Micaela

Sahara's class did a Spanish Opera. Sahara worked really hard to get and play the part of Micaela. Notice her fancy skirt from India, so pretty... we thought she was a gypsy, like all the other girls, but really she was a Spanish girl- hence the special part:) Her whole class did so good acting out the drama and Sahara LOVED being on stage!

Boca

While Mom was here we took her down the coast to the Boca. It is one of our favorite spots to visit... for 2 reasons.

1. It is amazingly beautiful! The waves crash up against the rocks and this day was especially dramatic. The waves were crashing so hard and the water was almost green. Beautiful!

2. There is a great hand-craft market there with great traditional pottery, tiles and linens. Fun shopping! As much fun as I have shopping there I think my mom had even more fun!

Tirza was with us, the big girls were still at school, so she soaked up the attention:)

It was a little cool and very windy but worth getting blown away.

Sparkly New Earings

Yep, that's right... Sahara got her ears pierced! Can you believe it. She has been asking for a little while to get it done and so we decided for her 9th birthday we would let her. No don't worry her birthday isn't here yet but Umma said would take her and get it done while she was here visiting. Added to the fun, and since my Grandma pierced my ears (like with ice, a needle and a potato), it seems like a good time to get them done. Sahara was a little nervous but it was quick and she has been doing a great job taking care of them. Sahara picked out the sparkly, diamondy earrings herself. She looks so cute and SO big! She is counting down until it has been 6 weeks, which just happens to be right around her birthday, so she can go pick out some different earring and switch them out everyday. I think she saw some cute dolphin ones that she is hoping someone might pick up for her birthday:)

Umma's visit

This last week has been a whirlwind of fun! My mom came for a visit, our first visitor, and we had so much fun showing her our new house, city...life. The week went way to fast but we enjoyed every minute of it!

We have lots of pics and so I will try to get a few up in the next couple of days but our whirlwind is far from over... a couple hours after I dropped my mom off I went back to the airport to pick up my sister, Letha. Good timing!

Dia da Mãe

Although Mother's Day was a week ago here in Portugal... Sete Rios celebrated yesterday because so many people had been gone the weekend before on the rafting trip. The kids sang a sweet little song about Moms and had made picture frames the week before and Miriam, their teacher, had even printed out pictures of each of them and put them in the frame.

At first Tirza wasn't going to have anything to do with the singing but then they put up pictures of each of the kids on the big screen and she just couldn't resist. So she ran up and hid behind Bria:) Oh and the whole time she was up there she was trying to get Bria to turn around and look at the picture of herself on the screen:) Good thing everyone thinks Tirza is so cute!

Below is Tirza's Mother's Day video that her teacher made at school- a little less nervous than her Father's Day one but we still have the nervous hands.

They have a really cool tradition at Sete Rios, (maybe it's a Portuguese tradition, I am not sure.) You bring a colored flower to represent your mom if she is alive, and if you can you give it to her on Mother's Day. If your mother has passed away you bring a white flower. During the service all the colored flowers were handed out and then a couple of the girls collected all the white flowers and put them up front. I thought it was a neat way to be able to remember your mom even if she has died. And I love that everyone brings a flower for their mom, it means that everyone gets to be involved.

Happy Mother's Day

Tooth #2

Bria lost her 2nd tooth! It has been really loose for a couple weeks now but she isn't one to mess with a loose tooth. She just wiggles it with her tongue and hoped that it would come out while she was brushing her teeth.

Off she went to school one day with her tooth and came home with it in a tissue in her pocket. I asked her how it came out and she said that her teacher pulled it for her. She was very happy about it! She wrote a little note to the tooth fairy and then asked us about every half hour if it was time to go to bed yet:)

The tooth fairy didn't let her down... 2 packs of gum and 1 euro

My Lovelies