Argentina

Yesterday was Argentina Day, our first country in South America! 

Argentina is the 8th biggest country in the world by area, but lands somewhere in the 30's in population, so there's plenty of land to explore. Aconcagua in the Andes, is the tallest mountain outside of Asia. and is the tallest point in both the Western and Southern hemisphere. It also gets to claim the world's southern-most city, Ushuaia. 

The country in the world that consumes the most beef, you'd think they'd be among the chubbier of peoples, but thanks to activities like soccer (the boys youtubed the 'hand of god'/one of the greatest goals in soccer history), pato (like a polo-basketball combo! It's amazing!), and all the tango dancing (we listened to tango music at dinner!), they actually stay pretty healthy. 

Other fun facts:

If you're into Dinosaurs, Argentina is the place to be. The oldest known dinos roamed the earth in present day Argentina, and in 2014, paleontologists announced the discovery of the world's largest dinosaur ever found (roughly the same size as a jumbo jet!) 

Oh, and you don't say 'cheese' when smiling for a picture in Argentina. You say 'whiskey!' 

The boys all made their postcards, and tried to show off their new Spanish skills. We are doing DuoLingo as a family. Last week Peyton finished at the top of the leader board, and Asa was at the bottom. At the end of the week, the person in first gets a dollar for their jar, and the person in last has to watch an episode of Dora the Explorer to brush up their skills. Hayden and I are working on it together, so every night when I tuck him in, we've been brushing up on our skills. 

Dinner for Argentina was applesauce (they produce a lot of apples), potatoes with basil, and  carrots with pistachio-herb butter. Our main dish was Choripan con Chimichurri , a sausage sandwich of sorts popular with street vendors. 

We also had our first dessert with Argentina day: The Chocotorta. 

Dinner earned Five spoons up. 

Everyone really liked the whole dinner. Peyton had less onions on his sandwich, and it was his least favorite thing on his plate (we often do most favorite/least favorite thing on our plate), but he said it was his favorite meal so far. Everyone liked the desert, which surprised me because Peyton and Calib don't always like something too chocolate-y. The potatoes and carrots were also a hit, and we aren't a pistachio family. All around, it's a would make again. 

Being the 8th biggest country, it took a minute to scratch it off on our map. I can't imagine how long Russia, Canada, and the US are going to take. Holy geez, we might have to do those in shifts. 

Speaking of shifts, Hayden really wanted to color in Argentina, so Peyton told him he would do the outline to make sure it didn't get out of hand, and Hayden could color the rest of it in. 

We are (finally!) back to school work, and we've brought back the Waterstraut Weekly. Each week, the boys will be writing about their favorite country they've learned about recently. I wasn't thrilled with their efforts this week. Peyton and Hayden's were a little on the short side, and Calib's (while decent now), needed some heavy editing (which I made him do). But, all in all, for the first week back to work in awhile, they've done pretty well. The best article earned a dollar for their jar, and that went to Hayden, just because he did his in a timely manner. I'm hoping they get a little better each week. 

So, that's it for Argentina. Seven down, 186 to go! 

Next Up: Armenia