Forrest's Birthday

Hard to believe we now have a 9 year old!!  While Forrest's actual birthday is today, we celebrated last week.  Something about having a party 5 days before another baby being born seems like a risky move.  So instead we had his party on his due date!

This year he really wanted to invite his two best buddies from school over, which seemed like a great idea.  Here the whole family comes to the party, so it was Forrest's two friends, their sisters, and their moms and dads.

Forrest wanted fish and rice and beans for lunch (a very typical meal you would order for lunch in a restaurant here).  He also wanted a chocolate cake with strawberries in the middle, and since it was his birthday after all, we used the homemade strawberry jam from Michigan Buela made last summer!  So good!

We're so thankful for what a neat kid Forrest is.  He's full of ideas, and is curious about the world around him (thus the cake) and has a strong sense of the Truth, which he isn't afraid to tell you all about it!  God is going to do big things with that!! Happy Birthday Forrest!!!

The 8!

How we got to the point where we have an eight year old is beyond me, but we do!  Love his constant thinking, his pondering and his humor!  And now, on to the photos!

School in the USA

We've been asked a lot about what our boys are doing for school here in the States for our time here.  Well...now that's a story of God going before us!

We knew we wanted to them to have at least a full semester at school.  It just feels like with the transition of everything, at least they could start at a natural starting point instead of halfway though the semester.  We also knew there was a public school very close to the house we stay in. There was also the option of a local Christian school that offers a Spanish Immersion kindergarten program.

So we prayed about what would be best for both Forrest and Elliot.  We thought that maybe it would be best for Elliot to be in the Spanish Immersion kindergarten because it would be a safe environment for him to really dig into Spanish.  But that program is really hard to get accepted into and since it's at a private school there is the tuition thing, and well...

Back in June, someone mentioned to me that the public school district in this area was starting their own Spanish Immersion program.  Huh.  Thanks to the amaziness of the interwebs, I discovered that indeed there was going to be Spanish Immersion, and get this!  The Kindergarten and 2nd grade classes were going to be at the building closest to our house!  I am not kidding!

I emailed the coordinator and explained our situation and she said "yes!  absolutely!  Your kids sound like a great fit for the program!"

So.  Both boys are at the same building, which is literally a 2 minute walk through the church parking lot, in rooms full of other kids who are all non native Spanish speakers, and they are doing great!  It's been so great for Forrest to continue with his Spanish (he's right on target with his class, and in some ways ahead of them language wise)  and for Elliot to start formal schooling and language learning.  While he was in daycare all in Spanish while we in language school, it's been and while and he doesn't get much Spanish at home with me at home.

 Can I just tell you, he is so happy?  He was very ready to start school and is doing great!  And because all the other kids in his class are brand new to Spanish, the whole day is built around teaching them a second language.  We are just thrilled!

Yep, God wasn't kidding with me.  He did go before us!

15 de Septiembre, 3 Days Early

It's that time of year again, where all the buildings are decked out in red, white and blue.  Yep, September is Independence month in Costa Rica and most of Central America as a matter of fact.  This year Forrest asked, "so Mom, when are we going to decorate our house anyway?"  Ok then.  I made sure to find a large flag to hang up in the garage.  Which was just about what he had in mind.

The school program was on Friday again this year.  The boys all got dressed up in the traje tipico and at the last second, one of them remembered that often boys will draw mustaches on with face paint.  And then another one remembered that we still had these goofy fuzzy stick on mustaches my mom brought on one of her trips.  Oh.my.word.  I was laughing all night over these kids! 

Forrest kept saying things like "These shoes look more like what a campeino would wear."  or, "It's ok that it's raining mom, campesinos are made to get wet and get coffee stains on their shirts!"  This kid!

Per usual, it was raining, so much of the program at school happened inside.  We were encouraged to be at school right on time, 5:30.  Which we were, but it took another 45 minutes to get the program started. Things like, oh yeah, all the kids need to go get their xylophones from the music room across campus in the rain before we can start.  Not sure I will ever fully understand with this warm culture stuff.  Oh, and then, since there was a gym full of kids with xylophones, guess what happened?  yeah.  The MC for the night had to keep telling they to stop playing them. Ha!

Forrest did a good job playing the 5 notes he remembered on his xylophone, and then just looking cute when he couldn't remember.  He also did a killer job yelling "VIVA COSTA RICA!"  and throwing his hat in the air.  School programs.  They are weird, no matter what part of the world you are in!

Anyway, we didn't lose him in the crowd this year, which was a step up from last year, and everyone came home tired and slept well into the morning light!

Baptism and Church Picnic

Oh last weekend was so fun!!  On Sunday we had our annual baptism service and we added a picnic into the mix too!

Noah taught the class for those who wanted to be baptized, which included Forrest!!   After the baptisms, people came and prayed for Forrest and the others and gave them encouraging words or verses.  What a sweet time!

A little background on our actual church building.  Union first was started as an English speaking congregation.  It has since morphed into about 90% Tico with a handful of international people thrown in.  Our Sunday service is mostly in Spanish and then is translated into English.  Anyway, all that to say, we actually have a baptismal, which is not the norm here.

After the service we had a picnic.  There was some risk involved in this because after all, it's rainy season here!  But the rain held off and actually it turned out to be a lovely day!!  But we really wanted to celebrate the baptisms and just be a family together.  Noah and I worked to coordinate the picnic, put together the decorations and plan and run some of the games.

This idea of a potluck was a new one to most people here, so we worked hard to communicate that you need to bring enough for your family and to share.  And boy did they bring enough!

Since we're an international body, we thought it would be fun to have people bring food from their background.  My friend Sujin, who is from South Korea, brought sushi!! Another family brought bread from their native Columbia.  I brought a pasta casserole and a pie, because nothing says Midwest more than casserole and pie.  Maybe I should have brought a jello salad too!

We had cornhole out for people to play, tarp toss, and I found coffee bags for sack races. And of course there was a pick up soccer game!

It was such a great time of just being together as a family, sharing food, laughing at the kids and enjoying each other!

First Days

Last week was the start of school around here.  Sigh.  August 5th seems way, way, way too early to be starting school.  But, it's what it is.

We went to Back to School Night, and discovered that neither of the 2nd grade teachers were there that even.  Huh.  One was still on her way to Costa Rica, and the other had a family issue.  We also learned (4 days before school started) that the school day has been lengthened by 30 minutes.  Well, then.

Forrest was excited for  2nd grade, which was good. In fact, this is how he looked...

 

Those front teeth are growing in quit nicely.  Noah took him that first morning and met his teacher, Mrs. Rodrigez, who is super sweet and genuinely cares for her students.  When we did have a parent meeting the following week with both second grade teachers, she could already tell me some things about Forrest that she was noticing.  Sigh of relief! We have been praying for a restorative year for him, and us as far as school goes!!

The only blip was that the name on his desk was his middle name (cultural moment:  lots of people here go by their second name.  Most people have 4 names.  What a North American would think of as first and middle names, and then two last names, one from dad and one from mom.  So, if Forrest was really Tico, his name would be Forrest Dooley Kamper Runals, which we have seen on different papers.  And it often messes the computer systems up when we say we don't have a second last name)

A big change for us this year is Forrest is now in the mainstream Spanish class.  Last year he was in the Spanish as a Second Language class, which was wonderful! It was just him and 2 other kids.  This year, they felt like he was ready for the mainstream class, and that is just stunning to me.  He seems to be doing just fine and yesterday he came home with a Boleta Feliz (A Happy Ticket) for working so hard and participating so well!  Wonderful!

Oh!  The other wonderful part of this school year is our neighbors are sending their son to the same school!  Yeah, carpooling...it's a.mazing!  It's week two of school and I haven't had to drop off or pick up yet!  Noah works 10 minutes from school so he does most of the afternoon pick ups.  It is lovely!! Especially with Quinn still taking naps.  Thankful!


Elliot started Kindergarten at home this year.  He was a bit apprehensive about starting, but once he realized he got to have cool things in his backpack too, he was ready!  He wanted to have his first day of school photo on the Brincaline.  Benefits of Home school.

He sat right down and was excited to get some work done.  Again, thankful!  He is not a bookish kid.  He would much prefer to be building something, exploring something, creating something.  To sit and write letters has been a challenge in the past.  But that first morning there was only cooperation!  And by this week, he is reading!  Yep, he was ready!  The plan is for him to go to kindergarten in MI when we are back this winter.

Speaking of that...there is a public school two blocks from the house we will be staying in, and it just so happens that that is the building with the Spanish Immersion classes for Kindergarten and 2nd grade!!  I contacted the coordinator of the program earlier this summer and explained our situation and it looks the like the boys will be part of those classes for the second semester!  I just laughed, how like God to provide for our boys language skills while we are on Home Assignment as well!!  Amazing!

World Cup Fever

We are not a sports watching family.  Like at all.

But it is a World Cup year and if you live anywhere other than the US you would know this.  We've been warned not to go anywhere today because there is a game between Costa Rica and Uganda Uruguay, (I stand corrected.  See what I mean, we don't know what we are talking about!)  that could completely bring traffic to a stand still.  Oh boy.

Our boys have been pretty oblivious to this until the other day Forrest mentioned something about wanting one of the albums. And what is an album you ask?  It's a book full of spaces for each player on every team completing in the World Cup.  Never knew such a thing existed until we were at a friends' house the other week and saw one.  But that's just because I haven't been on the playground in the past three weeks.  It's a big "thing".

Hummm, immigrant parent fail.  Apparently there are no more of these albums, anywhere.  As in I looked about 5 or 6 places in town and was told by ever clerk "No hay".  But a couple of Noah's students found one, as a promotion with a bag of rice at a MaxiPali.  Huh.  Who knew? And they also gave the boys their leftover postales (stickers).  they come in packs, like baseball cards, and it's easy to end up with duplicates of players. 

So the boys got right to work putting the futbolistas on their designated spots.  It's been more like a puzzle to them, finding the numbers, marking them off in the back of the album, and then sticking them in the right spot.

And really, this is about as feverish as it's gonna get here.

Last Day of the First Grade

Well.  We made it!  It was a rough year in a lot of ways, but we've made it to the end and are thankful!!  What a sweet kid!

Oh yeah, and he finally lost that snaggle tooth this morning!  So stinkin cute!!  Now, on to the adventure of 2nd grade in two countries!