Women's Day

So, it was International Women's Day and they actually celebrate it. I thought that kind of thing was just on a calendar :) Aparently many places actually give women the day off to go shop and have fun with their friends. Who knew! The day before the holiday, Katherine's school had a special day for all the moms, aunts, and grandmas. Katherine was supposed to bring a picture of just me and her to her school. They never told me about this...I was only told about a drawing that we were supposed to do together...but she was right. Her teachers needed 2 pictures of us with no one else in them. I was actually really happy that Katherine understands so much. One day she's going to come out of her shy little shell and sound just like a local! :)

One of our other pictures...

I have to say that I have never seen hotdogs in a jar before, but nevertheless, these claim to be real American hot dogs. I still wasn't brave enough to try them (let alone fork out the money for them). I was just excited to see something so American on a shelf in the store. Maybe they will still have them when the 4th of July rolls around :)

Benjamin is playing his DS and Lauren is taking good notes so that she can sneak his DS while he is at school and play it.

So, this was a new little friend that came to play with Regan on Saturday. It was quite the play date. She and her mom came over for a while and we talked and got to know each other. Then my neighbor came over and we all talked some more. Then another knock on the door and it was a hall way full of guests for my neighbor, so she left but the little 3 yr old girl wanted to come in and play. So, she walked right on in and her family went to my neighbors house. A few minutes later, another knock at the door, and it was a few of Regan's local friends. They came right on in and started playing. We had quite the houseful. They were playing games, painting, doing crafts, watching Dora in Chinese, and just playing with whatever they could. It was a lot of fun.

Someone brought us ALL of these strawberries to eat! YUM! I have never seen so many stawberries in this country. We searched for months last year and could not find them. We have found them since then but only really small ones. I felt like I should have been selling these out on the street I had so many. We were able to share and freeze some, too. (I'm trying to plan ahead this year for my American flag cake)

Lauren got her first birthday card. She is showing off her 3 US dollars for turnign 3 years old (soon).

Her card also had a punch out Minnie Mouse crown. Too cute!

We also got a care package in the mail. The kids were so excited about everything (Benjamin is below do a his happy dance) We just love all the orange that has managed to stay in our family. We may live far away, but we are trainign our kids to be Volunteers :)

Long Celebration

It's my birthday! Well, it was! I have two weeks worth of stuff to cover :) I still can't believe that we ran across Magic Shell of all things, but sometimes you just have to splurge when you see such rare and fun items. We celebrated my birthday early since we were going to be traveling out of the country on my actual birthday.

I really enjoyed my made completely from scratch red velvet cake and my delicious vanilla ice cream topped with magic shell. What a fun start to a long birthday celebration!

Before we left we also received a birthday package that had my bday, Lauren's bday, and Benjamin's bday in it. I got some much needed things and some fun things! It was a lot of fun.

Lauren's birthday is next and she opened up a little baby doll with a paci and bottle and diapers. She has not put it down. She loves babies, so it was perfect for her.

Benjamin was next and was so excited to get a bunch of Scooby Doo cartoons. We literally had a Scooby Doo Marathan at our house. :)

We then started packing to leave the country for a week. We tried some new dramamine patches for Benjamin. He got sick on the last two trips either on the plane or in the back of a van. He does ok on short trips, but not the long ones. It worked pretty good. No problems going and only a little coming home.

The hotel we stayed in was NOT built for tall people. Jonathan's not THAT tall, but he came so close to the ceilings and actually hit his head once. I was afraid Lauren might get a bump in the head too. Actually, I was more nervous about the low railings and our rooms being on the 7th floor.

So, on my actual birthday Regan and I went on an adventure. We rode in a tuktuk to a night market and did some souvenier shopping. We didn't really find too much, but had a fun time together.

the night market

At the market, there were people who made all sorts of handicrafts. We enjoyed looking at them all. We did not speak the language, so I think they were giving us the foreigner price on a lot of things (which is one reason we did not buy much) but we did find some cute little keychains, a skirt and a new backpack.

The kids enjoyed getting to swim in the pool. They can't wait for ours to open, but I don't think it will be until May.

I just love best bud pictures...

more best buds...

On the way home, the airport had beautiful real flowers. All the kids wated pictures by them :)

So that was week one...and now I will try to sumarize week 2. To summarize you must learn a new word....mafan. It literally means trouble. In English, we would say I don't want to bother you (here we say mafan you) or we would say that was a lot of trouble to to something. It's really a great little word because it can be used in so many situations.

Week 2: We are coming home from the airport and we are about 10 minutes form the house when Lauren starts throwing up in the van. There's just not much you can do at that point but get out at the apartment complex and give the guy a tip and say sorry for the mafan.

We get to bed and wake up the next morning to realize that we have been gone for a week and the weather had cause many things in our house to get molded....mafan.

Later that day, the worst "sweating" of the walls I have seen since we have lived here. Our entire apartment was covered in water (not moisture...water)...mafan! We began the battle by sweeping up water several times a day, turning on all the fans, and drying walls with towels.

The next day, we realized that the wall behind the shoe rack was still wet and now some of the shoes were growing mold. So, we have spent several days inspecting, cleaning, throwing away, and doing whatever we can to keep things dry.

So far so good. The weather seems to be getting better and according to our local friends it should continue to improve. Although, I was told today that I have to wear a jacket until April (even if it is 90 degrees outside..haha) I told my friend that that's the easiest way to spot a foreigner right now....all the ones with no jackets!

A Good Week

This is our newest picture and newest addition to our family pictures in our home. It came as a result of Lauren looking at a larch family picture we have framed (grandparents, aunt, greatgrandparent) and asking where Ayi was in the family picture. She was a little confused on how part of our family would not be in the family picture, so now they have a frame all to themselves :) and I love it!

Regan got braces this weekend. Well, sort of. It's actually more like a retainer. She has them on the top and bottom to help fix her bite and her top two teeth that stick out a bit. She is really excited about them. This was taken actually at the doctors office, so they were still very new to her. She looks much more relaxed and comfortable in them now.

We got a care package this week! Each of the kids got a little beanie baby. They were perfect for their personalities, too. Regan-giraffe, Benjamin-puppy, Katherine-bunny, Lauren-kitten

The other really exciting news....Benjamin FINALLY got his baby tooth out!! YEAH! It is literally the biggest baby tooth I have seen. No wonder it took forever to get it out. His adult tooth had already come in and he still could not get it out. Benjamin heard me ask Jonathan to remind me to make the appointment to have it pulled and it scared him to death...he had it out by bedtime! :) The tooth fairy did bring him money, but let him keep the tooth for show and tell the next day.

Benjamin was begging to wear a suit coat. We had forgotten that we actually brought one for him when we moved (it was huge at the time, but it fits perfectly now).

Regan's class at school has been raising money for a local charity that helps "unadoptable" kids get adopted. So her class went to the home and played with the babies, held them, and Regan and another girl sang a song for them. She had a really good time and wants to go back again.

I hope we can soon!

Valentine's Day 2012

We have already celebrated Valentine's Day here. Part of our celebration was take a drive to a nearby city where there is a Dunkin Doughnuts to see what they had. We've only been once before and the selection can be pretty strange sometimes, but we were very pleased to see someowhat normal flavors. We bought ALL the plain ones that they had (6 in all) and these special ones. The kids were so excited! They could hardly wait to get home and eat them :)

Jonathan and I went out for a lunch date. We ate at a new restraunt that was absolutely delicious! We then did a little window shopping and came home. He also made this cake that was really good. The kids had a good day at school and came home with sevearl pieces of candy and a flower from their teacher.

Earlier, the kids filled up another super duper chart. So their surprise reward was to go to Papa John's for pizza and then they could share a dessert.

Seeing the kids in their coats reminds me...the weather has been crazy here. One day it will be in the 40's and the next day it will be in the 80's. Today was a warm day...so outside felt wonderful, but inside is a mess right now. I believe this is my least favorite part of the year. The inside is filled with water on the floor and walls which then mixes with dirt from little hands and feet. Like I said, not my favorite.

Many times, Ayi will start feeding Lauren her lunch while she is still cooking. I came home for lunch and Lauren was sitting on a stool and using a chair to a table. She was too cute not to take a picture of. She has also been wearing her hair in braids recently (which is really cute, too!)

Benjamin went out to fly his helicopter this weekend. This group of guys were really the only ones out when we got to the basketball court. They werejust hanging around talking, but they got a kick out of watching the helicopter fall from the sky.

In no time at all, we had developed a little crowd. I was relieved when the battery ran down. Some of the little ones kept trying to catch it and I was afraid that they might get hurt. But even so, they were so much fun to watch.

This little one was my favorite. She had the biggest laughs and squeals watching the boys play.

We've been making daily trips in the afternoon to the playground. It still think it's funny that I won't let Regan ride this one swing because she is too big and then I see grandparents riding it with their grandkids all the time. We have gotten good at timing the swings to wear the kids actually get to swing on one for a few minutes.

This is right outside our apartment complex. People set up on the streets every day to sell their fresh fruits and veggies.

Per Request

Per request, we have added several pictures of Doggy Bones to the blog this week. I guess he was feeling a little left our of the "family" pictures. He made the move to Benjamin's room to sleep at night. He has not been sleeping in any bedrooms, but Benjamin was feeling a little lonely with all the girls sleeping in one room. So, now he has a roomate (and this is their wresting mat).

Just look at that cute face!

Even Katherine rolls around with the dog now. The dog loves it!!

The complex next door to ours has a brand new playground. The kids have been begging to go and play their. I have to admit, it's the nicest one I have seen in this country...they have "real" big kid swings AND the baby bucket swings. It's great.

The city is literally decorated with red lanterns everywhere to celelbrate the 2 week holiday. I hope they keep it this way. I like them all over the place. Oh, and do not let the lack of cars in the middle of the picture fool you. They had it roped off for some reason, but you can see that did not stop a few cars from moving the ropes and parking there anyways.

This year is the year of the dragon and today is the last day of the holiday. Traditionally, they light lanterns and let them float into the sky. We decided to let the kids stay up a little late and went to a park where we had heard that there would be thousands of people and lanterns going up everywhere. Well, this dragon was about all we saw :) It was a fun drive to see the city at night...it's been awhile since we have done that. Needless to say...no lanterns anywhere, but as soon as we got back to our apartment we saw one being sent up and saw lots of fireworks. I guess we didn't need to leave home after all.

This is VERY common almost any night of the week....people gathering outside to dance. It's quite difficult to get a good picture of it with it being dark and the people moving so much, but I thought I would try. This was the best that I got.

What a great smile :) Lauren was so proud of all of her work....

...what a great job writing all those characters!!! :)

These are two new friends! We met them at the playground and they are Regan's age. Their dad came to the playground to meet me and asked if they could come to our house and play sometime. SURE!! (I should have learned by now that that means: "We are going to show up at your house tonight at bedtime, ok?") They did some at bedtime and a one our pillow fight followed. They eventually found the kid's video games and wanted to know how much they cost (a very common question here...money is not a personal thing) It was time for them to leave and Regan asked if they could come back tomorrow...so they did...at 8:00am! I'm not sure when they sleep because we stayed up late to play and then we were still in pj's when they came back :) good thing kids can get dressed quickly.

This is a game tht some of the men play here. You use a whip like thing to hit the top and keep it spinning. It makes a loud pop every time. My favorite part about this picture is the guy in the SUIT in the back of the picture playing the game. I don't know why I think it's funny but I do. I just picture guys in suits sitting behind a desk, not playing games outside.

And then I decided to just take random pictures of the people while we were playing. So, I hope you enjoy.

This little boy was hilarious. He had the best smile, but he was so stiff trying to swing on the swing...maybe it had something to do with the split bottom pants....I'm sure the swing was cold :)