The weather feels right

When people ask what the weather is like here, I often say it's May the whole year. So this month feels right with my New York/Pennsylvania weather-calendar cycle. Some rain, some hot afternoons, cool evenings. I'm just waiting to see all the dandelions and maple tree "helicopters" and then it will seem perfect. We've been busy with stuff since the last post, here are a few highlights.

-Micah had a sleepover party on the Friday after his birthday. The two other first grade boys, Jonny and Josiah, stayed over after we had dinner with both of their families. Everyone fell asleep earlier than at Shea's party in December.


-There was no school on Friday, May 2 to celebrate Dia de Trabajo (Ecuador's Labor Day)*. We went to the "fair" in Puyo with our friend Elsa and her grandson Stevie. There were booths from different groups from Ecuador's Oriente/Amazonia region (the jungle area of Eastern Ecuador) and local merchants, as well as food, animals, and a bouncy ride for the kids. It made us a little nostalgic for the Solanco and Lampeter fairs in September that we're missing out on. After the fair, we went to a local pool to meet some other friends. We spent the afternoon swimming, talking, eating, and most of us getting sunburns.

-Last Saturday, I helped some local kids with their high school English class project. Leo, a kid I know from Spotlight on Thursday nights, asked if I would answer some questions for his group's project. So we did a little English Q&A on videotape. I may be the source of a few jokes now at Colegio Militar in Mera.

-The students and teachers at Nate Saint had a pizza party on Friday for reaching their April Read-a-Thon goal of 100,000 pages. They read over 120,000 pages combined during the month of April. Jacob, one of Jodie's 3rd graders, was the top individual reader with 11,000 plus pages!

-Friday night was the school's Cultural Fair. Each of the classes presented for the community some of the things they've been learning about in Social Studies this year. Shea & Micah's class did projects on different holiday celebrations from around the world. The two boys were partners and had a booth about Quebec's Winter Carnival. They worked hard and did a great job at their booth, and even had yummy pancakes and hot chocolate! Jodie's class did a "living map" of the U.S. complete with mountians, the Mississippi River, and Statue of Liberty. Each student (and Jodie) prepared some information about their "home" state. New York, Pennsylvania, Illionis, Minnesota, Texas, and California were represented.




-Last night we had a despedida (going-away party) for the 6 missionary families that are leaving Shell in the next few months. We've gotten to know some of them well over the past year, and it will sad to see them go, but in the Father's hands we know that a lifetime's not too long to live as friends.

-We celebrated Mother's Day today with a trip to the pool/water park in Puyo. We played in a wave pool, a water playground, and some amusement park height water slides. Then we went out for pizza and bought some fruit at the market before heading back home on the bus. Our kids were so excited to give Mom gifts and confirm that she officially is the Best Mother in the World! Jod's final Mother's Day gift just left- a group of 6 serenaded her with 2 songs and roses. Our friend Isaac's church youth group was selling those and I couldn't resist this one of a kind gift.

Our camera's broken at the moment, so pictures may be a little more sparse the next several weeks.

*Dia de Trabajo is actually on May 1, but when it falls on a Thursday the president often declares both Thursday and Friday a holiday. Since NSMS only could have 1 day off, we changed our day off from Thursday to Friday. Glad I could straighten that out for you.