Our Random February Happenings

We had a great and productive month of February here in Curacao! Now we're headed to the States (Ohio first, then Arizona) for some family time and to appease some of my crazy pregnancy cravings for Taco Bell and Mexican food! :-) We are really looking forward to our trip, but wanted to catch up on the past few weeks.

Our garden has done really well.  Despite losing several tomatoes to Tropical Mockingbirds and lizards, we've had a great tomato harvest and have been able to give away a lot of our produce!  Cold tomatoes with some salt have become a favorite snack in our house....nothing like garden-fresh tomatoes!  Jack says, "Mommy, we don't have to go to the store anymore, we have food in our backyard!"  If you can live on tomatoes, watermelon and peppers, we'd be set!

Another garden varmint is this guy - we've caught him in our watermelon patch a few times, but he doesn't mess with the growing fruit...just the leaves and the blossoms. 

And we were delighted to have our very first watermelon before we had to leave for the States!  It was still small, but had split open so we cut it open and had a juicy, sweet watermelon to eat!  The boys are just ecstatic that we've grown this stuff ourselves. 

As mentioned in previous posts, Jack is an amazingly creative kid.  He loves to draw and leaves paper trails all over the house or taped up to walls.  But he's been expanding his "portfolio" to include lots of collage-type works and painting.  Here he is showing me how he made a baby in Mommy's tummy, after we watched an amazing 3D computer-generated video about fetal development on Babycenter.com. 

Here is a shark collage.

And here is a recent train drawing....so much more detail than just a few months ago! 

He's really become interested in painting with watercolors. 

A few weeks ago, we found a great show on Instant Netflix called "Mister Maker".  It is a bit cheesy and VERY British, but Jack LOVES it!  And so do I.  Each episode is filled with ideas for kids to create things - different types of drawings, crafts, etc.  Jack stores up the ideas and then we try to complete a few each week. 

 

Like these alien eyes.

Or this straw-blowing paint picture.

Or Jack's all-time favorite - this train made from a Pringles can, two toothpaste boxes, a tea box, cardboard, various bottle caps and paint!  (We had to do some collecting first, and this project has made me realize I need to keep extra tidbits on hand for these types of crafts.)  Jack stores his colored pencils in the "boiler" made from the Pringles can.  A great idea!

Though George is not our most artistic child (yet), he has begun to show an interest in coloring and painting, too! 

He LOVES to read books...this one, the Flip-Flap Body Book is one of his favorites.  Notice how he just came right in from the pool and starts in on a book....ahh...that is the life! :-)

I thought I would post some smiling pictures of George, since the more recent shots of him have shown his serious expression.  He really is a smiley kid - and his smile melts hearts everywhere and across all culture barriers! 

He is also our family comedian!  He is just a naturally funny kid and has us all laughing hysterically with his antics, all while maintaining a dead-pan expression on his own face!  This is one of our silly moments when he was being held up in the air.

Ah....what a face!!!

The boys are sad to leave our friends behind.  Sunday mornings are their favorite day of the week when we get to go to Siloam and they have lots of friends to play with!  Sometimes, they run around like madmen together and end up in one big pile.  We'll miss them all!

 

Next post from America!  Woohoo!!!!