Back in the States, I need a google calendar to keep track of the ridiculous number of activities that our kids are involved in - and who is responsible for getting them to and from each of these activities. Greg and I are still trying to figure out how we will manage when we get back since he'll actually be working and not on sabbatical! And, to be honest, our kids are not nearly as programmed as some I know. We let them have just enough free time to make each other and us nuts on a fairly regular basis.
But here in Costa Rica, the whole "afterschool activities" thing has a new meaning. There is nothing programmed. There might be a soccer team we could get hooked up with on the weekends, but our kids would be so far behind it's better not to subject them to the embarrassment. Instead, we have lots of free time. And while the kids still manage to make each other - and us - nuts, we have discovered a new level of closeness that we never could have found while racing through our lives back home.
Most days we wander down to the park at the end of the street and the kids play with other kids from the neighborhood. Other days we sit around the table on the front patio and play card games - to the delight of our neighbors who walk by. Today we went to the farmer's market to give our special banana sales lady a star sticker (and buy bananas and melon, of course). Two days ago, Maggie and I walked to the main square in town and ate ice cream cones while people watching. Yesterday we went downtown as a family in search of the fishmonger. It is a simpler life, and I could get used to it...
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| Maggie at the park down the road. |
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| Gracie with a new neighborhood friend. |
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| James working on his soccer skills at the park. |
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