Caroline celebrated her 8th birthday in style! Much like Leah, she had fun taking cupcakes to school for her class, and having cake and presents at home with the family. Her favorite present was the remote control tarantula she's holding below! She also chose to have two of her friends from school, Maggie and Emerson, over for a sleepover. Funny thing was, it was Caroline’s first big sleepover and she was the first one asleep! :)
The kids had a long weekend in the middle of September so we took the chance to get away to our favorite beach spot, the island of Koh Chang, about 5 hours from our house. It was a really relaxing weekend full of sitting on the beach, hanging out on our deck (bungalow right on the beach – awesome!), watching the fishing boats go by, wandering around fishing villages built entirely on a pier, watching the sunset, and eating yummy Thai food! What more needs to be said?
This September Leah turned the big six! She celebrated on her actual birthday by brining cupcakes to school for her class, opening presents at home, and having birthday cake that night! Then the following weekend she had a party with 6 of her buddies from school. They came over and had muffins and donuts (the party was from 9 to 11 am – brilliant, if I do say so myself – all done with it by noon!) and then got pampered in style by getting manicures and pedicures. A good time was had by all!
After being here for only a year, we got our first taste of the downside of expat life – just when you make friends, they get assigned to a new country and move! Our good friends Melinda and Juan Wheeler made the long move from their home country of South Africa to Bangkok only 1 ½ years ago, only to get re-assigned to Shanghai, China this summer. Jeanre, their daughter, is best friends with Leah, and Ruan, their son, is also good friends with Tim. We were so sad to see them go but we are really looking forward to visiting them next April in Shanghai! (And the upside of your expat friends moving to another country – you now have someone to visit when you go traveling!) Luckily, we were able to spend a little extra time with them in August when we returned from our home leave and before they headed off to Shanghai. We went out with our other friends, the McDermotts, one night, and another day we took all the kids to a huge indoor playground in Bangkok for one last fun day out!
There are lots of fun things to do here that you don’t normally do so often in the U.S….like bowling! To take all six of us bowling, eat plenty of spring rolls and fried dumplings at the bowling alley, rent shoes, drink soda/beer/etc., it costs next to nothing – maybe $20 tops for two games with all the trimmings! We went last weekend and the kids, as usual, got a huge kick out of it (though Nate does get pretty cranky when he can’t hit all the pins down and get a strike, like he does in Wii bowling! Thank goodness there are kids lanes with bumpers on the side – they help Nate – and the rest of us – a lot!) Some funny things about Thai bowling, though…..they turn all the lights down at 5pm and it turns into “Cosmic Bowling” complete with black lights, glow in the dark balls, etc. The music is blaring, people are busting out bottles of Johnny Walker and Absolut to go along with their towers of beer (didn’t take a picture of one….I’ll have to do it next time – it’s a sight to see!), money is changing hands as they put some wagers down on how many pins they’ll hit (I wanted to get in on the game in the lane next to ours….I think I could have come away with more cash than I started with! :) ) The music is also blaring, and mostly it’s Thai music, though the odd American song is thrown in every now and then (maybe in honor of us, the only Western people there at all that night?!??!!) It’s pretty funny bowling with a bunch of Thais with “Baby You, Got What I Need!” blaring away! We also laugh because there is a wide assortment of bowling balls available, but very few of them have finger holes in them big enough for Western fingers…even mine! Thus Rick’s patented side arm bowling technique you see in the pictures here…..he just kind of hucks it down the lane, puts a big spin on it, and hopes it hits lots of pins (sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn’t!) Oh yes, and the slight interruption in the middle of your game as they stop to wax each lane – you just kind of pause the game while the waxing machine makes it up and down the lane once, the continue bowling! Only in Thailand! :)
