Halloween Party

Halloween is not a holiday typically celebrated in Indonesia (though the stores are catching on that it is one more thing they can market and so it might be slowly, slowly catching on).

However we were invited to celebrate it at the Bintaro housing complex, a complex of 18 houses owned by JIS that are occupied by JIS teachers/families. There are many families with young kids (the oldest kid is grade 9, most are much younger). So Virginia went out to the store Saturday morning to purchase the kids costumes. As soon as she got back, she dressed the kids up and here they are. (Note, if you click on the "YouTube" watermark on the bottom right, it will take you to Youtube.com and then there will be an option on the bottom right that says "HD". This will allow you to watch the video in high definition)

The next video shows the kids at the party just before gong out to Trick or Treat. One of the teachers organized a cookie decorating party and here you can see Cai and Tri as they interact with the other kids. Cleana is the devil, and she did (and always does) a great job of playing with the kids.

The final video shows the kids trick or treating. I like this video the best because I was amazed to watch how quickly the kids picked it up. We weren't planning on having the kids trick or treat but before we knew it, the kids each had a bag. The cookie decorating was just beside the pool, and that was where the first treat was received. Then all the kids took off to the furthest house to begin the trick or treating. Here you will see as Tri takes off following the kids. By the time he reaches them, they are already on their way back. I thought he'd turn around and follow them, but no he continued to find his treat. I was surprised that he knew the place the treats in the bag.

Anyway, we had a great time and so did the kids. We are even contemplating moving back to this complex (we both spent our first year there) despite the greater distance to school (half hour drive versus 10 minute walk).

Happy Halloween

Virginia created the following Halloween Special.

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Swimming in the Pool

Well it's been a long time since I've posted. The kids are growing up fast and time is flying by. This year, I have a new job (Technology Integration Specialist) at JIS, and I am finding that I am very busy and that the days are going by very quickly.

But we do have time to play with our kids every day. We've discovered that the playground at our elementary school is fabulous. They leave bins around with toys. So we cycle (that is until this morning when we discovered our two bicycles were stolen from our front porch) to school with the kids in the bike seats and we play in the playground. They love to play with all the toys designed for sand (sifters and sand wheels, shovels and pails). There are also lots of slides (bigger than the ones we have at home). Our kids are very brave and love to climb up high and slide down.

If we don't go to the playground, we go for a swim. The kids are getting to be very good swimmers. Tri has picked it up a little faster than Cai, but they're both progressing quickly. Below is a 4 minute video of the kids swimming, and jumping in the pool.

We filmed in high definition, but at the moment I'm not having much luck uploading HD to YouTube, so for now, it's just the regular quality.

Happy Mother's Day From Me Too!

Hi Mommy,
I helped make your book. I made the title of the book. I thought of the title and I helped Daddy write it too. I made a little video that you can watch!

Happy First Mother's Day

Happy mother's day, Mommy.  

Daddy, Tri and I are so happy that you are our mommy!  You always make me laugh, and cuddle me whenever Tri hurts me.

Tri and I thought that we could make you a book that you could read to us at night.  We both really like it when you read to us, but some of the books you have bought us are a little boring.  Lots of colours, and animals, but no real good storeis about babies from Vietnam.

So we thought we could make you a book about two little babbies from Vietnam.  Daddy and I looked through some photos and tried to make you a book.  Daddy got a little frustrated sometimes because the store he went to used old software (whatever that is).  He says that later we can all work together and make a much better book by not even going to the store.

Here are some pages that we printed that are in your book.

Tri says he is going to post a video of how he helped (he only printed the title page....I did all the work with the photos).

We hope you love the book mommy.  The book comes from our heart, not our wallet.  Daddy says that is the best (or cheapest) present one can give!