busy week... busy weekend...

A friend of mine is doing this 360 project online, where you take a photo a day for a whole year, but one thing I think is fun is that she then posts a week post on her blog with a photo for each day. Her photos are amazing and capture the most unique things about her week and exploration in photography. I was thinking of her when I put this post together, although mine are not 1 from each day this week, so it's not quite the same but you get what I am saying, right?

Anyway, this was an incredibly busy week this week so much happening at school, at home, at work so I thought since I didn't get a chance to post this week, I'd do a quick summary of the highlights.

Monday started with Jaiden's African Safari Night at school. It was a really awesome venue that included playing an African counting game, a museum curator that brought all this amazing African cultural art, musical instruments, etc, several art projects including a drum and a very cool mask; and then at the end of the day they wrapped it up with a safari walk outside. So cool!

Tuesday, Jaiden requested this for dinner... monster sandwiches...

... which he saw in this book he checked out from the library. I didn't melt the cheese but I think it turned out pretty good. Even Alyssa ate one!

Wednesday... I forget what happened but Thursday was the BIG day- the jog a thon! Jaiden at the finish line - 2 thumbs up at 14 laps!

Alyssa during her jog a thon session - she managed to walk/run 8 laps!

Then today, Friday. I love Fridays because it's a full day of loving this little one. She helped me make these bird nests with speckled m&m eggs.

And then in the evening, we wrapped up dying and decorating eggs. This is one of Alyssa's egg, all prettied up!

And these? These are Jaiden's eggs after multiple dipping in multiple colors... looking very ugly and reptile like. He, of course, was highly entertained by the grotesqueness and I made the mistake of telling him one looked pretty so he doused it in more colors. Yes, this is good in the eyes of a 7 year old boy - forget the pastels, dude!

win-win

While driving on the bus, Eduardo, our tour director, would point out animals or give us stories about their history, culture, etc. On one particular day, he pointed out the little white birds that we were consistently seeing next to the cattle. He called them Cattle Egrets. And Cattle Egrets feed off of insects, the cows attract insects, the Cattle Egrets eat them... simple enough right?

Well, Jaiden and I happened to be sitting together and he didn't seem to be paying attention but at the end of Eduardo's explanation, he looks at me and say "Mommy, that's a win-win situation."

M: What do you mean?

J: A win-win situation, you know. The cattle attract the insects but they don't care for insects and the birds like insects. So the birds eat the annoying insects and the cattle are happy there are less insects and the birds are happy because they are full. See? A win-win situation.

M: That is a really good explanation. Just where did you learn that?

J: At school.

And after that, Jaiden and I referred to the cattle and the cattle egrets as the "win-win" and we delighted in pointing it out to each other.

mariposa

Yesterday morning, I caught a glimpse of this ...

and couldn't resist a photo. Alyssa was in her room talking or so I thought until I peeked in and found her reading her "new, hand me down from Jaiden" Magic School Bus Butterfly book. The strange thing is that I read it to her twice the night before and I swear listening to her I could hear her read various parts of the book!

Well, this photo seemed fitting to put up with another Costa Rican story and this one is about mariposa which in Spanish means butterfly. While Jaiden was dreaming of snakes, frogs, insects and monkey's to see in Costa Rica, Alyssa was dreaming of being Dora in Costa Rica. I really think she thought she was going to be Dora and Jaiden would be Diego and the two of them would rescue howler monkeys and catch the infamous Blue Morpho butterfly.

Luckily for me, they didn't catch either but we did have a stop at a place that was El Jardin de Mariposa or Butterfly Garden.

Alyssa stood patiently waiting for one butterfly to land on her and after much waiting, she was rewarded. A gentleman from another tour saw her hands open and out standing still and ironically had a butterfly so he slowly transferred it to her patient hands. (I am not so sure I have ever seen her be that still except for sleeping!) She was delighted and awed, but she was also sweet and caring to...

... to transfer it to her big brother so he could have a turn holding one. (I love this photo!)

He enjoyed it for a minute or two and then gently gave it back to Alyssa who was getting a little too excited and impatient for another turn.

She enjoyed this butterfly immensely.

And this is the Blue Morpho that she really wanted to rescue but I made her leave it alone with the promise she could have a really good photograph of it instead.

Even though we went specifically to a butterfly garden, we did see the Blue Morpho everywhere. I am not sure we were ever able to not see one go by because Alyssa always shouted "blue morpho, blue morpho" and if she didn't see it first, one of us would chime in for her.

he was an amphibian caribbean...

... this is part of the lyrics of a song Jaiden's class learned but he and I think it's fitting for all the frogs we found on the Caribbean side of Costa Rica!

A huge part about making the decision to go somewhere interesting involved Jaiden being at the right age and how much he loves nature. Alyssa's easy going nature made it possible too although we doubted she would remember as much as him plus her collection of toys is baby dolls, not frogs! And we were pretty certain we wouldn't find wild baby dolls anywhere!

This is Jaiden's collection of frogs so you can imagine why we spent endless hours trying to find the red-eye tree frog but no luck. Apparently, despite it's popularity and abundance, they are very tricky to find because they like it really dark! So that means we will have to go back, of course!

We did have much success with a few other types of amphibians...

The green and black poison dart frog was everywhere and a delight to look for because they were so abundant and easier to see!

The strawberry poison dart frog was adorable, so very tiny and quick. Also found easily in Selva Verde but very hard to photograph.

Another green and black poison dart frog in it's more natural environment.

We thought this one might be the tungara frog... spotted by Jaiden at night too.

We think this one was a common tink frog which if you would believe Jaiden saw this one at night also!

While in Fortuna, we kept looking as it was truly a fun adventure to go wandering at night to see what we might find. On that particular outing, Alyssa was quite tired and I had to get her to bed but in the short time we were all together, we saw an armadillo and these enormous toads that reminded Dennis and I of the cane toads in Australia although not that big.

Both kids delighted in finding the frogs and Alyssa's favorite is the strawberry poison dart frog, whom she kept exclaiming in the perfect baby talking voice "he or she's soooo cute!"

reptile encounters

Notice to viewers: The following material involves close-ups and fine details of exotic reptiles that were not harmed in the process of photographing them, however, for the weary minded it may be too much detail!

On a serious note, we really did have many, many reptile encounters and it was simply awing and a little uneasy for me, at least! Some of the snakes we saw are rare and not often seen in broad daylight as well as a few of the little basilisks.

Jaiden was, of course, completely thrilled with each and every encounter and often the one who spotted them. Here is a small sampling of our favorite encounters... I am sure I am missing a few especially the Jesus Christo basilisk (called that because it can walk on water... and it really does, we saw one take off running on water!)

A little difficult to see in this photo but seconds maybe even milliseconds before I took this photo, the iguana that was basking in the sun on the rotten bananas next to the path scrambled at high speed down the ladder. If you look closely, you can see the blur of his body and his tail atop the bananas. In this photo you can see how close we really were!

Here is the same type of Green Iguana (not the same one that scurried away in the photo above) that basked next to the pathway. This is the largest lizard in Costa Rica measuring often at 79 inches or more! Although I think most of the length is their tails.

Alyssa cautiously walking by...

... this pretty fellow! After seeing how fast the one moved down the ladder, Alyssa and I both were much more cautious and would talk softly to them to let them know we were just passing by and thanking them for sharing the pathway and letting us by! Now I know where she gets the talking to animals from!

Can you find this beautiful Green Basilisk? Jaiden spotted this beauty and I must have taken a dozen photos of her because she was so still and beautiful, wonderfully camouflaged. This was shot at 130mm  to give you an idea how far into the bushes she was.

Another cutie spotted by Jaiden. It's a Slender Anole and at approximately 5-6 inches, I am amazed at how he finds these cuties (I will say cuties to the little ones because they really are kind of cute and less scary than the big ones!)

This was a very rare siting discovered by Dennis. Our hiking guide was equally impressed as these Bird-eating snakes tend to be high in the trees and are rarely seen.

Interestingly, we saw two of these Eyelash Pitviper's on our hike among the hanging bridges just outside of Fortuna near the Arenal Volcano. The first one we saw was a bit in the distance and try as I might, I was certain I wasn't seeing what the guide was pointing out even through my lens I couldn't quite be sure I saw it so I skipped the photo and moved on. We rounded the bend and found this one and I instantly knew I had seen the other one. I wasn't expecting it to look like this!

And this one... now this one, I wasn't so sure I wanted to photograph as it was dangerously too close to the path for my comfort even behind my 100mm lens I felt hugely intimidated but needless to say, it was surprising and intriguing to see a real Boa Constrictor right there on the grass by a tree by our path!

Next up amphibian encounters...

who do ya call?

Bug busters ... yep, sing along to that! This was our evening entertainment from day 1... we ate dinner and since the sun set fairly early around 5:45 pm and dark by 6:30 pm, we brought our flashlights and my camera with the macro lens out for bug adventures... we also managed to sight an armadillo and several very large toads! 

This photo was taken on the second night at Selva Verde (which if you ever go to Costa Rica, this is a must go to place). After a successful bug hunt the first night, Alyssa joined us in looking for strange bugs (she was too tired the first night and unfortunately, she and I missed the glowing eyed bug that Daddy and Jaiden witnessed in the restaurant) on the second night.

from day 1 evening: this was our first bug siting... he or she was lovely.

We met other folks also out on bug hunts who recommended this banded owl butterfly - who we later saw several times around in the days to follow. The man who told us about her said she had a big bite out of her wing probably by a bird or something.

This one was found on day 2 in the early evening but also very striking to look and quite big!

We sought out these Golden Orb-weaver spiders which are the size of your hand... don't ask how I was able to photograph so closely... I think it was a false sense of security on my part as I had a rather large lens in front of my face... like that would have helped me?!

Spotted on our evening walk of day 3... an amazing leaf praying mantis...

I shot this angle because I thought the face was so interesting... unfortunately, you can't use a flash at night or the bug just might disappear so I had to open the aperture wide which is why you see the blur or change in the depth of field near the left side.

These beetles were everywhere and were easily the size of a thumb. Also hard to photograph because they scurried away in the light...

Our bug hunts were successful - we found thousands of unique bugs but much to our disappointment, we never did find that elusive red-eyed tree frog who we were told was best seen at night under the leaves of the ginger plant or these banana palm fronds.... maybe on our next trip!

why was 6 afraid of 7?

...because 7 8 9...

and that is exactly what is going to happen. Before I know it, he will be 9 and I will be blogging about where did THAT time go?

Because looking back at these photos, I can't imagine how he can be 7 already!

April 2004

April 2005

April 2006

April 2007

April 2008 (photo compliments of Yaya)

April 2009 (photo compliments of Yaya)

April 2010

April 2011

Love this toothless smile...

Love the laughter...

Love the "no kisses, Mommy" yet he seeks out the kissing punishment...

Love that he keeps growing and learning - awing me all the time...

Love the sweetness that he is...

Happy 7th birthday, stinky boy!

PS. the cookie photos were obviously missing in the early years but I am sure Yaya has a few that I don't have to fill in those gaps since the cookies are compliments of her tradition! If you find them Mom, can you send them my way? Thank you!

PSS. The Costa Rican adventures will continue tomorrow!

preciosa

Preciosa in Spanish means precious, beautiful, sweet... and this little peach earned that nickname in many ways on our latest adventure in Costa Rica!

As a world traveler, she definitely has a few quirks ... for example, she was the smallest person in the airplane seat but easily elbowed me off the armrest... she made me eat only the raisins out of the fruit and nut mix because they tasted funny to her... she wanted to sit with Daddy every chance she could get... which I think was partially because he gave into this...

... the TV on the back of the seat... but honestly, it really worked for her. She was 100% enamored with being able to watch programs especially Dora (which I think is who she thought  she was going off to Costa Rica and exploring the jungle!)... she did fairly well with the constant change and seemed to enjoy finding the animals - monkeys, lizards, crocodiles, even bugs ... she said hola to everyone and we think it was for the share joy of watching everyone's reaction ... she swooned everyone ... but when it came to eating she only wanted pineapple, banana, watermelon, cucumber, tomatoes and plain bread if they had it. I think the most adventurous thing she tried was fresh tortilla chips which thankfully she liked dipping into her peanut butter packets I had brought along ... oh, and anything with chocolate she would try!

In complete contrast was this little monkey... 

... who I am certain has officially been inflicted with a travel bug. He tried everything ... literally everything and I'd say 97% of the time, he loved it. He definitely had an affinity for coconut milk and had one any chance he could.

On the first day arriving at Selva Verde, he exclaimed we were living in tree houses (the rooms were on stilts) and on the second day he exclaimed that this "was better than Disneyland!" (the ultimate compliment for a 6 almost 7 year old) by the end of the trip, he asked me what my favorite parts were and I said "staying in the jungle, what is yours?" He replied without even thinking twice "I loved the jungle house, not those fancy hotels, and I loved learning Spanish"....

watch out world another globetrotter has found his wings!