The Boys Lately

One of the things I have loved most about our move to Antigua is the great variety of extra-curricular activites that are offered for the boys.  During our Spring semester they took soccer, P.E., piano, and a Science experiment class.  We ended all of those in May when we finished the school year.

In July they began a six week art class led by a young Guatemalan girl who had recently returned from the States after graduating from an art institute in San Francisco, CA.  They loved her class!  They went two afternoons a week for six weeks.  A few of their favorite topics included photography, pottery, dyeing fabric, and weaving.  During the course they also took two field trips to local museums.  It was a great experience for my two little art lovers.

A photo after their first day of class.
 One of the things they did on this day was make rubber stamps.

busy in art class

Their first art field trip was to La Nueva Fabrica in Santa Ana.  In addition to touring the museum they also did a few crafts.  One of those was making the wooden bead necklaces you see them wearing in the picture.

 A tower they could not wait to climb outside the museum.

Another field trip was to Santo Domingo del Cerro to tour the museums there.  You can see them working on an art project while there.  They had to make a canvas of something they saw in one of the museums.

 Ben painting on fabric in one of his classes.

learning to weave

Cruz with just a few of the things he made in his classes.  They were sad for the six weeks to end but I am thinking we might sign up again down the road.

I always let them choose a fun activity to do before we begin a new school year.  This year they begged to go to Sky Zone in Guatemala City.  They love this place!  This was our "last blast" for the summer.   

so much fun!

I even jumped on this visit.

We love Sky Zone!

For their August activity they are doing an EcoXplorer class on Saturday mornings at Eco Farms in San Felipe. This is a course on outdoor survival skills.  They have a different topic each week.  Here are a few photos of their class so far.

learning to tie knots in ropes

tree climbing 

 learning how to build a fire

This past Saturday they learned how to make a "canteen" out of bamboo and collect water from the plants in the forest.  They got to use machetes to chop the bamboo which was their favorite part. They have one more week of this fun class before it ends.

Some more miscellaneous photos of them lately- 

David and Ben in Antigua

 Cruz touring the Las Capuchinas ruins in Antigua

a visit to Dunkin Donuts for an after school treat

A school field trip to see an art exhibit at Hotel Santo Domingo.

Now that school is back in session we are continuing our weekly Friday movie nights. They look forward to this night all week long.

He helped me make a few loaves of chocolate chip pumpkin bread.

and here he is helping me cook breakfast one morning.  

They have had a wide variety of fun activities lately.  I am thankful for all they are learning and especially the memories they are making.