The girls and I made art aprons together. Holly and Greta helped with a little of the sewing on these aprons. Teaching these kiddos to sew takes a lot of patience! These aprons were worth it, they are so cute! Holly and Greta both wanted to add pockets and so we did. I hope they chose to remember the good parts of my motherhood and not the impatient ones!

One thing I want to do more with my girls is sew, but it's not really my favorite thing because it takes time to learn the basics of sewing and the girls want to make everything really fast and then I just get overwhelmed. I've had this little zippered purse project on my mind for a while and having Cathy here for a visit seemed like the perfect opportunity to tackle it! It was the best having an extra set of hands and Cathy has experience teaching children to sew and she has the wonderful patience of a grandmother. It was perfect! Holly and Greta are so proud of their creations!

We just had to visit this chocolate factory one more time. I think I understood that one day a week, older women come in a make chocolate using the traditional method, but maybe I didn't understand? Anyways, not to worry. This chocolate factory is incredible. We went with out friend that I met at yoga class in Cuenca. It's so fun to have real live friends! I bought some unsweetened chocolate. Hoping it makes it home ok with me so that I can make hot chocolate and ice cream. 

Holly and Greta wore their new traditional Cuencan outfits. Finding these skirts and blouses for a decent price was a big win! 

A couple pics from the best park in Cuenca! This swing set is so much fun and would never be permitted in the USA because the kids can totally kick each other if they are tall enough and get going high enough!

During school hours, we see a lot of school groups doing physical education. On this day, we saw a bunch of little children riding around on bicycles. Wouldn't it be so neat if schools back home had enough bikes for a class? I've seen older school children (like junior/middle schooled age) riding bikes too!

This past week, we visited a couple of museums with our tutor, one of which was the sombrero museum. I have been told and read so many times that panama hats are not from Panama, they are from Ecuador. I didn't anticipate the cost of some of the hats. While there were hats for $25, there were also hats for $800! I'm not ashamed to say we left the museum empty handed.

There is a beautiful view of the city from the cafe. I really liked the re-purposed hat molds turned planters.