Brazil

Just wanted to drop in to say that we are fine here. That being said, the protests have kept us from doing a few things, but we are happy to ride it out in the hopes that the Brazilian people can articulate their needs, be heard, and change their country for the better in a peaceful way.

The Third Worst Boy

Yesterday was Grace's end-of-the-year piano recital.  She kicked ass:

It's a good thing she's musically inclined, because physical coordination seems to elude her, a trait inherited from her mother.  Last night was a big festival in Brazil, called Festa Junina. I'm not entirely sure what it's all about, but it celebrates farming and country and cowboys.  I think.  Anyway, all the girls wear big, colorful dresses and have fancy pigtails with ribbons.  There are a bunch of traditional dances to go with, but more on that in a minute.  Grace tried four times to ride the mechanical bull.  She didn't stay on for more than about one-third of a second.  But she WAS wearing shorts under her skirt, so not a total loss.

Olivia, on the other hand, dropped out of piano lessons after a few months due to hatred of said instrument.  Apparently, her special skill is in bull-riding.  The bull could not throw her.  She rode it all night without falling off, at least until I closed my wallet.  Total cost of bull riding: $40 USD.  Fortunately, we paid in reais, and reais are really more like play money. Or so I keep trying to convince my husband.

A few days before the Festa Junina party, I got a note from school reminding me to make sure the girls had Festa Junina dresses for their folk dance performance.  What the what?  Needless to say, you could tell which kids were mine because: Screw That.

Typical Festa Junina costume and hairstyle.

Crap my girls pulled out of the back of their and their brother's closets to wear.

That may or may not be my red drink cup on the table.  It may or may not be full of wine.

Two of these girls have good moms who provide the right costumes.  The other two have a mom who makes sure her kids at least have the most kick-ass boots at the thing. Sorry I didn't get any good photos of the boots, but trust me, their boots were the best.

Anyway, the fourth graders have been rehearsing their dance for the past month in PE.  I've been hearing about it a lot from Olivia, who was paired with the "third worst boy" in the class.  That description killed me.  How much would it suck to be the "third worst boy"?  You're not even bad enough to be the worst or even second worst boy.  Anyway, as luck would have it, the "third worst boy" did not even show up, which is why Olivia ended up having a pretty fun night, between that and conquering the mechanical bull.

See these kids?  They have good moms, too:

Henry came to Festa Junina with us, but I didn't see him all night, so I didn't get any photos.  He was prowling the perimeter with his posse.  Jack stayed home to study for finals.  

School ends in just a few days, so help me gah....

What's Been Going on Around Here

We've been busy with all the end of the school year stuff, and also really busy at work, because we had a visitor last week.  Maybe you'll recognize him:

No, that isn't a cardboard cutout of the VPOTUS. And yes, his teeth really are that amazeballs. 

Much more important than meeting Vice President Biden, however, was my two little ladies turning double digits. I trapped them in their room on the morning of their birthday. As you can see, they hadn't quite woken up yet:

Grace wore her new Tardis hat and Olivia wore her new Tardis socks (along with a heavy fur bear hat thingie that is awesomely inappropriate for Brazil's climate).  If you don't know what a Tardis is, all I can say is that it's a nerd thing.  

And finally, Jack went to his first senior prom.  They do it differently here.  All of the families of the graduates get to go, and then there is an after party that goes until the next morning.  It's not really a 'date' thing, but it is formal. 

 Henry got a Mohawk, but he wears it flat.

We will be heading home for a visit soon (Hopefully?  Pretty please can we get our travel orders, HR?), and then when we get back we will all be moving. Mitch to the Sandbox, and me and the kids to a new house, because the powers that be finally agreed that our house is trying to kill us.  Fingers crossed that it doesn't collapse before we get out! I am stressed and tired (as are all moms at the end of the school year) and wrote about it here.  I'm also really grumpy and fed up with our crappy internet that never works and our phones that work even less than the internet.  When I get back to the States, I'm going to find a random Comcast guy and kiss him full on the mouth.  So funny that I used to complain about Comcast before I moved here. When I'm done making out with the Comcast guy, I'm going to buy a bunch of beautiful organic vegetables and roll around on them and then I'm going to go to a Thai restaurant and then eat a Cobb salad and then stop at a stop sign because that's how it's done in America.