Fabricio's Sitio in Atibaia

Late Friday night, we all piled in several cars and headed up to the mountains to Fabricio's "sitio" where we spent the weekend. We got there at midnight and got the kids settled to bed as soon as possible. Cai woke up way before anyone else so I kept him entertained outside walking around the game room, pool, garden, and playground. Somehow, a mysterious caterpillar fell from the sky and stung Cai's hand pretty badly. This type of caterpillar protects itself through poisonous little hairs that burn anything that touches it. Quite an adventurous way to start the day.

The bulk of our time there was spent playing on their soccer field, in the game room, and on the playgroung, but we also went hiking and spent time playing with the animals. I was proud of how well Dezi played soccer with all the older kids and happy that Henry was willing to teach him some soccer tricks. I was also happy to see that even little Cai had enough stamina for the long exploration walk we went on. As far as the animals, they loved the little puppy that the "caseiros", or caretakers, had, along with the bunnies, chicks, and other miscellaneous creatures we encountered. Everyone thought the boys had never seen bugs before because they were SO interested in every single creature they saw. I had to explain to them that the excitement of bugs and animals NEVER wares off. They showed me every ant, caterpillar, beetle, bee, and other living creature they saw.

On Sunday, the rest of the extended family showed up to celebrate Mother's Day, which I had pretty much forgotten about. We had a wonderful meal with great food (veggies fresh from the garden) and conversation. The desserts were delicious! I brought brownies, but had a hard time converting the temperature to Celsius (why is that conversion so hard?!). The brigadeiro, pudding, pavé, and torta de maracuja were all dreamy. I think I could have eatern the entire passion fruit pie by myself!

After lunch, Kety's kids performed a song they were supposed to sing to her at a Mother's Day school program. Because Kety had breast cancer and just had a very difficult chemo treatment on Thursday, I helped convince the kids NOT to make their poor mother go to this big event, but to do it in the family setting instead. It was the most emotional performance! Under the context of Kety having cancer and the intimate setting, it was so sweet that EVERYONE was crying by the end of it. Henry added to the emotion by giving his dad's girlfriend, Paula, a wedding ring.

All in all, it was a great weekend. By the end of it, I wished that I could have kept on spending time with Kety. I will need to make greater efforts to keep in touch with her.