A Party to Remember...

Two nights ago, Liz and the kids were invited to go to a birthday party. One of the teachers at the daycare has a niece that turned 9 yrs old. No big deal, right? Just going to a little gathering where family and friends will celebrate together, few gifts, some snacks, a cake... this is what we were expecting (besides they usually have Big Parties when a child turns 1 y/o, not when they turn 9 y/o)...

UNTIL we arrived and realized it was a Big Party with tons of people, loud music, tons of food (similar to our wedding experiences that we've gone to here).

Here's Morgan eating an apple (probably the only healthy thing she ate all night) and next to her is another friend who goes to the same daycare

Here's the Birthday girl! Yes, she's 9 y/o... Morgan and her friend Ellie thought the birthday girl was a princess because she had a big yellow dress like Princess Belle and had wings in the back!

Party favors were received at the beginning of the party and lots of whistles and balloons and of course candy were given to the kids

Then about 45 mins into the party (mind you, all women and children were present until) a heard of men and boys entered the party (which is unusual and sometimes against cultural norms). The men started playing the drums and singing LOUD! (at this point, all the women quickly covered their heads and sat down, ending most conversations) as they are not used to having men present at the same party.

Here's a picture (from far away) of the men playing their drums and singing

Then as the party continued, Micah got a hold of some water and spilled it all over himself, so of course Liz went to find a place to change him.

Wet Shirt! Dirty Pants!

Ironically, the only room available to change Micah was the same room that the Birthday Cake was in. (I'm sure you know where this is going) Micah + Birthday Cake = A Mess!

Here's the awesome cake, but if you look closely at the top tier, there are 3 little finger marks where (guess who) decided to get away from Liz (Quickly) and taste test the cake before anyone else, including the Birthday girl!

Here's the evidence! (sorry the pic is a little blurry, Micah was moving fast). But as Liz was taking this picture, Micah's teacher from the daycare (the one who invited us to the party) walked in (Liz was scared, but Miss Fatima was laughing) and of course excused Micah's actions and told Liz to take more picture of Micah next to the cake!

Then the big moment came, the presentation of the cake... all the lights were turned off, loud Happy Birthday music (in English) came on, confetti was shot out of canisters... It was a Big Deal! (and thankfully no one noticed the 3 little finger marks on the cake!)

The Birthday Girl (reminder, she's only 9 y/o) in her moment of shine...

And then there's Morgan, who's eyes grew huge when she saw the cake (she's just as big as it)!

Needless to say, we had a great time, although quite interesting and unexpected things occurred... and to add to the details of the party... It started at 8PM and we didn't leave until 11:30PM! Yes, the kids were troopers and survived it... sweets, cake, loud music and all!

Lemonade & Whipped Cream

As many of you may know, Morgan LOVES Dora the Explorer and in one of her favorite books, Dora makes lemonade from scratch and after we read the book each time, Morgan always says she is going to make lemonade just like Dora! So the other day when we were at the grocery store, she started putting lemons in our basket. Why? We asked her and of course she replied, "to make lemonade like Dora!"

Today Randall surprised Morgan by getting the supplies out to make lemonade and so together they made fresh squeezed lemonade!

We don't have an official "juicer" so they used our food strainer and a bowl (hey, it worked great; who wants seeds in their lemonade?)

After adding water and sugar to the lemon juice, Morgan proudly stirred the ingredients together! (of course she wanted to do it "all by herself!")

But Daddy couldn't resist jumping in on the picture too!

And here they are enjoying their tasty lemonade! (it really was good!)

And now to the whipped cream; since our border situation has changed and we spend most of our time in our city now, we can not get ice cream anymore. But we found canned whipped cream at the local grocery store and Randall showed Micah how to eat it! (take a look at the pics)...

Here Micah is practically sucking air only at this point...

Then Daddy started spraying the whipped cream and it went half in Micah's mouth and half on his face!

This is our favorite picture and a perfect shot of Micah enjoying his substitution for ice cream! (and its cheaper and no spoons needed!... you should try it!)

If You're Happy and You Know It!

Morgan and Micah have something in common in that they both love music! When Morgan was younger, she loved doing the motions to "If You're Happy and You Know It" and has now passed on the tradition to Micah. He too loves the song and although his motions to the song are a little bit different then Big Sister's, it still cute to watch them interact together to the song!

Also we thought, What better way to celebrate Mother's Day then to watch 2 little cuties dancing? Happy Mother's Day to all the Mother's watching this (and esp to Grammy and MiMi)! And for the rest of you, have fun enjoying the video!

A Whole Lot of "Random"

We have had a very busy few weeks and have not had our camera with us too much, therefore we thought we'd share some random things that we've been doing... One of the great things about where we live is that Morgan and Micah are exposed to many children all the time (mainly local children) but yet we also have the privilege of being near other families of similar background to us. The kids seem to play well with other children (for the most part; as well as 3 y/o and 1 y/o play together).

This is one Morgan's friends (we were at her Birthday party)

One of Micah's friends (same party)

Another one of Micah's friend (Micah and Lucy have been friends for over 1 year now)

Another great surprise we get to experience is opening packages sent to us from loved ones. We never realized how important receiving mail was until we moved overseas (we realized that receiving mail helps us to feel connected to comforts that we don't get here). In the past, we received mail everyday (even if it was bills or junk mail, it was mail). But here we receive something in the mail maybe once every 2-3 weeks at best, sometimes once a month. But thanks to Joyce, who keeps us awaiting our next packages, we know we always have something to look forward to.

Here's Morgan opening up her Easter package

She loves singing and what better thing to have then a Princess Microphone!

Thanks again Joyce! Love you!

Moving on to yet another random thing we've done over the past few weeks... We recently travelled to a Big city near by with friends and went to a really neat (looking) mall. Each section had its own cultural theme and thankfully, we had our camera with us then.

Randall and the kids are standing in front of a fountain with lions or cougars all around it. We think this is representing the Indonesia cultural (not for sure though)

The Chinese cultural was the neatest! There were 2 huge ships in the middle of the mall even a passage way in the middle of one of the ships.

As we always say, come and visit us and we will take you to the neat places we've explored thus far! Promise to start keeping our camera with us more often and will continue sharing our journey with you!