March Madness indeed!

It's been a while since we've missed a week posting. Sorry to keep you all waiting. Luckily for you we've been keeping notes and can give a quick synopsis from the previous two weeks.

We've had tremendously nice weather these past two weeks and we "fell back" in time (time change) so we are back in the Eastern Time Zone along with DC.

Perfect hammock weather. Finley's first time.

Two Fridays ago Kiersten went out to lunch with some American church ladies. It was a nice day, we sat outside and ordered our food. We chatted for over an hour and never received even a drink or return visit from our waitress. The place didn't seem overly busy but we were having such a great time we didn't seem to notice time passing. Long story short, worst service ever, still had a great time and the food was delicious but we'll never be visiting that establishment again.

All the ladies in one shot. There's a good number of us from two different wards here.

For dinner one night we went to a crepes place in town that Kiersten has been wanting to go to since we moved here (20 months ago). We passed it and tried to circle back around but went down a dead end street. At the end of this street was a Thai restaurant. We were so shocked. We planned to come back another day. The crepes were delicious and a week later, Scott and Kiersten went back to the Thai restaurant for our Friday lunch date. Pad Thai and Crying Tiger (yes that was the name of the dish) were terrific and we were happy to have stumbled down the wrong road.

At the monthly Professional Development Day (PDD) at the Embassy this month they hosted the Recycled Orchestra which was about 10 high school age students and their director who performed for us with their recycled instruments which included a few violins, a cello, bass, flute, drums, guitar and saxophone. It was most impressive.

Saxophone made from tubing, pipes, spoons and bottle caps!

After listening to the orchestra, Kiersten was inspired to pull out her sax after a 5 year absence.
Mackenzie got her first "lesson".

Mackenzie was invited to a birthday party this week and had a great time. Seriously, a great time!

Sitting with the big girls and they were so sweet to her!

This place was incredible!

This weekend we had Brenda and Netza over for dinner and another round of Harry Potter fun. Sadly, this might be their last time as their departure date is eminent yet unscheduled while they wait for their Visas. We also attended an End of Summer Party at the Marine House that had yummy lomitos, a bouncy house and a "dunk tank" to raise funds for the Marine Ball later this year. Earlier that day Mackenzie requested to swim so she was pretty spent after swimming, jumping, running and then an ice cream trip and passed out for the rest of the afternoon.

The Mackenzie Update:

• She's sick...again. We think it's due to the change in the weather.
• One Saturday she wanted to go to the park and Finley was napping. She very calmly said to Kiersten, "Mommy, come here. We go to the park and Bop-bop watches Finley." While her logic was sound that someone needed to stay with the baby we helped her understand that Bop-bop was not a responsible adult. She thought and concluded, "Mommy, you come with me to the park and Daddy stay with Finley."
  
• Grammar note: she frequently says, "I not do like it." and also, "I not like it and I do like it." This is usually in reference to food, us, Finley, her teachers, school, etc.

  

  She "not want to" take this picture. We had to bribe her...

• When Finley is nursing she says that "Mommy is eating Finley". She doesn't understand the concept of 'feeding'. It's funny.

The Finley Report:

• She turned 5 months old!! Rolling and almost rolling back, smiling, giggling, kicking her legs hard and loving the members of her family with all her heart. We love this little girl of ours and she loves us right back!

  

  Isn't she precious?

• She has started to bite Mommy when she eats. Ouch!
• The time change has really messed up her bed time schedule and it feels like she's falling back into her 4 month sleep regression habits. Please no!
• She is a full blown belly sleeper. Complete with bum in the air, just like her sister.
• Other people confirm she looks like Mackenzie so its not just us!

  

  Helping bathe Finley.

• She spends most of her time on her tummy these days and is getting really good at doing a Superman. Arms and legs flailing in excitement. So strong!
• She has rolled from her belly to her back a few times but isn't ready to really commit. Some day....

Hope that covers everything. Thanks for sticking with us!