"Mack Donalds"

Today was a good day. We finally have a morning routine which makes everything much easier. The kids know what to expect now and are good. After breakfast I took them in the family room and put on cartoons which they enjoyed for over an hour! Yesterday Christina, Nick and I talked about taking a walk up to the McDonalds up the street which has a large play area for lunch today. We left the house about 12:15 and got to the McDonalds about 12:30. The kids had chicken nugget happy meals (and this time it wasn't with Salsa de Tomate...it was BBQ sauce for J.P.). When they were done (Nick had to leave to pick up Christina's brother from the airport. He will be visiting until July 3rd. He is in the service in El Salvador. He is married and has a baby on the way. We got to see a picture on his cell phone & even hear the heart beat. It was pretty cool. )we took the kids to the play area. It's not as big as a typical McDonalds play area with ball pool and all but, it was big enough to wear them out. It gave them a chance to play with some other children. They played for about 2 hours. It was pretty neat to watch Maria help some of the littler (is that even a word?) children. There was this one little girl...she couldn't have been more than 4 years old and she reminded me a lot of my niece, Taylor, at her age complete with all the little Shirley Temple curls. She had this little stuffed, fluffy brown dog which she carried around with her until she felt comfortable enough to play without him. She was adorable and Maria helped her for a while. After an exhausting playtime we walked back to the house and both kids fell exhausted into bed for Siesta. They were so tired they slept for a little over 2 hours! I got a chance to have some coffee with grown ups which was kind of nice. By the time they woke up they had a half an hour to kill before dinner. We had this awesome soup which is a big traditional soup here in Colombia. I will definately have to get in the kitchen and take notes. These ladies are the best at preparing meals. I have been here almost a week and we have not had a single soup, meal or dessert repeated. They make this picante mix that is very spicey and very good but, I can only do a little. (I'll have to find out how to make it for you Honey, Dad Martinez and Ken as I know you like hot stuff.)

Jorge - one of the local drivers stopped in and had some handicrafts with him. He wanted to know if anyone was interested in. I bought 2 beaded bracelets (10K pesos each - they had the American flag on one end, Colombia written in the middle and the Colombian flag on the other end. I plan to keep these for Juan and Maria to remind them of our journey to Colombia to unite our "Forever Family") and 4 woven ones (1K pesos each). Jorge is the nicest guy - he does a lot for humanity, etc. He buys meals/food and hands them out to the homeless. He goes and takes gifts at Christmas to needy children. He just does a lot. If anyone would like anything from him please let me know and I can get it for you. He has ballcaps, pins, a leather pouch with zippers that says Colombia and some other things. (Steve, He also has a 3 piece socker outfit that says colombia and we can get names put on the back of the shirts for the kids for 50K pesos - if anyone else is interested let me know. )

OK back to the Canuels. At dinner the way we have the table set J.P. sits in a wooden high chair (works out much better) at the head of the table. We were cracking up because Maria made a cute little remark that we all were speaking English and we need to speak Spanish. :) Joe, Christina's brother is a little bilingual and explained that it is very inportant for her to pay close attention and learn all she can so that it helps her when she goes home to Florida. She chuckles. it is for this reason that we are looking into possibly hiring an English teacher to come to the residence to work with her. After dinner, desert and coffee it is back to the room and the kids get their jammies on. Their bed time is now officially 8:00PM. They stirred for about an hour but, finally dozed off to sleep. All is quite on the Colombian front. I smile as today...was a good day! Hasta Luego! Good Night. Oh, I almost forgot. I got a really good compliment today....Maria had told one of the girls who work here that her mommy disciplines with kindness. I thought that was pretty neat.