1st Day of Kindergarten for Jack!!!

Today was Jack's 1st day of Kindergarten!!! He was excited to go, no crying or sadness like last year. I think, because he was in Pre-K at the same school last year, that today was kind of anti-climactic for both him and us. Which is good, I think, considering he didn't really want to go last year and was really excited this morning!

Jack gets to ride the bus to school and home from school with Megan, which is fun and he was so excited when he got home today! He told me all about his day: his friend Jetta is also in his class and her mother is his Thai teacher! He had chicken and more chicken and then some cheese sandwiches for lunch. He saw his best friend John on the playground. He had art class and learned how to draw a face. He learned how to say "Can I please go to the bathroom?" in Thai (for Thai class). They have centers in his classroom, but they weren't allowed to do them today, but will tomorrow!

I asked him later what his favorite part of the day was and he said, "When I got to come home on the bus and see you and snuggle you and play with your hair." Then I asked him what the worst part of his day was and he said, "Early in the morning, at school, my teacher had us sit on the floor and she read a book and we had to sit quietly and listen." Hmmm. Welcome to the next 13 years of schooling. And then college...

Oh, and by 6:30pm tonight he kept saying, "I just want to go and lay down on the couch for a little while...I'm ezausted." Poor tired boy. He'll get used to it :)

Me and my Moopert
Ignore my lack of early morning make-up. They get on the bus at 6:45am!

My Sweet Boy


My Stinker


We painted this morning after the kids left. She was disenfranchised that it was not with Mommy's craft paints, but with a paint with water book. Eventually she got over it when I did my own...

Something Different

So I seriously needed to get out of our neighborhood this weekend. And do something. I'll say that it didn't really matter what we did, but it did. I wanted to do something we had not done yet. We've been the Croc Farm 2x's, Safari World 2x's, the Aquarium 5x's, the Children's Museum...so I asked around for suggestions. I got a range of answers - from one friend I kept getting ideas for expensive trips - Hong Kong Disney, Chaing Mai, Hua Hin, Phuket...not things that we could do during the day on Saturday. So, we finally settled on going down, parking at Dan's work and walking to Lumpini Park, then take the BTS (sky train) to MBK shopping mall.

Not the most adventurous or exciting things to do. And the kids and I have been to Lumpini. Dan's been to Lumpini (though not with us). Dan goes to MBK often at lunch and I had been there 1x when Dan and I came out here to see what Bangkok was like. And it wasn't until the end of the day that I realized that we did spend the day doing things that we hadn't done together as a family before.

And that was good. We went to Lumpini together. Saw monitor lizards everywhere and played on the playground. Walked back to the BTS and took that to MBK. The only other time the kids have been on it was last year this time and Kylie was sound asleep the whole time. Went to MBK with the kids, walked around, bought a few fun items and ate a yummy lunch. Got ice cream at Burger King (10B each - so fun)! Took the BTS back to our car and came home. A fun time out. Kids did well walking quite a bit for the day and it was pretty nice out. Which is funny when you think it's a nice, cooler day and the temp is 90F out.

1st Day of 2nd Grade for Megan!!! (part 2)

So, I don't know if anyone saw Dan's comment from yesterday's post, but if not - here it is:

"It was great to get home from work today, ask Moo how school was and hear her response be "I love my new class and can't wait to go tomorrow!" What an answer to prayer!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Yup, she loved it. Lord willing, she will continue to love it. She and 3 other friends made a plan to meet by the water fountain every recess so they can play, she had Thai class with only 4 other kids in it (apparently a lot of kids switched over to Spanish this year) and ate a lunch of mashed potatoes, rice, watermelon and pineapple. Maybe not the most nutritious, but she loved it. Oh, and had pumpkin bread for a snack!

I made oatmeal chocolate chip cookies for when she got home and we had one with milk when the little kids woke up :)

Jack met his teacher this morning and she seems nice. He'll have his first day of Kindergarten on Monday!

1st Day of 2nd Grade for Megan!!!

So we went up to the school and looked through the class lists. Megan got the teacher she wanted, but her closest friend is NOT in her class. She took one look at the list, amidst 4 other families clamoring to see the board, and burst into tears. After assuring her she had 1 good friend in the class, even though it is not her best friend, we went and found out where her classroom is. And we also found out that Jack's best friend is not in his class, either - which I think will be good for both of them. Hopefully we can still have playdates but not have the boys so attached to each other.

This morning went a little better than last year - not as much weeping and gnashing of teeth from Megan, which was nice. Dan got me up with him, I got some stuff done before I woke the kids up for the day. Megan was very unthrilled about school. We ate breakfast and debated over her choice for bottoms for her uniform (between a black skort, a khaki skort and khaki horts). The shorts are boy shorts and are a bit big on her, but she really wanted to wear them. And they turned out fine. Lord willing, she will have a great day and we will be excited to hear all about it when she gets off the bus this afternoon. I'll have to make a special treat for her...

Last Day of Summer (and Daddy's back Home!)

Today is our "Official last day of Summer". So sad. Dan got home from a trip yesterday early in the morning and stayed home the rest of the day, which was great! We hung out, grocery shopped, took naps and cleaned! We had our new Youth Pastor and his wife over for dinner and a game of Settlers, which was fun and we will find out teachers in about 15 minutes when we head up to school to see the lists posted! (Because it is such a transiant community, they don't post class lists/teacher lists until the day before school starts!)

Daddy's Back Home!!!


Dan bought himself a present - a sextant made in 1840. Any guesses on why he chose a sextant?


And beautiful treasure boxes for the kiddos!!! Thanks Tweeter!
(I got a Christmas ornament from his latest country - which I asked for and love!)

The Latest Kid Quotes

-When talking about swimming at the pool, Kylie's requirements are "no lotion and no skinscream" (fyi, our kids are allergic to every sunscreen under the sun. We've tried more kinds than I can count - and unfortunately they get the sensitive skin from me.)

-While going through the airport after arriving in Dulles, we explained to Kylie that we would have to walk through the terminal, ride on the tram thingies that look like they should be in Star Wars, then go to Customs and wait in a long line before we could get our bags and finally see Uncle Matt. I think I talked through the whole scenario about 3 times. As we wind our way through the long, long line at Customs, we finally get to be the next one in line and Kylie starts fussing that we haven't seen the lions yet. And I'm like, "Lions?" And she's like, "Yeah, you said we were going to see the Lions!" Finally it dawns on me that earlier on the tram/Star Wars thing she had asked about elephants and I blew it off because I had no idea what she was talking about. And then I realized that I need to clarify things and said, "Oh honey, there aren't any LIONS here, just that we would have to wait in a lot of LINES." (She brings this up every couple of days and tells me, "Remember when I thought you said LIONS?" - and giggles...it was only a month ago.)

-Dan's Dad died in October 2000. His headstone is in Long Lake, NY alongside his father and grandparents. We like to stop through there on the way from the Farm to the Beach to see it. On the way to the cemetery, we're explaining to the kids what we are doing and the big kids kind of understand it, but Kylie exclaims from her car seat, "I've never met your Father before - I'm excited to meet him!" So cute and so sweet and so sad. We then had to explain that we wouldn't be meeting him there at the cemetery...just that that is where his headstone is. Poor girl probably thought we had been keeping Grandpa from her for years :(

-Then on that same note - whenever we passed a cemetery the rest of the time in the States, which happened at least 2x's, she would say, "There's where Grandpa livess." We tried to explain the first time that he's not there, he's in Heaven and the second time we just let it go.

-We had the privilege of attending Dan's Grandmother's 90th birthday party while we were back in the States. Her name is Marvie Buzby. If anyone has seen the Hermie the Caterpillar Christian kids series, there's a bee called Buzby the Misbehaving Bee (and we own the DVD - it's cute). The week before going to the party, Jack had asked what we had planned for the week - and if we were going to the "Bumble Bee Party" - referring to Grammie Buzby's 90th Birthday celebration :) I thought it was too cute :)

-While we were in the States, Dan's Great Aunt passed away. We were thankful that we were able to be there to attend her funeral, drove Dan's Mom and took our 3 kids with us. They were really about as good as they could be during the service, considering they were the only children, we had driven 3 hours to get there that morning and they had to be quiet. Later that week, Jack kept referring to it as the "Festival" instead of the "Funeral". We decided that Aunt Ada wouldn't have minded it one bit.

-The last night in the States, we had pizza (except for me, I got Anita's takeout) at my brother's house with my whole family. Jack still refers to that night as his favorite pizza ever (sausage and black olive courtesy of my Dad) and keeps calling it the "Pizza Party". "Remember that Pizza Party we had at Cole and Mary Kate's? That was the best pizza!"

Cleaning

So I recently realized that one of the reasons I don't really like doing dishes or other things like it is that I am isolated from the rest of the family and don't have anyone to talk to. It's also the reason I don't like to do shopping of any kind by myself - I like to have someone to talk to! (I'm a Quality Time kind of girl from the Love Languages book, FYI.) We instituted some changes in April while Dan was on a trip and it's worked out really well. Gives me someone to talk to and has the kids helping out (tremendously) around the house.

So here's what happens now:

Jack rinses dishes for me (with the caveats that he can play with the water, as long as he doesn't make a mess and gets the dishes done without them stacking up in the sink). It's a great arrangement, he's a great helper and we get to chat and listen to music while working. A win-win situation.Megan puts the clean dry dishes away, cleans up any dishes on the table, wipes down the table for me and cleans up the counters while Jack and I do dishes. She also organizes our pantry, which she is gifted at doing :) Kylie helps Megan put away the non-breakable dishes, helps carry groceries into the pantry for Megan to put away, carries out supermarket bags to put under the sink and helps wipe down "her" table that she plays at.