KFF is going to Rock You!

Tonight I made a first pass attempt at getting the kiddos together for a picture. Remarkably Kade and Payton cooperated....just not Avery. Well, maybe I will get one before they all go away to college.

Also tonight, we were terribly dissapointed that we were not treated to a special KFF (Kentucky Fried Fish) dinner. At least Andrea and Senor KFC (a.k.a. Mr. Kentucky Royalty) were nice enough to send some half thawed frozen fish sticks as a garnish...ain't they the best! Instead they sent some Greek chicken bake with cuscus...it was very good. Maybe some day Andrea will put the recipe up on her blog...that is if she can remember where it is....Thanks Eesays!!

Outward Bound...

Tonight we decided to take the new family of 5 out to our favorite family restaurant - Pan E Vino (you gotta check out their awesome website...very Tico). Kade and Payton LOVE to watch the pizza man. He even lets them ring the bell when an order is ready...that puts Pan E Vino over the top in their eyes. As you can probably tell from the picture of the kiddos...its a little chilly here tonight...probably ~70F. We are so hosed when we go back North. Miss Avery Grace was a true champ. She slept the entire time we were at the restaurant. I guess that means that she was the best behaved of everyone...including Grampa Russ. If I were a betting man...getting off to such a good start probably means that we are screwed from here on out. Wonderful!

On a seperate note, tomorrow our neighbor Andrea has volunteered to bring us dinner. What a sweetheart. I am SOOO looking forward to Fish Stick Surprise! Judging by the number of times they have it at their house...I am betting it is a family secret which hails it's origins from the Colonel's failed alternate business of fried fish vs. the breadwinner of fried chicken. I am salivating just thinking of the secret 11 herbs and spices ;-)

Homeward Bound

Today we all returned back to the house. Everything is going well. Now we are officially a family of 5!!

Let the games begin!

Avery's First Bath...

Kade hated baths when he was a baby...

Payton loved baths when she was a baby...

And their worlds collide!!!

Kade checking out his new sister! He was very into it!!!

Payton was (at first) a little unsure but very giggly about it all...

Payton finally warming up...after that she did not want to let go!!

Kade was GREAT with the baby!!! He is going to be a SUPER big brother

Welcome Avery Grace Cavagnaro

Avery Grace Cavagnaro

Our newest Tica!

Born: 2/19/2009 at 2:05pm

Weight: 3210g (7 lbs 1 oz)

Length: 48cm (18.9 inches)

Location:  Escazu, Costa Rica

And mom is doing great!  Definitely a very good experience so far.

This is the picture of her going in...and a picture of her afterwards calling her mom to let them know the news ;-)

Kade's Birthdays...

As you may have already seen from Jen's pictures Here and Here...Kade had two birthdays this year. One in NM (Cars) and one in CR (Monsters Inc.). The one in NM was pretty laid back...just a normal Chuck E. Cheese type of birthday (and oh by the way - Chuck E Cheese is hiring if you are interested...I hear it is part of Obama's stimulus plan). It still amazes me that you can get away with zero planning and yet for $80 your kids can have a great birthday...kind of makes you wonder...

Anyway, so in our typical birthday tradition...I decided to make a special cake (note the use of the singular form of the work cake here). This year I focused my effort on the Cars cake and phoned in the Monsters Inc. cake. So here they are....the 2009 Cars and Monsters Inc birthday cakes:

Kade had a great time at both parties...and here are some misc pictures to prove it (I assume that someday he will blame us for all his problems and probably say something like how he never got a cool birthday party...)! You can see from one of the Chuck E Cheese pictures that Payton was really good at skeeball. She figured out that if she just took the ball and walked up to the end..she could get them into the high point rings...smaaarrrt girl! That was in sharp contrast to Kade's style...he threw them overhand from one end to the other...the other parents were giving me the WTF look in spades!

The Monsters Inc decorations were actually a lot of fun to put together. They took a hell of a lot of time to make (a.k.a., a lot of very late nights)...and we had to buy all the supplies in the USA and pack them down to CR...yes, even all the green and blue paper...but in the end it was well worth it. Kade is still playing with his Monsters Inc decorations...and I suppose he will until one of two things happens: A> Jen loses it and throws them all out in a massive rage of pregnancy hormones (36 weeks)...or B> Kade utterly destroys them since after all they are made of paper. It is a tough call...

Alas...he is now 5...unbelievable!

Even Costa Rica has a stimulus plan...

Here it is (note that it is not 800 pages long...just a 4-pt plan):

1. 
   Families

§ 15% increase in pensions of the noncontributory schemed of the SSA.

§ Week-end diet for boys and girls in the 37 least developed counties of CR (benefiting 16K families)

§ Increase from 132K to 150K on “Avancemos”-type scholarships for students

§ Temporary 2% interest rates reduction on housing loans of less that 50M colones

§ Automatic decrease on bus rates according to fuel prices

2. Workers

§ Introduction of new work modalities:

o WFH (estimate of 100K colones monthly saving per worker under this system)

o Job protection during crisis and

o New kinds of work shifts: modernization of Labor Code to include new modalities like 4-3 schemes or season work.

§ Technical training to workforce with a monthly support of 200K from INA to population in risk of losing job, provided employer pays SSA and does not lay them off.

§ Freeze of interest rates in education loans

§ $1.4B in Public Works (funding coming from 2 loans that need Congress approval, 10% of funds will be available for this Administration).

3. Companies

§ Credit loans to SMEs (222.700M colones)

§ 2% interest rate reduction on SME loans

§ During 2009 (extendable to 2010), rapid depreciation of assets

§ Certainty to free trade zone regime: CRG working on a FTZ law reform that will not only allow a means to face the crisis, but also comply with our international commitments before the WTO.

4. Financial sector

§ $117,5M injection to State banks

§ $500M IDB loan

I am particularly interested in item 2.1.2 "Job protection during crisis"...hmmmm...