The girls school hosted a 5k, 3k and fun run this past weekend.  All the girls had been training during their PE period for the event.  Jo would come home each week and report on the fastest girl in her grade and how she was always trying to catch her.  The older three came home and complained that if they paid R$60 to enter the 5K whatever time they came in with their PE teacher would give them a passing grade.  If they ran the 5K at school the following week during class they would have to complete the run in a set amount of time.  I could see the wheels rolling in their head and also heard many a times how unfair it was that they had to pay for their grade.

Due to others things going on that week and not knowing if they would make the run we planned on registering Saturday morning. Turns out the registration had closed the night before.  They were still able to run on the Saturday, secure the passing grade and saved themselves R$60. 

Gearing up at the starting line

 The littles cheering on the racers

 M&A coming into the finish line!  I didn't get a chance to snap a photo of S coming in. She wasn't far behind

   

 Little one patiently and sometimes not so patiently passing time

 Jocelyn lining up for her fun run.  She got to run the track 2 times which equaled a 500m

All my runners, vying for 1st place 

 Jocelyn with a few of her friends

The gentleman in the middle is a Olympic athlete from Kenya that has an amazing 10k time.  He helped the kids warm up and then ran the 5k with the school group.  At one point my girls "passed" him and were so proud to say that they, "ran with and then passed an Olympic athlete."  For him I'm sure the 5k was just a warm up, fun run. 

We love mail day!!

We always are looking forward to "mail day". Every Thursday and Friday, the embassy sorts all of the mail and packages from the states for everyone to pick up. We love going down to the mail room and picking up our goodies. 

Thanks Nolan Harper for the package!

The commissary at the embassy was just re-stocked last week. It is now full of American treats and food. We don't usually buy anything except for some random items like vanilla or tortillas.

Mom and Dad are in the process of looking for a little "buzz-around town" car. Gwen has enjoyed going wiith them on their shopping excursions and doesn't mind testing out the cars.

 Hanging out at my volleyball game

 Buying gas in reais and liters

Dad has enjoyed taking Gwen and Jo on bike rides in the trailer. The Brazilians have never seen something like the bike trailer before, so a ride usually involves a bunch of stopped cars, waves, and shocked faces. 

 Post workout swim to cool off

 

Gwen was the first one to visit the Brasilia ER. Her pinkie finger got slammed in a door, so we Dad took her to the hospital just to make sure nothing was broken. She got an X-ray and everything was fine, just a bruised and swollen finger. 

We're going to the zoo!

On Thursday, Jo didn't have school because of parent teacher conferences so mom took the littles to the zoo here in Brasilia.

 

 This is a capybara....they are like the weirdest animal, lol. In Maryland we had squirrels and in Brasilia we have capybaras. They are like swimming pig, dog, warthog, things....

 

A Glimpse into our Week

Jo's one of the many Star War's fans in our family. She's collected the Star War tsum tsums and created a pyramid.

 

Matching nubby buns

We had the youth over from our ward for a pizza party. We cooked lots of pizza in our pizza oven, swam, and played some fun games.

Pool Fun

Our little sous-chef, on this particular day she was intent on cutting her own banana.

I (Sam) had my first volleyball game this past week. It was tons of fun and I enjoy being able to play with the girls on my team. 

Happy Birthday Daddy! This year he asked for a carrot cake cheesecake, and it was delicious! He got pine nuts from Grandma and Grandpa Holman and was in heaven!

Fruit of the week- acerola. It is similar to a cranberry kind of......there isn't much to compare it to. We don't ever eat it plain because it's super bitter, but we love it blended in a drink with milk.  This was picked off a tree in our backyard!

Thanksgiving Feast Fun

This year we "missed" Thanksgiving because we were traveling and were unable to create a Thanksgiving feast due to our lack of kitchen appliances. Four months later when our pans and platters finally arrived we created the long waited for feast. 

Texas smoked brisket from a guy who has a portable food truck smoker. We only live a few minutes away from his set-up spot and he's there selling meat every Saturday.

Roasted cauliflower and carrots

Jo and I made our favorite.....mashed potatoes; and Aubrey made some delicious rolls. 

One of the "must haves" for Thanksgiving- mom's stuffing (thanks to Aunt Jen for gifting us this recipe many years ago)! 

When Dad went to the states in January he brought us home some cheese. One of our favorites is the blueberry goat cheese from Trader Joe's. We had been saving it for a special occasion and this was the perfect time for it.