Check

I can check this off the list of things I've wanted to do in my lifetime.  Ever since I first watched Point Break I wanted to surf, only 20 short years later and I finally did it.  Of course where I've lived most of my life did make it rather difficult to achieve -- if I lived near a beach I would definitely be hitting the waves all the time. 

Long weekend at the beach



Dylan eyeing the waves.



Maddie wanted the bucket.

Maddie accepted she wouldn't get the bucket, so she decided to provide her guidance.

Lending a helping hand.

I have plenty of pictures from our recent long weekend to the beach, more to follow -- the weather was perfect.

Another Brazilian birthday party!

The make-up center.  They spent 15 minutes per kid!

Before you say anything, we got Dylan's haircut yesterday.

The magic show, he was a good ventriloquist as well.  The kids skipped the Pirates show that came right after  -- actually, Dylan wouldn't come within 30 feet of the Pirates without screaming.



Part of the outdoor patio. 

  

The view of the tennis court from the patio.



They only offer the kids pop in glass cups -- which they enjoyed and surprisingly, didn't break.



In case the waiters were too slow, you could stop by for a quick snack at one of the stands. 

Party over -- waiting for car.

I know I have posted about these parties quite a bit and thought I had seen it all... until this one -- this one happened to be at Madison's friend's house and not at a party place in the city.  So we pulled up and the guards opened the gates to let us in, I thought we were entering a gated community... I was wrong, this was just her friend's house!  After the gate we passed by a soccer field with lights, then a massive pool and then up a hill to the front of her friend's four floor house -- at that point I got out of the car and the valet took care of the rest.  Then we walked downstairs to the patio, where we were greeted by a videographer, photographer and 10 pirates dressed up from the Pirates of the Caribbean.  The kids didn't like the pirates too much and actually screamed quite a bit, so I skipped the photo session and headed to one of the 50 tables with umbrellas (similar to a wedding reception) and calmed the kids down with some chicken kabobs that were handed to us as soon as we sat down.  I really didn't take too many pictures, but you can see from the ones I did take that this was an epic party for the kids.

Kids and puddles

All kids do it, once a puddle is discovered they have to divert their current path and walk directly in the water -- multiple times!  You will quickly see that our children were in a do-loop in this particular area for quite some time.

Driving in Sao Paulo

Sometimes I wake up and think, where the heck am I?  This is a picture from our patio -- you wouldn't even know that we're only a half mile away from the busy city roads that we navigate on a daily basis.  Driving was intimidating at first, the police really don't enforce road rules here, it's really monitored by video cameras that send you nice tickets in the mail (that you can't challenge in most cases) -- Cathy and I racked up 5 tickets last year (for the record, Cathy got 3, I only got 2).  Once you have a Brazilian license, you can only get 4 tickets in a one year period -- get five and your license is suspended!  Surprisingly though, I find driving in Brazil more relaxing... there is very little road rage and the drivers are very courteous.  I have become much more patient in the last year based on my driving experiences in Brazil, of course this only happens once you accept the fact that you can only go as fast as the car in front of you.  Now don't get me wrong, traffic is insane in this country, traffic jams frequent, flash floods in the Summer months and motorcycles can drive anywhere they want (skimming your car by inches, or even clipping your side view mirror on certain occasions).  It's similar to go-karting -- bumpy roads, speed bumps, hills everywhere, constantly jockeying for position and the list goes on -- I find it fun!  Some people down here may not share the same feelings I do, however if I ever get bored of my current job, I could become a NY City taxi driver with ease (I now make those guys look like 16 year-olds in Driver's Ed). 

Layin' low

Pool time, thunderstorms and dinner out... a routine weekend in Brazil.  We took it easy since we have a couple trips planned in March -- one to Rio and the other to a beach house in Juquehy for a long weekend. 

Guarujá Beach

We are off work until Thursday for Carnival.  So what did we decide to do yesterday?  Go to the beach on one of the busiest weekends of the year.  We ended up going to Guarujá beach and only caught about 1 additional hour of traffic on the way there, on the way back it was smooth sailing -- one way, the trip usually takes about 1h40m. 

Dylan has not been a fan of the beach up until this point, it usually takes him about 1 hour just to warm up to the fact that he's stuck there -- he would never even think about touching the water either.  So on this trip, for the first time ever, Dylan actually asked to use the potty for a pee pee -- he goes once or twice a day on the potty at home, but only upon parent request.  I think our son put in a strategic request for this one, knowing that we would have to take him off the beach to get to an area that would accommodate him -- unfortunately for Dylan, there were about 30,000 people on the beach and this left him with only one place to go.  So Cathy picked him up and he promptly relieved himself, obviously the next step was to get him in the water to rinse off.  Dylan was kicking and screaming the whole way to (and in) the water -- then to our surprise he instantly changed moods.  Now we couldn't get him out of the water, he would walk in deeper and deeper until it was up to his chin.  Dylan was fearless for the rest of the day, near the shore he would let the waves toss him down and he'd get up laughing!  It was a smooth day at the beach. 

The interview

Dylan recently had his "interview" to see if he was ready to start pre-k1 in August.  I translate the term "interview" into revenue enhancing opportunity for the school... it lasted about 30 minutes, they really just want to make sure your kid understands English and will actually follow commands.  Our 2Y5M2d old fared pretty well, I'm thinking Madison will have good company on her bus ride to school pretty soon.

Summer Breeze

Dylan is a bit more comfortable in the pool these days, he still won't navigate in the deep end yet -- but he does enjoy jumping in the shallow end.  We spent a solid 6 hours at the pool last weekend since it was close to 90 out.  With the hot weather comes heavy rain too, last Friday we got caught in a flash flood on the way home from work.  In 10 minutes it went from no rain to over a foot of water flowing over the road!  I could barely see where I was going, next thing I knew -- I was driving through a river, almost stuck!    Cathy wasn't so lucky -- she was about 10 minutes behind me, traffic was now stopped behind the river running over the road.  Fortunately Cathy was only stuck about 10 minutes before the flood waters came down and she could pass through.

Pizza night

Last weekend we took the kids to our latest favorite pizza joint.  We arrived promptly at 6:30pm and scored a nice outdoor table (since only a handful of people in this city actually go out to eat that early).

Afternoon stroll

I took the kids out for a walk a couple nights ago... without an umbrella (one more thing to carry).  Yeah it rains a lot in the late afternoons down here and I should bring one with me, but let's face it, the walk is much more fun without one.

Cool breeze

 

We've been taking advantage of the nice weather, I still haven't mastered a technique to get both the kids in a picture, looking at the camera, and smiling... even after 24,928 pictures (I just checked the tally in the Maddie/Dylan folder on our computer).