Dia de la Independencia ~ Septiembre 15!

Traditional Girl's Dance Dress

No bombs, no guns, no bloody battle..a simple letter from Spain arriving by ship and then horseback, to grant the people of Costa Rica their request for independence. Today, the peaceful achievement is remembered with several days of traditional celebrations,including, music, dancing, lantern lighting, torch passing, parades, and of course, good food.

Country Day School took full advantage of the cultural educational opportunity, by putting together an assembly of traditional dance, costumes, and music as the story of independence was narrated in Spanish. The children had been preparing dances since the school year started, and a few local public schools attended and participated in the event as well.

After the traditional celebrations, the day was left for the kids to enjoy a variety of fair-like activities on campus, including, a bouncy 'water' castle (ie- they stuck a hose on it), frog races (for real!), face painting, guitar hero, skateboarding, a cake walk, musical chairs, etc...Brooklyn sat and watched/helped Miss Lizzy do the face paintings, while Brody didn't even make it to that section as he was trying afternoon for winning treats at the musical chair station. If I call it appreciation for music will it make me feel better??? :) It was a day to remember!

The Matapalo Band was playing and all of the girls got up to dance in their beeeeautiful dresses! Brody joined in as well of course, but where I was I couldn't snap shot.

Elli comes with to all of the school functions, and she loves all the attention she gets from the big girls!

Brooklyn with part of her class.

Brody with 1st and 2nd grade - he's back left corner :)

A woman from our church made this dress for Brooklyn in just a few hours!

Face Painting Fun

Of course she wasn't going to miss out!!!!!

The boys danced with scarves and wore the typical hats, a little less fancy than the girl's stuff, and I wasn't hearing any complaints!

She's finally happy, so needless to say, SO ARE WE! An update on Brooklyn.

My happy girl!

After one year in Costa Rica, Brooklyn has achieved piece of mind, contentment, and general happiness. Thanks mostly to her lovely new kindergarten teacher, Miss Lizzie, who has created a welcoming, structured classroom, fully equipped with almost ready-to-hatch baby chicks! The incubator has been the talk of the school, and the kids have been counting backward to hatch date. It has created as much excitement as Christmas, so well done Miss Wizzie (as many of her little kinder students call her.)

Brooklyn's early to bed, early to rise schedule is really working for her. Aside from the wonderful education she is getting at Country Day School, which includes gardening, p.e., art, and Spanish as part of the curriculum, she has a full line up of extra curricular activities. She takes ceramic art on Monday, and exhibits almost as much love for art as her big brother Brody does. She does hip hop twice a week, once with me and the Country Day Cheer Squad, and once from a wonderful teacher at the local 8 count dance studio. Next year she'll be old enough for surf club, that is if she can handle the 'stickiness' by then! She has at least one play date a week, swims every day, looks forward immensely to lunch and snack, and has a great little following of 5th grade fans. She is an amazing big sister, and treats Elle with lots of love and kindness. She's the one responsible for teaching Elle how to swim due to her zeal for the sport, but also her patience to teach her. And the cherry on top is she is FINALLY speaking Spanish with a little bit of confidence and frequency.

I am so pleased that she has taken a liking to it here now, and while she misses her cousins from home, she is making lots of new friends from all over the world. She still brings a little bit of sass to our home, which cracks me up. I know she will grow into a very strong, self-motivated, unwaivering woman, as she already, frequently, single handedly gets all the kids on the playground to line up out of sheer fear of hearing her yell. Where does she get that from??? (heheheheh) A feared woman.....it could be worse.

I started as an EGG! - The Egg Hatching Countdown begins.....

Working in the garden at school is a weekly part of the curriculum...is this heaven? Nope, it's Costa Rica!

Gettin' Dirty

At Bear Lake with her bestest cousins!