Celebrating, and Celebrating, and Celebrating!

We really love celebrating St. Patrick's Day around here. Such a fun, easy holiday. We decorate a little, reminisce about our Dublin days, dress the part, sing our favorite songs, and anticipate a visit from those naughty leprechauns.
The kids had a birthday party to attend during the day and wore their green. Several ladies asked if we are Irish. Silly question...don't they know?? Everyone is Irish on St. Patrick's Day!

Armed and dangerous!

That evening the adults celebrated our friend Laura's birthday.

Green pasta, perfect Laura!

And for me, more beef than I bargained for!

After dinner, a St Paddy's Day party awaited, so adorned with shamrocks, we all joined the McDermott's and friends poolside, and had a ball. Such fun!!

C has been asking all week for me to sing "the song with the girl and she died." Molly Malone. Morbid, but charming and entertaining all at the same time!

We also enjoyed celebrating ISB's birthday on Sunday with a "Concert in the Park." A beautiful evening, great music, happy family.

 D and friends. Silly girls!

 C and his buddy, Adi, celebrated by sprinting to to our picnic rugs and leaping into our laps. Sweet, joyful boys.

Tuesday was a fun, girly High Tea at the fancy Mandarin Oriental Hotel to celebrate my friend Brittany's birthday. Loved all the goodies and fun conversation! Looks yum, right!?

THEN! Wednesday night was spent celebrating my good friend Connie's 40 3/4 birthday. Dinner and dancing out on the town is the best!!

 Finally, to wrap up an unusally social week, a Girl's Night Out in BKK. It wasn't a birthday, but having such awesome friends is reason enough to celebrate! Wish I had a photo of the whole group. Lots of laughs and enjoying these girls while I have them! MWAH!!!

More Camp Out Pics

Great news! The camera is working well now and I discovered campfire photos from Friday night that I had forgotten I had taken...

See, the happy memories are already taking over. It was a good night.

Can Girl Scouts Earn a Misery Badge?

Camping is an awesome idea. Even now, when I think about sleeping under the stars, cooking in creative ways, finding your way around by flashlight, eating S'mores and singing songs by the campfire- it all sounds like something I want to do. I do wish those were the memories at the forefront of my weekend camping story...but they're not...
I know some of my readers love camping, so this blog post will not be a rambling story about all that went wrong on our Girl Scout camping trip. It will just be a list:
freshly-charged dead camera battery
freakishly fast little frog nestling on my sleeping bag
exhausted (and mildly pissy) daughter
a million bitey ants in my backpack
sore everything
sticky, hot, Thailand weather
sudden and violent thunderstorm
tents flipped and blown around the campsite
soaked sleeping bags, pillows, and brand new expensive camping stuff
saturated bag of clothes
wet camera and phone
menstrual cramps

Oh boy, I better just stop there.
One troop leader asked at dinner last night, if Girl Scouts offers a Fun Badge for rainy camp outs. I'm not sure she appreciated my laughter and comment that "It should be classified as a Misery Badge."

We all did our best to prepare and enjoy this staple in the Girl Scout experience. But it was not meat to be for our little Daisy Troop. Our 3 first graders still made great memories. They are fantastic, resilient little people. They had begun work earlier in the day on a skit for an evening performance by each troop. Since we decided to depart early, we asked if we could show the skit while the girls waited for dinner to be served. Julianne, Mia, and D delivered camping jokes, performed their own original skit, and led a fun Daisy Scout chant. They received wonderful applause before we ate Sloppy Joes and loaded up for the ride home.

With the dead camera battery, I wasn't able to take all the photos I had planned. But, I was able to take a few with my phone at the lake.

I'll post more photos when I get some from the other parents on the trip.

Thanks for letting me share my boo-hoo story with you. Perhaps, before too long, the more memorable events will be the S'mores, the canoeing, and the brilliant jokes from our sweet 6 & 7 year-olds. It won't be long.
And, call me crazy, but if next year's trip is planned a little earlier in the year, I remember to pack everything in plastic bags, and take a few other preventative measures, I'll probably go again. Optimism is a curse!!!

The Fun Run

 We had a busy weekend at ISB! On Friday after school, was the Job and Maria Charity Fun Run. This is an awesome effort organized by the school and parents in memory of a 2 ISB 1st grade students, brother and sister, who perished in the 2004 tsunami. The kids and I ran with lots of others to raise money for the educational needs of several Thai students. C ran the 200 meter, D and I ran the Mother/Daughter 400 meter, and then I ran the mile. It was terribly hot, but free ice water and cookies made it all better!

C, getting in zone, focused on the track.

Go! Go! Go!!!

Green ribbon winner!

What a team. Hopefully Daddy will be here to join us for the next one! We love you T!

Good Stuff

We are home now from another wild and crazy International Food Fair. We are tired, and STUFFED, and happy! Who had the falafel pitas at the Israel booth? Curry at the India booth? Sausages and onions at the Aussie booth? Pie and pulled pork sandwiches at the American booth? Yum!

D, Tess, and I worked all day on our apple tarts. So proud of my girl. She's got great technique!

 We love the food fair, the chance to bake together, and all the excitement! Our other project was helping out in the games area with our Girl Scouts Daisy Troop. We helped run the treasure game. 10 baht- win a prize every time! My Daisy Scouts were great little money earners!

Happy little American girl.

Who Knew??

So yesterday I ran my first half-marathon. I have not been a runner my whole life but about a year ago, after a bit of weight gain, I decided I wanted to LOOK like a runner. You know, lean, fit, ripped abs. :) Okay, well, I don't know about the abs, but I just decided running would be the best way to slim down. So I began!
The half-marathon idea came along in November when I heard that the Bangkok Marathon had been postponed to February 2012 due to the flooding here. It was smart move so that runners wouldn't be hurdling sandbags the whole time, and it gave me time to train.

Yesterday was the big day!!! (See me before)

 Up at 3 am, on the road to downtown by 4 am, at the start by 4:30 am, and running through dark and yet, still very warm and humid Bangkok at 5 am. There were 1186 runners doing the half marathon yesterday. And we all learned that Bangkok does not smell any better at 5am than it does at noon.

Anyway, I came in at #92 in the overall, and #10 for my female age category! Woooo hoooo! And man was I beat!!! All I could think about was how lots of people were running twice as far! WOW! My hat is off to marathoners!!!

I am so glad I did this I am looking out for the next event. Thank you to everyone who encouraged me! SO MANY wonderful and supportive people near and far who gave me a thumbs up while I ran around the lake or well wishes on facebook. This accomplishment feels so good- and it would be really fun to share it with more friends and family!

Happy Belated Australia Day!

To celebrate the big day down under, C and I baked our first pavlova.
It wasn't the prettiest pav at the ball, but it tasted good!

Many thanks to my little Aussie baker for his assistance, and spirit!