14 Years Old And Living Her Best Life

 On April 26th, my only daughter celebrated her 14th birthday. I really wanted to mark this momentous and truly special occasion the best way I could, with some sort of celebration.

We couldn't do much in the way of a party but we did the most and it was amazing. Not only did we take her on the most epic vacation, she also got a shopping spree at the mall and a day at the formula kart go karts which culminated with some fine dining at Olive Garden. I'd say she had a great birthday and I think she would agree.

The day before her birthday, we went ziplining through the jungles of La Fortuna Arenal, which was amazing.

On her actual birthday, I took her to the mall on a little Forever 21 shopping spree and to Spoons so she could pick out a special cake to mark the occasion.

To finish up her birthday week, she decided on go karting and Olive Garden. It was a super special, really fun and pretty memorable birthday celebration fit for a princess. 

 

The Most Epic Vacation

 It's May but lets back track to April and talk about our amazing family vacation. It was a two part adventure, first to Tamarindo beach where we stayed in the most spectacular beachfront hotel and went on an epic ATV tour.

Then we headed to La Fortuna Arenal San Carlos for the second leg of our vacation where we lived it up in the Tabacon and Baldi hot springs and had the best time ziplining through the jungle. 

We did so much on this vacation, from jet skiing and off roading to zip lining  and hiking 1000 steps to a waterfall.  It was a truly memorable vacation, absolutely epic.

Getting Excited About Our Vacation

 In about a week, we will be heading on vacation as a family and I am so excited I can hardly contain myself. I have been bugging hubby about taking a family vacation for months now and finally we have our trip booked and ready.

It's been a while since we've been on a really nice family beach vacation. Last year we headed to the beach with a few friends for the weekend but it was more of a getaway than a real vacation. This time we have about 6 days of  glorious sunshine, beach waves and thermal pools to look forward to. Not to mention, we have an epic vacation planned to soak up as much fun as we possibly can. And bonus, we have a very dear friend coming from Boston with us.

This year's vacation is to Tamarindo beach Costa Rica. It's been about 4 years or so since we've been  back to Tamarindo and it's surrounding beaches so I am super excited. We plan to visit Playa Flamingo and Conchal as well, which are spectacular beaches and  bring back fond memories.

We also reserved a few nights in La Fortuna to visit the world famous volcanic hot springs and plan to partake in a few fun family friendly activities. The epicness of this vacation will be off the charts for sure.

The best part is we'll be with the entire family and one of my hubby's oldest and dearest friends who also happens to be my oldest son's Godfather. And to make the vacation even more special, we have two of the best hotels booked for our stay. I am counting down the days for sure.

It Was A Very Good Easter

 Even though we are still in a pandemic, our Easter celebration remained unaffected. As a matter of fact, all our holidays pretty much remained the same since we usually celebrate with just our family of six anyway.

And even with everything going on, although things are slowly beginning to get better, we had a really good Easter holiday. Kids had fun with our traditional scavenger egg hunt and they especially loved their baskets this year. 

I put a lot of thought into the Easter gifts for each kid and it brought me so much joy to watch them open each one with  excitement. 

Brunch and dinner was also pretty delicious and dessert was top notch yummy as well. Not to brag, but holidays and entertaining are my specialty and it's nice to know that I can still carry on with our family traditions as usual, not missing a single beat.

 

 

Virtual Homeschooling And Distance Learning

 Costa Rica was forced into the future of education last year when the entire country was forced into lockdown and schools went virtual for the first time in history.

Before the Coronavirus outbreak and pandemic, homeschooling and distance learning was not a viable option for most Costa Rican students. I was told by the Ministry of Education that homeschooling was not even accredited or recognized.

Now, as we look forward to the future, virtual learning and distance education has become the norm for many households. And this way of learning has shown the government just how far behind the country was and how much they need to catch up with the rest of the world.

In our home, virtual learning is going pretty great so far this year. At the beginning of everything last year, we all had a rough start. However, we have since put into place a few new rules to help facilitate the process to make it easier and more efficient.

I do love having the option to homeschool my kids through virtual education and the experience has taught me alot. But I do look forward to the day when my kids can return to school in a normal setting. After all, these are the years we need to cherish the most and the in school learning experience is an important part of our children's developmental years.

Kids hard at work virtual schooling and distance learning