Sleeping with the Fishes

Our Girl Scout troop had the fun experience this past weekend of sleeping at Siam Ocean World, Bangkok's aquarium. Like many modern aquariums, Ocean World has the long walk-through tubes that go under the tanks, and this is where we slept after an evening spent touring the place.

Kicked off the night with live theatre!

The girls had a blast! The night included a behind-the-scenes tour, glass-bottom boat ride over the shark tank, a trip to the gift shop (of course), 5D movie, a craft, and sleeping with the sharks and rays gracefully swimming overhead.

Our troop of 8 girls and were wonderful companions, as well as 3 moms who joined. Everyone listened, participated, ate, slept, and was responsible for their things. Love it!

 Feeding frenzy. You can tell the guide gets a kick out of it EVERY time.

 All our girls.

 Launching off to admire the man-eating (not really) sharks from above!

 5D movie- The Little Prince.

 It wasn't a great night for sleeping, but it was nice to have the sea life to watch at various times throughout the night and early morning. That's a plus!

On Saturday, after a 4.5 hour nap, I was ready to function again. Well worth the fun we had with our girls!

What Happens When You Turn 7!?

You get your own beautiful bouquet of flowers, your own basil plant (because creamy pesto pasta with prawns is still your favorite food), and a few other items from your wish list.

You get to choose the family's lunch destination (McDonald's), and have mom paint your fingernails and toenails.

The ladies at the salon style your hair and put in your tiara.

You get to put your own lip gloss in your own handbag and Dad takes you to the ball!

On Monday, Mom shows up at school with birthday brownies and gets to be Mystery Reader!

You suddenly become a fine violinist! Along with your American Girl doll.

  You lose another tooth, and continue to write lengthy, question-filled letters to the tooth fairy. Who, by the way, always writes back, even when it's late and she really wants to go to bed.

I think being 7 agrees with our girl just fine! There will be a party to come, when things slow down a little bit around here. D has requested a karaoke party... oh boy.

Make the World a Better Place

D's Girl Scout troop has just earned their 10th and final daisy petal! Hooray! We seem to have saved the best for last and accomplished something great recently.
Our troop of 8 first graders held a clothing drive for a nearly community. We've visited these people a couple of times before and on our last visit, a man told our driver that they could use clothing donations. It was a great task for the girls.

Each Daisy Scout took home 10 bags with notes. They went door to door asking for donations and offering pick up service. They were great! And a community in need was given bags and bags of clothing, shoes, and toys. So proud of our Scouts!

Snow Day!

The weather has been beastly hot and humid here lately. We are having record breaking temps, even the locals are complaining! But, like always, life goes on and we all find ways to keep entertained and cool down.
Today is Tuesday and on most Tuesdays D has a friend over whose mom makes jewelry at a local gift shop. Her name is Fern and while Thai schools are on break, she comes over and the girls play after D gets out of school. Fern is very, very sweet and using more and more English words each time we see her. D loves having her over and has gotten so good at speaking slowly and checking to make sure she understands. They are very cute together.
Despite this weather, we heated things up a little more by baking cookies for a school function tomorrow. All 3 kids were pretty excited to bake and help out. See our yummy lemon cookies!

Anyway, once the first batch was in the oven, D had a brilliant idea. At Christmas time, family back home sent us a super fun gift called Sno Wonder. It's a powder and minutes after you add cold water, you have snow! We keep a big bag in the fridge and D pulled it out and poured it all over the kitchen table. Really really fun and special to watch Fern experience her first snow! In our kitchen! In sweltering heat! D specifically asked me to post their photo on the blog. I think she really enjoyed sharing this with Fern too. Perfect way to cool down. And a new way to play with Little Pet Shops.

We sent a bag of snow home with Fern and she bounced back to her mom and grandma so cute and excited. I hope they had a snowball fight tonight.

Off to Work!

Today is "Take Your Kid to Work" day at T's office. Both kids are attending today, and both are very excited!

This is C's first year to attend. I told him last night, half joking, that he would need to wear office clothes. He said, "But I not have any office cwoes." I showed him the outfit in his closet that has been waiting for such an occasion as this. I thought he would laugh and say "No." But instead he said, "Cool!"

So we laid out his slacks, dress shirt, and neck tie. There was also a very handsome vest, but this morning he said, "Only Peppa Pig daddy wear dat."

Then C was up early this morning begging to get dressed for work. Cute that he was so excited. Not cute that it was 5:30. He let me tuck in his shirt and he ate his Cheerios more carefully than I have ever seen him eat.

And so they are off to work to learn about power, water, and telecommunications. No doubt there will be many stories to tell this evening.

(Funny note: I just did spell check on this and apparently "cwoes" is a word! )

Oak Elfwand

This morning D lost her 3rd tooth. It's been wiggly for some time, and today was the day. She has been skeptical for the last few months about the tooth fairy. She told me that she and one of her friends don't believe anymore, until I told her that you only get money under your pillow if you believe. Then she decided she still "believed a little bit."

The first 2 times that D lost teeth she wrote letters to the tooth fairy. It seems we cannot lose a tooth without some written correspondance. Tonight there were a series of questions or a "Questions Quis" as D wrote on her card.

So I dug up some answers from various tooth fairy websites, including The Fairy Name Generator . D's fairy's name is Oak Elfwand. You should check yours out too! Mine is named Hazel Goblinwand. :)

In searching I also found icaughtthetoothfairy.com . For $9.99 I upload a photo of D sleeping, add a fairy chosen from a wide selection, and print! Voila! A few more months of having a believer! I also had to type up and print a teeny-tiny letter with all of the "Quis" answers.

I finished this evening's project and was so pleased with the result. Then I almost forgot to leave the cash!

Mission accomplished. Too bad nothing else got done tonight!

Student-Led Conferences

We had a fun experience last week. It was conference time at D's school, but this semester it was she who showed me around the classroom and  highlighted all that is going on in reading, writing, science, and math. Her teacher was there so assist, but D was the lead. So fun!

She did a great job, showing me writing samples from the start of the year, noting that some punctuation and word spacing was incorrect. The mechanics in her most recent work is much better. It has been a great year for her writing. In a book she wrote about Girl Scouts she used, "e.g." and listed severaly ways that Girl Scouts earn badges. She explained to me what that meant. I just about died!

She also had a selection of books labeled as "too easy," "too hard," and "just right." We read for a while and then moved on to science.

Science is the talk of the first grade right now as they study entomology and each care for their own mealworms and waxworms. D's newly hatched beetle climbed all over her fingers and hands as she exclaimed, "He likes me!"

And, I forgot to blog about International Day earlier in the month! Just like last year, D participated in the parade and then spent the day learning about several different countries. They sampled food, listened to music, played games, and made crafts. What a wonderful day!

C joined the patriotic fun too! Giddy'up!

D learned all about Peru, Chile, Israel, USA, and Thailand. I helped out with the South American countries and I'm now highly inspired to visit this continent we haven't yet seen. Someday! So glad D loves this special event- and so thankful for the community we live in that makes it happen!

Yay for Peru!