The weather this week has started to cool down making us believe Fall really is just around the corner. Friday and Saturday were hot and humid but then a big storm came through and on Sunday it was in the 60s and breezy making it feel crisp and cool. Monday (today) has been pretty much the same. So glorious!
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| So happy for this weather! I can't even. |
March 20 haled our 9 month mark in country and so far so good. Ever since our trip to Buenos Aires we have started to do a bit more exploring in our city of Asuncion. Trying new restaurants, exploring new areas and in general really embracing where we live. Our Spanish proficiency improves daily and that also gives us comfort during our explorations.
Mackenzie's development seemed to shoot forward this week. She is learning words at an increasingly fast rate in both English and Spanish. We think Alicia has become more comfortable teaching her which is definitely helping. It is so incredible to watch a child learn and marvel at the world around them.
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| Daddy brought home this GIANT box and she loves her 'house'. |
On Wednesday morning this week, Kiersten tagged along with our neighbor to try out the indoor pool. What a nice facility! 50 meter pool with diving platforms and pool on the other side and lots of crowd seating. Not sure what event it was built for but it gets a lot of use. She also went on Friday and Monday mornings. Feels good to get back to swimming. This week Kiersten also taught her first Bootcamp class at our home on Tuesday morning. Two ladies came and they all had a great workout in the back yard. And two different women want to hire her as a trainer! Hopefully this is the start of something new.
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| OH! And we locked ourselves out of our house for about 15 minutes until someone came by with a key. First time in 9 months. Not bad. |
Scott has been a busy little bee at work for the past few weeks and Friday he needed to stay a little longer to complete a few tasks so Kiersten took that opportunity to have a ladies lunch with some American members of the church. We went to God's Pan (pan = bread in Spanish). It's a weird name however you look at it. But the food was delicious! Later that afternoon, since it was hot, Scott decided we needed to get a few more uses out of our pool so Mackenzie and Kiersten hopped in. Notice Scott didn't get it. And the water was cold! Pool season is over. It wasn't a total loss. We set up the hammock and enjoyed the shade before going out for some errands and trying a new ice cream place! Terrific decision.
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| Dulce de leche everything!!! |
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| We got some Asian takeout for dinner. "Pad Thai" (gross) and chicken ramen (yum!) We ordered from an app and they delivered. This might be dangerous! |
Saturday was another busy day. Scott was able to get both cars washed, clean the pool and do some home improvement chores while Kiersten and Mackenzie went for a run, played at the playground and hit the grocery store.
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| Scott expanded our travel wall art with our beauty from Argentina! Love it! |
In the afternoon we all attended a birthday party for a 2 year-old and it was the fanciest 2 year-old's birthday party ever! We all had a blast, especially Mackenzie. It was hard to tear her away from the fun at 7pm. After seeing her have so much fun with other kids, Kiersten decided it was time to start a play group with the other mommas so she went all 'Ms. Relief Society' on the unsuspecting EFMs and sent out a group text. They took to the idea like ducks to water! We are going to do 2 groups; the first and third Thursday mornings of the month and a weekend one on the second and fourth weeks. Super excited for this.
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| Mackenzie playing in this splash pad for a very long time. We might get one... |
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| Check out this party! |
The best part about Sunday sadly was the gorgeous weather. While we continue to improve our Spanish each day and understand more and more in church, it can still be frustrating when you can't fully communicate, especially in Kiersten's case with rowdy children. We are also lacking in adult supervision which makes it doubly tough. BUT! We have made significant improvements in Primary so little set backs such as these won't destroy our hard work. After all our commitments on Sunday we enjoyed a chilly family walk then came home to play in the hammock which has become one of Mackenzie's favorite new games. And we are also currently back in the same timezone as DC.
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| The hammock! We've used it a lot this week. |
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| Relaxing outside on a beautiful evening. |
Oh and guess what else! Our main car decided not to start Sunday morning so thankfully we still had our little, yellow Paraguayan car to get us to church. This was a source of much stress for us dealing with a broken vehicle on a Sunday in a city that shuts down. Then of course this week is also Semana Santa (Holy Week) and the city will completely shut down basically from Thursday to Monday. And ironically Scott called a mechanic on Friday to take the yellow car in so that got picked up today. Looks like we'll be without a car for a little bit.
Misadventures in Baking:
- We had some leftover pie dough from Pi Day last week and with it made a mini blueberry pie. It was adorable and delicious.
Just enough dough for a lattice top.
Quirks of Paraguay:
- Palmas. This past Sunday was Palm Sunday and in the Catholic religion here they use these decorated palm fronds in their service. We saw them being sold on the street and didn't know what they were so bought them basically for this picture. (We asked Lisa what they were and that's how we know what they are now.)
- Semana Santa (Holy Week). Since Paraguay is a mostly Catholic country, the whole city shuts down to honor Good Friday through Easter. This is lovely. We wish more places in the world stopped and shut down for important things like this.
- The sweaters have come out! With temperatures dropping into the 60s, everyone has on sweaters! Even us!
The Mackenzie Update:
- Some more new words for you:
- 'bopbops' are zapatos (shoe)
- 'oh yeah!'
- yes
- si (yes)
- uno, dos, tres (1, 2, 3)
- salta! (jump!)
She asked for 'tres' hair ties and this is what Mommy came up with. - She has been very agreeable this week. It seemed her favorite word for a while was "no" which she says "mahow" (like a cat's meow). However this week her answer to almost everything was, "yes". It was awesome!
Mackenzie ate about half a pomegranate one night. - During a meal she will fold her arms and close her eyes and "say a prayer". It's usually after we've just said the prayer. It's very cute.
- New games! Mommy gave her some water in a bowl with measuring cups while making dinner one day and Mackenzie was happy as a clam for an hour!
She really loved drinking the 'aqua'.
And lastly, we did it! We booked our flight home for the summer! We leave Asuncion May 11 then we visit London, come back to DC and Scott heads back down here after Father's Day. The girls will stay state side for another few weeks to visit Utah. Yes, Kiersten is gearing up to do the international flight with a 2 year-old by herself. Wish her luck! But it's still several weeks away so until then, see you next week!
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