Halloween- Brazilian Style

Halloween it a totally American Holiday that has been imported to Brazil. Carli had a fever the night before so she missed her school party. Poor thing. I sounded like it was going to be fun. Here she is all dressed in her cute Minnie outfit and ears.
Gretta and Eliza were excited about their parties and they had a fun day at school.
In our Condo complex they put signs in the elevator that if you want to participate in "Trick or Treating" to put a sign on your back door. After the girls got home from school they were so excited to go Trick or Treating. I have to say that trick or treating is much easier in a 35 story apartment complex with 4 doors on each floor. We rode the elevator to the top floor and then walked down one floor at a time.
The funny thing was that I think other than 2 doors everyone's house help answered the door and gave out the candy. One lady did answer her door and wanted to take pictures of the kids. Carli walked right into her house. She just loves people!

By the elevator all ready to go!

Checking out their haul! It's fun to try so many different kind Brazilian candy. I even found a twix in one of their bags!

After we came home from the doctors appointment Eric took Gretta back out for some more.They did the other building.

Food Brazilian Style

Remember all of that food I bought at the street market yesterday. Well today Theresa made some wonderful Brazilian food with it today. It is fun for me to try some since the girls and Eric eat out lunch each day they are getting lots of exposure to Brazilian food, so it was fun for me to get to try some. 

First the coconut cake. At home I never use a bunt pan, but here it's the only type of pan I have seen them make a cake in yet. When she was getting the pan ready I got out the PAM. She was pretty impressed with the PAM until we tried to flour the pan after and it made a big mess. She went back to the old fashion way with butter and some elbow grease with flour. In the end it turned out great. For a second we weren't sure if it was going to come out of the pan or not! LOL. 

Then she made a chicken salad sandwich like dish. It was really good too!

Yummy vegetables.  It takes a long time to cut all of this up!

Eliza's Halloween Art

Eliza came home today from school with some Halloween art. I was pretty impressed. All the girls have Halloween Parties tomorrow and they are so excited. Unlike the at home the school plans all of the party and Gretta informed me that she isn't going to have to do any work at school tomorrow. It's just going to be an all day party. 

They were so excited to get their outfits out and take candy to school tomorrow. 

Grocery Shopping

My friend Valarie took me to the street market today. It was a little iffy if we are going to go because it was raining lightly this morning and the sky didn't look great, but Valarie was a trooper and braved the weather with me. Luckily the clouds blew away and it turned into a beautiful day in Sao Paulo. It's because Valarie took her umbrella. She said her mom always said if you take your umbrella it won't rain, but if you don't it will. I am glad she had one. We only brought one umbrella to Brazil and Eric has it in his bag, so I was going to be sorry out of luck if it rained.

Our trip was a success, but we did get taken by the fruit vendor for a lot of money. Just before he gave us our totals I asked Valarie about how much she thought it was going to be and she said around R$20 and then he told me my total was R$98. He said everything was organic. (Which I am not sure I totally believe, but it all did taste great!) Then told him I didn't want 5 peaches for R$27 he dropped the price to R$82 for everything. I still think we got taken advantage of. We should have gone to a stand with the prices market. Also Valarie says because she has lived outside of Brazil for so long and her Portuguese doesn't have the right accent, plus she dyes her hair and has light skin they don't think she is Brazilian. They usually think she is French because of her name. 

Here is what I came home with...

All of this cost me R$50  or $22.89

(coconut treats, bubble gum, green beans, onion, potatoes, carrots, squash, bananas, a cake mix, fresh coconut, a vegetable (I don't know what it is, but the maid asked for it), and a tapioca flour to make a treat that I also bought at the market.  The tray of coconut treats, tapioca flour, fresh coconut, and two pastel treats cost R$28.00, so most of it.)

For R$82 or $37.50

(5 peaches, 2 mangoes, 4 pears, 8 strawberries, 1 fruit I can't remember the name of, but was really good, 6 apples, 4 fruit that is like an orange, but has a green skin. )

Then to the grocery story to buy yeast for the cake and I needed laundry soap and dishwasher soap. 

I put my container of all up to the laundry detergent for some size comparison. In the picture they actually look closer to the same size, but they aren't. The one I bought today was 1 kilo. And some Brazilian Oxi clean.

The laundry soap and yeast cost R$19.00 or $8.70

Then we had to go to another store to find the dish washing detergent. Eric told me today that only 5% of Brazilian's have dishwashers. It's such a luxury to have one and also so uncommon that it's hard to find the dish washing detergent. 

Both of these together were R$32 or about $14.65 Ouch!

After I picked Carli up from school we went to the grocery story I usually shop at to buy a few things I couldn't fit in my cart before. We bought this for R$102

(Soda, bread, milk, napkins, rolls, mayo, cookies, noodles,  ice cream, and butter) The butter didn't make it home (I think it feel out of the stroller. I paid for it, but couldn't find it when I got home:( 

Carli and I got lunch at the grocery store again. Her little pastry cost R$2.30. It wasn't quite as big of a hit as last time. This time I got the foot long sandwich and it was R$6.80. I pretty good deal!

Doesn't she look pretty cute even if she is still a little sick:( 

After all of the shopping I was tired and we both took naps after lunch!

After Gretta came home from school and swimming today she ate all of the strawberries in one setting.( I would have to admit they were pretty good strawberries!)

Carli

This morning when I dropped Carli off for preschool it was so sweet to see her go straight to her teacher Carol, and Carol give her a big kiss.. Then a cute little boy yelled, "Carli". So excited to see her. 

I am glad she is enjoying it and is making friends! 

View from my Bedroom Window

When I went to take my afternoon nap today I looked out the window and this is what I saw. A man hanging by one rope 15 floors up. Pretty crazy! 

Chocolate Addiction?!?!

Teresa brought a chocolate cake she made on Monday when she came to clean. The girls were excited for the cake, but since it didn't have any frosting decided to take matters into their own hands and add Hersey's syrup on top. 

We just opened the Hersey's syrup container on Sunday and the girls made chocolate milk to go with their pancakes. 

Well today when they raced in the door from school and before I could stop them they had their pieces of cake and the Hersey's syrup out again, but when I walked in the dinning room this is what I saw.

The bottle open drinking straight out of it. 

Needless to say the bottle didn't last longer than 3 days. To bad because it's the only one I brought from America.  I am sure I can get chocolate syrup here, but it most likely won't takes as good as Hersey's. 

Family Tree

At Church on Sunday the girls Primary lesson was on Family History and they made family trees. 

They both did a great job of making our family tree. 

It's crazy to see both of them have 5 kids on them. Eliza made one a boy (since we know one is a boy) and left the other one with only eyes and and smile because we don't know what it is yet. 

Gretta just made them both boys. We will have to wait until Nov 26th to find out.
Monday night at the dinner table I suggested since Gretta is getting ready to get baptized soon that maybe we should start rotating who was in charge of the Family Home Evening lesson. I didn't expect such a positive response. She jumped up from the table to go get her lesson ready.
She had a lesson about family tree, a game, testimony by Eliza and even a treat. She also asked me to show her on the computer our family tree. I guess in Primary they talked about Family Search too.It was fun for the girls to see the names of their ancestors and we got to talk a little bit about them.  Gretta did a great job. Eliza is now looking forward to her turn next week. (So much so we had to let her do a mini one tonight.)
We should have started this a long time ago.

Balloons & Confetti by Eric

At work today, we all walked in to see every desk covered with a orange and green balloon. They were to celebrate some of the brand recognition our two Brazil brands, Brastemp and Consul, have received in the press. 

People were popping balloons left and right. As balloons were exploding all over the place, confetti began raining all over the place. And it got EVERYWHERE! On desks, in hair and especially on the ground. 

I think the marketing department had a great idea to celebrate the good press. I just don't know if raining confetti down on the office was the way to go :)

Carli 19 Months

I missed Carli's 18 month post in the craziness of the move. But it hasn't stopped Carli from growing up!!! I would have to say the last 2 months Carli has changed a lot.

She has always been her own self, but she is really growing into her personality.

She has always been a little kid trapped in a little body trying to do what her big sister were doing, but she wanted me where she would see me. This month she has made a the difficult transition of going to nursery at church for a few hours each Sunday without me even in an new place where she can't understand anyone and also has transition to going to school a few hours each morning. She has done it like a champ and seems to enjoy both. (Maybe it's because they are both places with lots of toys, snacks, and people who give her lots of attention. Almost every time I pick her up from school one of her teachers is holding her.)

She is also talking a lot more and parroting wards you say to her back. She is also using more words and has some great animal sounds.

She also loves the words---MINE and NO. I want to know who teaches kids to say MINE. I don't think I go around telling Carli that things are mine, but she has sure picked this word up. 

Her hair is growing and she has all but 4 teeth of her baby teeth left to come in.

She loves to play with balls, her blocks, books, cars and carry the empty liter soda bottles around like they are babies. It's pretty cute. She is kicking balls, riding on toys, going down stairs by herself forward one step at a time. Sneaking into Gretta and Eliza's room to find their crayons, and craft stuff. Climbing on all of the furniture and playing hide and seek.

She loves BANANAS, but hasn't taken a liking to any other fruit yet. She loves to feed herself at meals and if she doesn't like something will throw it off her tray. She screams for something she sees on the table she wants but doesn't have. It's not my favorite game. I am hoping soon she will have enough vocabulary to ask instead of scream.

She is still sleeping well at night and taking one 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 hour nap each afternoon.

She also loves to brush her teeth and comb her hair herself. Actually she likes to do as much as she can for herself.

She loves to talk with Nana on the ipad during Facetime.

She is sweet, charming and as happy as ever. She is truly a delight to be around.

I am so grateful to be her mom!

I love you Carli!

As if Monday wasn't bad enough already By Eric

I work on the 27th floor of a building that is called by the locals, "Robocop building". There are two banks of elevators, one that goes from 1-18 and mine that goes from 19-36.

On Monday, I showed up at the normal hour. Everything here is pushed back 1-1.5hours. People roll into the office around 9-9:30am and leave around 6-7pm every day.

Mondays are rough. Fortunately, my commute is easy at only 15 minutes by bike. This past week, there was a semi spill on one of the major highways that caused traffic everywhere else. It took one of my coworkers 3.5hours to get to the office.

I guess I can't complain about long lines for the elevator.

Bike Park

Sunday afternoon we decided to try a new park by our house. It is call the Bike Park. Sunday's until 4pm they even have free bikes to ride, but we got there after 4pm and the place was empty. It might have been because it was a little chilly and overcast too. I heard before we moved to Sao Paulo that the weather is so crazy you can experience 4 seasons in day and Sunday was one of those days. In the morning it was really hot and humid and then by the evening it was cold and chilly. 

The girls had a great time riding their scooters around and playing on some of the exercise equipment. One of the coolest things was the small intersection with a working traffic light. 

Right now part of the park is closed because they are building a metro stop at the park. 

It was a fun Sunday afternoon family activity.

For more information about the park you can check out the website. 

http://www.cidadedesaopaulo.com/sp/br/o-que-visitar/1155-parque-das-bicletas

Zoo Safari

Saturday after cleaning the church we went to the Zoo Safari. Sao Paulo has a regular zoo, but Eric thought this one looked much cooler and I agreed. Luckily we found the place. It was a bit tricky, and one sign was turned the wrong way, but we found it. It was in the middle of a neighborhood, so if you didn't know what you were looking for it would have been easy to miss.
We all had a great time looking at and feeding some animals. The biggest hit was the camel putting it's head in the car and the girls feeding the deer.
As a child I had the biggest fear of peacocks. I am not sure where it really came from, but once at the Boise Zoo I remember being surrounded by peacocks with all their feathers out. To this day I think they are beautiful, but I prefer not to be out walking among them, so I was glad to be in the car instead of walking. There were a lot of peacocks. Later we saw a whole bunch of white peacocks too, but I didn't get a picture of them.
We saw lots of animals and had a great time!

http://www.zoologico.com.br/a-fundacao/zoosafari

Still not sure what this animal is? 

I didn't get any up close pictures of this ostrich because I was sure it was going to stick it's head in our car and peck me, so I rolled up my window. It was pretty friendly:)

See the crocodiles!

Eric was a little braver with this ostrich on his side of the car. He even feed it.  

One of the rules was when in the monkey exhibit to only have your windows rolled down 2 inches and there was also a reminder in the map that monkeys bite. Well I guess they have had a problem with people breaking rule #1 and getting bitten or something because to make sure we didn't roll down our window while in the monkey exhibit one of the workers put a piece of scotch tape across both sides of the front and back windows. When we got to the other side another worker took it off. We still aren't sure what the penalty for breaking the tape was.   

Feeding the deer. Even Gretta and Eliza were brave enough to feed the deer. 

We drove right next to this camel. Eric was really hoping they aren't like horses and kick because if so he would have had a great shot at the car.
I have never seen a camel with so much hair.
The little van puts into perspective how big they are.  

We didn't feed either of the big camels, but the baby camel right after them. I was afraid the camel was once again going to try and lick me since it put it's head in the car. 

White Tiger

More monkey's with the same security precaution (tape)

Lots and lots of turtles

Lion

Llams

Bengal Tiger