Brigadeiros

They looked better right after I made them, but they tasted great and are pretty easy to make.  Time intensive, but simple ingredients and process.  Found at every Brazilian child's birthday party. 

I love the mountains...

We were hanging out with family the other day, sharing some stories, and I remembered a "blog-worthy" story.  Always looking for good material.





As you know, I teach music at Maple Bear Canadian School to young children.  I love my job.  I love the kiddos.  I'm always on the look out for different songs to teach them.  A few months ago, I was brainstorming a list of songs that I had learned as a child, and I remembered this one:

 

Any one else remember this one?   We sang it at Church camp and I think I sang it at school with my 2nd grad music teacher.  Cute, simple, harmless.  Right?  So I started teaching it to one of my 4 and 5 year old classes.  I sing about the mountains, the fireside, the lights.  No problem.  Then I got to the "Boom di yadda, boom di yadda" part, and the kids start snickering.  Huh?  I sang the whole song again, and of course the only part that the kids sing is "boom di yadda," but this time they are full on cracking up.  I don't get it.  Later in the day, I go to another class, teach the same song.  The same thing happens.  It wasn't until my THIRD class, that I finally asked the teacher if she understood why they were laughing.  She very kindly said, "it sounds like "BUNDA yada."

Oh great. BUNDA means "butt."  And Brazilians kind of like butts.  So I was singing "butt-di yada, booty di yada, butt-di yada..." over and over.  I've tried to change the lyrics to "oodi lada, oodi lada, oodi lada, oodi lada," but the kids still like singing about butts. 

I told this story to my family, and as soon as I started singing "Boom-di yada," my 9 year old daughter was dying laughing (before I told them what Bunda ment).  She thought it was hilarious.  I guess I'll have to have her preview my song selections for the next year.

Happy New Year

Hello from the US!  We're thoroughly enjoying time with family, and hoping that friends in BH are staying dry and safe during all these storms (it's been raining like crazy, with landslides and flooding).  Here are a few anecdotes from our trip so far:



*Beatrice was surprised that everyone was speaking English in the Atlanta airport.
*Matt called the waiting area for customs in Atlanta as "calm sterility."  It was so quiet, so cold, so clean, it was a little eerie.
*Beatrice asked for mango juice on the last leg of our flight.
*Matt almost cheek kissed one of my relatives, and she's not the cheek kissing type.
*Dora is drinking lots of apple juice and eating lots of apple sauce.
*I told the kids many times that toilet paper in the US goes in the toilet and is flushed down.  But somehow little Beatrice didn't quite understand.  After a few days of being at my parent's house, I went in to help her after she went to the bathroom, and I saw her stuffing her used toilet paper into the kleenex dispenser on the back of the toilet.  Eww.

I'm surprised at how easy it's been for the kids to be here.  But like a friend of mine told me today, kids adapt very easily.  And getting to have time with Grandma and Grandpa, cousins and family and playing in the snow is keeping them pretty occupied. 

All for now!