More of Santo Domingo

I had a minute without kids on my lap and thought I would post some more pictures of the area we live in! I also wanted to say how thankful I am for all of the people in my life! I am so blessed to still be in touch with so many good friends. Thanks to all of you for being a part of my life!

The Ashton School from the street

The main classroom building-the swimming pool is behind the tree and the blue fence there. Farther to the right is an open courtyard.

Alex with the school duck! Actually there are two. They understand Spanish and like to eat the ficus tree leaves....interesting.

Alex working at Joe's desk and my Emma blissfully hanging from a ficus tree near the lunch tables.

A plant nursery in our neighborhood that we pass on the way home from school and the colmado where we get our bottled water. A colmado is like a convenience store here but they deliver. Those are motorcycles with plastic crates on the back. You give them a call and they send a kid on a motorcycle with your water or whatever else you may want from the colmado! This is just down the street from our apartment. Oh, it also doubles as a little car lot :)



Our apartment building-we're the apt. on the top left and this is our street-that's Emma by the black car and Joe pushing the stroller. To the right is a salon and then the construction site.

Well, that's enough for tonight. Hope this gives you a better idea of what our teeny corner of Santo Domingo looks like! I have more, but I'll save them for later! Have a great day...

Merry Christmas From the Ritchie Family

Merry Christmas from Ethan!

Merry Christmas from Emma!

Merry Christmas from Ivy!

Merry Christmas from Alex!

We hope that everyone had a great holiday!

Having fun

This is "our aguacate guy." He's one of the many fruit vendors who comes down our street everyday. He whistles and shouts "aguacate (avocado)!!" He then rattles off the names of the other fruits in his cart really, really fast. When we hear him, the kids will climb up in the front window and shout "Senor!" and then he'll stop and wait for me to come down. I like to buy avocados and bananas from him. Sometimes I'll get a pineapple, cantaloupe, mango, or some oranges too. It's really fun to have your very fresh fruit come right to your door everyday! Well, yesterday the kids were in the living room playing blocks. We heard him whistle and Ivy looks up and shouts "aguacate!!" It was soooo cute and I couldn't believe she said it! So I said "Ivy do you want an aguacate?" She stomps her little feet and sticks out her bum (I don't know why she does this but it always means she's happy) and says "ya, ya, yaaaaa." I loved it. My baby is learning Spanish :)

The kids are also into playdough and clay again lately. Alex is holding his version of Shreck (even though he hasn't seen that movie) and Emma made a caterpillar.

Ethan is also learning new skills! I have found a benefit to this teeny tiny washer!

The kids think it's great fun, and I've been amazed to find that even my 3 year old wants a turn to do the laundry :) I came around the corner to find him finishing up the tablecloth. Of course, this is NOT one of Ethan's assigned household jobs. I think that just adds to the excitement for him though.

Ivy has discovered the fun of Emma's Barbie lipsticks (among other things hidden in Emma's closet). I thought she looked a little strange, and on further inspection had nothing more to say than, "Wow Ivy aren't you beautiful!" Of course, she thought so and every little girl has to do this at least once.

Kids are cute :)

Ethan comes out of the bedroom the other day looking like the above and says to me, "Mom, I know this church is true!" I was trying my best not to laugh because he was being so very serious! I asked him how he knew the church was true and he said that Jesus told him. I asked him later why he needed to have mascara on his eyebrows in order to tell me this. He said that he was being Joseph Smith. I thought it was too sweet not to put on my blog!


Ivy is sick. Yesterday her cold went from normal to trouble breathing. Luckily we are friends with a Dominican family here who are extremely kind and helpful! She is a doctor and he is a pharmaceutical rep. so last night we had a nebulizer, antibiotics, Tylenol, and TLC-all without leaving the house! She'll make a house call tonight to check on her again. What a blessing! I was nervous last night because the medical system here is something we haven't experienced yet and you never know what a hospital is going to be like in a developing country. Anyway, we were blessed.



I also wanted to put up the pictures of Ivy in the Superman cape. It was a miracle that Ethan had it off long enough for her to even get it! I pinned it on her shirt and she was soooooo pleased to be like her big brother! She ran through the house and made the most of it until he saw her and had to be Superman again RIGHT NOW! I will post some pics of the other two kiddos soon!