Saturday, March 29, 2014

Promotions~

Big Girl A. Serving Herself Bananas and Quesito!
 Look whose been promoted to a high chair and feeding herself... "A."! A. has had a very sensitive gag reflex and would ONLY eat the most well pureed food up until a few weeks ago. About three weeks ago she decided that she would not only stop eating pureed food she wanted chunky food and she wanted to feed herself... Since we only have two highchairs and three eaters, her bro S. got promoted to the table with a booster seat... The picture below shows how he feels about the promotion...HAPPY!

S. Lovin' eatin' at the big table!
E. being the happy go lucky kid that he is doesn't look too sad about the arrangements. As long as he has food and lots of it, he doesn't care where he is served!

Thursday, March 27, 2014

The February Birthday Bash

Hurray, I found the missing birthday pictures!! At last the blog about the February birthdays! Clara had her's the fifth of February and then we found out that Ben and E. shared a birthday on the tenth and the last b-day in February was that of S. on the 12th! We saved it all up and celebrated them together later in the month!
 The boys enjoying their birthday dinner of Hamburgers Deluxe!

Birthday Boys E. and S!
We got Uncle Ben only one gift, but he seemed to like it a lot. Baby F. "helped" him open it up!
Uncle Ben ready for action!

Serious business..



Still opening "Oh so carefully!"


Annnd it's a futbol shirt of the Argentina team...
The boys ready to open their gifts!

E. loved his new stuffed Clifford dog!


S. liked his light up ball the best!
And then it was time for the famous cake biting/face plant. You can see Myles and Clancy gearing up for the action. Uncle Ben got first bite. Somehow just his nose got face planted. He will probably kill me for posting this horrible picture of him, but he would not pose for me with the frosting on his nose...sorry Ben. 
"Que muerda la torta..."

Uncle Ben with his frosting covered NOSE!
 Clara got next bite. Somehow just her forehead smashed into the cake.... At least she didn't bite where Uncle Ben's nose had been!!
Clara doing the Bolivian Birthday Face Plant!

Birthday Buddies, Uncle Ben and Clara
 Rudi got E. to bite the cake, but S. would have nothing to do with it... Smart boy that he is!
E. Bites the Cake

E. with his new frosting face....

The remains of the flattened cake! Want a bite??
S. getting his birthday bite in a more civilized manner!
 The rest of the birthday was much more civilized in nature! After putting the babies to bed we enjoyed singing and playing music together! The birthday had been a SMASHING success....literally!
Paula enjoying the rest of the evening with Uncle Ben!

Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Uncle Ben and Cousin Ericka Visit Bolivia!

About a month ago now Rudi's younger brother, Ben and our niece (also manager of our coffee shop), Ericka, came to visit us and Bolivia. My boys decided before Uncle Ben came down that they should build a boat with him. Ben is a great carpenter and so was a willing target for the project! The boys spent every spare minute building the boat. We all were super proud of how it turned out!
Uncle Ben and Myles, "Starting to Assemble the Boat"

They had to use some VERY stinky stuff and fiberglass to seal the boat from any leaks. They would move it to the porch and the smell would permeate the house. My favorite spot for them to apply the stuff was out in the yard AWAY from the house!
Clancy, Uncle Ben, and Myles
We took the boat out to Lago Angostura to see if it would float! Not only did it float, but in the three days we were at the lake it logged more than 24 hours of service! We all got a chance to ride in it...

Shoving off for the Maiden Voyage!

And She floats....
 We were able to spend a lot of quality time together playing games and putting together a puzzle out at the lake house.
Rudi, Ericka, and Emily playing Settlers of Catan

Trying out Emily's new game she brought home, Dominion...

The last piece of the puzzle FOUND


Uncle Ben and Paula
 One of the Saturdays they were here all of us Boohers, along with Tia Techy and her family, hiked up to K'aspicancha. (Emily did a blog about the first time they hiked to this pueblo.) It is about a three hour hike and you go up about 2 or 3 thousand feet. Not for the faint hearted, but well worth the effort. It was my first time to this village.

Rudi was concerned about the fact that the river, that is usually very low, would have risen making it difficult to cross. He was right. We ended up wading across with the guys standing in the water to make sure we weren't swept down stream. I don't know how they stood in the water helping us. My feet were frozen and I was barely in the water compared to them.
Fording the Stream
The village at the end of the hike is like stepping back in time. Some of the ladies in the village had made us potatoes with a super yummy onion, cucumber, tomato salad on top. We had to eat with our hands and the food tasted incredible after the appetite we had worked up!
Enjoying lunch WAY above Cochabamba!
The thatch roofed hut in the picture above is where they do all their cooking. It has years of black smoke and spider webs above your head inside...cozy!!! The woman of the house makes beautiful blankets out of wool that is "grown" right there in K'aspicancha. She is hopefully going to make me one to bring home.
Emily and Ericka enjoying their well earned lunch!
And just to prove that we all made it we took this family picture in front of the hut. Rudi carried Paula a lot and was sore for quite a few days after the hike. I carried nothing but myself and was sore for even longer!! We want to go as a family again before we come home to the States.
The Rudi Booher Family "On Top of the World"
Uncle Ben helping with the babies...
 And, of course, there was much time spent with the Casa de Amor babies. What a blessing it was to have all the extra helping hands. I miss Ericka's help, especially with our baby girl F. She was going through a fussy stage and it seemed that Ericka was always available to hold or feed her. Thanks, Ericka!
Ericka helping out with F. and A.

Morning Bible Reading with the Whole Crowd!
Our family tradition is to read the Bible and sing together every morning before school. Usually we do this in Spanish, but while our visitors were here we read and mostly sang in English! Tia or I usually comb the girls hair during this time!

While Ben was here he celebrated his birthday with us. Along with E. S. and Clara. We did a big February birthday party with them all together. I do not know where the pictures went. I have waited on doing this blog to find them. If and when I find them I will do a special birthday blog with them altogether. I didn't want to wait any longer to do this blog as it is late enough already!

All too soon it was time for them to head back home. We are so thankful they could come down and spend this time with us! Hurry back... Bolivia les espera!!!

Ben, Rudi, Clancy, and Myles

Saturday, March 1, 2014

Welcome Home, Emily!


About two weeks ago now we all got to go the airport to welcome home Emily to Cochabamba, along with Rudi's brother, Benjamin, and our niece and manager of our coffee shop back home, Ericka! (I am so far behind on blogs I decided to just keep plugging away in chronological order anyway!!) We took all our CDA babies along with Tia Techy. It was such a happy moment to see our Emily after what felt like a looong time and Ben and Ericka after over a year!

Waiting on the balcony for the plane to touch down!
 Clara kept some of the younger kids busy on the toys in the waiting area!
Clara and S. getting some driving in!
 Emily had earned a ukelele with all of her hard work learning Spanish. It was custom made for her this past year. It was only fitting that she would dress to match the case! She looked amazing even after spending two FULL days traveling home!
First sighting of Emily with her new Mya Moe Ukelele!
 We asked the baggage helper guy to take this group picture for us. I don't think he has taken many pictures. I am glad that he left the majority of Rudi's head in the picture! E. just made it to the left on Myles shoulder!
L.to R., E. Myles, Uncle Ben, Ericka, F., Clancy, Me, Rudi, Paula, Clara, Emily, S., Ruth, Tia Techy, and baby A.
Coming next our adventures with Uncle Ben and Ericka...