Joyce's Birthday and Botanical Gardens

The weeks are moving so quickly here in Colombia.

On Thursday, we celebrated Joyce's birthday. Eric really worked hard with Diego and Jeferson to teach them to say "Happy Birthday Mommy!" They really preferred "Feliz Complianos" as it was more familiar for them to say. They even sang the birthday song to mommy in Spanish. It was very cute. On her birthday, part of her gift was to have a manicure and also to have her hair highlighted. These services are so inexpensive here. The manicure was $3 US dollars, and the highlights, haircut, and style were a total of $30 US dollars. For lunch we went to Crepes and Waffles with Jose and his father and sister. This was Joyce's choice, as she was really craving Waffles. They really don't have waffles here in Colombia. In the evening, we had a small get together and celebrated with appetizers and a delicious strawberry cheesecake. Joyce was in heaven.

At Crepes and Waffles, they have a menu in English.

Jeferson enjoying his ice cream.

Mommy is hoping Diego will share some of his ice cream!


The whole group at Crepes and Waffles.

After a relaxing day on Thursday, we had a very challenging day with the boys on Friday. Neither one really wanted to listen to us, so instead of going to the pool for the afternoon, we stayed in the room, and the only option the boys had was to play with their cars or to color. They were very disappointed with no pool, and no television. Mommy spent the afternoon stressing to them the importance of obeying mommy and papi. We think they got the point, as today, they were much better behaved.

Today, (Saturday) we went swimming in the morning, and then in the afternoon, we went to a botanical garden. It was more like a very large forest, with many wildflowers, and walkways. It was fantastic. The flowers were gorgeous.

After the gardens, we went to a mall here in Bucaramanga. They have some really nice malls here.

As of Friday, we have not heard anything definite on the strikes. We have heard rumors, that the president of Colombia, has threatened that if they do not return to work, they will not get paid. People tend to think that this will force them back to work. However, the government is not giving in to paying them more salary, so we are not sure how stubborn they will be. We are hoping they will return to work before the strike goes on any longer.

We are planning a very long day on Sunday to a national park in Colombia, so I need to get some sleep for tomorrow.

Chow

Joyce, Eric, Diego and Jeferson