Max turned the Big 3 on Tuesday, May 20th this past week.
His Preschool class doesn't really do class birthday parties at school, so we just had a big blow out for him at home...with the family.
We took lots of videos and pics, so enjoy!
Some things to know about Max:
1. He LOVES to be in his PJ's at all times of the day. So you'll see in these videos and pictures, that's what he gets to wear! It is his birthday after all!
2. He has a great habit of grabbing your face by both cheeks, oh so gently, and saying "I'm so glad you are here," then planting a big toddler smooch on your lips. It really is WONDERFUL!
3. His favorite food is anything chocolate and the homemade tortilla chips I make for after-school snack.
4. He loves to jump into the pool (See Pool Time Fun post for videos) and is actually very fast with his Spiderman intertube.
5. He has not gotten over his abject fear of stuffed mascot like people. Think Chuck E. Cheese type costumes. Max is still not a big fan.
Some great photos and videos of our exciting 3rd Birthday party in Brazil! :)
Max Opening Gifts
Celebrate Good Times, COME ON!
Max and his cake and candles
Max Playing with new toys
Max montage, Thank you Google!
Sunday, May 24, 2015
Festa Junina 2015
What the heck is Festa Junina?
I was asking myself this very question until I sat down and did some 'Googling' to figure it out.
Here's what I found (in summary):
Festa Junina (can be known as festa São João) is a HUGE PARTY celebrating Saint Anthony, Saint John the Baptist, and Saint Peter for their various parts in The Nativity and in bringing rain and good crops to the farmers. This party originated mostly in the rural and country areas where farming is prevalent.
There is a lot of emphasis on quadrilha, which is similar to square dancing; and country-western type foods like corn, BBQ, sweets and popcorn.
People dress up in countryside garb, and may blacken a tooth or two to complete the look. Additional costume looks are pigtails, freckles, real cowboy looking clothes and definitely a cowboy hat and boots. One of the quadrilha dances involves a bride and groom, while others are coupled up to dance around the happy couple.
At the school, it's a BIG party with the PTA having it as their biggest fundraiser of the year. The food was absolutely delicious and worth every minute of waiting in line. Nothing like having your Brazilian Meat on a Stick at a school function! With that beautiful BBQ smell wafting through the air...who could ask for more?!
Each grade has a special dance and works on it for about 2 months before this event. It is a serious deal around here.
Which is what will make our videos and pictures even more entertaining.
* One of our kids doesn't move a lick. Just stands and cries.
* One is in a frilly dress which she hasn't worn since she was old enough to put her own clothes on. AND she nails the dance number too!
* One is dancing her heart out and waving around a pink cowboy hat like she does this kind of stuff all the time.
In other words, it was a TOTALLY AWESOME DAY!
Charlotte Dancing Wonderfully!
She has on a beautiful purple and teal dress, about center screen.
At the end of the last video, Char is asked to go grab her parent and bring them to the dance floor to dance with them. AARON ROCKED IT OUT! Unfortunately, my phone was full at that point and I couldn't capture the amazing dance moves that Aaron and Char were sporting. :( Suffice to say, the two of them looked AMAZING!
Max NOT Dancing :)
You can see he is the little boy on the far left side.
Izzy's Beautiful Dancing
Izzy is on the center right of your frame with a pink cowboy hat and teal plaid shirt. (The video on my phone is far from ideal. Just another reminder of a purchase I'll be making back in The States this July... :) )
Regular photos for your enjoyment. :)
I was asking myself this very question until I sat down and did some 'Googling' to figure it out.
Here's what I found (in summary):
Festa Junina (can be known as festa São João) is a HUGE PARTY celebrating Saint Anthony, Saint John the Baptist, and Saint Peter for their various parts in The Nativity and in bringing rain and good crops to the farmers. This party originated mostly in the rural and country areas where farming is prevalent.
There is a lot of emphasis on quadrilha, which is similar to square dancing; and country-western type foods like corn, BBQ, sweets and popcorn.
People dress up in countryside garb, and may blacken a tooth or two to complete the look. Additional costume looks are pigtails, freckles, real cowboy looking clothes and definitely a cowboy hat and boots. One of the quadrilha dances involves a bride and groom, while others are coupled up to dance around the happy couple.
At the school, it's a BIG party with the PTA having it as their biggest fundraiser of the year. The food was absolutely delicious and worth every minute of waiting in line. Nothing like having your Brazilian Meat on a Stick at a school function! With that beautiful BBQ smell wafting through the air...who could ask for more?!
Each grade has a special dance and works on it for about 2 months before this event. It is a serious deal around here.
Which is what will make our videos and pictures even more entertaining.
* One of our kids doesn't move a lick. Just stands and cries.
* One is in a frilly dress which she hasn't worn since she was old enough to put her own clothes on. AND she nails the dance number too!
* One is dancing her heart out and waving around a pink cowboy hat like she does this kind of stuff all the time.
In other words, it was a TOTALLY AWESOME DAY!
Charlotte Dancing Wonderfully!
She has on a beautiful purple and teal dress, about center screen.
At the end of the last video, Char is asked to go grab her parent and bring them to the dance floor to dance with them. AARON ROCKED IT OUT! Unfortunately, my phone was full at that point and I couldn't capture the amazing dance moves that Aaron and Char were sporting. :( Suffice to say, the two of them looked AMAZING!
Max NOT Dancing :)
You can see he is the little boy on the far left side.
Izzy's Beautiful Dancing
Izzy is on the center right of your frame with a pink cowboy hat and teal plaid shirt. (The video on my phone is far from ideal. Just another reminder of a purchase I'll be making back in The States this July... :) )
Regular photos for your enjoyment. :)
Monday, May 18, 2015
Homemade Peanut Butter
I know I'm a bit behind on posting pics of the kids...working on it, I SWEAR!
But I thought I would share this morning's adventures in my kitchen.
Peanut butter, as we Americans know it, is VERY expensive here. Take a look at your jar of Planter's All Natural no-mix peanut butter and imagine paying $12 for it, ON SALE! I'm not exaggerating, that's what we got.
Of course, I've splurged. I mean, we cannot live without peanut butter, we are a family with three small kids after all. But I got to thinking, making your own can't be that hard. And a bag of shelled peanuts is like $1 here...so there has to be a way.
Enter this find : Homemade Peanut Butter
BRILLIANT!
So, my morning went like this:
1. Kids on bus.
2. Yoga
3. Roast 2 cups peanuts on baking sheet for about 8-10 min at 350 F
4. Oven only works in Celsius...wing temperature setting.
5. Sip coffee.
6. Put in peanuts and set timer for 5 min.
7. At 3 minutes in, smell burning.
8. Run to kitchen and pull on oven handle to open door.
9. Break oven handle, complete with interior heat glass coming out and 'broken' screw from handle falling down somewhere into inner oven workings.
10. Finagle way to open door using two pot-holders and a spatula.
11. Find that peanuts now look like coffee beans and house smells..interesting.
12. Trash peanuts.
13. Figure oven is still on and now I can still open/close door - try again.
14. Reduce temperature, significantly.
15. Roast 2 cups peanuts on baking sheet.
16. Stand by oven for about 1 1/2 minutes to roast peanuts.
17. Sip coffee.
18. Take out peanuts and make recipe. Turns out ok, not as smooth as I like, but definitely has the right flavor.
GREAT! I'm going to try this with cashews, but not roast them. Clearly I need to turn off the oven to cool for a bit so I can try and put it back together.
1. 2 cups cashews directly into food processor and follow recipe.
2. Hhhhmmmmm...after adding oil and honey, it's not smooth. Maybe just some water...
3. Blend.
4. BAD IDEA to add water after oil for peanut butter - but this cashew toffee candy is going to be DELICIOUS!
5. Decide this might not be the best morning for peanut butter making and start vacuuming instead. I'll need to wash the floors too in hopes to try and rid the house of burnt peanut smell before anyone gets home.
By the way, it's now 9:30am here.
How's your morning going? :)
But I thought I would share this morning's adventures in my kitchen.
Peanut butter, as we Americans know it, is VERY expensive here. Take a look at your jar of Planter's All Natural no-mix peanut butter and imagine paying $12 for it, ON SALE! I'm not exaggerating, that's what we got.
Of course, I've splurged. I mean, we cannot live without peanut butter, we are a family with three small kids after all. But I got to thinking, making your own can't be that hard. And a bag of shelled peanuts is like $1 here...so there has to be a way.
Enter this find : Homemade Peanut Butter
BRILLIANT!
So, my morning went like this:
1. Kids on bus.
2. Yoga
3. Roast 2 cups peanuts on baking sheet for about 8-10 min at 350 F
4. Oven only works in Celsius...wing temperature setting.
5. Sip coffee.
6. Put in peanuts and set timer for 5 min.
7. At 3 minutes in, smell burning.
8. Run to kitchen and pull on oven handle to open door.
9. Break oven handle, complete with interior heat glass coming out and 'broken' screw from handle falling down somewhere into inner oven workings.
10. Finagle way to open door using two pot-holders and a spatula.
11. Find that peanuts now look like coffee beans and house smells..interesting.
12. Trash peanuts.
13. Figure oven is still on and now I can still open/close door - try again.
14. Reduce temperature, significantly.
15. Roast 2 cups peanuts on baking sheet.
16. Stand by oven for about 1 1/2 minutes to roast peanuts.
17. Sip coffee.
18. Take out peanuts and make recipe. Turns out ok, not as smooth as I like, but definitely has the right flavor.
GREAT! I'm going to try this with cashews, but not roast them. Clearly I need to turn off the oven to cool for a bit so I can try and put it back together.
1. 2 cups cashews directly into food processor and follow recipe.
2. Hhhhmmmmm...after adding oil and honey, it's not smooth. Maybe just some water...
3. Blend.
4. BAD IDEA to add water after oil for peanut butter - but this cashew toffee candy is going to be DELICIOUS!
5. Decide this might not be the best morning for peanut butter making and start vacuuming instead. I'll need to wash the floors too in hopes to try and rid the house of burnt peanut smell before anyone gets home.
By the way, it's now 9:30am here.
How's your morning going? :)
 |
| Casualty of home economics |
Friday, May 8, 2015
Frosted Flakes
A really exciting thing for us in Brazil right now is when we find something that is a little USA with some Brazil.
I was never a big Frosted Flakes fan in the US, but it was nice to see something familiar.
Additionally, we have found that as Max get's older, not only is he working on his Portuguese here in Brazil, but we will still have to help him out with his English too.
Have you had your Frosted Snakes today? ;)
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