One day this past week, Maeve just wouldn't take a nap and she also wouldn't relax. I took her out to the mercado for a little date. First we stopped at the tortilla shop because Maeve had a craving and then we bought orange-pineapple juice and drank it together. I loved spending those 20 minutes with just Maeve! Poor Maeve, we try to get her down for a nap at a reasonable time each day, but our schedule has had so many variables! Lots of lates nights, late naps and missed naps! 

Here's a few pictures of the fruit stand in our local market just a block and a half away. In Ecuador, we would never touch the produce, only tell the vendors what we want and how many and they would gather it. Here, you pick out your produce yourself! I initially felt really weird doing that, but now I'm used to it. All these little differences. 

A few times, we've stopped at this local little taco shop to buy really yummy (and rolled!) tacos. It's totally a home kitchen sort of style, but the tacos are amazing and so cheap. For 8 good sized tacos, we paid 120 pesos, which is considerably less than what we paid for 4 ice creams! All the little shops and vendors really make the neighborhoods something special. There's so much more interaction between people and it's really cool! I wish there were more small shops in my neighborhood in Washington. I'm not talking boutiques, I'm talking mom and pop shops. Anyways, some photos! 

To celebrate the end of 2 weeks of learning Spanish, we picked up some ice cream on the way home from a shop that Greta wanted to go to. We bought overpriced (200 pesos for 4!), but delicious ice cream and enjoyed our sunny walk home. Holly looked so colorful with her piñata, green ice cream, purple sunglasses and blue dress, I had to take a picture! Ice cream immediately before lunch or dinner... when you're in Mexico, yes!

I often feel like pinching myself because we are here in Mexico! Yes, absolutely it's a lot of work (and money) to be here and one of the reasons I homeschool my children is so that we can do these kinds of adventures. But honestly, this life I get to live, it's incredible! Never mind the fact we waited to take our laundry to be cleaned until the last moment and may have to reuse our undies tomorrow or that I have not figured out how on earth to cook here! There are so many other things that land in place for us, a fantastic Spanish school, someone trustworthy to care for Maeve while we are at school, and a wonderful welcoming church community, and this is just naming a few lovely things! One of my favorite things about traveling is the experiences I get to have with complete strangers. These experiences are so affirmative of how much good there is in the world! We met a very kind family at church, the wife is a gringa but has spent most of her life living abroad, the majority of it in Spanish-speaking countries. They have one son who is 6 months older than Greta and my girls get along so well with him! The other day, we went to his school to watch his tennis practice and to see what a school in Mexico is like (because you never know!). Then we went to the park to play and then he came to our house for an hour to play. I really, really love that my daughters have been able to mix with kids here! It's so incredible. And the third student in their Spanish group is an 8 year old girl from Alaska. Life is beautiful.

Here in these photos the girls and Santi are eating jicama and mangos dipped in flavored chili powder. The chili powder isn't spicy, but it is flavorful and surprisingly sour.