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!

Halloween in Thailand

Okay, let me be clear. Thai people do not celebrate Halloween. Whenever I talk about it around our Thai driver, he laughs, really loudly. He probably thinks we are out of our minds. And for good reason. We live in a gated, ex patriot community and the people who run the place are aware that Americans, among others, love Halloween. So they indulge us. Maybe even over indulge us.

We returned from Pattaya a few weeks ago and they had begun to decorate.

These larger-than-life size figures are placed all over the community. There are dozens of them. Some are cute.

Others are a bit terrifying.

Some are fun.

Some, well... I don't even know how to describe.

D was 1.5 when we lived in Dublin and we had a great time Trick or Treating there. Ireland definitely does Halloween. But Australia does not, so we've kinda missed out these last 3 years. The celebrating we did do was just amongst ourselves, maybe stopping at a few friends' houses to Trick or Treat. And the kids' costumes were not the scary type.

So, the scary stuff is new this year. It's fun, and no one is having nightmares. But the figures do bring up a lot of questions. So, I provide age-appropriate answers. Unfortunately, the explanations tend to kill the fun.

D- "What's so scary about a black cat?"

I explain the superstition about black cats and bad luck.

"Huh. What's bad luck?

"Who is that?"

I explain who Frankenstein is.

"But why do they call him that?"
"Why is that guy carrying his head?"

"What's a vampire?"

"What's so scary about that one, or that one, or that one?"

Totally not scary anymore once you've explained it all.

We are enjoying doing all the fun Halloween stuff. We carved pumpkins this weekend.

Our driver helped out and we attracted a crowd of gardeners who were really curious about what the heck we were doing to that perfectly good vegetable.

We also attended a great Halloween party in our neighborhood tonight. We carved "Forever Pumpkins" and were so totally impressed with the decorations at this house. The pictures cannot do it justice. This stuff must have taken up half of their shipping container! (I always think about things in terms of space taken in a shipping container). They said it took them a month to get it all up. Everyone brought a dish with a scary or gross name. This one had to be the winner. I did try it- and it was delicious. Kitty litter cake.

Trick or Treating here was a blast. The streets in the various neighborhoods were covered in kids out in some really great costumes. People had their houses decorated with such fun stuff. We loved it!

D was a flapper.

C was a Junior Zoo Keeper.

So Happy Halloween Everybody! Enjoy your Trick or Treats!

Siam Park City

We were feeling adventurous this past weekend and decided to take the kids to a water park for the day. It was a spontaneous decision (scary!) but our quick packing was thorough enough and it turned out to be a great day.

We brought lots of cash since these places always seem to cost a fortune with admission, over- priced food, and equipment rental but it turned out to be a pretty cheap day too. It cost us 800 Baht ($24) to get in, we brought the kids' swim rings for floating around the lazy river, and food was Thai, tasty, and cheap. Can't beat it!

Advice wanted on how to get your daughter to smile naturally for photographs without a tickle attack.

Life is just far too good for this kid.

Okay, that's better.

Ready, steady, GO!

And finally a water safety tip- go to water parks where you are the only fair-skinned people there. It makes your husband and children very easy to locate in a busy swimming pool.

Bollywood Here We Come

I am hearing that one of perks of living here is the series of fundraising galas that go on in November and December. I have never really been the gala type, but if I haven't said it here before, my motto while living abroad is "Adapt and survive." And if I must become the gala type, then so be it.

So, we've purchased tickets to the Bollywood Gala to benefit a small, international school near our home. It was described to me that the gala has 3 components: dance class, having an Indian (as in India- the country) outfit made, and the actual event itself. I've been too busy to take the dance classes- though I've heard they are a hoot, but today I bought an Indian outfit. My friend Brenda, our daughters, and myself all ventured into Bangkok to have something special made.

I may have become the gala type but that doesn't mean I'm not practical. I really wanted something that I would wear more than once. The dresses were gorgeous, but so many were styles that I would never again wear after the event. I tried on several...

And finally found something that suited me. Stay tuned...I will surely blog about the night!

Fearless Adventurers

Our friends Brenda and Tim are here visiting from Kansas City. We wanted to pack their week-long visit with lots of fun and variety so we began with a trip to Pattaya to see the beach and experience a pace different from that of Bangkok.

One item our wish list of things to see was the Flight of the Gibbon Zip line Adventure. There are several in Thailand and one is about an hour from Pattaya. So we booked it and off we went on Sunday morning.

Monkeys hanging out with us, hoping for some food to fall on the floor.

Brenda and Tim, all geared up and ready to fly like the gibbons!
None of us have a fear of heights, but I do have a fear of FALLING from great heights. As we approached the first zip line, I was doubting my sanity and horrific images were flashing through my mind, but I persevered.

By the 3rd line, the nervous was gone and it was just fun!

Our guides were great- very safe and thorough, and excellent photographers. We are excited to go again. Any takers?

Hooray for Our 3-Year-Old!

Time to catch everyone up with C's 3rd birthday. He really enjoyed being the birthday boy and today asked for, "More me bur-day, Mom." I told him it would be 1 more year and he happily said. "Thanks Mom!" I guess we hadn't covered the fact that it is an annual event.

We celebrated with a party at C's nursery school on Thursday. I brought mini cupcakes and and cute animal headbands and since we shared the morning with another little girl's farewell party, we also got in on a magician, games, and a pinata! Lucky us! And D had the day off of school for parent teacher conferences so she was able to attend too. Several little girls even brought gifts which I did not expect.

D had her friend Jeah over during the day on Sunday and the 2 of them were so helpful with icing the cake!

Wrapping paper is somewhat difficult to find here (of course, now that the birthday is over, I'm spotting it here and there.). So D and I bought plain brown paper and she decorated C's gift with interactive paper. I was way impressed. (Sunny or cloudy. Grass or mud.)

On Sunday evening we invited C's friend Reid and his parents over for dinner and ice cream cake.

C has been enjoying his growing collection of Duplo building blocks and some cool new Toy Story figures. That was the theme that emerged this year. Lots of building going on. We're finding there's no point in putting them all away at night, they just reappear on the playroom floor the next morning.

It's lovely being the mom of this little boy. He is changing so fast. So much to say, a new desire to hang out with dad and do man things, and also a great playmate for D. Is it weird that I still miss that 7lb 15oz bundle the nurse handed me 3 years ago?