CrazySox

The food was Uh May Zing!

Breakfast 8am to 10 was a serve yourself buffet- granola & yogurt, fruit, fresh banana bread, toast, eggs to order, juice & coffee.

Lunch 1:30 ish. We ordered lunch at around 11. The chef (& his crew) made everything from scratch (pasta & breads too!). There were only 5 choices- pesto chicken sandwich is what i got most days. The kids had lunch a little earlier than us- either pasta with butter or grilled cheese for just about every meal- not so balanced. Between the choices they had for her and her being picky that was it- pasta or grilled cheese!

Dinner- 7pm. Again we ordered dinner earlier so the chef can make it all fresh. I ordered lobster tail every night and Dan switched between steak & fish. It was so yummy.

This morning I taught a “poodles” class. We did  few crafts then (surprise) stuffed a pink poodle. I usually don’t let Avery keep the animals we stuff in a class, or else she’s had (more than) way too many stuffed animals.

She played with the dog at the park after the class. She named her Diamond. She made a whole life for Diamond… the food she likes, her favorite colors, her friends…

After lunch she has her “rest” time and she played with the Diamond the whole time. She came and asked for my phone, I thought to probably play a game, but here are the pictures I found that she took;

Notice the book she laid out for them to read!!

She likes “themes.” I have no idea where she gets that from…

We’ve been more into playing board games. While we were in Boise, we played a lot of games- Scrabble, Sequence, Clue, Sorry, Traffic Jam, Uno…

Dan taught Avery to play ti-tac-toe and she loves it. She plays a dozen games a day, with each of us! One of  the latest activites at Lowes was a tic tac toe game! Wonderful, now we can play all the time!! Anywhere!!

From tic tac toe I thought of Connect 4, we borrowed it from a friend. Did you know that Connect 4 is about $20 new in the store?!? Crazy! She is getting pretty good at it too. She figured out that the best place to make her first move is in the center. She is always red and we have to be black.

Now we are playing more card games. We’ve been playing Old Maid & Go Fish. Old Maid is a little hard for her to hold all the cards in her hands, so she likes Go Fish better.

She doesn’t like Uno! She gets the idea of the game- get rid of the cards by color or number. She just doesn’t like it. Weird!!

What games are next?

Dan had met a few of the guys face to face but mostly on phone calls and email connections. I had never met nor talked to anyone that was going on this trip. Great! I honestly had no idea how it  was going to go- either absolutely fabulous or it was going to be a very LONG 10 days! Well, it turned to be FAN YOU LUSS!!

We think it’s crazy- amazing that S&P were able to bring together 15 people from all over the US & Canada that have so much in common and got along so well. Fabulous!!

The laptops & iphones were 1 to 1!

Everyone was SO helpful with the kids. It was astonishing that every person was there to help at any moment with either kid without us even asking, they just stepped right in.

Avery made a life long friend that she asks about just about everyday still. She wants to sing and swim with her friend Lindsey. She already checked on the map where Jaclyn lives in Canada.

Thank you S&P for the trip of a lifetime. We are looking forward to next year. Avery’s suggestion for next year is… Las Vegas!

While in Panama we went on a hike through the jungle. We had a local guy, mashete and all, to guide us through the jungle. It took us about two hours to make a circle around. By the time we got back we were hot & tired. Ready to jump into the pool!!

As soon as we got to Popa Paradise (the resort), we got on our suits and headed to the beach. We were surprised that there were 4 people (from our group) that beat us in the water. I knew then, that we were going to have an awesome time, no messing around for these guys.

Afterward we headed up the hill to the pool. Avery was most excited about “the cafe” in the water. Then we told her that you could order drinks and drink them sitting in the water… amazing! She wanted to order a smoothie right then, and we did! Her favorite was a Pina Coloda smoothie made by Edwin. She even asked him for the recipe!

We took a field trip one day to the chocolate factory. We took a boat out, our guide got lost so missed “Dolphin Bay,” but we did make it there. We really had no idea what to expect… another adventure!!

The “factory” is run by two older Americans, we thought there would be run by natives and a translator would be there for us. They walked us through some of the indigenous plants that grow there… then on to the chocolate part!!

It wasn’t the season, but there were some pods still on the trees. The guy busted one open for us to see and taste it. The inside was full of gooey white seeds that were kind of tangy, the inside of the seeds were purple- not what we expected. Avery wouldn’t even try it, can’t blame her.

After they collect the pods, bust them open and empty the seeds out, they “marinate” and ferment. Then they are dry roasted, that is when they turn brown. Then they use a press to crush the seeds, they do this three or four times, to really get a smooth consistency. We tried the “chocolate” and it tasted like crap. Since it was just the cocoa, no sugar, butter or milk added yet. Avery was really bummed, they had NO eatable chocolate to taste.

We did buy some of the cocoa (ka-cow) to make some brownies or some kind of treat at home. We also bought some of the “nibblets” too. They are the crushed up cocoa bit. They are to add to granola or the top of cake or something. I have no idea what we’ll do with them yet!! We’ll see…

Sawyer is not a “water boy” as much as Avery was a “fish” at the same age. We decided to just let him be and hopefully he’d get in on his own and enjoy it. It worked!

He started out just hanging out on the edge of the pool (it was zero depth- like a beach), and eventually he got in more and more. By the end of the trip we couldn’t keep him out of the water. One morning he walked right into the pool with all his clothes on, including shoes. Afterwards, it was hilarious.

He had two “falls” in the water. We were close by to “save” him and he recovered quickly. Thankfully he got right back in and played some more.

At the beginning of the week, Sawyer would blow bubbles on the shore. He’d bend over and “blow” his bubbles in the concrete, it was hilarious. He eventually did blow bubbles in the water.

We didn’t stay at the pool the whole time, we did venture down to the beach. Avery loved it (swam in the ocean, kayaked, collected shells…) but Sawyer wanted nothing to do with it. He didn’t like the sand, the shells or the salt water. Like the pool, we kept taking him down in hopes he would finally like it… he did. He liked the shore part at least.

We just returned from a true adventure. We went to Costa Rica & Panama for 10 (mostly) glorious days. We’d never been to Latin America and were excited to go. We flew from LAX to Phoenix (1 hour) then to San Jose, Costa Rica (5.5 hours). The flights were ok… Sawyer hardly slept so that means none of us slept!

On day 2 we took a (very) small plane to Bocas, Panama (1 hour). San Jose is very windy so that short trip was a little “exciting” to say the least.

Then we took a boat to the island where we’d be vacationing (40 minutes). It was beautiful driving by past the little islands, it was so clear we could see a lot of ocean “stuff.”

Valentines Day is coming up soon. Pink, red & purple are Avery’s favorite colors (at the moment)- great timing!

Avery had a few get-togethers she needed to make Valentines for. Since we aren’t going to be here for Valentines Day, I tried to make it simple- KISS.

Avery had 18 Valentines to make for school. We made some labels to put on her candy. She told me what to write and I typed it in. She then, put the labels on the boxes of candy and added a sticker to them. Sure beat having her write her name 18 times!!

Avery picked out the fun paper to make some hearts for her teachers. They turned out cute. She decorated the paper lunch bags too.

[caption id="attachment_1085" align="alignright" width="124" caption="The bag she made for her teachers for V Day"][/caption]
We went to a Valentine craft party and brought 5 Valentines there. We had some left over Valentines from last year that we needed to use up. Avery picked up some heart pencils & stickers to hand out too.

Then we had a Valentine Tea Party (girls only!). Avery found some heart shaped lollipops that she really wanted to share with her friends. I figured this was the place to do it. She loved passing them out to her girl friends.
PS The tea party was so cute! They made heart shaped pizzas!!