My Birthday

I had a great day! Dan took off for the day - which was great because we had Amy's Bonus here while she was in the States visiting a sick friend! Dan let me sleep in a bit - while he kept the Bonus and Kylie busy! I got my new awesome Jim Thompson Throw blanket that I've been wanting forever for my birthday from Dan and the kids! We went downtown the Monday before my birthday on an adventure to find the store, look for the blanket and eat dinner at a restaurant we had never tried! Soooo worth it and they had the exact color I wanted - a fun aqua color! Dan, the Bonus, Kylie and I went to Starbucks for breakfast and CoCo Curries for lunch and then in the afternoon I made the Best Broccoli and Cheddar Soup Ever and ordered yummy chicken salad sandwiches from the NY Diner right near here - complete with sweet tea for my favorite dinner ever! Plus I made a wonderful blueberry bread with orange glaze for dessert! It was a good night and we had a great time!

Dinner at Roadhouse BBQ after shopping at Jim Thompson - not sure the kids were supposed to be in the restaurant, since it was basically a bar, but we ate early and no one seemed to mind. Fun high tables and good ribs and bbq!

Ginormously huge menu on each table

Apparently the most beers on tap in Thailand - including one of Dan's favorite's Leffe from Belgium! The 50cc'er.

Breakfast at Starbucks outside with Palm Trees :)

Me and my Tweeter

Dan and the Bonus at CoCo Curries

Me and the Budge at lunch

Opening presents with the kiddos after school

Amazing dinner!

Hi, My Name is Kristen, vol. 3

...and I'm the Birthday Girl because today I turn 33!

Job: Stay at home Mom. This is my last birthday that I'll have with a child home and not in school. We'll see where God leads me next year and what His plans are for me in Kuwait!

Interests: Blogging, painting, reading blogs, reading, having Dan twirl my hair, hanging out with friends, EW bible study, shopping.

Favorite Foods: beef fajita salad and guacamole at Que Pasa, chicken cutlet with Japanese curry at CoCo Curries, Shiche Taouk and hummus at Beirut, Lard Na, Pad Pak Nuam Sai Gai (stir-fried veggies w/ chicken) at Sudathai, Fried morning glory salad and crab in yellow curry at River Tree House, samosas and spring rolls from Villa with Kylie...Sweet Potato soup, Broccoli Cheddar soup, homemade gumbo...

Favorite Shows: Mad Men, How I Met your Mother, Sing Off, Outsourced, Glee, Little House on the Prairie (halfway through season 7), Top Shot.

Books I've read more than once this year: Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, Breaking Dawn (read them all more times than I can count), The Tea Rose, The Jewels of Tessa Kent, A Bride in the Bargain.

Dan's Birthday

Dan's birthday was interesting. It was a Sunday, so we had church - it was a rare weekend where he was in town and not playing bass or leading worship - but he did announcements. Then, instead of normally going to Que Pasa after church, the church had a pot luck lunch after the service! So, we stayed for the pot luck and made this: Pioneer Women's Chicken Spaghetti. Soooo good.


After church, Jack treated Daddy and the girls to a Slurpee from 7-11!


Then, Dan wanted to go to Ken and Amy's house for dinner - so we went over there, did some Wii Just Dance 2 and were supposed to order Que Pasa, but the adults filled up on guacamole and salsa so we fed the kids leftover lasagna! I made a Tim Tam ice cream cake for dessert it was delicious! It was a fun time over there with all the kiddos - and a decent birthday overall! Happy Birthday my Tweeter!!!

Hi, My Name is Dan, vol. 3

And today is my birthday because I'm 35!!!

Favorite Foods: Cashew Chicken, Japanese Curry with Chicken Cutlet - Spicy level 2 - regular rice - with cheese, Bacon Cheeseburger at Que Pasa, Tim Tams and Tim Tam milkshakes.

Interests: Playing guitar/worship band, anything having to do with technology, xBox 360, twirling Kristen's hair, traveling the world, biking with the kids, watching Clone Wars or X-Men Adventures on weekend mornings with kiddos.

Latest Purchase: Buying 2 guitars at one time! 1- 5 string bass and 1- electric guitar. I've been looking at them for a while and saved up the money - finally went and purchased them while Uncle Matt was visiting!

Current TV shows: Top Shot, How I Met Your Mother, The Office, Glee (maybe still), The Sing Off, Star Wars Clone Wars cartoon and Outsourced.

Latest sayings: "My life is half over!" because I'm 35 and the Bible says that your days are numbered at 70 years (Kristen doesn't like hearing this). "Drop it like it's hot!" "True story" "Erroneous" "Oh, got you there!" "I'm just gonna play some xBox for a minute..." "See!"

Things I've checked off my to-do list in Thailand: Swing through the trees at Flight of the Gibbons, visit Chiang Mai with the family, stay downtown with the kids at Frasier Place and swim on the top floor, go to Centara Pattaya with Ken and Amy's family, buy 2 guitars!

New things I've done in the last year: played countless hours of xBox 360, ventured into xBox live, became an Elder at CCC, took on leading worship at church (highlight - any and every Chris Tomlin song), visited 1 new country - KUWAIT, got awarded a follow-on tour, enjoyed the iPad, read the complete Twilight series (and loved them) courtesy of my wife, solved the 12 sided Rubik's cube, preached 2x's at church.

Why my Tweeter loves me (written by Kristen): Because he is an amazing man of God who loves God, me, Megan, Jack and Kylie. He loves others well and is giving of his time and resources to help others out. He doesn't complain. He gets sweaty at the drop of a hat and can sit and sweat on our sofa while I'm under a blanket freezing. He twirls my hair for hours on end. He calls whenever he can while he's on trips - at least 1x a day, connection permitting. He brings us back souvenirs from trips and makes us a priority even when he's not around. He encourages me to spend time with God, teaches me new things continually and makes me laugh and smile. He's an amazing husband and I'm very thankful for him!!! Happy Birthday my Tweeter! Here's to another great 35 years (or more!)!!! I love you!!!

Me and my Birthday Tweeter

Daddy and the kiddos

This Fall in NY with his cousins

Megan's Birthday

Megan's birthday was great! She had school - so Kylie and I got to bring her in funfetti cupcakes as a treat, then after Daddy got home from work we went to Que Pasa for dinner and then back home to have brownies for dessert and have Life Group! It was a busy day, but she got lots of fun phone calls from the family and wonderful presents!

Megan getting Happy Birthday sung to her in her class

Me and my 9 year old

Enjoying her cupcake!

The class enjoying their cupcakes

It's blurry, but I love this pic of Moo and Kylie walking down to another 3rd grade teacher's class to give her a cupcake! She is good friends with Megan's teacher and is going to be a Kindergarten teacher next year - she somehow was so excited at the prospect of having Kylie in her class next year and was going to request her! She was disappointed to find out that we're moving to Kuwait...I think she would have been more disappointed to find out that Kylie is a totally different personality than Megan ;-)
Anyway, Kylie delivered a cupcake to her!

Cute pic of the sisters

Megan with all her presents!

Opening one from Mom Mom and Pappy

A cool Thai wall hanging that I spray painted navy for her wall

Pretty bracelet from Grammy and Grandad

Books from Matt and Tiff and kiddos

Dinner at Que Pasa - with Daddy holding up 9 fingers for the 9 year old!!!
Happy Birthday Megan, we love you!!!

Megan's 9th Birthday Party

Sunday Megan had her 9th Birthday Party! We had a Candy Land Party - not the kind with the board game you play, but a live-action game :) A friend of ours has done it for the last 15 years with her 4 daughters for every birthday party...and the oldest is currently 24! So, after picking her brain on how to do it, we did it and had fun! We purchased some key pieces of candy from Oriental Trading and had other candy. We set up a life sized playing board throughout the downstairs using construction paper as squares! We put candy out all along the board and when the girls got near the candy, they could take a piece (or 2 or 3 or 20)! Then, at certain points along the board we had the girls stop what they were doing and do a craft...making bracelets with beads that looked like candy or making foam gingerbread houses! We used rainbow colors, streamers and balloons to decorate and made a rainbow bundt cake that totally fell apart when taking it out of the pan...so we borrowed a trifle dish from a friend and made the most delicious trifle EVER! It was beautiful and Dan did an awesome job of piping on the icing and saving the day! Most importantly, Megan had a great time and the girls had a blast, too!

All sorts of candy and goodies

Decorations and ginger bread houses waiting to be made

The Candy Land path

Front hall and goodie bags

Fun lollipops

Fun signs

Candy Canes

Fun shower curtain we found for $3USD that doubles as our table cloth!

The girls coloring Candy Land pictures until everyone arrived

Candy Land!!! Woo Hoo!!! It was so fun!

Awesome beads Kylie found at Chatuchak that looked like candy!

Bracelet making

Waiting patiently for their turns...but on the path of Candy Land...and eating candy along the way

Leah and her finished Gingerbread house!

Girls still in the process

Yummy rainbow trifle cake!

Singing Happy Birthday to the Birthday Girl!

9 Wonderful candles

Beautiful, yummy cake! Thank you Mom Mom and Pappy for the White Cake cake mix! We all agreed it was by far the yummiest we've had!

Opening presents

Overhead shot of the girls playing Candy Land

Colette with 15 pieces of bubble gum in her mouth

Beautiful girls!