Harvest Festival / Reformation Party

Madison in her bat costume The "Candy / Prize Center"

Pin the Tail on the Donkey
The "big" kids Piñata

Mike's blog (pettengillmissionaries.org) is the same subject, but it was such a success, it's worth two different blog entries (besides, I can have more pictures :-)

In honor of a tradition by our home church, Soaring Oaks Presbyterian Church, we hosted a Reformation Party. This reflects the time that Martin Luther pounded the 95 thesis onto the church door and the beginning of the Protestant Reformation. Mike was able to share the story with all the adults and children there. Everyone seemed to be listening intently. We had a GREAT turn-out. We hosted it at a friends house as ours place is too tiny. We knew that there was a lot of interest, but had not idea about how many that would end up being. We had over 50 kids and adults attend. We had 8 games for the kids to enjoy to "earn" candy and prizes including Pin-the-Tail on the Donkey, and Dunking for Apples! This was a good opportunity to have a little taste of home for everyone, and it was much needed!

Cooking

In California, I had started teaching Madison in the kitchen. She would prepare a menu for the week and we would shop, and she would make it. We had some fabulous things to eat! This is the first opportunity to start this up again. Don't know how often we will be able to do it as our evenings are fairly full and I'm usually starting to prepare food before Madison gets out of school. However, we did have the opportunity tonight - she made (from scratch) pigs in a blanket, french fries (not from scratch), and topped it off with some veggies. Yum!!!

Scuba Weekend

Hey gang - the Pettengill's will be gone this weekend (so no blog entries this weekend). We are off to the coast (Playa de Coco) for my final process for becoming scuba certified. There will be two ocean dives on Saturday and two ocean dives on Sunday.

We continue to do well in school. We have had multiple tests, mid-term evaluations, and Mike even re-wrote Goldilocks and the Three Bears in Spanish - of course - knowing Mike as you all do - it was written with MANY twists! I'll leave it to your imagination.

Have a great weekend!

Let’s Go For A Walk

Each day we walk 10 minutes from our apartment to our school. We live in a lower-middle class neighborhood here in Costa Rica. We enjoy our neighborhood and the sites. So, we figured we would take you for a walk with us to school. We frequently take this walk several times a day. We thought it would be a good way for you to see a little more of our life and the people around us…don’t worry…the video is only 3 ½ minutes long…enjoy:

No News is Good News

As the saying goes - no news is good news. All is well here on the Central-American front...while many, many, many are getting sick, children sick, broken bones, etc. the Pettengill's are managing to stay healthy. I did manage to get a completely good pair of jeans filthy yesterday when I hit one of our MANY moss covered sidewalks and cushioned my fall with my backside (but I Do want you all to know that I SAVED the eggs - none got cracked!!!). We just had our mid-term reviews for Mike and Erin, and we are both doing very well. Madison will receive her mid-term report card very soon.

Uh oh...it's magic!

Is it magic or what?! Washing clothes around here is not bad - we have a washing machine afterall. Mike does all the wash (YEAH!!). My wonderful mother-in-law sent us a Downey ball so we now start putting softener into our wash. However, there are some things that just won't change. Drying with a Brillo pad for one. The picture you see is one of our towels after a day of drying on the line. As I've stated before, we don't have a functioning dryer, so line drying is what we get. We were hoping the addition of softener would assist with the softening process of our clothes. However, hard water and line-drying trumps everything else. Hence, we have towels that stand by themselves. Mike is holding the towel with one hand, and it's standing of it's own accord...sigh...I guess we need to look at the good in all things - we don't have to hand wash the clothes like many do in Honduras. So what am I whining about?

On the front line

There are certain things that come with the territory of being on the "front line". First and foremost you are more susceptible to things. Our school has been rampaged with so many illness and injuries. To date our small school has had 3 fractures, more illness than I can count, more falls than I can count, two babies in the hospital with dehydration, one for surgery, and numerous adults in the hospital with various assorted issues. It is SO wet here, there is no time for sidewalks to dry out, especially it being overcast so much of the day that mosses overgrow the sidewalks. So, you have two choices, chance slipping by walking on the sidewalk, or walking in the streets with the crazy drivers. Typically we choose a little of both. We know the more slippery spots and walk on the streets. Other than mild illnesses, the Pettengill house has been spared any major illness or injuries. We continue to pray that we will be spared. So - please pray! The school is on the front lines and under attack!