Megan's Homework

Here is a post from Megan's teacher yesterday on her blog...talking about a homework assignment that they had last week.

What does high quality homework look like?

That’s a question we asked ourselves today as we looked at our first set of Think…Draw…Write papers. We read everyone’s descriptive paragraph and looked at the pictures. Then, using two sticky notes worth one vote each we voted on the homework we thought showed the best writing, drawing, and overall effort.

What do we like about Punnava and Megan’s work?

• Neat writing
• Great description
• Good spelling and punctuation (aka conventions)
• Full color picture that goes with the writing
• Awesome details in the writing AND illustration

Great job Megan and Punnava!

What do you plan to do this week to improve your homework?

Megan's Picture

Megan's writing

And a Wordle that Megan made for school about herself :)

Jack's Field Trip

Jack recently got to go on a class field trip to Ko Kret - an island in the middle of the Chao Phraya! It's called "Pottery Island" and is the home to the Mon people who make beautiful pottery! Jack had a great time - they took a bus to the pier from school, all had to wear life jackets and then took a ferry 5 minutes to the island, ate lunch, toured a museum, saw pottery being made and got to make their own vessel on a wheel, were able to paint pottery and then purchase a pot or 2 to bring back to school so they could use them to plant their sunflowers they are currently growing! Jack was thrilled because he got to be in a group with 4 buddies and 2 girls and a couple of really nice Mom's!

Happy 11th Anniversary Tweeter

On January 22, 2000 we said our vows.
Today we get to celebrate 11 years together!

Stand Beside Him - Ed Cash

A little boy grew up in this world
Searching to find some things to make him smile


A little girl doing the same thing
While the Lord knew that love would find each child


And each child would find love
A love that grows
A love to last them as long as forever


So the search began while the answer was known
And here they are on this wonderful day together

(chorus)

Stand beside Him children
So that you can stand beside each other
Follow His ways, give to Him your praise
And you'll never have to run for cover
'Cause He'll be your shelter

So the two of them grew up over night


Ain't it funny how the time just slipped away


And as they both pursued the Higher Light
They found each other on the way
And he asked her for her heart


As she took his
And the love they shared would never be broken
Cause they were held together like the cross
That took away their sins as a token (of God's love)

No mountains weren't too high, nor boarders were too broad
To stop this love that was meant to be


Cause no matter how far away
They were from each other


The Lord bridged the gap of their distance for their love
And brought them together for eternity


I love you Daniel Scott!!! I still can't believe that I get to be married to you...

Christmas Letter

For the last 8 months I've wanted our Christmas picture to be with the kids posing on the back of a tuk tuk - because they are so iconic of Thailand and because they actually Thailand :) I pictured our friend Ken coming with us to a tuk tuk and paying the driver 100B so we could take some photos on his tuk tuk. Flash forward to the first week of December - we needed to get our Christmas letter out and Dan encouraged me to use a good family picture we had from Safari World. But I was determined to get this picture taken...so on the way to go swim at our pool, we took a detour to look for a tuk tuk. We had to drive for a while to find one at Carrefour...Dan was grumpy because I was making him do this and we didn't have a photographer...so we walked up to the driver and asked him to take a photo! He got heckled by the other tuk tuk drivers and took 2 pics - neither of which were spectacular. This original picture was blindingly bright - too much red and yellow and blue...but in b&w it looks pretty good..

Chiang Mai part 3

In order to get to this: (Wat Doi Suthep - which overlooks the whole Chiang Mai valley)

to see this view:

We had to drive up the winding road on the mountain approx. 40 minutes to get to this: A stairway leading up that has 309 stairs. I was sucking wind 3/4 of the way up...

But it was a beautiful view

And a beautiful temple (they tend towards Burmese architecture for Wats instead of the Cambodian style in Bangkok)

Since Dan and I weren't wearing pants or a long skirt, we had to borrow these: Thai fisherman pants for Dan and a Thai wrap for me to be able to see the Wat

Dan looked so cool in his :)

Later that night, the kids were ready for dinner out at Mikes - a Burger and Hot Dog stand that was totally not worth the effort to walk there :) But that's okay.

We decided to go to the mall near us on Friday - and after walking to get anywhere to eat, I was done walking. There was a tuk tuk at our hotel and we decided to take it instead. Tuk Tuks in Chaing Mai are not like in Bangkok. The ones in Bangkok have "L" shaped backseats to squish lots of people in. In Chiang Mai, they just have the 1 backseat that is straight and open on each end. So the driver suggested that Jack sit up front with him on a little jump seat. And that he should hold his little puppy named "Lucky". So he did - against Dan's and my better judgement - as we were trying to go with the flow and not fuss about stuff. Bad idea.

Here's Jack in the front jump seat. No railing. With the dog on his lap. We cruised down the road and were going pretty fast when all the sudden the driver hit his brakes and Jack went flying out the tuk tuk into the road. Praise the Lord that he landed on his elbows (because he was holding Lucky) and his knees and not his head...and also that there wasn't a car or truck behind us to run him over - just motorcycles that slowed down to not hit him. It really was a miracle that he didn't get hurt worse than he did.

His scraped up knees waiting for us to buy him bandages and peroxide at the mall

So sad while Daddy was fixing him up

He got to choose where we ate lunch - and he chose Pizza Company. So, here's Kylie pretending to be a cat maybe with really long fangs...

Later on the girls went swimming at the hotel. It was freezing, so Jack didn't go.

Instead we played Uno with Daddy :)

Dan and I were done with Chiang Mai by this point. We felt like people keep raving about Chiang Mai and it just wasn't that great for us - too much walking around, having to take songlors instead of taxis and everything was really run down (you know, and our son almost dying by falling off the tuk tuk). I took this picture of us and Dan said, "Perfect. A picture of us on our "dark day"." So here's the pic of it. Thankfully it got better that night...

Family Pic of us at Just Khao Soy! It's a resturant that serves Khao Soy, a yellow curry noodle dish/soup that is local to northern Thailand! It was recommended to us by friends and was definitely a hit! Everyone enjoyed it and we all got a bit of a different dish - it only serves Khao Soy, so you could choose between the type of noodle, the level of spiciness and whether you wanted it Lanna style or Chiang Mai style (which had coconut milk added to it to make it creamier) :) Each were brought out on an artists pallet with sides that could change the flavor - and the placemat explained how they changed the flavor! We had a great time being there, experimenting with flavors and enjoying the Khao Soy!

Jack-Medium, flat noodle, mild, Lanna
Dan - Large, flat noodle, medium, Lanna
Kylie - Medium, round noodle, mild, Lanna
Kristen - Large, flat noodle, medium, Chiang Mai
Megan - Medium, round noodle, mild, Chiang Mai

Placemat with explainations

Yummy food on the artists pallet

They give each person a white apron to wear. We weren't sure why until the Khao Soy came out - it's yellow curry that stains everything and splashes around! So they give it to you to wear so you don't look like this:

With a yellow face :) Yummy, yummy food

Kiddos all sleeping so nicely together in a King Size bed :) Kylie in the bed in the middle so she didn't fall out

Cute Kiddos in purchases from shopping :)
Jack - fun Thai hat and Muay Thai boxing shorts
Kylie - New Thai purse, bathrobe and fancy shoes
Megan - Larger Thai purse, bathrobe and her fancy shoes

Walking out to the plane to board...I love shots of the kiddos and Dan walking - each with their own backpack

And waiting for our bags back in Bangkok!

Chiang Mai part 2

We hired a driver and guide to take us around on Thursday. We planned on going to the Maesa Elephant Camp in the morning, going to the Maesa Waterfalls after that and then driving to Wat Doi Suthep in the afternoon. A really full and crazy day, but it seemed like fun. The Maesa Elephant Camp was great - our guide is known there, so we went in a back gate and got to see a 5 week old baby elephant and feed some momma elephants before we watched the elephants take a bath before their big show! We also got to take a 30 minute elephant ride - Dan/Jack/Megan on one elephant and Momma/Kylie on another one. Totally fun and totally scary and another thing checked off our bucket list!

For 40B each, the kids got a bunch of bananas and a bunch of sugar cane to feed the elephants. Shortly after this photo was taken, Megan tried to feed 1 single banana to an elephant - she got turned around by it's trunk, and the rest of the bananas and sugar cane were plucked from her hand! She was upset - until we asked her to read the signs that say "Please feed the elephants the whole bunch of bananas at a time" instead of other places where we feed them one at a time :)

Momma and 5 week old baby we were not allowed to feed to touch

K. Wee was our guide for the day (K. Poom was our driver) and K. Wee took this pic of us on the bridge by the water where the elephants were about to bathe

So cool to see them amble down to the water and go under...not wanting to right away because it was chilly that morning!

Waiting for the elephant show to commence: We got to watch them do tricks, play soccer, play basketball, paint pictures, demonstrate their logging abilities and play music!

Very cool to watch them paint

After the show, we got to feed them some more bananas and sugar cane...and get pictures taken with them!

Dan and the kiddos :)

Then we went on a 30 minute elephant ride. Kylie cried for the first 12 minutes. Let me tell you - it was scary. Not so much when they were going uphill - because you are leaning backwards, but when they are going downhill, I was trying to calm Kylie, assure the driver it was okay and make sure she didn't fall out - while not freaking myself out! But, it was definitely cool and I'm very glad we did it! Kylie now claims it was so much fun.

Dan and the big kids did a great job!

When we were finished, we went to the Maesa Waterfalls to eat lunch and see some waterfalls. K. Wee came with us and ate lunch - as well as ordered for us...great yummy food - grilled chicken, som tom and sticky rice (plus fried rice and Phad See Ew for Jack and Megan)!

Waterfall #3 of 10 - we did 1-3 and then were ready to head out, since we still had a 1/2 day of sightseeing and walking ahead of us!

The family

My Kiddos

Dan and kiddos on a bridge

After the Waterfalls, we had a 45 minute drive to Wat Doi Suthep...K. Wee fell asleep (K. Poom was driving), as well as all of us...

Even Jack and Megan