Boyd Bear Tracks

I knew that some of you wanted updated pictures, but I wanted to be creative :-). The kids got these books for their birthdays and Ellie loves to look for the "kitty" in her book. I did get a picture of Ellie in the Costa Rican national colors, but not one of Lucas. So, I decided to include some pictures of the parade that went right by our house.

The parade was pretty neat! We had seen them practicing for a week beforehand, but this time we got to see it all put together (costumes and everything!). I guess all the schools do a parade in their neighborhood. What an interesting challege for the teachers to get everyone coordinated (especially the little kids).

September 15th is Costa Rica's Independence day. The night before they had a "faroles" (lantern) parade. We joined that too! It really is kind of a fire hazard--all these kids carrying lanterns with candles inside. Some of the lanterns were pretty big! Most of them were in the shape of houses. Lucas and Eliana had little laterns we had made at home, but we only had one flashlight (I sure wasn't going to use candles!!). It was fun!

We celebrated Jon's birthday! I think it's a first for us as a family to celebrate the "adult" birthdays. I guess we usually celebrated them, but just with our extended family so it seemed different. Lucas was soooo excited to get "Daddy's cake" (we bought one). Plus, he picked out a book from his bookshelf and wrapped it up for "Daddy's present." He's picked one out for my present too, but I'm not allowed to touch it until my birthday. If I do, I don't get it (Lucas' rules :-)).

I've been pretty busy today. I found out Stockings has ear mites, so I had to disinfect her whole cage and everything. I found a home remedy of putting baby oil in her ears which supposedly will suffocate the ear mites. Then, you're supposed to wipe the ears out with a cotton ball. All I can say is. . .good luck!! Especially with a rabbit which has such sensitive ears!! Although, it seems to have worked pretty well (I started the oil treament on Saturday). I don't know how long she's had ear mites. It could be since we got her (her ears definitely looked like it had been that long!). Anyway, she's not very happy with me. She's had to really clean herself off because the baby oil didn't always make it in the ear :-( (poor thing!).

On Saturday we had a ladies meeting at church. I was the speaker--on raising kids!! I suppose it's because I'm such an expert :-)! No, actually the lady who was the speaker had to be out of town so we switched months. It went really well. The ladies were very involved in the discussion. And, I had a book to go off of so I didn't have to just come up with everything on my own (thankfully).

At the end of the month I'm going on a ladies retreat (at a hotel not far from our house). It's a Friday and Saturday. Jon is trying to think of fun things to do with the kids!! :-) I'll be interested to see how it goes without me (especially with Ellie!). They'll probably have more fun than when they're with me (I'm sure Jon will keep them occupied--he doesn't like to just sit around :-)).