Hey! Jesus loves me!

Happy Easter!!!

He is Risen indeed! Happy Easter! We love you all!

Last(ish) thing Checked off

So the last(ish) thing to check off our bucket list of things to do before we leave Thailand was for me to have tea at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel downtown with Amy! (I would still love to take the kids snorkeling here in Thailand, but with Megan's broken arm, that will have to wait).

We went last weekend and it was wonderful! Amy's driver, Khun Ong drove us and dropped us off. We walked around the hotel some inside because I had never been there - walked through the restaurants to the water and talked for a bit, then made our way to the Author's Lounge (aptly named for the famous author's who have stayed at the Oriental including Joseph Conrad)! We were able to choose between the Traditional or Oriental Tea set and both chose the Traditional. Amy chose the Earl Grey French Blue and I chose The au Tibet tea - it was wonderful...citrusy with hints of rose...and an amazing spread of treats, amazing scones and sandwiches! It was a great time to talk without kids running around and a great time with a great friend!

Amy and I on the waterfront at the Oriental - it was overcast, but fun to look out

Amazing staircase in Author's Lounge

The menus for tea - made to look like books

Traditional tea menu - so much yummy food!

Tea :)

Our tea choices - I think they had something like 35 different choices of tea

Rock crystal sugar...which I used in my tea!

Amazing selection of foods...

Delicious scones

Beautiful decorations in the front of the hotel

Amy and I at the end of the day!

Songkran 2011

This Happened Before the Broken Arm...

Songkran for us consisted of being home and very busy! The kids had off the whole week and Dan had off Wednesday-Friday for the Songkran Holiday! We spent a lot of time with people - and were continuously on the go - which is very unlike us, but it was fun! Dan and the kids made a fun fort in our living room on Saturday - which lasted until Monday when they put up a 6 man tent we gave Dan for Christmas this year! It stayed up all week and was fun for the kids...

Monday - haircuts and nails done at K. Nok's! Kylie had her first ever haircut - K. Nok cut 5 inches or so off and it looks soooo cute! She was so worried about having her hair cut and did great! I got my haircut, too!

Monday evening - we offered to take Jaya and Cadie, our 2 little buddies, overnight so that Ro and Chris could have a night out! The girls spent the night at our house, slept through the night and did great! We had a blast with them and they were lots of fun snuggling their "bubbies" (blankies), watching Sing Off and naming everyone who had a "bubby" in the room!

Tuesday morning - drove down to have lunch with Dan at work - brough Jaya and Cadie with us! The little girls did great - I had planned out our trip to coincide with nap time for Cadie. She didn't fall asleep, but my two big girls did! Lunch was fun and then we came back home!

Tuesday evening - Put Jaya and Cadie down for naps and they woke up right when Ro and Chris got here - they stayed for dinner and then we had other friends come over to have a grown up game night! Played Cranium and enjoyed the friendship of Ken, Amy, Ro, Chris, Brittney, Brian and Ruth!

Wednesday - Joined Ken and Amy's crew at their pool to celebrate M's birthday! Had a blast and did a yummy taco lunch with them!

Wednesday evening - Had Dan's friend Mike and his family out to play at ISB on the playgrounds and do dinner at Que Pasa - they have a 3 1/2 year old and a 1 1/2 year old, so it was fun to play with their kiddos!

Thursday morning - drove downtown to Bill and Kristen's (Dan's buddy from work's) house for a Songkran Pool Party! Kids swam and used an inflatable boat for 4 straight hours while the adults visited and shot some water guns over the 7th story pool at people down on the street!

Thursday afternoon - Joined Ken and Amy in celebrating D's birthday (they have 2 kids with birthdays next to each other)! Soccer, more swimming, yummy pizza and ice cream sundaes!

Friday - Lunch at Que Pasa with our friends Oscar and Elena and their 4 kiddos, then drove around Samakee to get our car splashed and covered in paste!

Friday night - Dinner at Ro and Chris's - enjoyed wonderful homemade enchiladas and homemade cheesecake! Played BANG! for the first time!

Saturday - Phew, just hung out as a family!

It was a super busy Songkran, but it was wonderful to have the kids home for the week and have Dan home for 5 straight days!!!

Dan leading worship at church

Having a cuban on our front porch while it rained :)

Miss Kylie Grace's 1st ever haircut! It looks so cute and healthy now!

Getting ready to go to K. Nok's - stocked up with goldfish, a water bottle, books, DS's and an ipod...

K. Nok cutting Kylie's hair

Our piggy toes!

Megan scaling our door frame ala Pat O'Malley

Kiddos in the car on the way to eat lunch with Daddy - Notice Megan sound asleep on little Jaya and Cadie looking at sleeping Kylie like she's crazy!

Megan, Miss Cadie and Daddy at work

Kiddos +2 with Daddy

Game night at our house! Chris, Ken, Brian and Dan

The Ladies
Ruth, Me, Brittany, Ro and Amy

Broken Arm :(

Yesterday I got a call from the school nurse that Megan had fallen off the monkey bars at recess and they thought she had a broken arm. :( Poor Moopert. So, Kylie and I headed straight over to school to pick her up and take her to the hospital. Amy offered to take Kylie and have Jack head to her house after school, which was a huge help! Megan and I headed down to Bumrungrad.

The school had put an ice pack and splint on her arm, wrapped it with an ace bandage and then put it in a sling to keep it immobile. It looked like it was already in a cast and we had a bit of trouble at Bumrungrad trying to explain that she didn't need to see the Orthopedist, but that she needed to get a cast because she just broke her arm! They were great about putting her in a wheelchair (which Megan didn't want at first because she kept saying "My arm is broken, not my foot") to keep her from getting jostled or bonked. We saw a doctor, went to get x-rays, went back to the doctor, found out that she had broken both the ulna and the radius in her forearm, but that it didn't need to be set or operated on! She got a cast and a fancy sling! She'll be in a cast for 6 weeks (almost all the rest of school). She's in pain, but taking tylenol to help...had a rough time sleeping last night and is home today.

Megan's friend Punnava helped her to the clinic at school and told her that "Medicine is the best laughter" and then burst out laughing...Thankfully I had some funny pictures of Kylie on my cell phone to help out at the hospital when Megan started crying....little sisters are good for a laugh :)

Megan was about to start a 6 week unit on swimming for PE and is bummed about not being able to swim, not being able to ride her bike, not being able to play the recorder for music, not being able to finish her dot painting for art, not being able to cartwheel out of the sanctuary for the Easter program this weekend.... It's her right arm, so she'll have difficulty writing with her left hand and learning to do things with her left. Things she's not bummed about? Not having to do dishes and not having to shower by herself :)

Aside from having a broken arm - we had a good time yesterday at the hospital. It was a good time to chat and then we did lunch afterwards at Beirut (her choice over McDonalds)!

Coca Cola cutout Pictures

Jack

Megan

Kylie

The Bike Ride

Since January, we've been working on Kylie riding her bike. That is to say - Kylie has been able to ride her bike since January, she just couldn't ride it without crying. The goal is to have Kylie be able to ride around the lake with Dan, Jack and Megan - which is 2.2 miles or so. It's a big goal that Dan wanted to do with all 3 kids before we move from here. Well, after much practicing outside on our street, then some around our neighborhood, then out of our neighborhood the opposite way of the lake around a circle so that she could get used to riding in cones next to the road...to the big bike ride! I met them 1/2 way around with water and a hershey's kiss :) Kylie did great and they had a great time! They've now done it 2 more times and she's doing great on her bike!