Our Many Halloween Celebrations

Phew! I remember this from last year...Halloween here is a little like preparing for a marathon. Run, run, run, and once it's finally over, I am wiped out and I want nothing to do with it...until next year! We had celebrations for Shay's class, Malia's class, the Embassy, and our own neighborhood! On the final night of trick-or-treating, I was re-gifting candy that we had acquired from the previous celebrations! This year, Shay decided he wanted to dress as Captain America. Malia, wanting to be just like her big brother, chose Wonder Woman. So, we figured it would be more fun if the entire family dressed as Super Heroes! 

It was a lot of fun! Stay tuned next year.....

Our Everyday

 Ok, so I'm behind...AGAIN! I realized today that I hadn't blogged since posting pictures of the Galapagos etc. I think I burned myself out and took a long hiatus. This post is mainly of the day to day activities that we partook in during the fall. The kids stayed busy with school, Cubscouts, T-Ball, etc. and Brendan and I just tried to keep up!

At Malia's school, each child took a turn being the "Superstar" student. For her day, she chose to have Mommy come and read a story to her class and then she shared a treat with her friends. She was so excited to pass out the brownies that she helped to make!

Shay is really enjoying being a part of the Cub Scouts. For this badge, they did a visit to a local police station and then they did a small community service project by cleaning up a nearby park.

Part of our little parish community is involved with a local mission called The Working Boys Center (in English). Quito was putting on a 5K to support 5 local charities and the Center was one of them. The kids were excited to run another race and they actually did run most of it! Kuddos to Bren for pushing the stroller;)

Well, our time in Quito would not be complete without a visit to the ER by at least one child! Shay had his turn earlier in January. Malia took her turn this fall. She spilt her chin open on the hard kitchen floor. It did require a few stitches but she was super brave!!

Fall in Quito means Guaguas de Pan, Colada Morada, and our American tradition of decorating pumpkins. The pumpkins (zapallos) here are super hard to cut into. This year we settled for painting them.

While I was on a quick trip back to the States with Christian, Brendan lead the Scouts on a hike through Parque Metropolitano. Malia was an honorary guest!

The kids got to participate in one more season of Quito Youth Baseball and Brendan once again volunteered to coach the team. Malia was very excited to play this year...although I think she was more excited to use her PINK glove and to spend time with Daddy. Getting a trophy at the end is an added bonus!!