It (didn't) rain on my parade

On the 14th of May, Paraguay celebrated it's bicentennial. The country was decorated in their colors and there were special presentations, parades, and concerts all over the place. Well, everywhere except for the town where we live! Lilian was supposed to march in a parade with her class, but it was cancelled because it looked like it could rain. Being from Louisiana, a cloudy day is not a very good reason to cancel a parade, but we aren't in LA now, right?

They ended up rescheduling the parade for the 25th, which, of course we weren't able to make. Poor Lilian's heart was broken. But, we were able to cheer her up by doing a photo session next to all of the decorations that our apartment building put up. And, we still got some cute pics out of the deal.

I guess we'll just have to wait till the next "centennial"...

The Moto

Thomas just really started getting interested in riding the tricycle around the apartment. He can't quite reach the peddles, but you'd be surprised at how fast he can get around. And, he rarely has an accident. Now, before riding, of coarse, he must put on his LSU hat. And, if it's a sunny day, he's sure to put on his shades (aka, Mrs. Potato Head glasses).

Lilian also caught on to Thomas's love of the bike and now takes full advantage, getting rides to where ever she wants to go. She drags her feet and he pushes her where she wants to go. (She does help steer, at least!)

Thomas has also been making a little more sense lately. Here he is practicing some very meaningful words:

Resurrection Sunday

The Sunday before last, we celebrated the Resurrection of our Lord. The most important Easter date to the Paraguayan culture is Good Friday--the death of Jesus Christ. Unfortunately, only the evangelicals here celebrate the Sunday of the Resurrection. The Paraguayans miss out on the true celebration that is Easter--Jesus didn't stay dead! He conquered the grave and is alive! He sits at the right hand of the Father as a mediator for those who have trusted Him for their salvation.

So, we started off the day by spending it with other believers, celebrating together the mercy and grace that God has given us through the death and resurrection of His Son. We shared with our kids the importance of the resurrection (in 3-year-old terms, of course!) and told the story of the resurrection.

Later that afternoon, we taught them some things that are done back home around this time. Here are some pictures of our day:

The kids made and decorated their own baskets for me to put candy in them. (Thomas did put stickers on his, but they kept disappearing and winding up in random places throughout the week.)

Thomas thought the little chocolate eggs were balls. We were able to hide the fact that they were actually chocolate for about a week--then he discovered the source of his candy. We had to take them away because after kicking and throwing them for a second, he'd try to eat them--paper and all.

Then we decorated and dyed some eggs. We tried some things to make some fun designs, but they didn't really work. The kids still had fun with it, though!

Then, we put them in the dye. And, being that you can only find brown eggs here, we had to let them sit for a long time. So...

...we went outside for distraction. I thought it'd be better than an impatient child climbing up on the counter and tipping over a glass of egg dye!

So, although we missed family terribly, we had a great time together!