Birthday pics

Gracyn received many lovely birthday gifts this year. We want to send out some extra special thanks to our wonderful family members who sent gifts. Mimi and Puppa thank you for the great gifts. Gracyn loved her toys. She has enjoyed everything. She loves the jumpstick...we've tried it and wow, what great exercise! The electronic Pound Puppy is a hit with both kids. There have been squabbles already over "whose turn". Gracyn loves her Cabbage Patch Kid...named Barbara Pamela (we didn't pick that name, she came with it) and has told me she likes it better than a doll I bought her years ago. Sorry, that the Dora cake didn't work out. It was a bummer. Ena and Craypa thank you for all the beautiful outfits. Gracyn has been twirling around the house like a fashion plate. Gracyn has been asking for new clothes and of course her Ena came through. Gracyn loves her My littlest Pet Shop stuff and has been playing with the kit. She also loved the Barbie. Thank you also for the phone call. Thanks Lisa and James for the kid camera. Gracyn loves it and will enjoy learning to take pictures. Gracyn has great grandparents and family for which we are so thankful. Gracyn knows she's loved. We wish you were all here to celebrate with us but you are all here in heart. Enjoy the pictures!

Happy 5th Birthday Gracyn!!

It's hard to believe that the little baby who took 28 hours to bring into this world is now 5 years old and getting ready to start school in 2 weeks! Anna Gracyn turned 5 today and had a great birthday party surrounded by friends. What a blessing! Her theme this year was "Dora the Explorer". The goal was to make a Dora shaped cake, since her Mimi sent us a lovely pan. We made the cake and then a tragic thing occured when my icing bag busted in the first 20 minutes of decorating the cake. It was late in the evening and no one had a decorating kit that I could borrow. I went upstairs to explain the situation to Gracyn who had not yet fallen asleep. She had a frown on her face until I told her that she could come down and eat a piece of the unfinished cake and at least see it. After sending her back to bed, I set about making a round cake with the 1 cake mix I had left. That cake ended up looking like a volcano and left me in birthday cake stress. I had to have a cake. So after chucking 2 cakes and looking at the clock (10 P.M.), I called Jack, who was out on a minstry event, and said I needed help as a melt down was immenient. When he arrived home, we had no choice but to make a cake from scratch. We got a cookbook and I pretty much made Jack make the cake because I was feeling defeated. The cakes turned out great. We decorated the cake this afternoon at about T minus 20 minutes to go. The cake was cute and we were thankful to have a cake to serve. The party was great and we had several Mexcian appetizers to serve as a compliment to the theme. There were teammates, American friends and Thai friends. Presents were opened and all in all it was a great success. Now it is time Jack and me to put our feet up and relax. Thanks to all who were able to make it today!

Even more tea party fun

Tea party shots -con't-

Tea Party!

Little girls love to dress up like ladies and host tea parties. There is a great thrill in dressing up in frilly dresses and putting on costume jewlery. This is Gracyn's and Emmy's tea party. The girls put on their tea party frocks and a few "delicate" pieces of plastic jewlery. They did look like little ladies indeed! We started the day by taking a few garden pictures. We then proceeded back home and in the course of time made Banana-Nut muffins...from a mix. Each had a chance to stir the muffin mix. While the muffins were baking, I set about making a tea for the little princesses. Their tea was complete with ham and cheese sandwhiches cut into dainty triangles, slices of Pomelo fruit, banana-nut muffins and of course, watered down peach tea. We set a play table of Gracyn's using my nice celadon tea set that I purchased in Chiang Mai last year. We cut a few yellow and white orchids from the yard to use as a center piece. We had real cloth napkins and talked about how ladies put napkins in their laps. We had a sugar bowl with 4 sugar cubes to sweeten the tea. The girls were inthralled with sugaring their tea cups and stiring the tea. We said a blessing and the girls enjoyed a lovely tea in front of a window looking out to our garden.

Living Books

I've been giving much thought lately to homeschooling. Oh, I'm happy with the international school here that Gracyn will attend, but as we return home next year, I have been feeling that I would homeschool Gracyn for that year. I've been reading up on as much as I can to understand what homeschooling entails and what curricula exists for us to choose. I've been particularly interested in a curriculum called Sonlight as it uses real literature to teach subjects as opposed to textbooks that present facts in a very dry manner. The philosophy of this company has really resonated with me. My team mate Rhianna, let me borrow a book about Charlotte Mason who has much to say about the way children learn. Charlotte lived in the 1800's, yet her approach to education seems fresh. She also is a huge proponent of using "living or whole books" to teach. Living books are books written by one author who has a firm grasp of a certain subject matter. It has really struck me to foster an environment of reading in our home. Our kids have always loved books, but I need to carve out time daily to read great stories to them. It improves vocabulary, stirs the imagination, promotes concentration and so much more. It can even help with discipline as you can appeal to your children through the examples of the great characters they meet in books. Children often emulate what they are exposed to. I'm really excited to think about all the great stories we can read together. There are so many classics out there. We may not "officially" start homeschooling for one more year and we may only do it for the one year, but we can apply these principles here and now and carry them through for years to come. Unfortunately. there aren't many public libraries in Thailand for us to check out books. Actually there is one downtown called the Neilsen Hayes library, but it would be a haul to get there and return books. Maybe we can make the trip a few times. If, not I guess we will have to buy more books. Gracyn and I started reading The Secret Garden today. It is a retelling of the original, but Gracyn seems to enjoy it. We finished half the book today! At bed time she was lamenting not being able to finish tonight. Tomorrow is another day!

Baking with Yaa

This is my neighbor/friend Yaa. Her name is short for Ganyaa which means September. Yaa is really into baking this year. She has been learning to cook American food and bake American sweets with me periodically this past year. She is always urging me to "open a baking course". She bought an oven this year as a result of baking with me and has also signed up for baking lessons with a bakery in town. When she comes over, she usually starts going through all my cookbooks and asks "can we make this?" I've been really busy these last few months and haven't felt up to having baking lessons. However, she has worn me down with her constant requests. This past Friday we made Banana-chocolate chip bars. I wasn't all that interested in making that particular recipe, but she was. So there I was reading the recipe out to her in Thai since she can't understand the English directions and she was busy following the steps. She wants to do it herself, so I just stand back, translate and instruct as needed. We've figured out that Americans and Thais have different baking styles. Thais tend to be very exact and deliberate and Americans upon understanding basic principles are a little more free and tend to just use our eyes. If the recipe called for beating something for 30 seconds, Yaa would count out loud because 30 seconds means thirty seconds! If the recipe called for beating until blended, she felt unsure since an exact time wasn't given. I had to reassure her that it was ok. She also has a hard time understanding why we don't sift every dry ingredient. Apparently Thai people do. As we bake, we give each other strange looks at the "methods" we each have, but then we laugh at each other and have a good time. We may start baking more often when Gracyn starts school. I told her it had to be during Aidan's nap and that if I agree to teach her that she has the responsibility of taking at least half the goodies home. She only wants "a taste" as she doesn't want to get fat. Uh...like we do!

Summertime Blues

Remember those long summer days as a kid when summer seemed to drag on and on and you thought school would never start soon enough? I've got that old feeling again, except this time I'm anxious for Gracyn to start school! It is so boring around here right now at home. There is absolutely nothing to do. Everyday is the same. We play the same toys, read the same books, have the same snacks, eat the same lunch, do some homeschooling work, whine about being bored, watch cartoons, make dinner, go for a walk and go to bed. We are in a rut. Our Thai friends have been back to school for about 6 weeks now, so they are busy and getting out of the house with little ones is a chore. I'll be so glad when school starts so that there are new things to enjoy and friends to be made. Of course Aidan and I will be doing the same things...except that when Aidan naps, I will have 2 hours to myself 5 days a week! Gracyn stopped napping before Aidan was born, so I've never had both kids napping and/or quiet at once! We have just 27 days before Gracyn begins Kindergarten. Her birthday is in 2 weeks and she will turn 5. We will take a vacation in early August and then it will be time for uniforms and crayons. Yippee!

Oh Gigi...you're so funny!

Here's a few pictures of Gigi. She has her ears flipped back and a sticker on her nose.

Quotes

Gracyn: Mommy, who made God?

Me: No one made God, he just has always been.

Gracyn: Somebody had to make God.

Me: Nope, he just is.

Gracyn: (giggling) Mommy that's confusing!

Buddhist Lent Day

Tomorrow begins the Buddhist Lent. Buddhist Lent occurs during the rainy season. Monks use this three month period of time to retreat to the Wats (temples) and give more time to meditate on and teach the principles of Buddhism. The monks are to remain in the temple areas and not participate in receiving alms as is customary during the rest of the year. Monks typically make rounds in the early morning hours and receive food from locals who wish to make merit. During lent, people often give yellow pails of daily goods and treats to the monks to use during lent as a means of merit making. Young men will also often enter a 3 month monkhood to make merit for their family members. To neglect this "right of passage" would be looked upon unfavorably. At the end of lent, the monks will come out of seclusion and begin their rounds once more.

Home Alone

I've been home alone with the kids for 4 days now. Jack, Paul and all our interns have headed down south to Phang Na to participate in Tsunami relief. Even 1 1/2 years after the incident there is still work to do in rebuilding. The group is working on building a community center on a small island off Phang Na. Jack says they have been working long days, but that it has been a good time overall. He is due back late tomorrow night. So, the kids and I have been hunkered down at home. There have been some very boring days which has led to me playing referee more than I care to do. I did get an opportunity to get out of the house Saturday night. Tim Mills kept 5 children so that we wives could get a night out. We were able to have a peaceful meal and chat it up. I'm thankful for that night out for my own sanity. The next day, Aidan and I came down with colds which has been loads of fun. The older I get, the more I realize that Mom's do not get sick days! If you are sick, you keep going. Gone are the days of sleeping in or napping when sick, laying on the couch watching movies and having someone to pamper you with bowls of soup and soothing drinks. Those days are G-O-N-E ! Instead, we still read those bedtime stories with raw, scratchy throats. :) But God does give Moms an extra measure of grace to keep plugging away when we'd rather or even need to just take it easy. I'm thankful for that too.

Duh!!!

After hearing from several people about being unable to leave comments on my blog, I decided to investigate. I realized that I had the comment function disabled for everyone except fellow bloggers on blogspot. Duh. Sorry about that. I had no idea that I hadn't enabled my comment function for anyone. So maybe now I'll stop worrying that my blog is boring! :) Anyway, I hope to start reading your comments. Don't forget to do the word verification before leaving your comment. This prevents spam on the blog.

Cobra shots

Here are the cobra pictures I promised. Don't worry, we never let our kids play in our yard. They only play in community areas where there is no overgrowth of grasses and bushes. We are keeping our yard trimmed well and Jack has been filling in some holes in the foundation of our home to prevent nesting.

Catch of the day

Here are some neat pictures of Thai fishermen and their trawlers. We walked down a pier the day before the beach english camp and took some of these shots. All eyes were on our group of foreigners. We got some suspicious looks, some cat calls and a few smiles.

Things you just don't see in the USA

More than 2 people on a motorbike.














People riding bikes with two dogs.














Overloaded pick-up trucks

Latest family picture

Before church today we decided to take a family picture. We never have everyone in the same spot and presentable or picture worthy at the same time. Today we made it happen! Here we are.

Quotes

Jack: How'd you like that Barber?

Tim: It was good and only cost 60 baht.

Jack: There's another good one across from the dumpster.

Happy Birthday America!

Yesterday, on July 1st, the US citizens living in Bangkok gathered for the annual 4th of July celebration. Citizens gathered to eat good food, play games, listen to music and watch fireworks. We got started at about 4 PM. We arrived and ate some good old American BBQ ribs, hotdogs, hamburgers, ice cream and other goodies. The kids ran around on a huge open field enjoying the lack of restraint. There are very few places that are open and safe for our kids to run freely. They had a blast! After about 2 hours the skies opened up and the rains came. We all ran for cover under the many tents dotted around the grounds to wait out the rains and wait for the fireworks. The winds were blowing and showering all of us with water gathered on the tent tops. It was pretty exciting for all as we were getting wet and the men were holding the tent stakes up to keep them from going over in the winds. The rains never stopped and I wondered aloud if we would have fireworks since the rains could extinguish the igniting of them. A friend of mine said, "this is Thailand baby, anything's possible". Sure enough, anything is possible in Thailand and we were able to see a decent firworks display! Happy 4th everyone!

Cobra!!!

If you've been following my snake sagas, you'll enjoy this story. Our family left Bangkok to go to our ministry sponsored english camp in Hua Hin, Thailand on June 23rd. We called our fellow team mate and neighbor Tim Mills to go to our house to pick up a few things we left at home by mistake. Tim goes to pick up our things. We tell him to exit by the back door(which is very unusual) instead of the front door so that the front door could be dead bolted. When Tim leaves, he sees a frog acting very strangely in our back yard. It was like the frog had a twitch or something. Tim then notices a snake, which had characteristics of being cobra like. Tim went to get the security guard/snake killers and they were able to kill the snake. We guess the frog had been bitten and was to be a meal. Tim has pictures that I'll post as soon as he can get them to me. We aren't 100% that it was a cobra, but everyone who hears the description believes it was. Creepy!

Huge yard snail

This humongous snail was in our yard! There is a saga to go along with it as well. I saw this beast in our pumpkin patch and called Gracyn to come see. She was pretty excited. After awhile we decided to bring the snail onto our porch so we could watch it throughout the day and enjoy it. So, we lift the creature out of the backyard and bring it to the side of our house where the porch is. As soon as we get outside, one of the street sweepers happens by and asks what we are doing. Gracyn excitedly picks up the snail to show the lady. The lady grabs the snail and says let's throw that away! She then tosses the snail hardly on to the asphalt and we hear a crack. Gracyn yells, "My dai, My dai" which means you can't, you can't! I tell the lady that Gracyn wanted to keep the snail to enjoy. She gives me a strange look and hands the snail back. The poor snail was oozing slim and we thought it surely bit the dust. We were both upset at the lady's lack of care for both the snail and Gracyn's feelings of wonder and excitement about creation. We thanked the lady for handing the snail back and kept our disgust inside. I explained to Gracyn that the snail was most likely dead, but that we'd keep it on the porch to see. 1 hour passed and the snail had not moved. After 2 hours, Gracyn came to find me saying that the snail had moved! Sure enough it was alive and we were happy that it wasn't harmed. I was happy that Gracyn's hopes weren't dashed and that her wonder was restored.

Too Busy

Where's the blogs? Well, we've just been too busy. Today has been the first time that I've been able to sit down and download pics to put on the blog. Here are some of the highlights from the last weeks, which will help explain the lack of blogging!

• June 7th...Interns arrive
• June 14th...Veldhorst's return to Bangkok after a year in the USA
• June 15th...Sarah...another intern arrives
• June 23rd...Christ Covenant Church from Charlotte, NC arrives
• June 23rd...Tim Mills and security guard kill cobra in our yard while we were away.
• June 24th-26th...English camp in Hua Hin, Thailand
• June 27th...lots of people have stomach virus and ministry events in Mahathai slum
• June 30th...Christ Covenant Church returns home
• July 1st Independance Day party for US citizens living in Bangkok

Hopefully things will slow down a bit and I continue blogging!