Party Downtown

Megan's 1st best friend (because that's what she calls her), Anaida, had her birthday party yesterday. She lives downtown so it's always hard to have playdates (Bangkok traffic is notoriously bad)...in fact, in almost 1 1/2 years of knowing each other, they have had only 1 playdate. It was a 6 hour long one on a Saturday. So, Megan had asked a long time ago if she would be allowed to go to Anaida's birthday party - especially if it was on a Sunday, which is normally a family day for us. We said, of course, since she's your 1st best friend :)

So, the party was scheduled to be from 3pm-6pm downtown. We ate lunch after church, then headed down to do some Christmas shopping and headed over to the party at 3pm! It was in an apartment building and on the 7th floor. The 7th floor in this apartment building was like an outdoor clubhouse/swimming pool/greenspace. So fun! There were a TON of people there, wonderful yummy food (spicy curries, samosas, spring rolls, pizza...) and tons of crafts and games. Anaida's family were so nice and welcoming (the whole family was invited...not just Megan) to all of us! After every game they played, they had presents for ALL of the kids there (bouncy balls, dominoes, a pencil) and then at the end of the party Anaida gave out wrapped presents to each child (including Jack and Kylie - they were boardgames!)...and also had a tree decorated with numbers! Each child chose a number and walked to the prize table where they got their prize that matched their number! There were giant stuffed animals, lots of fun small things and snacks - it was a great party and so much fun!

Seriously, see how many kids were there?

They had an Easter Egg hunt! The kids had to find enough easter eggs to spell Anaida's name out - each egg had 1 letter in it!

Jack's fun ball

Kylie in "scary happy" mode. I told her if she didn't smile, she wouldn't get any more presents. This is what she gave me.

Notice we don't have any pictures of us with Megan. She was flittering off with Anaida the whole time...as it should be. They were so cute together!

It was such a great time. Anaida's parents, Aunt and Uncle kept saying, "Everyone's a winner here! Everyone gets a prize!" It was a blast!

Our Thanksgiving

We kept the kids home from school today - they don't have it off because it's in international school and they only have off for Thai holidays - but Dan has off, so we kept Megan and Jack home. We spent the morning decorating our Christmas Tree and getting some decorations up around the house (I'll continue doing it for the next day or so) and we had to rearrange furniture, but our Christmas tree looks great! (Dan was gone last weekend, we have a busy weekend this weekend and he'll be gone next weekend, which would have put us into the middle of December and that is unsat).

Then we took the kids to the mall for lunch and playtime on a fun playground there...they had a blast and it was the first time for Megan and Jack - Kylie had done it with a friend before.

We came home, put Kylie down for a quick nap and made green bean casserole and honey butter for rolls! Then we headed over to our friends Ken and Amy's house! They were hosting Thanksgiving for 40 people!!! It was really fun and a great time - the kids had a blast and we had lots of yummy food (and leftovers sent home with us)!!!

A great Thanksgiving...hope you guys had a great one, too!

Jack in the balls

Kylie on a fun enclosed trampoline


Megan through the netting


Our Hosts - Ken and Amy


The kitchen while turkey and ham slicing was going on

What Dan was doing with Ken and Amy's littlest while the slicing of ham and turkey was going on

Rylee got the wishbone and got to make the wish

Some of the 6 tables (2 kids, 4 adult)


Amy bought Kahlua for Dan (specifically). He was so happy :)

Dan and the girls

Dan making himself at home at Ken and Amy's after everyone else had left :)

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

We love you guys and are very thankful for each and every one of you! Have a Happy Thanksgiving!!! We'll post more about our day tomorrow - with pictures of our fun day and night!

Kid Quotes

Me: Bugga, did you rinse off the soap after you put it on your hands (and arms)?
Bugga: (incredulous) um...yeah.
Me: because you stink
Bugga: (inhaling her arms) yeah, I do smell like far-pume...




Jack: I know how to spell "friend"
Me: Yeah, how?
Jack: B-F-F

New Tradition

In our family for Christmas, we get 3 presents for each person. They generally end up being a stack of books (1 present), a toy (1 present) and something else (1 present)...you know, for the kids. (Dan and I get 3 presents each - but they just depend on what we need/want). This year, we decided to start a new tradition!

Here's what we did: We went to Toys R Us here and had a set price limit of 1,000B ($30USD) per kid. 1 of the kids went with Dan to Baskin' Robbins (yup, we have them here in Thailand) and the other 2 came with me to shop for a present for the 3rd! Does that make sense? Then we rotated, which meant that each kid got to have an ice cream date with Daddy and the other 2 chose out a present for the 3rd! They all had a blast and I didn't coach them on what to get at all. It was fun to see them pick out a present for the 3rd.

Kylie went first to get ice cream with Daddy


While the big kids and I shopped for her


Then Megan got ice cream with Dan


It took these 2 all of 1 minute to choose Megan's gift. We had to waste time looking in Toys R Us so that Megan would have enough time to eat her ice cream!


Then Jack got to have his date with Dan

While the girls picked out something for Jack!

It was a great time and, I think, the start of a new tradition. We'll also continue it out to the kids going with Dan to pick out something for me (they already picked something out for him that evening when he wasn't looking)! It was a riot seeing how long/short it took for the kids to find presents for each other...and so far, no one has blabbed about it to the others what their present is! Hopefully that will last until Christmas!

For those of you...

...who only have either "just boys" or "just girls" - this one's for you! This is what I came downstairs to after putting the kids to bed last night. Princesses dancing with GI Joe's, in their Little People Jungle, being guarded by Ben 10 crystal guys...with a hulk hand behind. A good mix of sugar, spice and puppy dog tails...and lots of imagination.

Dinner in the good old U S of A!!!

I had a great dinner Sunday night at Matt's house! He and Tiff were very gracious hosts and had Mom and Boyd, Kristen's parents and her brother's family over for a delicious Bulgogi dinner which is one of Matt's specialities on the grill. We even got to Skype with Kristen and the kids towards the end of the evening which was a blast. Sorry you missed out on that Mom but we had to wait for them to be up for school since it was morning there.

Here is a picture in honor of how Kristen usually snaps them that I did of Mom and I.

Marine Corp Ball 2009

Saturday night, we had the privilege of attending the 2009 Marine Corp Ball here in Bangkok, Thailand! It was in celebration of the 234th Birthday of the Marine Corp! We had a great time!!!

Dan got his tux made here in Bangkok and I got my dress made, too! My friend, Elena, has a lady Kuhn Daeng, who has made her a couple of dresses. Elena took 3 of us with her to see K. Daeng. We were told to bring a picture (or couple of them) of the dress we would want made. Just a picture! I took this picture - and let me tell you, it was a bad printed out picture. We didn't have any ink in the printer, so it was in black and white and very sketchy. I told her I wanted it in black with beading on the "V"! It turned out great and was a great price (not cheap, but not insanely expensive, either!). It was well made and I will definitely use K. Daeng again!
The Ball started at 6:30pm, so we left our house at 5:30pm. It took us 40 minutes to get downtown. Then we have to do a long u-turn to get going the right way on the road to the hotel. We got stuck in traffic on the long u-turn for an hour and 20 minutes! With no knowledge of whether it would take 20 minutes or 2 hours. People who were in taxis, got out and started walking after about 30 minutes of just sitting.

The Ball was supposed to start at 6:30pm with the Marine Ceremonies and dinner was supposed to be served at 8:00pm. We finally got off the u-turn at 7:46pm. We then crawled in another 45 minutes of traffic to the hotel, which we could have walked in less than 15 minutes. It was insane!!! We finally made it to the Ball and were bummed that we had missed everything, but thankfully for us - because traffic was so bad - they didn't start things until right after we got there! It was a bummer for those who had been there since 6:30pm without any food :(

So, Marine Ceremonies. Dan and I loved them! I told him it was a good thing they didn't have a recruiting officer there...or he might have signed up. Great video on what it means to be a Marine. Good stuff. And I loved it because my grandmother was one of the 1st 14 Lady Marines, so I felt like it was so cool to be there! The key speaker for the evening was crazy. Not good crazy. Just crazy, crazy. I think he insulted just about everyone he could during the speech and it ran soooo long. It was alternately funny (in a "I can't believe he just said that" way) and sad (in a "I can't believe he just said that" way). Phew!


Then, dinner was served! We got to sit with 4 other couples who are good friends of ours (but I didn't take a picture of them)! Cat and Didier, Elena and Oscar, Monique and Steve and Claire and Russ. While we were waiting for dinner, Steve looked at Dan and said, "There's nothing like eating at 11pm!" We looked at our watch, and sure enough, it was 11:05pm and we were getting served dinner! It was too crazy! :) But we had a blast.


Dancing didn't start until 11:30pm and we got to dance for a couple of songs...all fast, before we had to head home to relieve our babysitter and get Dan in a taxi to head to the airport! We had a great time, will hopefully do it next year and now Dan has his own tux for important events! :)

Me and Megan


Me and Jack


Me and Kylie


Dan and the kiddos!


Fun picture taken by our photographer, Megan


The Family, taken by Kuhn Som

Dan's Thai elephant cuff links

Me and my Tweeter

Dessert with edible white chocolate Marine Corp image


And finally, the Thai Elvis!!!

p.s. Hair, make-up and pedicure done by K. Nok at Smile! 100B for each, for a total of 300B or $8.82USD!