Darth Vader

Kylie has had a cold the last couple of days and yesterday she started wheezing. She woke up in the middle of the night not feeling well and not breathing well. We waited to get the big kids on the bus this morning and then Dan, Kylie and I headed downtown to the hospital to have her seen at the Children's center. They took her right in, did all the normal stuff for wheezing (pulse O2, respiratory rate, etc)...we saw a doctor and did a nebulizer treatment. Thankfully, she wasn't fazed by the nebulizer...she just sang, "hmmm, I'm Darth Vader, yeah" with it on and her hands on her hips. The doctor let us leave with an inhaler she'll be using for the next couple of weeks and both have seemed to help.

Oh, and incidentally there was a kids' bathroom there at the Children's Center - with a kid-sized potty. Dan had to get a picture :) He said it was the "coolest potty in the world".

Halloween Costumes Early

Dan's office had a Halloween party on Saturday night. Jack set the tone of our Halloween this year by declaring that he wanted to be Santa. Just let that sink in for a minute. SANTA for Halloween. I thought it was so funny! Megan then said she wanted to be an Elf. And Kylie, never one to follow the crowd, wanted to be a Ballerina...not with a poofy skirt, but with a straight skirt.

So, we set to work trying to figure out how to make/buy a Santa costume and have it ready for Saturday night. I found 3 pairs of Women's size Medium red fleece pants at an Export store here for $2USD each. I bought them up and pieced them together to get Jack's Santa costume! It was so fun trying to figure out everything...I'm not a perfectionist with sewing. I don't measure, I don't pin...I just sew. So it's fine for me, but probably would be an issue if I ever tried to sell my sewing :) This was my first time doing anything other than sewing a blanket or such. I had to make sleeves, sew them on, make the collar, make the jacket, then sew the trim on. Oh! And I got to make the hats for both Megan and Jack from scratch...including making Jack's puffball top to the hat! Can you tell I'm proud of it, I think they turned out so cute! (FYI he did not want a beard or glasses!)

Megan's elf costume we found piece by piece...the tank top ($0.60USD), shoes ($5.80USD), pants ($2.94USD), legwarmers ($1.17USD)...for a grand total of $10.51USD for all NEW things! But for sure, we had to look in some crazy places to find the things we needed...and be willing to think of things in a new way.

Kylie's outfit we fished out of our dress-up bin about an hour before the Halloween party! They all looked adorable and we had a fun night!

Dan's and my attempt at "Halloween" colors together...no costumes for us!

And as a last and final note, so it actually looks like it might actually be Halloween...I present my friends toes...she couldn't make up her mind what design to get, so each piggy toe is a different design!!!

Thunderbirds

I mentioned that the US Air Force Thunderbirds were doing an Air Show here in Bangkok this weekend. Dan and Megan went to go watch them with our friends Ken and his son, plus some other friends (Jack was at a party and Kylie needed a nap). They left our house at 11:30am and it took them 1 hour to get to the airport (which is only a 15 minute drive for us) and said that it was PACKED! Apparently, unlike in the States where we've gone to the Andrews Air Force Air Show, the Thunderbirds were the only planes flying (except a C-17 that flew past). So, they waited from 12:30pm until 3pm when the Thunderbirds began. So, 2 1/2 hours outside in 96F weather with no shade, standing over a thornbush and people everywhere. Not exactly what they were looking for, but I think an interesting experience nonetheless. Check out more pics here!

Friday Night Birthday

Our friend Amy had her birthday Friday and we were lucky enough to be invited to do dinner with her and her family! Dan was on his way home from his trip and since we were having a wicked storm, his plane got diverted to another airport in Thailand to refuel and he didn't get home until 4 1/2 hours after we thought he would. Even without him, we had a great night and great food...plus a lot of kid antics - which is to be expected with 7 kids around!

Everyone wanted to be a part of getting in the pictures with Amy - and with helping her blow out candles. They even had to be relit because the littlest didn't get to blow and totally lost it... :)


We brought Amy just 10 balloons for her birthday...36 would have been too many to fit in the car in the middle of a storm with lightening. The littlest took them upstairs and then we heard, "Uh-oh." They had gotten wrapped around this ceiling fan and Ken had to untangle them. Not sure he appreciated me taking pictures of him doing it, but I couldn't not take it!

This was the peanut gallery watching Ken untangle the balloons from the fan :)


The 4 adults there last night (photo taken by Megan)!

Me and Amy (and Megan trying to wheedle her way in)!

It was a fun night, fun to not ask every 5 seconds when Dan was going to get in and keep us busy until he got home...but most of all, just fun to be special enough to be invited over to celebrate Amy's birthday with her!

The Week in Review

Kylie's and my piggy toes decorated for Halloween! She got a pumpkin and 2 kitty cats and I got spiderwebs without the spiders!

Jack the Explorer

Kylie and Allie at our house for a playdate

I've been busy making Jack's Halloween costume. Sewing, ripping seams, resewing, adding trim. It's been fun. I'm not a seamstress by any means. I don't measure or pin. I'm a "sew by the seat of my pants kind of girl." It works okay for me :)

Jack's school picture proofs - sorry they are sideways, they won't turn the right way no matter how hard I try.

Megan's school picture proofs

The big sister Aysha (playing dress-up)!

And finally, this is what we've been seeing of Dan all week. We'll be glad to see him in person tonight!!!

p.s. It's 9:45am as I'm typing this and I keep hearing jet plans outside - the Air Force Thunderbirds F-16's will be here for an Air Show at Don Muang Airport tomorrow about 5 miles from our house...I can hear them flying over our house!!!

Fun Day in Manila

I got to come to Manila for the first time and the way it worked out I was here for the weekend and had some time to get out and see some of the city. Interesting time to visit since it is Typhoon season and they have been getting blasted the last week or so as you may have seen in the news. However, the rain finally let up today and I finally got out and about a little bit. I really wanted to do a boat ride out to Corrado Island (a historic WWII site) but the weather just was not cooperating. But I did get to see some of the other top tourist sites around Manila.

First I got to go see Rizal Park. One of the coolest things there is the monument to Jose Rizal, a hero of the Philippine Revolution. If you can see them at the base of the monument, there are two guards standing post.
Another really cool thing to see is a huge pool that contains a relief map to scale of the Philippines. Here is view from what would be the north end of the country looking down towards the south. The Philippines consist of 7,107 islands.

At this point in the day it was time to head back to the hotel and take a little break. There was a great tour that was later in the day. After a quick refresher at 711 (they are everywhere here too!) and some time to cool off in the room it was back out again.

There is an outstanding guide who does walking tours of Intramuros named Carlos Celdran. His tour was outstanding and he brought the Manila history to life over the last 300 years as he walked our group through historic Intramuros. We learned how it was constructed by the Spanish, had seven catholic churches built in it, the way Manila changed and grew under America and how it was sadly devasted during WWII. One of the seven churches, San Augustin Church, survived because it was used by the Red Cross during WWII and had a large red X painted on the roof that kept it from getting bombed. It is now the oldest standing church in Manila.

Entrance to Intramuros
The Little Horse that Could (part of the tour was a carriage ride)
Me and the One Remaining Bell Tower on the Church
Happened to be a Wedding at the Church
Enjoying a Halo-Halo Dessert at the End of the Tour
On the Fort Santiago Wall (overlooks a golf course now)

A Blankie and a Baby

Thankfully not ours!

My friend Bridgette is at the hospital to have her 2nd child and we have her little girl, Aysha, here! Aysha is 1 year younger than Kylie and does pretty well at our house - sleeps in Jack's room (he sleeps with Megan), holds her own with our 3 (she's got a lot of spunk) and cracks us up! She's this little teeny thing, has a husky voice and is just a cutie. Bridgette was admitted to the hospital 4 weeks ago when she was 31 weeks to stop her labor and we got to have Aysha spend the night. She borrowed Kylie's stuffed animal horse and snuggled so nice in Jack's bed.

This time, she was less than thrilled to come with us, as they weren't sure if Bridgette would be admitted last night and at 7:45pm the kiddos and I went to go pick her up and bring her back here. She kicked and screamed and didn't want to come with us, but was fine once we buckled her into her carseat and came right home, climbed up in Jack's bed and stuck her thumb in her mouth. I asked her if she wanted a blankie to snuggle - she said she wanted a pink one. Well, the only pink ones I have are the very special ones of Kylie's...so I hyped up a yellow one and made her her very own pink one this morning. Aysha is at preschool right now, but hopefully she'll like it. It's fabric I had around the house and binding that I had left over...hence the crazy colors :)

p.s. Bridgette just had a little girl!!!