Fiestas de Cumpleaños

Birthdays are a big deal in Costa Rica. This past weekend, we attended a birthday party that had horseback riding, relay races, face-painting, and a number of other activities.

 

One of the best ideas at the party was the loot bag – each of the kids “fished” for guppies to take home.

The kids named their fish (in order from left to right):

- Iron Man: Gabriel’s

- Sushi: Léah’s

- Bottom: Naimah’s (for the first few days, it insisted on staying at the bottom of the tank)

It is a jungle out there

Gabriel and Naimah often have some project going on. When they are outside and it starts to get too quiet, it is time to check on them.

This weekend, they appeared to be gathering some items on the ground and when I asked what they were doing, they explained that they are, “running an insect hospital”. Their patients? These enormous green flies.

The variety of creatures around our house is a veritable zoo for the kids and they spot everything. Before I sat on a chair outside, Gabriel spotted one guy hanging out on the leg of the chair and one on the back.

Luckily, I spotted the following house guest on my own before I stepped on it in the middle of the hall late one night. (This isn’t the same spider that I posted the last time.)

Autopista del Sol

The excitement has been mounting since we arrived in July. We knew that it was coming. We watched its construction, eager to try it, yearning to enjoy it. Alas, the moment came this past weekend.

I have never been excited for the opening of a new highway before. However, all last week, Mélanie and I couldn’t wait to drive on the new autopista that officially opened on January 27, 2009.

The entrance to the highway is close to the center of town, east of the church.

The one to two lane highway pales in comparison to some of the monstrous four to six lanes that they have in some areas of North America, but for this country and the rural area in which we live, our newborn autopista is pure pleasure. Anybody who has visited us can attest to the fact that the regular Costa Rican roads with insane vertical drops, and crazy twists and turns, really test the stomach and the nerves.

We can now reach “the big city” (i.e. the outskirts of San José, the capital) in less than 20 minutes. We timed our return at a mere 14 minutes; it used to take us around an hour.

To try out the new highway this past Saturday, we drove to Santa Ana to enjoy the international cuisine that Western Canadians love… Asian! :)

Prince and Princess Party

To celebrate the last day of their “summer vacation” (still feels weird to refer to it like that considering the time of year), the kids attended a “Prince and Princess Party”.

(In the picture, notice that Naimah is holding a microphone because in Disney’s world, all princesses sing, right?)

It was a great way to end the long school break; a new school year starts this week. The kids have been out of school since the end of November. For all of the readers who are parents of school aged children, imagine 11 weeks of kids being out of school in an area without the concept of Day Camps. Yes, you get the picture.

On the subject of going back to school, last week Naimah was so in the mood to be back in school that she insisted on wearing her uniform for a good part of the day.

Famille Godin

Mélanie’s sister Martine (with fiancé Steeve and baby Noah) just left to head back to Québec yesterday after spending a great 2+ weeks with us. They enjoyed the difference in climate (it’s a big swing between minus 30 Celcius and plus 30 Celcius).

The kids already miss their little “adopted” brother

Quality sister-time

Banana harvest in our backyard

Lots of cuddles

Tribal bug

We find these creatures in and around our house and can’t even identify them. I have asked 3 locals if they can tell me the name of this huge insect with tribal tattoos; 2 shrugged their shoulders and one thought that it might be a large “chincha”.

Nomads

At the end of November 2009, we packed up our stuff, moved out of the house that we were in before, put our stuff in storage, and until mid-January 2010, we were wandering nomads without a home. Homeless in Costa Rica and the kids being out of school until February (it is summer break in Costa Rica now), we made our way up to Montréal for 5 weeks and had a detour in Arizona on the way back down to visit my parents.

For the last year, we feel that our life has revolved around packing, unpacking, packing, unpacking…

In seemingly constant moving mode, the kids have found a way to entertain themselves with the boxes that are ubiquitous in their lives.

Transforming (pun intended) a box into an Optimus Prime CostumeDecorating the boxes