Dreaming of cooler weather...

It's Monday! Back to our previously set schedule. We had a fun and busy weekend and now it's back to the daily grind. Let's tell you about our week!

We enjoying making dinners and cooking in general but by Thursday we usually run out of steam. This particular Thursday we needed to pick Scott up from the Embassy because we got some big boxes so since we were out, we ate out. At that time of night it's almost impossible to get anywhere so we went to Burger King because it's only about a mile from the Embassy and we knew there was food there Mackenzie would eat. She chose a cheeseburger and ate a surprising amount, almost half! Then Kiersten, wanting to try the Paraguayan BK milkshake, ordered one and it was just straight up soft serve ice cream in a cup with a lid and straw. Whatever.

Chowing down on her burger. Sadly this was the most nutrient dense thing she's had to eat all week.

That night we spent the evening not playing a game as is our usual Thursday night activity but working on our Brazilian Visas. It took several hours to sort through it all but we got it done!

Friday was a very fun day. Scott needed to finish up some work so stayed late but when he got home, we all went to the Galleria mall so Mackenzie could run around and burn off energy in the comfort of open spaces and air conditioning because sadly, Paraguayan Autumn is as hot as their Summer. They also have a children's play area with ball pits and after we bought her some new shoes, we took her up there. At first she was like, 'Ok there are balls everywhere and I love balls but I don't like being in them.' And then after about 15 minutes LOVED it! She dove in, crawled around, buried herself, the whole nine yards. We stayed for about 45 minutes then fought the traffic to get home. She immediately got a bath.

"What is happening?!"

"Oh now it's fun!"

That evening Scott and Kiersten attended a Vietnamese catered dinner at the home of someone in the Embassy community. There is a Vietnamese women who lives here and once had a restaurant. Due to low interest/sales, she closed but will now cater private events like this one. There were about 30-40 people there and it was super fun. It was both our first times eating Vietnamese food and it was really, really good. Much lighter than (American) Chinese food so we ate a bunch and didn't feel grossly full.

This is only some of the food she made us that night!

Plate full of delicious food and I couldn't tell you the names of anything!

Saturday morning we braved the crowded grocery store for supplies then spent the rest of the day at home. Later that afternoon, Brenda and Netza came over for dinner and then another thrilling round of Harry Potter with our expansion pack. After a disappointingly close first game, we buckled down and defeated the villains in our second game for the win! Now on to Box 2 of the expansion which we have played a few times and always lost.

Why is it that Sunday, the designated day of rest by The Lord, seems to be the busiest? Church was wonderful! Kiersten has become the music leader during Sharing Time and the kids are doing great with the songs. In two weeks we are going to do a special musical number in Sacrament of "If the Savior Stood Beside Me". In our 10 months living here there has only been two special musical numbers and never by the Primary. It's time.

We also had our last choir rehearsal before Stake Conference next week and it was like a switch flipped because the choir sounded wonderful! Maybe it was all the new voices that came out to sing. High hopes for next week.

When we got home we ate a delicious lasagna dinner and molten lava cakes for dessert. We finally rested on our busy Sabbath Day.

Today has been a great start to the week. Kiersten received approval last week to begin training clients and she met with her first client this morning. It went great and it was wonderful to be back helping people reach their health and fitness goals.

Misadventures in Baking:

• For the delicious lasagna we needed to make a Bolognese which needed to simmer for at least 4 hours. We made it then transferred it to the crock pot to cook during church. Well the power went out which we didn't account for so it was a little runnier than expected but it was still delicious. That also pushed our dinner time back to after choir so by then we were good and hungry. And it was the tastiest lasagna we've ever had! You can find the recipe here.
  
• We've made molten chocolate cakes before but the lava part never really flows. So we tried a new recipe and viola! Next time though we'll substitute milk chocolate in the cake instead of all the dark. It was a little rich.
  
  
  

  

  Mackenzie is Kiersten's daughter. She loves chocolate!

• Sunday night we watched a video about bagels and we haven't seen bagels here so Kiersten decided to make her own and they are delicious and so easy! Give me that cream cheese!
  

Quirks of Paraguay:

• Autumn weather. This week the highs were still in the upper 80's low 90's with high humidity. It wasn't until Friday night that things sort of cooled off. When will the heat go away?!! If we have any complaints about living here it's the weather.

The Mackenzie Update:

• She officially has a favorite toy: her stuffed bunny from the dollar store. She carries it everywhere and now requests to sleep with her. Before if we tried to give her a toy to sleep with to calm her down she'd hand it back to us but now she asks for Bunny by saying, "bop-bop". Saturday Bunny needed a 'bath' so she was a little upset she couldn't play with her for 15 minutes. It reminded us of Calvin & Hobbes. I always wanted my children to have a 'Hobbes' and now she does!

  

  This just proves to us that kids don't need expensive toys.

• She is aware of Scott's glasses and in the mornings she "reminds" him to put them on. She'll cover her eyes with her hand and then point to Daddy.
• New songs! She loves Eensy Weensy Spider so this week we added Baby Shark and Gray Squirrel.
• We've noticed her playing pretend. How can you tell? She'll have Bunny with her and she'll talk to her in a higher pitched voice and is super animated. Then they run or jump around and keep playing a set game. It's so fun to watch.
• She has been trying to make "binoculars" with her hands but can't quite make the circles big enough to look through. Little hands are adorable!
• Stringing together more words and sentences. Usually Kiersten can guess at what she's saying and Scott has a general sense but there are times we look at each other and shrug our shoulders. We're learning Spanish and Mackenzie!
• Still working on the timeouts and jumping on the couch but somehow jumping on the bed is ok. She love love loves jumping on Mommy and Daddy's bed. *Sigh*

That's it for this week. Only a few more weeks before we are home bound! We are thrilled to visit with as many friends and family as we can. And eat all the things we've been missing like Chipotle and Wendy's and Panera and Arby's and Moe's and Cheesecake Factory and Jimmy John's and so many more! But until then, see you here next week!