September "U.S." Mendez Update!

Here is story of our month in August - in pictures!

First, say goodbye to our stuff. See ya' on the flipside! (Hopefully not flipped over and destroyed all that.)

 And how does the Mendez clan celebrate packout being over? By going to ChuckeeCheese of course!

Here is the last day of preschool for Lily in Chile. (Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of Abby's.)

Our Chilean neighbor threw a farewell party for Abby for all the neighborhood kids. One of the nicest gestures ever done for us in Chile. I about bawled right there. The kids had a wonderful time.

And here we are: IN THE US!!!!!


Here is Abby and Lily as we are dealing with clearing customs in Atlanta.

And here we are in the airplane on the way to DC!

So this begins Part 1 of our DC adventure!

Our first field trip was to the American History Museum. Ever since Abby told us "her" flag was the Chilean flag, I have been adamant that she learn about the US Flag. So we went to the "Star Spangled Banner" exhibit, where you can see THE Star Spangled Banner. It was C-O-O-L.

They wouldn't let us take pictures inside, so here we are outside the exhibit.

Drawing pictures of the flag we just saw.

Watching an interactive skit about the making of the flag. Basically she is showing you how long one of the stripes in the flag was. I think it was forty feet long or something like that.

And here we are afterwards, on our way back to the Metro. Did I mention we did all this in pouring rain??? Thankfully it cleared up just enough for us to get from the museum back to the Metro.

We also went to  Build-A-Bear one evening with Daddy. Joel was able to record his voice on a machine put  inside the bear, so when they squeeze the arm, he can talk to them. We purposely did this so the girls would have this when he was away at training, and then later gone to Afghanistan.

The rest of the month was a constant, frantic attempt to keep the girls occupied and entertained. The hotel gave us guest passes to the Gold's gym across the street - which had a free childcare/play area. So we spent a lot of time there. There was a play cafe in Reston that had a supervised play area as well, so when I needed to work we would go over to the Play Cafe so I could get stuff done. (I also had to finish up the certification course I was taking while we were there.) The hotel also had an indoor pool, so Joel and I would take the girls in the pool often as well.

And we went all over trying to find the coolest playgrounds. Here is Turtle Park, which was cute.

But our BIGGEST fun was our trip to Sesame Place. I think this is on my "Places I Must Go Before I Die" list. Especially since I got re-addicted to it watching it with Abby.

Notice the "We Speak Spanish" sign in the window.

And Abby is knocking on the door at 123 Sesame Street, looking for Elmo. She wanted him to come out and play.

I told the girls that Elmo was still sleeping, so Lily is telling us to hush.

Lily's favorite character there was Big Bird. She in fact said "Bird" and we didn't understand her, so she started signing it.

We didn't do many character meals, just the bedtime snack with Cookie Monster and Abby Caddaby. And since my favorite character EVER was Cookie Monster (who eats all the cookies he wants and never gains an ounce) was there, I almost keeled over getting to meet him. My inner preschooler was just in shock. And my little preschooler children were quite in shock too!

And here we are with Abby Caddaby. We were very excited to meet her, but this character wasn't as good at posing for pictures.

And Abby and Joel together:

More pictures hanging out around the park:

Going to a show:

On the rides:

Taking more pictures with the characters:

We also got to spend time with my relatives in the DC area. Here we are at my Aunt and Uncle's house.

Their subdivision had a pool, so we got to all go take a dip.

That's it for August!

Love,

Julie, Joel, Abby, and Lily



August Mendez News

Whew! July is long gone, August is finally underway! Sorry I'm a bit late with this update, but the movers are finally gone and I can focus on this once again. I can barely remember what I did in July.

Of course both girls had their birthdays and birthday parties in July, which you've already seen pictures of. And a great deal of prep went into all of that. I think I estimated that I made about 200 cupcakes last month along. Yeah, I'm over cupcakes for quite a while.

One really warm sunny day, we headed over to Mampato (preschool amusement park) for one last trip. Lily was finally big enough and old enough to really have a good time this time. The girls love it there, and they are going to miss it.

This is a scene that I've been trying to capture pictures of the entire time we've lived here. These are REAL Chilean cowboys riding down the suburban streets of Santiago not far from where we live. They all herd cattle and horses and whatever else on the mountains that surround our neighborhood. Cool, huh?

We also had 4th of July this month, and took the girls to see the official flag raising ceremony at the Embassy. We made a point of doing it this year, because we discovered that Abby thought she was Chilean, and we needed to indoctrinate her into all things US!  It is time for us to go home!

The girls were much more interested in the snacks I brought, unfortunately.

Another fun but silly thing this month: the girls discovered burritos! Abby decided it was "super cool" (her words not mine) to eat food wrapped up in a tortilla. And well, Lily will eat anything. So I had to snap pictures of them eating their very first burritos!

Now, these pictures all belong up top with the other Mampato pictures, but the blog is not cooperating at the moment. The photos were too cute to delete, though.

Here's Lily saying "Ta Da." Don't ask me why. Joel taught them.

And one Sunday afternoon, the girls were driving Joel crazy, so he taught them some exercises from his workout. Here is Abby doing arm circles.

And here she is doing push ups! She's not bad actually for being 4 years old.

So that was our month. August is going quickly as well. Our stuff is packed up and gone, and we leave Santiago this week for a month in DC. We can't wait!

Love,

Julie, Joel, Abby and Lily