Happy Birthday, Tri

Tri turned two today. Here is a quick video of his first few awake moments as a two year old. Like last year, he was up bright and early to make the day as long as possible. A small family / friend celebration will take place on Saturday, and then a much larger celebration in February, which we will combine for Cai's birthday (we think this may be the last year we can get away with that).
Low definition video here

Higher quality video here


For highest quality go directly to youtube.com to watch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmyF_hQh5Kw

Cai and Tri Adopt a Kitten

While down at our beach house this past weekend, the kids (or should I say Virginia) fell in love with a litter of kittens. Somehow we ended up with one. The kids seem to be enjoying her. We named her Tanjy (I don't know how to spell it), for Tanjung Lesung, cause that is where she was born.
Here is some raw footage of the kids playing with the kittens at the sailing club.



If you want to watch the video in high definition, you'll need to go to the link in youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiSWjWWAwng

Learning Coach

Our school has just announced a new position for next year... A Learning Coach. No one applied for the position because nobody knew what it was. They had to send out another notice trying to describe what the job entailed, and extended the deadline for applications.

Before the new notice, a couple of us were sitting around talking about what such a position might entail. We decided to make a video describing our vision.

By the way, PLC stands for Professional Learning Community, something that our school implemented just this year.

Here it is:

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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