Mother's Day

All the moms got to go to school for Mother's Day. Finley made me this lovely painting. (Note how well he can write his name now!)

Then the class sang us a song.

They presented us with wonderful gifts. 

We had such a great morning together!

Seaweed Heaven

Yesterday afternoon the kids and I went down to the beach to play while Nate was at a men's conference at church.  The ocean was actually a bit gross from all the storms and rain before, but it worked out well for Finley.  There was a ton of seaweed in the water, so Finley and two slightly older French boys got to work dragging it out of the water.  Finley could not have had more fun!  He was in seaweed heaven!

These photos don't even do the pile of seaweed justice.  It was probably 10 feet across and a foot high.

Elise finally got brave enough to touch it.  She was feeling a bit clingy due to strangers trying to take her photo and wanting to hold her (which she and I graciously declined).

When Finley is happy, he may very well be one of the happiest people on the planet.  He left the beach saying, "That was so fun!  Mommy, I can't wait to come back and do that again!"

Bunny & Baby

Cuddled up with Bunny and Baby. So cute. 

Then the Rains Came

We have seriously had months of no rain. I don't even know how the plants stay alive, but they do. This past week, however, was almost straight rain and crazy thunderstorms. I guess it's officially rainy season now.  It was so heavy that we had landslips and flooding, despite HK's great drainage system and concrete-reinforced mountainsides. 

This is the beach in front of our apartment on Monday morning after tons of rain Sunday night. There were 3-ft deep ditches from the rain, all up and down the beach. 

Lots of clean up crews have been out this week, fixing beaches, cleaning up dirt and debris, and clearing the roads. 

Crystal Ball

Nate and I were very fortunate to be invited to go to the HKIS Annual Fund ball again this year.  Some Lower Primary parents were kind enough to sponsor our tickets.  We enjoyed an evening of great food, live auction (though we couldn't afford to bid on anything, but still fun), and dancing-- our fave!  Nice to get fancy once a year.  I even painted my fingernails, which I seriously haven't done since I was pregnant with Finley!

Daddy Duty

Me: Honey, can you watch Elise for just a minute while I help Finley?

Nate: Sure. 

When I came back one minute later...

Hands full of yogurt, all over her face and bib, and in her hair.  We both had to laugh. But then I got stuck cleaning it all up!

Speaking of yogurt, we are very excited that Elise is growing more tolerant of dairy. She can now eat yogurt and cheese!

Mei Mei

Being the little sister (mei mei in Mandarin) is rather different than the experience Finley had as an only child when he was a toddler.  This is made apparent by Elise's language development, specifically what type of vocabulary she's picking up.  Yesterday she was sitting in my lap when Finley came up and hit me on the leg.  She said, "Finley stop it!  Mommy sitting!"  Whoa, not bad for 19 months old-- two sentences in a row!  Other words and phrases that Elise learned way before Finley did, out of necessity: Elise's turn, Finley share, want it, time out (though she's never had one herself), Finley hitting, and Finley screaming.  Let me tell you, this toddler is learning to stick up for herself from a very young age!

Little Drummer Boy

http://youtu.be/jU_1MTJr-hM

Click on the link for a short video of Finley's new drumming moves. (Sorry you can't really hear the music.) 

Rainy Day

Rainy Sunday but these two energetic kiddos had fun running around the dance studio at school!

Food!

I don't do a lot of food posts, but I think this one deserves an exception. Recently a new restaurant opened in HK called 85 South. Yes, as in the 85 South that runs through NC! A couple of Carolina boys decided to open up a little BBQ joint here so we had to try it.

Now this being HK, where you never know what will be available when, they were out of buns when we arrived. :( Fortunately the BBQ was good enough on its own that it didn't need a bun, and they had vinegar-based sauce like I prefer.  To go with our BBQ we got a side of mac & cheese and hush puppies. The mac & cheese was delicious though a bit too much salt and pepper for my taste. The hush puppies were gigantic! They were good but could have stood a little onion. Overall, it was great for HK and will get the job done if I'm craving BBQ...but I'm still looking forward to some real NC BBQ soon!

This morning we just kept the good food going and I made a Dutch baby for breakfast, complete with fresh mango and blackberries. Not a bad way to start a Saturday! 

Spring Break in Bangkok

Nate found a deal on a trip to Bangkok for spring break so we had a nice little getaway last week. Traveling is super difficult with little ones, so we try to keep it somewhat manageable by taking short, direct flights when possible (and no long car/taxi rides), only staying in one location during the trip, sticking closely to everyone's eating/sleeping schedules, and choosing child-friendly activities. Despite that, any change is hard on little ones and they're usually in a funk when we travel...and we're all exhausted when we get home.  So why do we even do it, you're probably wondering. Well, we LOVE to see the world and think our family can learn so much from getting to experience new places and peoples.  This is such an amazing opportunity and we have to take advantage of it!

So about Bangkok.  We went out each morning, then back for mid-day naps and pool time each afternoon. The first morning we spent at the Dusit Zoo. It's nothing fancy, but the kids didn't care. They were able to get super close to some of the animals thanks to more relaxed safety standards.

Finley and the penguin had a little game going.  He moved his hand around the glass while the penguin followed.

Both kids were simultaneously thrilled and terrified by feeding the camels.  Finley's expressions were hilarious.  Elise just kept saying, "Carry you!  Carry you!"

I read that Bangkok is referred to as the Venice of the East...though that might be a stretch...  

We took a lengthy longtail boat ride back toward our hotel from this dock and enjoyed the river views along the way.

Thankfully a man was kind enough to give up his seat because the kids were wiped from the heat.

There are just so many lovely temples.  We didn't do as much temple visiting this trip since Nate and I already hit the big ones when we went to Bangkok five years ago, plus we didn't think the kids would tolerate a lot of temples.

The mangoes in Thailand are so good and so abundant.  We had mangoes everyday we were there, plus our fair share of mango sticky rice!

One of the mornings we decided to check out an indoor playroom on the top floor of a Japanese mall. It was awesome!  So much to climb, jump, run, build, and pretend.

This slide was so fast!

Ready to fight fires in the pretend play town.

The street food scene in Bangkok is just wild.  There is so much street food everyday everywhere.  Nate and I love Thai food, and I always leave Thailand saying, "But wait-- we can't leave yet!  I haven't had enough Thai food!"

On our last day we did a little temple visiting.

The inside is pretty amazing!

Elise was sick, teething, going through a very clingy phase, so she spent almost all of the trip saying, "Mommy carry you!"  But here's a rare shot of her running around on her own!  We had to put our poor hot kids in pants because shoulders and knees have to be covered at temples.

A nearby shrine.

The ladies will dance while you pray.  I guess it makes your prayers more powerful?

We asked Finley what his favorite part of the trip was and he said the pool and the suitcases.  I would add that he also loved the tuk tuks and wanted to ride them everywhere, even despite the heat and loud noises.  We got him a toy tuk tuk as a momento, and Elise got a Jim Thompson Thai silk elephant.  It was a great (albeit sweaty) trip and personally, I'm already ready for more Thai food!!