Recent fam activities

Emma's first dance recital. Hope to post a video soon!

Enjoyed pies!

  Giving thanks for melons and mangos!

Cuddle time!

Loving motorbike rides!

The tree is up!

Emma attending a friend's birthday party from school.

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Happy Birthday Todd, Emma, and Olivia!

Back in September, Todd celebrated his 32nd birthday at our team retreat with a chocolate cake complete with trick candles. The room filled with smoke before he was able to finally blow all the candles out. And it would have not been a fun birthday without some Starbucks and local creamy milk to wash down the cake.

Olivia's 2nd birthday had a garden theme.

Outdoor activities including swimming, and spraying the plants. The new sunglasses lasted only a few days. :) At least we got a cute pic!

The kids planted their own flowers and played in the dirt.

Traditional yellow rice for dinner, but in flower pots!

The birthday cake was mashed up in some flower pots with purple daisies and gummy worms. 

We lit two candles. Olivia's flower cake had an orchid in it.

Teaching her to blow out the candles.

Diggin' in, but only after she realized it was chocolate cake, not dirt. :)

Emma's 4th birthday party had a lollipop theme so we tried a lollipop pinata.

 Emma got a new backpack for school from sister.

 

 Anni, Emma's extroverted pal, came to the party. You can also see Emma's shirt that has a lollipop sewn on it from Mommy.

Vreya, her best friend from school, also came to the party.

And Abi, her best friend, came to the party. But the little sweetie is shy when there are lots of people around, so she is not in any of the photos!

 Opening gifts. She got some fun necklaces, some school supplies, and headbands.

 Ruby is Livy's age. They are just starting to interact more.

Yum!

 Traditional yellow rice also for Emma's party dinner.

 Emma also enjoyed an ice cream outing for lunch.

Happy Fall in the Tropics

We are enjoying some more rain as we enter into the rainy season here. This means more playing in the rain with the girls, better tasting drinking water as we can use rain water instead of river water, and it's mango season! Now we associate Thanksiving with mango season and rain. :) If Emma and Olivia could be in a mango-eating contest, they would certainly win!




It's also durian season. Durian is a thorny fruit that tastes like garlic and some people would argue smells like a dirty diaper. But most people here LOVE it just like Americans like apples and oranges. It's made into flavored candies, cookies, cakes, or just eaten plain. The girls are standing in front of a mountain of durian, although they have not tasted it yet. ;)



 Mimi (Katie's mother) came to visit in September. It was so much fun to have someone see what our daily life is like here. She got through the heat, the crazy driving, and weird food just to see her grand daughters. Here we are taking a tourist boat ride on the river that the runs through the city.


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Some traveling photos

Emma and Olivia love to travel. As this is often part of our lifestyle with going back and forth for visa runs, furlough, or a conference, they are expert travelers. The moment I tell Emma we are going on an airplane, she begins to think about what she will pack in her suitcase and LOVES helping me pack each person's clothes in their own packing cube. Here are some snapshots of our recent trip across the border for a little family vacation.

Emma and Olivia looking out for our suitcases coming off of the plane. I told Olivia not to touch the moving luggage and to "look with her eyes". She preceded to put her hands on her hip and lean forward, straining her eyes so she could somehow interact with those mobile suitcases circling around.


Emma excited when the plane began to take off.


Finally getting a good meal, including an entire fish, head and tail included.


Sightseeing.


Olivia feeling like a big girl carrying big sister's suitcase.


A favorite, riding on top of the luggage trolley.


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