Well I should start by apologizing to all of you who have been waiting to hear from us, it’s certainly been a while! It seems that after being here for over four months now, we’ve settled into a routine, and we’ve been doing pretty good.
Our New Home
Once TM and MK started school/preschool in Grecia, we saw how great they were doing and knew we made a good choice to enroll them. Our first home, however, was about 25 minutes from their school. With school and extra curricular activities we were making that drive 2 or 3 times per day, so we decided that it would just make more sense if we moved closer to the town. I was sad to leave our first place; nothing can compare to the peacefulness and magnificent views that surrounded us. Not to mention our friends we were leaving right next door. But we made the more practical decision, and one we thought was best for our family.
Goodbye house…
home5
tm-mk-school
Our new home is about 2 miles from the kids’ schools, and pretty much everything else in Grecia. It’s a smaller gated community with a pool, playground, and even tennis courts. We were extremely lucky to find this house (it was a referral from a friend of Grant), since the house was just about done being built when we saw it. The landlord was nice enough to make a great deal with us, and furnish the home with a slight upcharge on the monthly rent. It has 4 bedrooms and a nice little bonus room that we use as a TV room. This home fits our family of 5 just perfect (compared to our other 2 bedroom), and our monthly rent is lower, score!new-house-front
new-house-living
new-house-kitchen
new-house-master
new-house-tm
new-house-gl
new-house-tennis
mk-baby
Old habits die hard
As much as I told myself that life in Costa Rica will be completely different from an “All American” family life, I see our developing routine here mirroring what our lives would be like back in Florida. Not that it’s necessarily a bad thing, but coming here our vision was to JUST WING IT (and by IT, I mean LIFE). Go where the wind takes us…. kinda thing. Well, that’s a little easier said than done (for our family anyways). If your kids are younger than school age (like many expat families here), or if you’re a retired couple, that way of life might be easier to follow. Now that the kids are in school, we pretty much work around their school schedule. And let’s not forget extracurricular activities (karate and ballet, that they really enjoy), which I would have honestly never have imagined they would be doing here in Costa Rica. Oh, and there’s also Spanish lessons that Grant and TM take 4 times per week. So our days start early and fast paced.Wake up early and get to school, then to the next activity, and then to the next…. sound familiar?? So our plan to slow down and relax has become the familiar GO, GO, GO.
There’s ALWAYS time for ice cream 🙂
ice-cream-time
That being said, things don’t always turn out the way we think. The slow pace life would have eventually become a little boring and the kids would have probably sat in front of a “screen” for much too long (which they probably still do anyways lol). Our life now is allowing them to learn, and really take in another culture. They’re making friends, or trying to at least; and definitely picking up the language.
We are very excited not to have to work around the school schedule soon. The school calendar here in Costa Rica goes from February until the end of November, so next week is their last week. We will have the next two months to slow down, explore the country, and go where the wind takes us. =)
shellhammer-family
