Festa Junina

Festa Junina is a Brazilian festival that they have during June or July. They have bonfires and drink hot chocolate and dance the quadrilha to keep themselves from freezing to death when it goes down to like 65 degrees Fahrenheit.

They also wear really frilly dresses.

Here is Penny's class dancing the quadrilha. Talk about frilly dresses!

Last year I decided to make one for my girls. But since I had a newborn baby to take care of, I just didn't get around to it. They dressed up and had fun, but they certainly weren't dressed for the party.

Freckles and braids? Check! Frilly skirts? Almost...

So this year I had a little more time and decided to make Penny's dress. I have a lifetime's supply of fabric from China, and it is about time I started to use some of it. So I made the dress, added a bunch of lace and frills, and sent her to the kindergarten Festa Junina at her school. 

She had a great time with her class, but even with several yards of lace,
her dress was so plain compared to the others!

So when the Embassy announced it would have a Festa Junina celebration, I decided to bring the dresses up to snuff. I spent morning and afternoon for two days sewing whole rolls of ribbons and yards and yards of ruffles onto their little dresses. And they finally looked the part!

Hats and ribbons and frills, oh my!

I didn't make Naomi's dress, but I used the skirt from last year and paired it with a shirt she already had,
then sewed ruffles all over it for two days straight.

Penny warms herself at the bonfire.

Naomi and the other little girls enjoyed picking through the treasure trove of fallen confetti.

Even William got in on the action!

Maybe I should write about frilly dresses on my fashion blog. Ha ha ha!

The Niceness of Brazil

If I were going to Confession, I would have to tell you how long it had been since my last visit. But since this isn't Confession, I'm not Catholic, and this is my blog, you can just look at the last entry to see how long it has been.

It has been forever! 

Kevin and I talked about this a while back, about how I'm not very inspired to write about Brazil. Part of it is that I'm busy. I have three kids this tour, and that is more work (obviously) than two. We have our huge house and the entire outdoors to keep us busy and occupied, and that's part of it, I'm sure. But a big part is that we are simply very happy here. Life is lovely, and there's just not a lot to say when everything is nice. The skies are clean and blue. We are currently in the depths of winter, which means it gets down to like 65 degrees and I have to go find a sweater. There's not a lot to complain about.

Beautiful Pirenopolis

It's also not super challenging. My Portuguese isn't amazing, but I understand a lot and get by when I try to talk. I also just avoid talking to people, which isn't probably a habit I need to maintain. Sometimes I feel like Ben Gunn. My English is getting pretty bad. I don't talk a lot, and when I do it's usually to my young children. I stutter sometimes and say the wrong words all the time. I trail off the end of sentences when I can't remember a word-- just hoping that the other person can fill in the blank of what I'm hoping to say.

My poor kids are going to grow up and someday realize this isn't normal. Maybe I'll magically improve someday-- but with China as our next post, I have big hopes for my Chinese improving, but my English will probably continue to suffer. 

Isn't this what childhood is all about?!

But Brazil is lovely. We enjoy it here. There's a cat that lives in our roof, and right now I can hear him scritchy-scratching in the ceiling above me. It used to kind of freak me out before we knew what it was, but once we figured out it was a cat, it's no big deal.

I'm not sure I'll write very often on this blog. I have started a new one-- a fashion blog.

I know, I wouldn't believe me either. So you'll have to go check it out!