a shout out

I like playing around with photos and have been thinking of buying Photoshop for quite a while now. However, I'm a bit of a technophobe (note to self....MUST get over that) and have been worried that Photoshop will outwit me. (Note to self...it probably will).

In the meantime, while I wrestle with my inner digital demons, I have found http://www.picnik.com/ and it's awesome. If you like fiddling with things you might like this too. Super easy. Free. Relatively easy on the ego.

(Hmmm. Perhaps Max is little too orange? Gotta get him off the self tanner....)

Something cool

Limes are plentiful in Panama. They're everywhere you look. Consequently you can buy about 20 limes for a buck. We use limes for everything; salad dressing, key lime pie, Zella's exotic and pretend "cold lime soup" and now this new drink we've been gargling down for the last couple of months. Actually, it's not all that new, but it's reallllly tasty.

• About six ounces of Quinac (or Tonic Water at home)
• Three mini-limes (about the size of a large walnut) yielding almost 1/2 a cup of juice

Crush the limes into the Quinac, add copious amounts of ice and enjoy. It brings down your core temperature by several degrees. Which is always a good thing in Panama.

(For those of you seasoned Gin and Tonic drinkers....yes, this is a virgin G&T:).

"It was the BEST night of my whole entire life"

Zella had her very first ballet recital last night and she was amazing. After seven months of hard work and practise with her Panamanian dance teacher, Maestra AnaMelissa, she's hooked!

In the car on the way home she announced, "I want to dance forever. I'm going to travel the world dancing on stages with lights. And then I will be a dance teacher."

A star is born.:)

Toys in a tropical country...

If you've had the good luck of spending any time in Zella's company then you know that her number one, go-to toy is dolls. We have dolls coming out the ying yang at our house. Not just any dolls, they must be baby dolls. The dolls in the pictures above are a set of triplets given to Zella by her godparents Marc and Trish, (thanks M and T...just what we need...are the octuplets in the mail???).

If you will notice though, the triplets are in not just any run of the mill bassinet. Take a closer look. That's a seed pod from a royal palm tree. Royal palms are the ones that grow to about 60 ft and dot desert island screensavers. The seed pods are everywhere these days, the palms are flowering and the pods come crashing to the ground when the huge greenish white flowers come out. Some of the pods are large enough for Max to lie down in!

The kids have been devising ways for these pods to be useful. So far they've come in handy as boats, dolly strollers, toboggans, weapons and very large hats. While they are large and cumbersome they're usually free of insects and generally don't make too much a mess in the house. So seed pods are all the rage. You're all getting them for Christmas next year.

Family

Some more shots of family. Thanks so much for coming down you guys. You've made Panama feel a little bit more like home to us.:)

Where we've been...

We've been on vacation with family! Lots of sun, sand and family time. Aunt Chris and Uncle Sandy came from Halifax, Grandma and Grampa came from Bracebridge and we all convened at a local all-inclusive. Much eating, swimming and talking ensued. I think a family tradition was born!

I'm awful

I'm awful sorry. And apparently I'm an awful blogger too. No posts in January. SHAME. I promise more to come. We've had lots of guests and been busy showing off the sights. No excuse though. I promise I'm coming back. With lots of photos. Stay tuned.