Christmas Parties at Colt’s School

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Our first Christmas party opportunity was at Colt’s school. When I first mentioned it to the head teacher, it seemed to me that it would be a “no go.” But, when we met with our small group we all lifted up the time that I would AGAIN ask them. . . and we went ahead and started to prepare in faith 🙂

The Thursday that I “re-asked” was no problem! In fact, they let us host parties and share the Christmas Story with 3 classes of about 30 students each! Thanks to my sweet mother and Aunt B’s packages, we had tons of amazing things to throw the party, do nativity related crafts, cookie decorating, and prepare gifts to give the kids at the end!

The parties all went really smoothly, our small group helped and the kids paid attention so well! They answered all of the questioned about the Christmas Story and heard the real Reason for the season for the first time 🙂 Thanks for partnering with us and lifting up these opportunities!

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Experience more of Thailand. . .

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While we are in Thailand for 2 weeks renewing our visas, we took one day to go 1) see the Monkey School 2)The Orchid/Butterfly Farm 3) the Elephant Camp 4) and the Mae Sa Waterfalls. They were all super close together (hello tourists!). . . but that was a lot to do in one day! Colt loved it – he is fascinated by animals. Kylie doesn’t really like animals 🙂 Caden seems to like them though. It was really neat. And now that we are back and freezing, to reflect on fun times in the warm and sunny Thailand is good 🙂

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The elephants getting a bath

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friendly little monkey

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Colt’s bright shirt was an attraction to some butterflies. He loved that!

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The elephant’s painting for sale – pretty pricey! Watch the video to see them painting 🙂

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Told you he loved animals 🙂

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Kylie didn’t want to be in this picture 🙂

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Pretty neat!

Chiang Mai Safari Animals

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This place was really neat! We went during the day, and there was hardly anyone else there! They also have a “Night Safari” where you can drive through and feed the animals. That is probably the big hit and crowded time. They had a huge outdoor and indoor play area for the kids, and tons of animals that we could get pretty close to along this shaded walking path! So, this trip was a LOT better than the zoo in my book 🙂

Oh, and you may notice Kylie wearing her panties by the end of the video, because she managed to fall into the peacock’s watering trough. Nice.

Chiang Mai Zoo

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Our zoo experience was. . . Well, it was super hot and too hilly to walk, so we rode the trolley around from place to place. David had taken allergy medicine that he bought in Asia (for the first time), and was knocked out! He was so tired that he couldn’t even carry the kids for fear of falling over (won’t be taking that again!). Kylie and Caden were crying because they were hot and tired. . . so I think the experience could be better under different circumstances 🙂

But, the seal show was really neat and cool (literally). It was also the first thing we saw, so we still had lots of energy 🙂

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Making memories. . .

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We had to leave country to renew our visas, which is something that you have to do once a year until you have a permanent visa platform. Actually, a the policy was extended to renewing every 10 years just 2 days after our visa was renewed (for 1 year). Ironic. So, we will be back next year.

We are spending about 10 days in Thailand while we wait to get our passport/visas back to re-enter country. But, it’s REALLY been nice. . . and much needed. It’s “winter” here, but it’s in the 90’s every day. We are staying a retreat place for people in this similar line of work. It’s very affordable, meals are provided (yummy Thai food everyday!), and laundry is done for you too. I mean, I am LOVING that! The people who own/run this place are truly serving many families in a great way! What a blessing they have been to us!

The kids are playing from sun up to sun down with friends they have made, and it’s just so relaxing to have nothing to do but spend time together. The timing could not have been better. We were feeling the effects of stress that has built over the last year for sure.

Thankful.

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What a mess. . .

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These are some sweet friends that I happened to make one day. I met Lulu (left) while she worked at the management office for our apartment complex. Since I could understand her pretty easily (some people have thick accents, speak super quickly/unclearly) I asked if she could do lunch sometime. She brought Echo (middle). . . and the tradition began of almost weekly food dates with me and my friend Jean (right). Those lunch dates turned into saturday night dinner and games, and they just love on the kiddos!

So, last week was Lulu’s bday and I wanted to surprise her with a cake! We had one specially made with “Happy Birthday Lolo” (they spelled her name wrong) and everything! – – and yes, I could’ve made one, but it probably would’ve been too sweet for their tastes, so we went with a local bakery – – When I pulled it off the top of the refrigerator to surprise her (I put it there so no little kid fingers would find it), I dropped it. Yep. It pretty much splattered next to her feet. I didn’t even get a picture before (which I will know to do next time!).

Oh well. Hopefully she knows we love her! I’ve been able to share my story with them, but so far their hearts are not inclined when we talk about the Father. But we are lifting them up and hoping they will one day be part of the Family!

Algae and Tea

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A couple of weeks ago, I went out for a “girls’ night.” Whoo hoo! I went with my good friend Jean, and some other girls. We did a little window shopping, then met her mom who treated us all to dinner. You can see in the last picture that it was quite a feast! We had algae hotpot. This was my 2nd time eating algae hotpot (yes, it’s really algae, but it’s also supposed to be really good for your digestion). This time was actually really good, maybe it was better. . . maybe I’m more asian than the first time I ate it 🙂

After filling ourselves with vegetables and a bit of fish (and drinking our algae soup of course!), we headed back to Jean’s house where her mom further treated us! She is the guru of tea, and taught us all about different types of teas and the proper way to serve tea. It was really interesting! Then we drank lots of different teas until about 11 pm. Very hyrdated 🙂 Had to get up several times that night to go to the bathroom too – ha!
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Fun with Friends!

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About a month ago, my friend Jean (on the right) and I met LuLu (on the far left) and Echo (middle). We have been out to lunch several times since then. Before, Lulu worked close by, but Echo would come across town for lunch because we are foreigners 🙂 We must be pretty interesting indeed!

They LOVE our kiddos and brought them pretty good doughnuts the first time they met them – which was amazing and exciting for everyone since we had yet to find a good doughnut! Anyways, I invited them to dinner last weekend, and they wanted to try Mexican – which was a hit! They liked it, we all had a great time and learned a new popular card game here. We are hoping our friendship continues to grow and they will meet our Father!
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Sounds of School

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This primary school is right outside of where I study language every day. I couldn’t resist taking pictures of the madness when school was let out. . . but we also weren’t able do much studying either because it was SO LOUD. They had music playing, all the kids voices, car horns blaring – notice the major traffic jam. Craziness. Should be fun if Colt continues in the local school huh? 🙂 I’m sure they aren’t all quite this bad. This is one of the best primary schools in the area though!
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