david and goliath

for the david and goliath story in Bible time we decided to do an interactive play. who better to play the part of goliath than garrett?? for our first round the casting directors (us..) decided yunairi, who is quite possibly the smallest kiddo at school w/ a little bitty voice, would be perfect. i mean, look at the two. what a pair! they certainly looked the part and did a brilliant job telling the story. imagine garrett (goliath) towering over our little yunairi (david).

without hesitaiton she flung the rock (threw crumpled paper) directly at goliath and he came CRASHING down!

drama. truth. brilliance.

because the performance was incredible, the casting directors tried out a couple other students and then had everyone be david for the grand finale performance.

david and goliath: the performance

meet goliath (played by garrett boon):

meet david(s) (played by all the preschoolers):

aaaand ACTION!

goliath is threatening but david(s) have prayed.. no fear. God gives david(s) strength and courage..

goliath is DOWN! praise God for His faithfulness!

a stunning performance.


..then there was an impromptu attack session. poor garrett suffered no serious injuries after being trampled by 30 children.

diego is a YEAR old!

it's official. the cutest little guy in the makarios family is ONE YEAR OLD!! jennie and miguel's son, diego, is such a cool kid. he already has SO much personality and whenever he is around he of course has all of our attention. he is one of the funniest little people to watch and honestly just brings joy wherever he is.

happy birthday, diego! time to celebrate..

opening his presents with his papi

that's right- he got a POOL for his birthday! yeeeeah! how fun is that? (note to self: need blow-up pool) oh AND robin and jennie blew bubbles. miguel played in the water a little and gave us a mini-concert on the mini-keyboard at the mak house. funnn.. miguel's family also came so diego and his cousin got to chill together in the pool.


and of course there was CAKE!! who needs hands, really?

sancocho saturday

anne's face might just sum up how we felt about RIVER day:

this would be one of the reasons for all the excitement: sancocho!!
ok so here's the idea..

WHO: all makarios staff (from the people who work at the school to the guys at the job site) and familias
WHAT: eat sancocho, play in the river
WHEN: saturday
WHERE: the river.. (you know, that one ;)
WHY: sancocho is some dang good soup, we like to hang out with each other, and who doesn't want to be swimming in the river?

everyone just hung out, we went swimming and made a "water slide" through the part the rushes more, the MEN COOKED the soup all day, and we ate. and we ate. and then we ate some more.


and there was a cool tree..

date with luis!

whenever i have a bad day or feel like i am just going to break down for whatever reason, there has been one little man here that God has created who just makes everything ok. do you ever have those moments? when you just need to stop or feel like you are on the verge of tears? whenever i have those mornings, i get to school and pull my little luis fernando over. one hug. praise God for his little bitty arms..

not only is he just sweet and wonderful; he is absolutely hilarious! i love that he narrates my every action and finds it hilarious. he screams across the room and gets excited about everything. he is shy in new situations or with new people but the second he feels comfortable, watch out! he is a wild man. he will talk your ear off and laugh at everthing. not that i have favorites, but he is totally a favorite :)

i absolutely LOVE my little preschool chilluns and they are all so beautifully different. it is so FUN to have time to just play with them outside of school too..

one day after school the dialogue in my head went like this:
-what should i do this afternoon?
-go get luis and hang out??
-yes, yes, yes.

pretty simple.

i went to his house and asked for permission to take him on a walk for a little bit and we left. he was surprisingly quiet and just held my hand while we walked. we saw a man opening the little ice cream place- perfect timing! luis picked out a little fruit popsicle and we walked to a gazebo so he could finish it/ drip it all over himself. after he was good and sticky we walked to the old cane processing plant (which isn't currently running) and looked at all of the big equipment. the watchy-man came over to tell us we couldn't go in but i ended up asking him to explain what all the big machines do to luis. he was a chatter. i think he liked having someone to talk to..

luis and i just kept walking and went all the way to pancho mateo so he could see where some of his classmates come from every day. we saw a couple of the preschoolers and hung out on the basketball court for awhile. after a little talking and some time to sit, we jumped on a moto back to luis' house (the walk was a long one for his little legs and i think he was tired!).

and that was it. popsicles. sugar cane refinery. walking. pancho. moto.

i love time with this little guy! oh i want you all to meet him..

luis fernando sucking down his popsicle..

on the bridge to pancho- check out his baller shorts!

during our walk

luperon

it is so good good good to be able to occasionally explore other parts of the island we don't see everyday and to be somewhere it feels completely different. we all piled in the truck and headed out to find luperon. for the most part, we knew the general direction to go- not to the mountains, head to the coast.. we had to ask a couple people for directions which sent us all around the tiny town.. but we made it! it was super tranquilo and we were able to really chill out and relax.

(that's garrett out there fishing)

good day.

weave me a hat..

please. cristina said she knows some people who can make it happen. i think i might take her up on it. i mean, how cool does davidson look in this hat?? we have such stylish preschoolers.
i'm thinking maybe teal and brown.. on the hunt for some yarn.

thai thai thai

is it really possible to get enough thai food?
(hint: NO.) look at it..
we had a wonderful reason to revisit lax for another go at thai night: amanda was leaving town! amanda is a really good friend of cara's from back home who stayed with us a few weeks.. she pretty much rocks- freakin' hilarious and just full of spontaneity. she is fearless and friendly and a great person to talk to. for her goodbye dinner we put on some normal clothes and wilson took us all to the restaurant in his sweet van.

the ladies.. with all of our bags

me, johan, robin

wilson, amanda, cara, kendall

oh yes, then we went to bon for some goodbye ice cream..

nice, kendall :)

miss you, amanda!

..and now i am hungry.