Meat and Eggs

I realize I haven't written lately, and so I was looking back through my pictures to see what we've been up to.  Mostly I have pictures of the girls at school.  We get up early, and our days are full, so it's nice that we get some time together at school.  The girls make their own adventures too.  We have a bit of a walk from the parking lot to the school through a country club.  The girls have gotten into discovering things.  The other morning, there were dew drops covering the blades of grass, and they got so excited finding them.

The girls are also really into finding fluffy white dandelions.  I got a fun picture of them with their dandelions on Crazy Hat Day.

Crazy Hat Day was a fundraiser for kids with cancer.  

When the traffic is kind, they are often the first kids at school, and they have the place to themselves.

Vivian has swimming twice a week after school, so that's another thing that keeps us busy.  Even though it's one more thing on top of an already long day, I really enjoy spending the time with her.  We have a fun walk with lots of interesting things to see along the way.  We kept passing this one cupcake place, and finally we decided to go in and buy one.

The packaging was fantastic, and the cupcake was pretty good too.  We still haven't found cupcakes to top the ones at Best Buns in the States though.  I also got to go to a poetry festival with Vivian.  Several of the English speaking schools got together to celebrate Ken Nesbit and poetry in general.  Vivian and her friend recited a Nesbit poem.  She was nervous, but she did a great job.

With all this running around during the week, our weekends become precious, and while we try to get out, sometimes we just want to chill at home.  The girls have tons of toys to play with.

They like to go out to lunch sometimes.

Especially if ice cream is involved.

In the past month though, we've really only had two major outings, one involving meat and the other involving eggs.

One Saturday, Piedad came and stayed with the girls, and Jeff and I went to a "meat festival".  It was at a local steak restaurant that raises their own cows, so it was a farm to table type of place. They also had lots of different wines.

First, we had a presentation on all the different kinds of cows there are just for beef.  I knew there were lots of different kinds of cows, but it turns out there are over 300 species total.  The presentation was all in Spanish, but by that point, we had already split a bottle of wine with some friends, so our Spanish was perfect.

Next, we moved outside where half a cow was hanging, ready for the session on what different types of meat are called in Colombia, the U.S., and Argentina.

There were big grills at the back, so as the presentation went on, the cooks started grilling some of the meat up and passing it around for us to enjoy with our many bottles of wine.

It was not for the faint of heart.

We were having a good time though.

They had a sommelier come out at the end to talk about two kinds of Malbecs and a Cab Sav to pair with steak.  He was really good, but by that point we had already picked our favorite.

They saved the best cuts of meat for last, and let us go pick which ones we wanted to eat and slice our own cuts.  Jeff was super excited about the chain mail glove they gave him.

Given the amount of alcohol most of the people at the event had consumed, it was probably a good idea.  I left Jeff in charge of selecting and cutting.  He had some help though.

The end result was served grilled up with some delicious potatoes and salad.  Yum!

The best part was the herb butter.  We spread it on everything.  We would definitely go back to the restaurant just to have a regular meal.

This weekend we had a more family friendly outing.  The embassy had an early Easter egg hunt, since most people will be out of town for spring break.  We got lucky with the weather, and it was a beautiful, sunny day.

They had hired some kind of Easter party company, so we were greeted by a dressed up Easter bunny and some real bunnies, ducklings, and other animals.

The egg hunt itself was divided into age groups, and there were different areas and start times for the different age groups.  Elena got excited when she saw the hill dotted with colorful plastic Easter eggs.

We had to call her back to the official start line.  Luckily, her primary concern was getting one of each color, so she was perfectly happy to stop after that.  Vivian's age group was on the steeper part of the hill, and she was on the hunt for the special "golden eggs".  There were two for each age group and the person who found one got a special prize.

While Vivi was hunting, Elena and I discovered another Easter bunny inside.  If you brought him your basket full of plastic eggs and returned the eggs to him, he gave you a bag full of candy and treats.  I thought it was a great way to have the kids clean up the eggs and still get a treat.

Once we told Viv about the egg return deal, she gave up hunting for the golden egg and went in to get her loot.  She didn't want her picture taken with the "creepy" bunny though, which made me laugh.  We found a nice spot in the shade to hang out while the kids ate some of their candy.

Elena also got a little craft in her bag, but we had her wait until we got home to put it together, because we were afraid we might lose pieces in the grass.  She followed some of the directions, and then added her own personal flair to it.

It was a fun way to spend the morning, so we felt justified relaxing for the second part of the day.  Jeff and I are re-watching the first season of Legion, since the new one is coming out soon.  The girls were happy playing at home.  It's good we stayed in, because half way through the afternoon it started pouring, even though the sun was still out.  We went out on the balcony, and Jeff managed to capture the rain in photos.

The driver who took us to the Easter party described Bogota weather as bi-polar, and he's not wrong, but we love the nice cool weather here, and we're fine with the occasional downpour.  Even though our daily lives are very busy, we're really enjoying living in Bogota.  It's a lovely city, and we feel so lucky to be here.

Super Safta

Last month, Jeff went on a work trip for a few days, and both girls got sick right after he left.  I was dealing with doctors and middle of the night throw up on my own, and it was not fun.  Of course, they got better right before he got back.  When he told me he had to go on another trip for a week and a half, my mom took pity on me and flew in to the rescue.  Her magical Safta powers ensured that the girls stayed healthy, and that we all had a good time.

Our first adventure was a visit to the Botero museum.  I have to admit that before we went, I was not a huge Botero fan.  I thought the super-inflated people were a little weird, but seeing them in person changed my mind.  I really like the bright colors and smooth lines. The girls liked it too.

Viv got a poster of the Botero Mona Lisa to hang on her wall.  I wish I had taken slightly less crooked pictures, but Elena was so enchanted by the paintings, I had to keep a pretty firm hold on her to keep her from touching them.  If she was in the picture, I tried to take it as quickly as possible, so that I could grab her again.

I was surprised to discover that Botero painted things besides people.  I got a poster of the flowers.

But some of the paintings were definitely just weird.

Botero donated his works as well as several by famous painters from his personal collection on the condition that the museum would remain free and open to the public.  The set up is lovely.  The Botero Museum and two other museums occupy three connected buildings with lovely little courtyards.  There's also a cafe and a restaurant.  Of course, the girls declared they were hungry, so we had lunch at the restaurant.

Vivi is our steak monster.  The food was good, but the service was quite slow.  Luckily, the girls held it together.  After lunch, we explored some of the more modern art pieces in the adjoining museum.  We weren't too impressed with them, but we liked the shipping crate art on the outside of building.

Our final stop was in the third museum, which focused on the history of Colombian money.

Next to to the exit was a kids area.

On our way in, we walked right past a wall with little spy holes.  On the way back out though, we took a minute to peek, and discovered that each hole had a different picture behind it.  The girls had a lot of fun discovering the paintings.  If they found a particularly cool one, they would immediately call the other one over.

We had to wait a while for a ride to pick us up, since parts of the road were closed to traffic.

The girls made their own fun chasing pigeons and playing "hide and seek".

It was a great outing.  The next day we had a birthday party for a family friend.  Everyone enjoyed themselves, and towards the end it turned into a sword fight with weapons made from the sides of the pizza boxes the food came in.  Elena acted like an epic warrior maiden ;-)

The next week, Mom got into Valentine's Day mode.  She and the girls made and decorated a bunch of festive cupcakes.

Mom also got candy for all of us and toys for the girls. We don't usually do much for Valentine's Day, but Mom can't let a holiday go by unacknowledged.  

On Mom's last full day, we went on an adventure to La Calera with our friends.  One of our other friends had recommended a hummingbird sanctuary there.  It turned out to be a woman's house where she had set up lots of hummingbird feeders.  There were all different kinds that flew through.  It was lovely.

The property was quite big, so, after fueling up on snack, the girls went exploring.

There was snack for the adults too.  Our visit included a hot beverage choice of coffee, tea, or panela.  Panela is made from sugar cane, and I tried it and discovered I liked it.  There was also cake.

We spent about two hours admiring hummingbirds, enjoying our snack, and letting the girls run around.  Towards the end of our visit we stopped by the gift shop, and went to visit with the alpacas near the parking area.

Then we had a very bumpy and somewhat harrowing ride back down the mountain to the main town of La Calera.  Our friend had also recommended a place for lunch, La Gloria.

It was right on the main square with the church.

The food turned out to be excellent.

We ate our fill, and then rested in the van on the way back home to Bogotá.  We were anxious to get home, because Jeff's flight had arrived that afternoon, and he was waiting for us.  We were all so happy to see him.  He and Mom only had one overlapping night, so Mom and I decided we could handle two fancy meals in a day, and the three adults went out to our favorite French restaurant while Piedad stayed with the kids.  It was nice way to end Mom's trip.  She left this morning, and we miss her already.  We'll lure here back here soon though.