Latest Goings-on and Another Volcano Visit

Claire is very into art these days – she does a lot of it at school and really likes to color and play with Play-Doh at home. We've also been reading the "Winnie-the-Pooh" books to her before bed - we've all really enjoyed that. Anyone have recommendations on other chapter books that are good to read to four-year-olds? She's a bit young for Harry Potter yet...

Note the "tongue of concentration" - she's done that since she was tiny

Near our house we have these GINORMOUS spiders – we have no idea what they are but they’re really impressive. Anyone know what it's called?

Not something you want to walk into by mistake...

We had another birthday party for a friend of Claire’s – this was one of her friends from Yimboré (her old school). We went to the Fun Zone in Escazu and a fun time was had by all.

Claire with her friends dancing to “Periquito” (“Parakeet”), a very popular children’s party song here [see video of them dancing here]

Last Saturday we went to volcano number three – Irazú Volcano National Park. It’s about an hour and a half from our house, in the Cartago province. Apparently it’s in the same range as Volcán Poás that we went to in June, but higher. Our friend Lily joined us and we had a great morning exploring and hiking around the volcano. Lily also got some FANTASTIC pictures of Claire. [the full album can be seen here]

A coati (called a pizote here) in the parking lot 

Lily and me at the entrance to the park - note the coat - Irazú is above the cloud line so is always chilly (Lily was cold but enjoyed the experience of being cold as a novelty)

The first crater: "Crater Diego de la Haya"

 Walking along the rim of the principal crater

Lily playing with Claire 

The principal crater - there's much less water at the bottom than there used to be, and it's not as green 

Walking with a cute girl 

A sample of some of the wonderful pictures Lily took of our girl:

This one looks like her senior picture 

The Spanish translation (full thing again - por favor, ¡corríjanme!):

A Claire le encanta hacer arte estos días – hace mucho arte en su escuela y disfruta mucho colorar y jugar con Play-Doh en la casa. Nosotros le hemos leído a Claire los libros de Winnie Pooh – los hemos disfrutado mucho. ¿Alguienes tienen recomendaciones para otros libros con capítulos para niñas que tienen cuatro años? Ella está demasiada joven para Harry Potter todavía…

Cerca nuestra casa tenemos las arañas GIGANTES – no tenemos nada idea los que sean pero ellos son muy impresionantes. ¿Alguienes conocen como se llaman?

Tuvimos otra fiesta de cumpleaños para un amigo de Claire- él es un amigo de Yimboré (la vieja escuela de Claire). Fuimos al Fun Zone en Escazu y la pasamos muy bien.

Sábado pasado fuimos al volcán número tres – Parque Nacional Volcán Irazú. Está una hora y media de nuestra casa, en la provincia de Cartago. Supuestamente, está en la misma cordillera de Volcán Poás que visitamos en junio, pero más alto. Nuestra amiga Lily vino con nosotros y la pasamos una mañana maravillosa exploramos y caminamos por el parque. También, Lily tomó algunas fotos FANTASTICAS de Claire [pueden ver el álbum entero aquí]

Vimos un pizote, dos cráteres, y plantes interesantes al volcán. Irazú está sobre la línea de las nubes, entonces hace mucho frio (para Costa Rica).