Fall Holiday in Phuket

We had a wonderful time in Phuket, Thailand this past week!  Lots of great family time, mostly revolving around playing at the pools and eating yummy Thai food.

At the airport, watching airplanes.

They had Krispy Kreme at the Bangkok airport!  It didn't taste exactly the same, but it still hit the spot.  We bought a dozen and took them to Phuket with us.

The resort had kids (and teens and adults) activities.  Finley got his face painted...

And went fishing for the first time!  He caught this fish with Daddy...

And this one with Mommy...

While Elise played with flowers (i.e. pulled all the petals off).

The kids enjoyed dancing to live music.

We also got to watch a fire dance. 

Finley, Daddy, and Mommy went for bike rides while Elise napped.

But we spent most of our time in the pools!  We had some tired kids at the end of each day!  I don't think they've ever slept so well.  :)

Finley loved the slide!

Elise loved climbing the stairs around the pool.

Mommy and Daddy were happy to get to go out to a couple of dinner dates after the kids were in bed.  This was at a local Thai restaurant where we had an amazing final dinner-- green papaya salad, crab and corn cakes, green curry, and cashew chicken.  My mouth is watering just thinking about it.

Packed and ready to go home.

Finley is so fascinated with our suitcases.

At the Bangkok airport, ready for the last leg of our trip.

We had such a lovely time in Phuket!

Mid-Autumn Festival

We had such a fun night on Thursday with Finley celebrating the Mid-Autumn Festival.  We met some friends at South Bay Beach after dark for fun with lanterns and glow sticks.  We even got to have some famous Peninsula mooncake, which is apparently quite difficult to get your hands on.  Elise stayed at home with Cathrina since it was her bedtime.  Friday was a holiday, so we're enjoying a 3 day weekend together!

Finley's owl lantern

Finley and his friend Samantha

You can take some very cool photos with glow sticks in the dark!

View from the beach

Finley showing off his glow sticks

He said, "Take a picture of the back!"

Finley with Mommy...

...and Daddy.

A couple of photos I took today of our handsome little guy

One Year Ago

As Elise's first birthday approaches, I can't help but think back about the past year with our baby girl.  It's been a whirlwind of amazing moments.  There were times we thought we might not survive, and times we wondered how we could possibly be so blessed...but mostly the latter.  :)  Before we focus on the here and now, our little lady turning 1 next week(!!!), let's take a look back at what was happening a year ago.

We sure have enjoyed this precious time with our baby girl over the past year, and we are super excited to celebrate little miss Elise next weekend at her ladybug-themed birthday brunch!  Here's what the invitation looks like, for those of you back home who we sadly couldn't fly here for the party.  You can't see it below, but it also included the following poem on the actual Evite.

A year has passed, how time has flown.

We can't believe how Elise has grown.

She's sweet and cute and oh so fun.

Our little lady is turning 1!

Soccer/Football

Finley started soccer...I mean football...practice last week.  We signed him up for once a week "Kinder Kicks" because we think it will be a fun way for him to work on gross motor skill development.  Finley is so tall for his age (with long feet like his mama) and just needs to grow into his body a bit.  Being Hong Kong, the kids were of course required to wear uniforms.  (Okay, I'll admit it's pretty cute.)  Luckily Finley was all about his uniform and even insisted on wearing the knee socks, despite my encouragement to wear normal, more comfortable socks.  Finley had so much fun at his first class, and was really excited that his friend Macy will be there, too.

Standing Tall

Here's our little miss, standing tall!

Taking a few steps

She loves to carry this photo book around.

We have to use some of the space under our dining room table for storage, as our kitchen is tiny.  Elise's Cheerios used to be kept under the table until this happened:

Finley used to carry around these same blocks in his mouth!

Sweet, silly girl

Exciting Times

Both kids are having exciting weeks!  Finley's preschool started Monday, and this year he will be in a class with two friends, Macy and Jake.  Finley has known these two since they were all babies.  He will have the same teachers as last spring, which I hope will make the transition back to school considerably easier.  The school is located here in Stanley, about a 12-15 minute walk from our place.  We get plenty of exercise walking Finley to and from school twice a day!  Though I'll be honest, there were some days in June when I was wearing a cranky baby in the carrier and dragging a 3-yr-old on the verge of a tantrum in the insane heat while sweating profusely and carrying a diaper bag where I just said, "Forget it, let's just take a bus home!"  Finley loves to ride the double-decker buses and would do it every single day if I let him.

Finley went straight for the drums at school

Singing with classmates

Macy, Finley, and Jake

Passed out after a fun first day

Elise seems to have gotten the memo that she is turning one in a few weeks and has been growing and developing like mad, trying to prepare.  She is a super fast crawler and doesn't really have incentive to learn to walk, but recently she has discovered that she can in fact stand on her own, and has even started taking a step or two before plopping down again to speed crawl.  Elise's personality just keeps blossoming.  She loves rolling around all over the bed or couch (so safe!).  She laughs and smiles and makes funny faces.  But she is also learning to protest when she wants or doesn't want something.  She has started arching her back and trying to throw herself out of my arms, as well as making none too quiet verbal protests.  I think she's going to be a feisty one like her mama!  Elise is also starting to point, take objects in and out of containers, push buttons, use objects as tools, and turn pages in books.  She climbs all over everything she can get on!