'Want More, Need Less'

Praise Jesus, our air shipment arrived this week! The timing was perfect as the kids are out of school all of next week for the Easter holiday. In fact, most of their classmates are leaving Lagos for some pretty exciting places - Istanbul, Cape Town, Italy, the Swiss Alps - sigh. Even if the idea of packing again didn't fill me with dread, we actually can't leave the country because our passports are still at the Embassy awaiting our STR or Short Term Residency card. Under other circumstances, I would use this time to explore our new country or surrounding areas but there aren't too many kid-friendly places outside of Lagos we could go explore right now. Between the heat, the security issues and the need for a company car and driver, it's best to stick close to home - a 'staycation' if you will.

So in between a lot of pool time and a few playdates I managed to schedule with some other families who are in town, my goal is to keep the kids entertained with a multitude of activities that I either planned or packed. And thankfully, I am a packing genius! In addition to the small pharmacy I brought courtesy of Costco (we could shampoo an army!) and all my critical kitchen stuff, this is some of what I put in the air shipment:

• Easter egg dying kits - thank you Target!
• An awesome pop-up tent complete with dress-up costumes, extras for friends
• Portable puppet theatre - with ridiculously cheap hand puppets from Ikea
• Trains, tracks and everything in between
• Bins of crafty supplies- pipe cleaners, glitter glue, popsicle sticks, feathers
• Fun foods - jello, pudding, drink mixes, cookie mix, cookie cutters, sprinkles
• Reusable wall decals to decorate the kids temporary rooms, and later their real rooms
• Make your own jewelry, stamp sets, play-dough
• Scooters - Santa brought them last Christmas and since the compound only has walking paths, the scooters are just the right size. Plus it gets everyone outside.
• If they lose interest in the scooters, I've also got roller blades which I'm told we can use more easily at some of the other company compounds that have more space
• Tennis raquets, baseball bats, and soccer balls - all of which can be used at the compound but also at school since the spring sport is baseball (girls and boys) and "football" (soccer) is basically the national sport!

Despite all of my planning, I am not one to stay cooped up too long. Plus it's important for the kids to undertand that everything takes a bit of extra effort here so I am keen to check out a few places around town that I've heard about. Supposedly there is some kind of little fun park for kids in Lekki- go carts, bouncy castle, carnival like rides. There are also two movie theatres in the city and another family has offered to go with us. I have no idea how it works since an air conditioned theatre is very popular with the locals but we are heavily discouraged from using credit cards on-line.

A little adventure awaits I'm sure!

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