First Week of School

While the kids were excited to get to know new friends and meet their school teachers, I got busy to get into a routine.   During the week I will be dropping kids off at 8 AM to school and pick up at 3 PM.
I will also be picking up two more neighborhood boys (José and Efrain) to the school.  Both their moms work full time.  One of them a cleans homes and yes...I ended up hiring her. Twice a week for $30 sounds reasonable to me.

So between dropping the kids off and picking them up from school, I find myself all week doing the following:  Laundry, organizing rooms and picking up post breakfast, Zumba on XBox, making coffee or tea from the tea kettle, currently working on finding a new exercise routine - (walking on the dirt road or beach depending on the tide), grocery shopping for lunches (no school lunch backup plan here), finding a café (Subway worked as a quick and close one), and getting to know other mamasitas. On my down time I've read a few books and have downloaded and organized my pictures so I may choose what my next project is for painting.  Also I will be managing inquiries and bookings for a new boat charter biz that Chris and Nate are working on called "Yacht Latina".  YL  will do trips between the San Blas Islands and Cartagena, Columbia.  Fun, fun. We may have to test that trip ourselves soon.

Wednesday we had the parents meet and greet the teachers and other parents from the school. We brought over my Mexican rice (which disappeared) and my homemade guacamole and chips.  Everyone else brought other delicious meals too.  Classic Panamanian, Peruvian, Cuban to chips and dip. YUM!! Can't wait for the next Potluck. We also had beer at the school...not something we can do in the states, but that was fun.  Must repeat.

Then came Thursday.  Just happens to be Art Appreciation Thursdays and I'll be helping the Art teacher as her sideshow Bob when she needs me. It was fun this last Thursday.  We worked on "20 heads" paintings.

That wrapped up the first week of school really quick.  We had a great weekend as well....

Friday there was no school, so Lincoln and Kamila had their first playdates scheduled.  Unfortunately, we had Lincoln at home because he was sick.  Kamila spent her afternoon with Lara.

Saturday our first PCIS friends had us over for dinner (Robert, Barbara and Lara + their friend Marcy and her daughter Ryan). On the menu: German sausage, chicken, salad and great wine!

Sunday was another get-together with (Tom and Lee) another PCIS family and Lincolns friend Gavin. Chris and I celebrated our 13th wedding anniversary that afternoon at Cholos Comida Mexicana - my favorite of all the eats to choose here in the beach cities. Kamila ended up shopping with us to get some cool tables made from trees by the locals.  We wrapped up the evening at Picassos in Coronado.  Pizza and beer.  I also noticed they had an NFL sports fun dates scheduled...you know where I'll be on Sundays.

-Lita