First day of Kindergarten: Gimnasio Moderno

My little one has started Kindergarten! He's so cute. He had a little bit of a difficult time to begin with but he's doing a lot better now. It was hard since his school day is pretty much completely in Spanish but he now has new friends and he loves his teacher Dianna. He told us yesterday that he made a new friend named Lucas. Apparently as he was running outside to the playground he heard Lucas yell, "Jay, esperame!" So Jay waited for him and they've been friends ever since. I love how easily kids make friends. hahaha! So far Jay's favorite things at school are recess and the giant tree house complete with barrel slide (that he got caught in with 10 other kids the first day of school and in his words, "Thought I'd never get out of there!"), computers, the school marching band (they have a concert/parade outside every Monday), and English class. When I was picking Jay up from school one day his English teacher literally said to me, "Jay's English is so good! He's doing really well in my class." I should hope so! Hahaha! She did see the look on my face and continued with, "Of course he's good at English, but what I mean is that he has very good presence and a way of carrying himself." Still funny, but I'm glad she likes him! I think it would be pretty hilarious to be a fly on the wall while he's at English class trying to teach the other kids how to say, "Hello, how are you? What is your name?" So cute. Almost all of the parents know English though so I'm sure the kids have some foundation. We sure love our little guy and are extremely relieved to see him doing so well at school and liking it so much. If there's one thing I can say about my little man is he definitely knows how to deal with change and roll with the punches!

Think he was excited? :)

He is not here: for he is risen

This is a beautiful movie showing the final days of our Savior's life and the most miraculous event of his resurrection. I know Jesus Christ is my Savior. I know he lives. I am so grateful for this knowledge... to know that death is not the end. To know the answer to the question, "If a man die, shall he live again?" Jesus Christ answered this question irrevocably. I know I will live again because of his great sacrifice and I know I will see his face again and feel the prints in his hands and feet. Can you imagine what it would have been like to be Mary on that first Easter morning? To see the stone rolled away. To see the Savior alive again? What joy!

Feliz Dia de Pascua!

Gotta love the Colombian Easter bunny ;) Last weekend we were able to go to an Easter party at the ambassador's house. The kids had a great time! There was an Easter egg hunt, crafts and coloring and yummy food. They even had hot chocolate! By the way, I don't think I've mentioned it yet but the hot chocolate here is AMAZING!!! They call it chocolate´ and it is absolutely delicious. They make it by heating milk over a gas stove in a metal pitcher, adding a bar of special chocolate and letting it melt together to create the richest, yummiest hot chocolate I think I've ever had! I'll definitely have to send some of the bars home so you can try it too. Anyway, back to Easter...

Getting ready for the "hunt." Why is it that at organized egg hunts the eggs are always out in the open grass?? That's not an egg hunt! That's an egg "run and pick up 10 eggs as fast as you can for 30 seconds."

Ok, where's the candy?

Thanks for the help hermano!

Mmmm.. something yummy is in here!

Sharing with Ariana! 

 Jay's turn!!!

 It was a mad dash but Jay definitely ended up with his fair share of eggs.

 Jay and Mika :)

 Craft time!

Playtime outside lasted an extra hour and a half. So nice to have such a HUGE grassy place to run around in. The kids were very happy. They definitely didn't want to leave. At one point though Amaya somehow found a tiny path that led to some steps which led to a long driveway which led to the street. We let the kids run around and play, figuring it was the ambassador's house and there was no way they could escape since security is SO good there. Of course our daughter would find the one "non-safe" place to go. Jay came running up to me yelling, "Amaya's in the street!" I ran after him and discovered her almost to the end of the driveway. Truth be told she wasn't in any real danger since she couldn't have made it past the huge blockade, giant gate and armed guard. The guard was definitely giving me funny looks when I finally caught up to her though. We were certainly out of the official "party zone." Hahaha!

 Hmmm... what's with this guy?

Peet-a-doo!! He's alright :)

 Easter morning.

They scored big time!

El bosque en los nubes

Over the weekend we took a beautiful hike to Chicaque National Forest a.k.a. the forest in the clouds. It was very beautiful and so refreshing to get out of the city and into nature. 

The kids loved hiking... Jay more than Amaya probably because she was in a backpack the whole time. Jay was amazing. He and the other 5 year old girls on the hike were awesome, they hiked for about 7 hours and only complained on the final hour. Halfway through the hike we ate at this little restaurant in the middle of the forest. It was much needed since we were all starving and in need of serious nourishment. We actually descended and climbed over 1000 feet. It was definitely tough towards the end and we probably should have cut the hike short about 3 hours for the kid's sake but we had a wonderful time. We were all really sore the next day, that's for sure!