School Projects

On our walk home from school and I always ask her what she did that day and I STILL get the same answer each day: "I play inside, I play outside, I sing song, I play with toys."  Now I KNOW she does more than that.  I know they have dance time and on Mondays they have gym, but I don't find out about arts/crafts time until I see different pieces sent home.  So here they are (now they're in the trash...you can't keep everything).

*I especially like that they label them by pasting a little picture of the kid on the project :).

Playgroup Birthday Party

Last year, one of the mom's at playgroup had an awesome idea to have a group birthday party for the kids. We each bring 1 present and 1 dish. How nice is that? This year it was at our place because we were hoping the kids would be able to run around in the backyard and jump on the trampoline, BUT just our luck it was cold weather so indoors it was.

I had a little table with crayons, markers and stickers and we played with the parachute and balloons which a couple of the kids loved. Then we had birthday crowns and the normal everyday toys. So pretty low key (minus the getting the house cleaned and decorated). For presents we put all the presents in the parachute and the kids each got to grab one out it and unwrap. It was kinda funny because a couple of the kids only wanted the one that they brought. After presents we had lunch. We ended up with meatballs, spinach tortellini, chicken and zucchini taquitos, schnitzel, breadsticks and tomatoes. Yummy! It was pretty hard not to keep picking at everything.

To end we sang happy birthday in English and French and had cake. I made two caterpillar cupcake cakes and stuck a bunch of candles in each so the kids could all blow them out. Kherington was a little too excited and kept blowing while we were singing. When it came time to eat the cake, since she had helped me decorate the caterpillar face she was determined that she would get one. She at all the candy off it then asked me to get rid of the "snow/clouds" (aka white frosting).

So...party went well, I got all cleaned up while the kids took a little late afternoon nap (yes...kids as in plural...awesome!). We had the sister missionaries over for dinner (I definitely recommend this paprika chicken stroganoff recipe). Kids went went to bed a little later than normal.

Then, about midnight hit. Kherington started screaming so Ryan went in her room. She does NOT like it when Ryan tries to get her at night. She wants her mom. So I went, had just picked her up and was walking down the hall when she threw up all over me...the upside of this is that we were in the hallway with wood floors instead of on a bed. I rinsed her down in the bath, got cleaned up, she went potty, then threw up on me again. So we repeated. Then I got her to start throwing up in the bowl instead...she would ask me to hold her hair back which was kinda cute. So for the rest of the night we cuddled on the couch and did the throw-up/potty run every 30 minutes or so. Ugh. Not exactly the night sleep I was hoping for but ya know that's how it goes. She finally fell into a deep sleep when I got up to workout at 7 (an hour later than normal, but I decided I'd do the run the next day instead). When she woke up 2.5 hours later, it was as if nothing had happened at night. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it was just like a 12 hour bug.

We're not in college anymore...

Most of my blog posts are about travels, holiday's, activities or kids. This one is none of the above. Feel free to stop reading (not sure I'll even actually post this or if it will stay forever in the drafts folder).

In the last couple weeks I've talked to two different friends from college. Both of whom I feel like I know really well. I roomed with both at different times and they're both people that I might not talk to frequently, but I know I could easily just hangout after years of not having seen each other.

So, why is this? and more importantly, why is it so hard to find friends like this after the college years? I know there are a few couples that Ryan and I would LOVE to live next to. Life would be awesome! They're people I wouldn't feel bad/awkward dropping in on if I just needed to get out of the house, was having a bad day or just plain felt like it. People I could talk about nothing with for hours and not have any awkward lulls in the conversation. People I could do dinners, games, workouts, crafts, vacations...pretty much you name it...with and have it be a load of fun.

I know I'm in a different situation than most in that we live in a foreign country where we don't speak the national languages and age wise we're younger than most expats. I'm not saying I don't have any friends here because I do. I just really don't feel like I have those good college type friendships where help comes without asking (or expecting anything in return), where there is always someone to talk to (aside from a husband) and where time away from the kids is a given (that would be nice).

So that's my first thoughts. My second is much more basic. We've been here a little over 2 years and I've come to the conclusion that no matter what anyone says, everyone needs a friend. Sure, you might not find the perfect match (like above), but as long as you respect each other, I think any two people can be friends.