "Hallmark Holidays" but this is another level. To give you an idea of how big it is, government offices are closed, the mothers in Alan's office had the day off, and there is a great deal of hype from retail stores and companies in general. Even my cell phone company was giving out chocolates to celebrate. Normally we don't make a big deal out of Mothers Day in our house (because every day should be a day to celebrate moms) but my boys sent me flowers which I happily received. Granted the delivery arrived at 5:30am but thankfully they had already woken me up way beforehand.

In honor of all the moms in our house - our nanny, Maria, and our other helper, Patricia - we decided to make cake because really what better way is there? We all agreed on chocolate and Patricia, who cooks the delicious food we eat in our house, requested I teach her how to make the cake.

 



 So we spent the better half of the morning making a double chocolate cake which turned out so delicious!  We sent big chunks of cake home with everyone and gave away some to the neighbors.

Then I headed to Eli's school for a Mothers' Day performance by the preschool kids. Despite Eli's initial excitement over seeing me, he quickly was reduced to tears at the suggestion of singing and dancing in front of all the mamas. So he sat on the stage sobbing as the other kids sang a song and marched in a circle.

The whole thing was quickly forgotten thankfully and we tried to focus on the positive...this lovely handprint card I received!

 Now on to Fathers' Day!

Finca Fun

On Sunday I was desperate to get out of Managua with the family but didn't want the hassle of planning a full day excursion. With the baby, packing for the whole day seems to take a whole day. So I asked a local friend for a recommendation and she told us about a coffee farm a bit out of town, maybe a 20 minute drive, that also has a hotel, restaurant, and little nature walks through their land.  Sounded perfect so we headed out there for Sunday lunch. And man was this place gorgeous. Not only was the air cooler and crisper than in Managua because we climbed in elevation a good bit, but the flora was just incredible. Mixed in with the rows of coffee plants were beautiful blue flowers called Milflores. 

Our view driving in.

 

Both kids loved it. They had a little playset for Eli and we strolled them around looking at the ducks and horses who wandered around the grounds. Alan took Eli for short little walks up into the hills but we weren't really equipped to trek up with Isi.

The cute restaurant. Food was pretty good and they even had highchairs...a rarity!

 

Cake Making

Without a job to go to everyday I often jump at the opportunity to take on little projects here and there, especially if it involves cooking and baking.  My friend and I volunteered recently to bring a cake and some small bites to a baby shower for a friend. I made it a bigger project than it needed to be, as usual, and made a two tiered fondant covered cake.  I almost pulled it off perfectly until the heat and lack of experience with fondant got the best of my cake and the top tier sort of fell apart as I tried to stack it.  So I just swallowed my disappointment, tied some utility string around the cake and recreated the decorations in the last minute and no one seemed to notice. And thankfully the cake was a delicious despite being a bit warped. It was a yellow cake with a meringue and a passionfruit curd filling.

 

 







Last Days Before Return to Normalcy

We have finally returned to school and some sense of normalcy after a ridiculously long and unplanned break from formal education here in Managua. I thought I'd share some of our last goings ons before going back to school this week.

Last week we took a nice little trip to the local zoo with some of Eli's classmates. We made it a household trip and took Maria, our nanny, Jose Luis, our driver, and Isi, Eli, and Maria's daughter and we met up with a few other moms and kids.  We'd been to the zoo once before with Eli's class and I can't say it is the most sophisticated zoo we've ever seen and there are a few safety concerns (like child height barbed wire and cages within reach so you can literally stick your hand in the cages of some animals). But having said that, the kids had fun and we paid a little extra to go in the butterfly garden which was in fact really special.

 

Here Jose Luis gently held one for Eli to get a closer look. He was fascinated and even held it for a second himself before letting it go.

Maybe even more special was the escape of some animal as we were walking towards to the exit to leave.  We got to watch the zoo keepers chase the animal all over and eventually scoop it out of a duck pond where it was hiding. I'm still not sure what it was but we can only assume it wasn't too dangerous as they said nothing to us letting the 3-year olds watch its capture.

 

And towards the end of last week, when we finally knew schools was going to start back up again on Monday, we had a final party playdate with a water blow up thingy which the kids loved! We parents enjoyed a cold beer and breathed a sigh of relief as we reflected on how crazy the last few weeks had been.

 

And as usual, our kids were in the flesh.  They get used to running around naked here with this heat.

 

 

To finish off what had been some stressful and crazy weeks, we decided to splurge on what some might call a rustic bbq. And by splurge I mean we paid maybe $12 for this half of a barrel-turned-bbq beauty. 

 

And yes, after lighting it, all the pretty blue (and toxic) paint peeled off.

We put it to some good use on Sunday.  After an hour of trying to get the charcoal lit with some weird pink gel that they market as a wonderful charcoal starter, we finally got some heat and slapped on some veggies and meat. For our first go at barrel-style barby, it wasn't too bad. We can only improve our skills from here.

 

 

No School AGAIN + Stomach Flu

I should have known the news on Friday was too good to be true.  Friday the Nicaraguan government decided schools were going to reopen and Sunday they decided that yet again the schools would remain closed indefinitely. It really makes no sense and is incredibly frustrating for us parents. Eli's school held a meeting yesterday to try to discuss the options and to better share what information they've gotten from the government but we left with no more clarity and no solutions.

And to make our household a little gloomier, a stomach bug has descended on us for the weekend. It started with me on Friday night and throughout the day Saturday and passed on to Eli who was up all Saturday night vomiting.  This was his first stomach flu experience and poor guy (and poor parents who cleaned up vomited sheets, floors and hair -mine- all night).  Now he seems to be somewhat better but spent all Sunday parked either in front of the TV, iPad, or stretched out on the hammock. 

 

The Best News

This morning I woke up to the best news I could have asked for...the Nicaraguan government has determined that it is now safe for children to return to school on Monday after 2 weeks away due to the earthquake risk.  So for now our lives can return to normalcy and our children can continue learning. Despite the unplanned break, many of us parents from the school have tried to fill the days with entertaining and stimulating activities. On Wednesday I took Eli for cookie baking and decorating at a local bakery here owned by one of the parents in his school. Eli had a little difficulty getting into the activity but then made a few abstract cookies, smeared some cookie dough all over the table, stuck his fingers in all the cookies on the tray and...

 ...ate some cookies. In fact he just skipped the whole decorating thing and ate about 5 cookies while the other kids artfully adorned their cookies and sipped chocolate milk.

 

Back at the house, we've been utilizing our pool more than ever in these days off. Maria, our nanny, has had her daughter with us here for a few days because she is also out of school and plain bored like so many kids. We figured she is close in age to Eli and they can at least have some fun playing together. So we dug out these funny yellow floater suits that were gifted to us a while ago and threw
them on the kids since Maria also doesn't know how to swim. The kids mostly just hung out on the stairs kicking and splashing water and even Isi got in on the action.

 

Earthquake Vacations

Due to a stream of earthquake activity in and around Managua the last few weeks, the Nicaraguan government has decided to close all schools indefinitely.  This decision came just following Semana Santa, or holy week. So we are on our second week of forced school vacation (the third week of schools being out) and can only cross our fingers that schools reopen next week.  Although, many of us are preparing for bad news Sunday night this weekend. It is not totally clear to me why the schools are closed because no one can predict of course when an earthquake might happen. We've been on Red Alert for a while now since all this plate movement started and had a few biggies that even woke us out of our beds in the middle of the night and had us running to grab the kids to get outside. But in the last two weeks we haven't felt much of anything. Supposedly there are many small tremors happening all the time but we just don't feel them. Schools have already reviewed their structures for security and all the safety plans must be in place now...so let's get back to some normalcy please!!!

But,since my opinion clearly won't have any influence, I've accepted that my job now is to keep my 3-year old entertained and stimulated with something other than hours of TV and iPad.  But, it gets challenging with the heat we are facing here as we wait for the rains to arrive sometime in May. Some of us have resorted to crazy ideas like filling our inflatable pool with sand for instantaneous naked sandbox fun.

 

 Eli has exhausted his and Isi's toys at this point.

Friends have even gone out and bought trampolines or planned last minute beach trips in a desperate attempt to keep themselves and little ones sane.  I hosted a spontaneous brinca brinca party today where all the parents chipped in to pay for the blow up castle we had at Eli's birthday party recently.  It was much appreciated by all and everyone got some energy out, including the wee little ones.

 

 Tomorrow we're going to a bakery owned by one of the parents from Eli's class to make and decorate cookies. Creativity is clearly the key in times like this!  I know we will all survive this but it is only Tuesday so I better get to filling up the rest of the week with playdates and contemplating what it will mean if they mandate another week of forced vacation....eeeeek! Serenity now....