A Mazapan Christmas

Well, this Friday we had out Mazapan Christmas Show and I think it was a huge success!  Christmas is a big deal here and we have been practicing our song since October!  I think it was a huge success.  The kiddos had fun and were, of course, adorable!

The kiddos were also very lucky because Santa came to visit our classroom!  It is safe to say, the geeked out pretty hardcore.  Santa was in a blue because his normal red outfit was at the cleaners.  Oh well.  The kids did not seem to mind at all.  I was asked by several students if Santa was real - which of course I replied "duh - of course he is real!"

It is also a fun time of year because we are now in the second trimester and my belly is starting to show.  All of my kiddos are very excited and now love to kiss and feel my belly.  It is good to know that baby Martin is going to be extremely loved.

Here is a video of my kiddos performance.  I hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

 Santa visiting!

 Passing out candy!

 Getting ready for the Christmas show!

Angie and me

Christmas Time in Hondo

As most of you know - I am a holiday fiend and strongly believe that you cannot start to celebrate Christmas until after Thanksgiving...

That being said - the moment Thanksgiving is over, this Christmas decorations are up and I am listening to Nat King Cole until December 25th.  :)

Luke and I were not sure what we were going to do here in Hondo as we are heading home for the holidays on the 19th, and we originally thought... no, we don't need to get anything Christmas...

Low and behold... the day after Thanksgiving, Luke and I were out buying Christmas decorations and ended up with a tree (fake), ornaments, lights, candles and stockings.  Anyway - here are some photos of our holiday cheer with my Pandora Christmas station on in the background.

Merry Christmas!

 Our glittery fake Walmart tree

 Our stockings - next year we'll have 5!

 Santa with my favorite Holiday Pandora station

My art shot.... sorta

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy late Thanksgiving!  Last weekend was full of fun and adventures with out Honduras family!  Luke and I decided to host yet another Thanksgiving and were so happy with the turn out.  Our friends Dave and Lisa from San Pedro Sula came with their daughter and mother and they also brought two of their friends.

Before they got here though - Luke and I took on the task of cooking the Turkey.  May I say - we rocked it!  The turkey was delicious and I do have to attribute some of it to the injectable butter that Luke found and we experimented with.  :)  Sounds super gross - totally worth it.

All of our friends brought different dishes like corn bread, green bean yumminess, salad and all kinds of things!  Our friends Natalie and Tyler made a second turkey and we managed to go through both!  :)

Other than that - we are happy to announce, we didn't just have a turkey in the oven... but also a little bun!  Luke and I are 14 weeks pregnant and expecting our first little one on June 1st.  We are happy and scared all at the same time!

 Rio Maria with our SPS Peeps

 Happy Holidays from Honduras

 Tofu with her Thanksgiving Treat

 Wan Tzu with his

 Turkey in the Oven

Head Chef Martin

Happy Spook-Tastic Halloween!

We this week we celebrated Halloween Honduras style.  Our friends Erika and Ken were rock stars and hosted a Halloween party that was so much fun.  Costumes, snacks, music, beer pong, bobbing for apples and so much more!  Luke and I felt a little challenged with what to be since we didn't have the resources that we normally do stateside - however, I think we pulled it together pretty well.

On Monday (actual Halloween) the kiddos were allowed to wear costumes and can I just say - my kids were by far the cutest things I have ever seen!  Here are some fun photos of all of the Halloween shenanigans that took place.

Bobbing for apples

The men 

Kimberly

Natalie and Angie

Grapes and Johnny Depp

Awesom-O and Professor Chaos playing beer pong (oh yea - we won by the way)

Arggggg - captain Jenna and Elio

Nice

Dan always loves photos or should I say Bruce

Poppa and Mama Smurf

Frida and ACDC Man

Awesom-O and Professor Chaos

2 Seconds - that's my husband!

Congrats to Aenne and Robert!

Last month one of my best friends in the whole world got married!  I was so sad I could not be there but I heard that it was amazing and perfect.  Luckily, I had plenty of spies there to catch me up on everything that happened and how lovely the whole thing was.  I wish you both nothing but happiness and I hope you have fun on your rocking cruise honeymoon!

Tela

Oh my - it has been a long time since I have updated.  In that time a lot has happened but we will do this one thing at a time.  In October we are really lucky to have a million holidays - so that equals a million three day weekends.  On one of the those weekends - Luke and I decided to be road warriors and take the mopeds for a good old fashioned road trip to Tela, a beach community about 1.5 hours away.

We pack up the mopeds and headed out.  Sadly, about halfway through, the rain came, and when I say it came, it didn't stop.  Luckily, Luke and I bought rain jackets from REI (the best store in the world) before moving to Honduras.  We were very happy to have them.  The ride otherwise was great and it felt really good to be on the 'open road'.

When we arrived in Tela, we stayed at a hotel called Maya Vista which was awesome!  The hotel itself is on a hill which makes for amazing views.  We were so happy to arrive, soaked, but happy.  We checked into our room and enjoyed sitting upstairs looking out at the sea and the really lovely sunset.

The next day, some of our teacher friends decided to join us for a kayaking adventure in the mangroves!  Jenna, Elio, Dan and Erika all met up with us and we went kayaking where we saw a baby alligator, monkeys and the Bruja Bird (my favorite because it cackles like a witch).  It was a fun and amazing time except for the mosquitoes   Holy biting batman, when you got into that stagnant water - they came after you.

We ended the day getting pizza in town and drove home the next day.  It was a great short trip and super fun to hang out with friends outside of Ceiba!  Here are some photos for your enjoyment.

View from Maya Vista 

Erika and Dan 

Following our guide into alligator infested water! 

Baby alligator in the water!  Top left. 

Jenna and Elio 

Not the same as Oregon but pretty bad a

Taking a break

I decided to lay down

Elio is ready for adventure!

Dan not so much

Drinking lots of water

Erika with the fish!

Pizza

<3

Dan smiled!

Elio knows how to shake it!

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving Eh!

One fabulous thing about being married to a Canadian is the joy of two Thanksgivings.  So, on the second Monday in October, we had friends over and decided to have a pot lock Thanksgiving dinner.  We are very lucky to be blessed with an amazing life, great family and fantastic new and old friends!

We had Italian Chicken rolls, butter horns, corn, apple pie, mashed potatoes and so much more.  I will let the photos speak for themselves though.

Cheers!

 Luke hard at work in the kitchen

 Wan Tzu holding down the fort

 That's right - I helped

 Ken and Erika

 Natalie and Tyler

 Friends!

 Anuar being a p-i-m-p

 BABIES!

 Can you say awesome?

 Dishing up

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving!