Férias!

We have had a fun and busy summer. We have not been able to leave for extended periods of time since our business still needs our full attention. Having our own company has been great with the flexibility of hours, especially being able to spend extra time with the kids, but it also requires a lot of work and micro-management.
In January we had the family Keymeulen (my sister and her family) here from Belgium. The kids LOVED every day of it. Josefine played nicely with Ana Julia (7 years) and was absolutely fascinated by Victor (6 months) and kept trying to hold him, cuddle, kiss and play with him. Luckily he is a great baby and loved the attention. Kaio also loved playing with Victor and even asked for us to have another baby!!! Very cute! Kaio and Lucas (8 years) played non-stop, although I was surprised to see how Kaio also adored playing with Ana Julia. Overall, they all got along great and we had a lot of fun! They don´t speak the same language and only a couple of times they came to us to ask for translation. (it was mainly Josefine being stubborn and we needed to help them to sort it out)
In February we finally went to the beach! Kaio, Josefine, Oma and I went to Torres for 2 nights. We stayed in a hotel (all in 1 room) and we had a great time. The first day we only spend 1 hr at the beach (it was overcast and late), however the 2nd day was perfect and we spend 4 hrs at the beach. Kids were great. They loved playing in the sand and the ocean (although Josefine was a bit cautious at first). She kept saying the ocean was a "piscina" (swimming pool) and the sand (which was very white and soft) was "leite" (milk). They loved the popsicles and the corn-on-the-cob we would get from the beach vendors.
After that Jason came to Torres with titia and we followed on to Florianópolis. We met up with some friends that flew in from the US and had 4 wonderful days!!! One of the days it rained, but all the other days we went to the beach. Our record was 7 hrs (straight) on the beach (although Josefine and daddy went to take a nap around noon). Kaio was just unstoppable. He loved going in the ocean, playing with the sand and running around. (I had to make him drink liquids and eat, otherwise he would not stop!) Josefine loved to sit in the shade, have some toys in front of her and watch people; however on the last day she was really enjoying the ocean. They loved the fact that titia was with us (me too, as it was an extra pair of hands to help and entertain them! ;-)
Now that we are starting to go back to a "normal" routine after the holidays, we are having a hard time adjusting them back to school. Kaio understands that he needs to go, however he asks daily "hoje é dia de ir para o colégio" (is it a school day?) to which is expects a negative answer. Josefine starts crying when we enter their school´s street and it is difficult to hand her over to the teachers. I am hoping we will adjust soon!