A few weeks ago our family packed a picnic and headed into the center of town for a concert
The concert was a bit of a bust except
*the Brasilian guitar player that sang our family a song for money of course
*the drunk homeless man that was escorted away by police
*the rainstorm
*and kids that were wrestling and being really loud for a concert performance

Awesome Acai

Our family has tried with many failed attempts to study the scriptures daily as a family

I came across a great article about breaking it down into segments

A little at a time

Our family made a goal to read the scriptures with a 95% track record for the month of April

We made this goal!

The prize was supposed to be a trip to the gelato shop but it was closed the night we were going to go, second place prize was the acai shop

My kids all LOVE acai and this particular shop pairs it with Nutella so I loved the acai as well

Biking Buds

As Rob was lugging these two in the bike trailer this past weekend it dawned on 

J has officially outgrown the bike trailer. 

With the two littles both in there things were tight, J's knees practically up to her chin. 

I don't mind Rob pulling the trailer, it gives me a fighting chance to beat him up the hills. 

A beautiful view of the JK bridge, about 10 miles from our house. 

A 20 mile loop, not a bad way to start the morning

One of G's favorite stops along the way.  The "train" gas station

I love to see the temple

I mentioned a few weeks ago the Brasilia, Brasil LDS temple announcement

Our family is super excited to have a temple being built near our home

We drove by the lot a few weeks ago, besides the homeless camp set-up around the corner it's a beautiful piece of land

Not much to see now but hopefully we will get to witness progress being made

Happy Easter Little Critters

After a super busy day of housework, yardwork, Rob just returning from a US trip and softball games we sat the kiddos down and got Easter eggs colored.  I couldn't find coloring kits here and was not ambitious to make my own colors so I picked up some koolaid packs at the store and used those as our colors.  They did a decent job and the girls were just happy to color eggs.  Something we somehow haven't done the past few years.  Sorry Gwen, being the youngest has its perks in other ways.

The best color that came through was the "grape" flavor

Little ones first time coloring eggs

Many moons ago we were hiding eggs in palm leaves and tropical foliage.  Back at it again and I love it

Jo happy to find a kinderegg in her basket and willing to stop just for a moment to have a picture taken

I'm wondering if these big girls will still want me to hide eggs for them when they go away to school?  I'll take it as long as I can

Water Girl

 Do you kids have particular jobs that they tend to always do?

I try to keep my kids on a rotation so they all get a turn doing things

Eventually they will become the jack of all trades

But at times it seems that each of my children has specialized in something

Madison is our expert hummus and bread maker

Samantha is the in house cake maker, especially for birthdays

Aubrey has become the water jug filler

She's great at it, it takes practice

Simply putting the new jug in spills excess water, she has figured out how to pump the motor drawing extra water into the straw and then puts it all back together

Whenever the red light starts to beep on the dispenser I'm calling for my Bree

CEASA

        

CEASA market is a giant farmer market on steroids

About a 12 minute drive from my home I try to hit this place every Saturday

The prices can't be beat, selection is so much better than the grocery store and everything is super fresh

It's also fun to support a local farmer

It's been our families goal to try a new produce item every week

Some weeks have been more successful than others but we still have a lot of produce to get through

Trader Joe's

We love it when Rob goes on trips to the states...wait, I mean we miss him so much but are super excited for the boxes of goodies that he brings home for us to enjoy.  Simple things like good tasting cheese, pure maple syrup, almond butter and a few other precious items.

A Brazilian Feast

 One day we went to the Brazilian craft fair market and there were tons of cool things. At one of the stands we got a box of baklava and other Armenian desserts and we were all able to try them. We stopped and got lunch, we all ordered our own sandwich not realizing how big they were, it was a fun day out. Missing Sam while she was at a sports tournament for school. (Aubrey)