Tobin Turns 6!!!

Granddaddy sent Tobin this model airplane. They worked (for a few hours) on it.
Tobin did love it!


 Since Tobin's birthday always falls on Water splashing festival here, we celebrated a day early to see if more folks would be able to come.
His pancake:

 Bella plays 'Happy Birthday' on the piano

 And they gave cards (this was the morning before the afternoon party)
Each card said something like, "I am sorry I am mean to you sometimes"

His party was STAR WARS themed. He decided this at Christmas, When Uncle Herschel brought the movies and we watched them.

These are the 'Tie Fighters' Edible version:

Pineapple plus light saber edible sticks.

coloring pages...

Pin the light saber on Yoda.

The bottom quote: 'Judge me by my size do you?'
I love Yoda quotes!

The storm trooper masks were the party favors.

We played shoot the storm troopers (with nerf guns)

We had a carry-the-egg relay: storm trooper eggs.

cupcakes with black icing:

The epic duel on top a delicious chocolate chip pound cake.

 You usually do not ice this cake, but why not?

 The egg relay!

Tobin invited five kids from his class and three came, we also had our other ex-pat friends there and an ex-pat family that lives an hour away made the drive. Their son is a little older than Tobin but they get along great!

This was a great party! All his school friends' parents stayed so it was great to get to know them.

Tobin is a blast! He is fun, competitive, tender-hearted, but has a stout heart. He is a great brother. We are so thankful for him! I love homeschooling him, he is growing into a great reader and loves math, but would always prefer to be playing, of course. The highlight of our home school morning is jumping on the trampoline together or playing math games!
Happy Birthday Tobin, we are blessed to have you in our fam!

April Round Up: last of Thailand

Some more 3D art Museum photos!

At our dentist you get to wear shades to block the bright light.

As mentioned this team gave us lots of free time as couples. This was on our 7 hour date. We went shopping, watched a movie and ate lots!
We like tuk tuk rides too, especially when I don't have to worry about a child falling out of it!

This was at beast burger. so yum!

(if any of these are reposts of pics, it is a function of my brain mush)

April Round Up: Elephant Riding and More

 We finally decided it was time our family ride some elephants. The last time we did this Sophia was two or three. Now we all could enjoy and remember!

 Three on one, three on another.

 Elephants are pretty amazing, and these are trained well. At the show, they played soccer, painted, and stole their trainer's hats. It was very entertaining.

 The down hills were pretty bumpy and you had the feeling you would fall off, but we didn't!

Here are the pics the elephants painted: Pretty amazing.

This is one of our kids favorite parts of Thailand: Tuk Tuk rides.
They got to ride up front on this one.

And while mommy was at the doc all day: ice skating, see, mommy I am not crying anymore.

And this lady has us beat. She puts all four on her moto. Maybe I could try it....

April Round Up: Forgotten Pics from March!

This was late March, right before David left for a week. I am pretty sure I was out of the house and the kids were playing 'house'. Interesting option for a bed, she is on a sink:

A few more pics from G's first day of school: We all had to participate, yes, the whole fam took her to school!

 Bye!!!

David's taxi didn't show, so I had to drive him to the airport fast. They were tearing this building down at the intersection. We were scared for the guy in the tractor/machine/digger. It was crazy!

Uncle J really helped me out with David gone and took and picked up for carpool to dance/soccer, and then took all kids (minus G) out for noodles! They had so much fun and I packed and prepared for our trip.
He took the girls skating before dance class. Bella LOVED this!

They all played soccer afterwards!

Next Up: forgotten Elephant pics

More Thailand Fun

We were going to Thailand for a marriage retreat put on by some fabulous folks in the U.S. We went out early to be able to rest as a fam and for some much needed medical follow-up for me! My medical issues (mostly lung) seem to be clear and the tests showed as much. 

We also took our kids to the dentist. While they 'hate' going to the dentist, they often comment on their friends' black teeth at school and know it is a blessing that we get to go see Dr. Joy, and she is awesome!

While at the dentist (4 kids x 30 minutes=long wait), I saw a coffee shop and made a coffee run for David and me. 

It was called 'Roxpresso' and since I am pretty clueless (apparently these places are all the rave), I did not know I was walking into such a pampering experience. 

coffee bar: 

She ground the beans right in front of me, and assured me they were locally grown.
Since it was HOT, we wanted COLD coffee

Here is how it came, with my name plate and all:

That is a perfectly round sphere of ice: drop ice in cup, pour coffee over, pour cold water on top...
It was an amazing cup of coffee, I confess.

We sipped it while in the waiting room and stumbled upon this throwback picture in a yearbook of some people we love and haven't seen in a really long time (you know who you are):

Bella has her Momma's teeth, ut oh. This required a follow-up visit and ouchies in the mouth.
We opted for a shot to numb the pain. She did not feel it at all, she barely winced during the whole procedure. She did amazing! No complaints, no tears. We had really prayed it up too, and Sophia and Tobin both felt super sorry for her and it induced them to prayer and thoughtfulness.

Her treat: her very own cup 'o joe. Decaf of course. She likes it black but loves milk so we added some cream to this brew.


This has to be one of the best night market 'food courts' in the world. But then I am biased and LOVE SE Asian food, specifically Thai variety. Meat on a stick +sticky rice + coconut cream= YUM.

This dog thought so too and waited patiently for anything.

Between my multiple doc appointments and our multiple dental appointments we swam a lot, rode elephants, and ice skated (I missed this because of the CT I was having!).

Once the retreat started we enjoyed GREAT community with dear friends and made a few new ones, specifically the folks watching our kids. They gave us every afternoon off WITH childcare, and then gave us one day from 2-9pm as a our 'date day'. All total we had not had this much time away from the kids in a really long time. We love our kiddos, but we love focused time to chill, discuss, not be responsible for littles, and enjoy some uninterrupted conversation. Not to mention GREAT eats!
We were so thankful for this team that came and served us so well. We felt incredibly blessed and refreshed!