Loy Kratong

On Sunday night we celebrated our first Loy Kratong. This is a holiday in Thailand celebrated on the full moon of the 12th month in the Thai Lunar calendar. Thai people do many things to celebrate the holiday. Nichada put together a pretty fab poolside party to celebrate.

It was fun to dress the kids up in Thai costumes for the event. Mommy probably had too much fun dressing them up. They looked great!!

A Traditional Thai meal for C-hot dog and fries.

A beauty contest! They call it Little Nop Pamas, for boys and girls. And, yes, C is eating popcorn while on stage. He would not part with it.

D dazzles the judges in the question portion of the the competition (What do you want for Christmas?)

C dazzles the judges by stomping on bugs on the stage while he awaits his turn at the microphone.

D and C with their gorgeous friends Elke and Ethan. All dressed up.

Fireworks over the lake.

Traditional Thai dancers and music. Thai people create little floats made from bread or a piece of a banana tree trunk. They decorate the floats with flowers, incense, and a candle. Then they send it floating down the river (or in our case in the lake) sending with it all of their grudges, anger, and bad luck. The float is also an offering to the goddess of water and is supposed to bring good luck.The kratongs on the water.

C waves good-bye to his kratong. He really liked it. He even asked to have it back this morning.

Book your trip to visit us next November for Loy Kratong! You will love it!

Bangkok Bollywood

What a fun night! T and I had a marvelous time at the Bollywood Gala to benefit Rose Marie Academy.

Pre-gala photos, with our little ballerina.

Henna painting.

Entertainment from the ladies of Nichada (Whooooooo HOOOO!).

Entertainment from the men. BRAVE!

The food. YUM!

Dance floor time, SO MUCH FUN!!! And a great workout! I think I'm signing up for the Bollywood exercise class next year!

Can I pre-order my tickets for this event next year???

New Fav Restaurant

We really like Thai food. The more I eat it, the more I want it. It's like a drug. T and I are up for Thai food anytime. The kids, as long as there is some type of fried rice, they are content. Neither cares much for spicy things yet.

We've been introduced to Sud Ha Thai. We've been several times since we were introduced a few weeks ago. It was the dinner plan for last night. I announced the plan and D whined, "Not again! Why do always have to go there!?"

I calmly explained that she had made several of our dinner choices over the past week or so.

So, off we went. The food is delicious, fresh, Thai, tasty, and very reasonably priced. I am also entertained by my own attempts to practice my Thai language skills, while the waitress attempts to practice her English language skills. We compromise by swapping languages for a few sentences. So that's enough to win us over, right!? It gets better.

We arrive and the kids spend a few minutes checking out the fish in the fountains out front. Then, the waitress escorts them off to feed the fish in her fish tank and play with her new puppy. The kids return 20 minutes later when the food arrives. They eat and they go back to play.

T and I eat our dinner, laugh at our kids, and chat. When it's time to go, our kids return with gifts. This time, Kratongs to float in the lake for the upcoming Thai holiday, Loy Kratong.

As we left D announced, "This is my new favorite restaurant!"

Jokes and Goodie Bags

C goes to nursery school 2 days each week so those days I keep busy with a variety of activities. On the other 3 days each week, he and I are out finding fun things to do together.

Today included a walk around the lake with a stop to feed the fish, a play at a nearby playground, a trip to the store, lunch at McDonald's, jokes in the car, and an assembly line job to make goodie bags for D's religious ed class this weekend. All of it, very very fun with my comical 3-year-old son.

C has learned his jokes from D. Now, D can really tell a joke. She's good at it! But, the jokes they tell each other are not as clever as either of them think they are. Today, in the car, it went like this:

"Hey Ma, Why chi'hin caw row?" (Why did the chicken cross the road?)

me: I don't know, why?"

"Get hit by caw! Hahahahahahahahaha!"

me: "Awwww. That's really sad. Poor little chicken."

C: "Oh, rye, si-hee me." (Oh, right, silly me.)

"Where chi'hin eat Mom?"

me: I don't know, where?

C: "Mac N' chee re'rant! Hahahahahahaha!"

"You turn Mom."

me: "Hmmmmmmmmm. What did Bub say to the chicken after it told him a joke?"

C: "I no know."

me: "You funny guy!" (Who gets it? The word "gai" is Thai for chicken, and yes I made the joke up right there on the spot. I know- brilliant.).

C was kind to laugh very very hard. My driver (Bub) got the joke, looked at me in the rear view mirror, and then explained the joke to me to prove he got it. Then he laughed a little. I don't know if any of my readers will find this story funny, but it happened about 3 hours ago and I'm still cracking up. I think mostly because my driver was probably thinking that I'm a big dork.

We came home and assembled the goodie bags. C is 3, right, so I can't really think of a time that I've given him a job to do that was more complicated than fetching his shoes or packing away his toys. But today, he and I put together 30 goodie bags and he was a HUGE help! I was so incredibly pleased with him. He took it so seriously- I put the first 3 items in, and he put in the last 3. Then, he would help place the bag in the finished pile. So cool to watch him "get it" and be a real helper.

Popcorn, juice box, seaweed, 2 chocolate soccer balls, wholewheat crackers, and some kind of little chewy candies. Also funny was me trying to figure out what was in all these products as most of them are labeled in Thai only. Thank goodness for photos of fruit on the packaging!

Now, we'll just get to work on those jokes...

Let's Get International!

We've just wrapped up International Week here. What a great time and a great experience for the kids!

All of the kindergartners had the task of creating their country's flag and decorating a paper doll in clothing from their home country. Fun projects for D and I.

As we drew and colored 7 red stripes, 6 white stripes, and 50 stars, I told her the symbolism of our flag. T was away for work and when we skyped that night, I asked D why we have 50 stars on our flag. She responded, "Because that's what fills up the space." Maybe we'll get it next year.

The kindergartners "visited" 11 different countries this week, all put together by the parents. D and her classmates did some awesome stuff, learning about USA, Australia, Armenia, Canada, India, Pakistan, Thailand, Taiwan, Spain, Japan, and Nigeria. Such fun activities!

D and her classmates finish up their Thailand lesson- bookmarks with their names written in Thai. They were also taught about traditional Thai clothing.

D and classmates dressing for winter in Canada. They kept the clothes just long enough to snap photos- and then peeled them off, as it is definitely not blustery cold here! On the last day, the whole elementary school participated in an International parade and assembly, each child dressing in a traditional outfit or something celebrating their homeland.

Here are D and a few of her classmates before school. I think she was feeling a bit drab in her American costume- denim skirt and red and white stripey tank. She coped- and we talked about celebrating our friends and the clothes from their home countries and how that was something very special about them.

The band played and made the atmosphere so much fun!

It was marvelous! Over 1000 kids from 60 different countries in some of the most beautiful outfits. Wish I had taken more photos of the other costumes.

Hooray for International Week! Loved it!

My Little Mermaid

D has fallen for a new (fantastically healthy) snack. We were grocery shopping together last week when she asked for seaweed. I let her know that she's tried seaweed on her sushi and she's never liked it. But she was politely persistent, so I bought her a package of seaweed.
She's asked for it a couple of times when I've been making snack and she's crunched away on it, eating it all. This week, we were grocery shopping and Tess told me we need more seaweed. I asked if she was serious and sure enough, D has finished off the whole pack of seaweed and needs more.
I asked her why she changed her mind about it and, of course, she's come to the realization that mermaids eat seaweed. So must she. Funny too, that in phot0, she's still in her swimwear after her swimming lesson. My little mermaid!