Festa de Sao Joao

So Sao Joao is more than just a single event or a day. Here in North East Brazil we like to party and these parties happen all month some even call it Festa Junina (June Party). It celebrates Saint John or John the baptist, but to me here in the North West it almost feels like a harvest festival. Everyone dresses up in peasant costumes, which include beautiful multi colored dresses, plaid shirts with jeans, or anything plaid.

Our first Sao Joao event was with the school. Pace, Louis, and Kai performed in dances with their classes which was so much fun to see. After there were fair rides, food stands, and farm animals to keep us entertained. The food was centered around corn. Corn cakes (bolo de fuba), pudding (canjica), and good old corn on the cob were all there. They also had reagular fair food (burgers, pizza, etc). And our kids got candy apples for dessert.

We also went to a festa at our church. They had a band playing forro. So after filling our tummies with brazillian style hotdogs (cut up in a yummy sauce and served on a bun with crispy potato sticks on top), warm canjica, and a variety of cakes. We danced until we were exhausted and went home to put some tired kids to bed.

The kids also had some fun happenings at school before winter break in July. They played Maple bear games where they were divided into teams and competed in various sports for a week. They absolutely loved it. Kai also had a paint day in his class. The result was a pretty colorful kid.

And also for Sao Joao stores, restaurants, and malls were decorated with colorful lanterns and flags.

We had some pretty fun moments around our house as well. Our kids erally got into creating towers, and now even Jane can build a pretty high tower out of blocks.

Louis had a mega tantrum and threw everything on the ground which was totally frusterating. But it felt good to laugh and take a picture of it before I told him that it needed to be all picked up before screen time. We all have bad days. I get it kid.

My kids surprised me with this message one Saturday morning (Grant made it), and my heart totally melted. Love these kids

Jane absolutely had a blast when Jake had a tea party with her.

Jane had me make an army of playdough snowmen.

And on the kids last day of school before winter break we headed to the beach and had a blast. So we went to the beach at least twice a week during the break.

Also during the begining of the break we went to Marceo, but I am getting ahead of myself....that's for the next post.