Carli's First Day of School, Play Date, Chocolate Chip Cookies

I took Carli to school today and stayed with her. We got there around 8:30. The kids were cleaning up the toys inside the classroom. Then we went out to the playground for 30 mins. Carli enjoyed playing outside and they also got out legos, balls and chalk. After playground time we went inside for art, circle time, and Portuguese (the Portuguese teacher read them a book). Then it was time for snack. Carli really liked the juice and bread but not the mango. We left after snack. She had a good time, but kept looking for me. It was actually better to hang out at school than with the nannies at home because at least her teachers speak English. We could have stayed longer, but we had already arrange for our play date with the girls from Church to come at 10:00 and I wanted to be downstairs waiting for them to come and help with security. 

I knew security was going to be a nightmare, but it was even WORSE than expected. Remember I live in Fort Knox's and for some reason the security guards don't really like me anyway, or at least that's the vibe I have already gotten from them. Today that vibe turned into a reality and I was MAD. I asked my neighbor Dani yesterday what to do when I had visitors. She tried to call down and tell security that I was going to have visitors today, but the intercom system is down and has been for days. She didn't know their phone number because she always just uses the intercom. She said not to worry and that having visitors really isn't that big of a deal. Plus she told me they can park in visitor parking with no problem. She suggested I write a note about who is coming and that they are visiting me and then google translate it into Portuguese. 

So I did just that. Then at 9:45 I showed the door guard my note. The door guard was very nice about and seemed to understand and even motioned if I wanted them to call me when they arrived. I said I would stay and sat and waited. Well the garage guard wasn't nearly as nice! Luckily it was Renata who showed up first so she could talk with the guard is Portuguese. He gave her this whole speech about how Visitor Parking was CLOSED today because they were cleaning the parking garage and they were saving the spots for residents who need to move their cars. Even though there were at least 10 spots open. He told her she would have to park in on of my spots inside the garage and I would need to go get a hanging tag for her car. No problem we have two extra spots and a hanging tag, but the floor in the garage they were cleaning to was OURS. So once I told that to her that and she told the guard all of a sudden he was even more flustered. Then he told her he was new and he needed to talk with his boss. Well he has been here as long as we have, so I didn't know he was new and I know other people have visitors who I have seen park in visitor parking, so what's the real problem????  His boss came out and said she could parking in visitor parking with a hanging tag, so I went to go get it. Then when Ashley and Rebecca showed up in another car I had to go get the hanging tag out of our car for them. What a joke. The other funny thing is that I am sure security saw me get it out of my car and bring it to them because there are video cameras everywhere. 

Who knows what the real problem was, but Renata said he wasn't very nice to her and I believe it. 

I guess I should be happy that I feel safe in the building, but on the other hand I like to have people over and if it's going to be like this every time it's going to get old fast. Right now there isn't much street parking by our building because they have one whole side of the street torn up for construction. Maybe once that is done there might be an option for street parking. Also next time I will be ready with hanging tags for everyone. 

As for how to get the guards not to have bad vibes about me I don't know. This afternoon when I went to get the girls from the bus they opened the door for me and I left it open because the girls were right there an Carli was sitting on the bench waiting inside. I think the door was open for a whole 45 seconds with me holding on to it the whole time.  Usually they let me out to get the girls and then it takes for ever for them to open the gate back up. What like you can't seem me standing there??? So I didn't want to wait forever while Carli was inside. Well they must have buzzed the door four times just to let me know they were mad.
Hopefully we can form a more friendly relationship considering I come and go multiple times and day and plan on having lots and lots more visitors!

After all of that drama the play date was a lot of fun! Everyone enjoyed our nice playground and it was so nice to have some company that speaks English and friends for Carli to play with. 

This afternoon we made chocolate chip cookies with the neighbor girls. I had to figure out how many grams are in 1 cup, so I could measure the butter right and I also had to convert 375 degs to Celsius. 

I had a little problem with the first batch of cookies because I couldn't get the temperature of the gas stove just right. Every time I turned it down to what I thought was 375 to would go off. I ended up having to cook them on the top rack at a little higher temperature. They tasted just like chocolate chip cookies from home, but for some reason the texture was a little off. I am not sure if it's the sugar I used or I didn't add enough flour, or if it was the oven. Oh well they were still great and got rave reviews. The neighbor girls were especially impressed!!! The girls ran back and forth from each apartment all afternoon. Gretta and Eliza like the hammock on their porch.