This hibiscus bush is just on the corner from our apartment. Last night I noticed a tree growing pomegranates! The plants here are top notch. Anyways, here's my cute baby who won't remember anything from this trip. 

Yesterday was our first full day in Mexico! We walked to El Centro and spend a good chunk of time hunting down sunglasses for me. We wandered through many markets and saw many sights. For lunch we stopped to eat mole (a little spicy), tlayuda, hot chocolate and buns. And then we continued on! We stopped for paletas (popsicles) and people watched at the Zocalo. Maeve helped herself to another family's potato chips, which was cute for the first 10 chips and then it got excessive. The kids have been real troopers about all the walking! Maeve really likes to walk and she's pretty good about holding hands. She's adorable and the people love her. 

Last night we went to a yummy restaurant where we ate cheese and tortilla chips and guacamole. The food is really good here!

Here are some photos of our first tacos, quesadillas and tlayuda. So yummy!

We made it to Mexico after a long day of travel and one tight connection. It's so exciting to be here and rather exhausting. We all need to catch up on sleep! In a way, stepping out of the airport felt like coming home. So many things are similar to Ecuador and yet, there are so many differences. It was the first smell that really took me back to Ecuador. We all love hearing the people speak Spanish and we all long to speak better Spanish. 

Our apartment is wonderful, even if I do wish it was closer to the Centro. The nice thing about our apartment is that it's location is not at all touristy. There are other children in the building and my children are thrilled to play, run and scream with them. It's incredible! I love the bright colored exterior and inside, it stays nice and cool. Everything is really quite comfy! Today we bought some knives for the kitchen. I believe our cooking at home will be pretty basic. The food at restaurants is so good and cheap. 

Later this week, we leave for Oaxaca, Mexico and we will be there for a month! We're pretty excited and feeling pretty lucky that we have this opportunity. Homeschool perks for sure! We booked this trip only about 2 months ago and haven't had as much time to prepare for it as we did for Ecuador. After Christmas, I borrowed a bunch of books about Mexico from the library, and we did a bunch of cactus art. The art was so much fun, but my kiddos may be sick of cacti! We made cacti with white glue dyed black, watercolor paint and tissue paper flowers. We made cacti cut from construction paper and drew the prickles on with permanent marker. We made cacti with hand prints and used our fingers to make the flowers (Maeve did this one too!). And lastly, we made cacti with shaving cream and food dye swirled together and then pressed on watercolor paper. The shaving cream one was the favorite, but the black glue one was a close second! I love all this wonderful, vibrant cactus art hanging up at the back table! I can't wait to go to the Botanical Gardens in Oaxaca and see all the plants! We read a couple of great books about the Saguaro Cactus, and while I'm not sure we will see any in person, they are so fascinating! 

We're in the flurry of packing and getting ready for this trip. All the nerves and butterflies and worries about the flight are setting in. We're all pretty excited! One month is going to fly by! 

Maeve was very interested in playing the shaving cream and was pleased to swirl some around on a tray herself, but she doesn't like getting anything on her hands such as shaving cream. Crumbs and yogurt are also included in the list of things she doesn't like on her hands!

Here are the links to the different cactus art projects:
Black Glue Cactus
3D Paper Cactus
Handprint Cactus
Shaving Cream Cactus