Halloween! (Or just pumpkin carving)

 They don't really celebrate Halloween here as the would be "worshiping the devil" so the closest we get is carving pumpkins. So this weekend we decided to have a friendly pumpkin carving competition between the boys and girls.  The rules were that Sam could help the girls with one pumpkin and I could help the boys with one pumpkin.  Then the kids had to carve a second pumpkin all by themselves.  The pumpkin that the kids carved by themselves would then be judged by a third party.  Our judge was Bruce.  He is an older gentleman from Canada.

The Girls pumpkins, Sam carved the one on the right.  The Micky Mouse was the one to be judged.

The boys pumpkins,  I carved the one on the right. I know, I'm terrible.

The winning house got Coke to drink for the prize.  Before they were judged I figured the girls won by a landslide however, our judge liked the boys better because it was more of a classic looking pumpkin.  I felt bad though because the girls was obviously better (to me anyway) so I gave them some coke as well.

Karate Time!

Saturday we had a school wide karate tournament.  Nearly all the kids participated in at least one of the two competitions.  There was a Kata competition which is a pre-learned karate routine and also a sparring competition. It whole ordeal lasted for about 3 hours and most of the kids had a great time.  My boys all did really well in the fighting competitions, and I'm guessing its because they get a lot of practice around the house.

Getting ready to fight

Anthony handing out the cutest butt whipping of all time.

Joel won the sparring competition in his age range. 

Ricardo in the blue had 2 big upsets and ended up winning the sparring competition in his age range.

 

College!

Saturday we took the older kids to a college visit in Trujillo. It was a great learning experience and lots of fun as well.  It was Samantha's idea, she saw a billboard advertising it and thought it would be a good idea to bring our older kids.  

It really reminded me of my college visits.  Lots of loud music and cheering.  The kids all got to hop on a computer and fill out their information.  After they got added to the system we waited in front of a stage for about an hour while more room opened up in the career area.  Once it was our groups turn, we got herded into a fenced off area that had stands for each of the career paths the children could choose.  Yhonson headed over to the Business Administration tent, Lourdes, Azucena and Betty went to the Veterinarian medicine, Karol went to the Law tent and Lucero our newest girl went to Elementary education.

 I accompanied Yhonson to the administration tent where they gave a really good talk about why he should choose them (they're pretty good salesmen).  After the quick talk a rep. from the administration tent took us on a quick tour of some business classrooms then we listened to a professor of finance talk about how great the administration program was and then gave us a 20 minute lecture about entrepreneurship.  I was even asked talk to the group of prospective students after the teacher learned that I graduated with an International Business degree.  Before we left we all filled out a rough draft business plan to submit to a contest.  I'm probably going to win.  

After the campus tour Samantha and I took the kids to the Pizza hut down the street and the kids gorged themselves on the rare treat.  

It was a great day. 

Kids entering their info

Karol being called up on stage

waiting for our group's turn to go

Lucero  (mid in pink) won a back pack because of Sam's cheering.