Holiday Parties

We had 2 holiday parties today.  One was Audrey’s class holiday party and the other was a children’s Christmas party put on by the Spouses Association of the company that Daddy works for.   We also had church this morning so it was a very full day. 

Arm painting as opposed to face painting.

 

 

We love Indonesia! Look at the misspelled sign.

And last but not least…a visit from Santa!

UN Day Celebrations

The International School where the kids go had several UN Day activities last week. Audrey’s teacher had parents come in and do short presentations about various countries over the course of the week. On Wednesday, Mommy and Katelyn went in to do a presentation about the U.S.  Mommy made rice crispies as an “American” treat to share with the kids. 



Mommy and Katelyn also went with Audrey’s class to the UN Day food festival that was set up in the cafeteria.  Over 20 countries had booths where the kids could get their “passports” stamped and receive food/souvenirs from each country they visited.  It was rather chaotic moving hoards of children through the cafeteria, but it was also lots of fun.  The tables/booths were pretty amazing.  Some of the countries went all out.  Mommy helped to set up the U.S. table the day before the food festival.







The kids also sang in a UN Day concert on Thursday (Thanksgiving Day) and participated in a mini parade where they waved the flag of their home country.  It was fun to watch the UN Day concert and parade. All the kids in the school wore the traditional dress of their home country.  Audrey wore a red, white, and blue dress with an American flag on the front.  Joseph wore blue jeans and a cowboy vest and jacket. Most of the songs were from Africa since the concert focused on the songs and rhythms of Africa.

Audrey playing the triangle in the concert...

guess she can't sing and play at the same time...lol.

Joseph was the song leader for the following song.

Joseph had insisted on singing in the UN Day concert so Daddy booked us a later flight to Hong Kong. We were going to leave possibly Wednesday night or early Thursday morning. The UN Day activities Thursday morning took a little longer than Mommy and Daddy had anticipated so we had to rush home to pack since we had just 1.5 hrs. to get everything ready for our weekend trip to Hong Kong. Mommy had been too busy with school and preparing for Thanksgiving that she did not have time to pack earlier. Thanksgiving morning was quite an eventful one. The kids had a blast and they did well in the concert so it was all worth it!

Thanksgiving

Last tuesday, the 1st grade classes had a small Thanksgiving celebration during lunch.  It was a lot of fun.  Mommy helped the room mom for Joseph’s class make 60 oreo cookie turkeys.  One mom from another class provided turkey-cranberry-stuffing sandwiches.   Another mom baked pumpkin pies.  Since many of the kids in the school are not Americans, it was a fun way for all the kids to get a taste of a traditional Thanksgiving feast.

We also celebrated Thanksgiving as a family on Wednesday night since we were leaving on Thanksgiving Day to go to Hong Kong.  Mommy is pretty sure that this is the first Thanksgiving dinner she has ever made since we have always had Thanksgiving dinner with family or friends. Mommy roasted a chicken. We had stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, corn on the cob, rolls, cramberry sauce, fruit salad with a few local fruits thrown in (rambutan and mangosteen), and peach cobbler for dessert.  We also had 5 slices of grilled turkey cold cuts.  The cost was US $8 for those few thin slices of turkey so that’s all the turkey we had for Thanksgiving this year. We all enjoyed our Thanksgiving dinner although we missed being with family.  Mommy also really missed having pecan pie although the peach cobbler was really good.  One thing Mommy has been thankful for is that we were able to get almost everything we needed to have a traditional Thanksgiving Dinner even though we live far from the U.S.  

We feel so blessed and are very thankful for all our many blessings.

T-Ball Game

Mommy was able to go to Joseph’s T-ball game this morning.  Daddy is able to attend the last half of Joseph’s practices on Mondays, but he has not been able to go to a game yet.  The game was a lot of fun.  The kids are so cute!  Today “The Phillies” played “The Tigers".  The first half of the season there are no “outs” so all the kids stay in the game no matter what happens. Here are some pictures and a video from today’s game. You would never guess that this game was being played in Jakarta, Indonesia.  It looks like it could be any baseball field in the U.S.

Indonesia is not really big on baseball.  Many of the large sporting stores don't even sell baseball equipment.  Most of the kids had gloves that they had brought from their home countries.  Mommy was able to find a glove at a bookstore called Gramedia of all places.  Apparently the bookstore also has a sports and music section.

The games are played at the International School's Middle/High School campus.  Joseph loves to play T-ball so far. The only drawbacks are that the games are saturdays at 8am...ouch!  And, the campus is a good 1/2 hour drive when traffic is not too bad . We left at 7am this morning.  It's at least an hour drive to Pondok Indah on most days.



T-ball

Joseph started T-ball this week. He was so excited.  This morning is his first game.  He got his uniform yesterday.  Luckily Mommy was able to find Joseph a kid-sized glove.  Apparently baseball is not a popular sport in Indonesia so most of the sporting stores don't even carry baseball equipment.  We have a family emergency this morning so Mommy and Daddy will not be able to be at Joseph's first game.  He is going to the game with his friend Clark's family.

Mommy snapped a couple of pics of Joseph in his uniform this morning.  We hope he has a great time.  Mommy told Joseph to be sure to not come home with clean white pants...ha ha.

Premiere Theater

A few weeks ago Mommy went with some friends at church to watch the Three Musketeers.  We watched it at a Premiere Theater inside the Plaza Senayan mall.  The theater was amazing.  You get your own leather recliner and console.  You also get your own blanket.  You can order food and drinks and have it brought to you during the movie.  The ticket price for the movie is 50,000 Rupiah which is the equivalent of about US $6. 

Mommy wanted to take the kids to the movies for FHE on monday night, but Joseph just started T-ball and practice is on mondays.  So, we went to the movies yesterday instead.  The kids had such a blast!  They got their own recliners and they made their own food choices.  They ordered cheese pizza and chicken nuggets.

The movie was great too.  We all enjoyed watching it very much.  It was a great family movie.  We had a fun evening out.  Daddy says he doesn’t think he can go to a movie in the U.S. ever again.  We were able to watch the movie as an entire family and order full meals for less than the cost of just the movie tickets in the U.S.  Regular movie tickets here in a standard theater are 25,000 Rupiah per ticket or less than U.S. $3.  Mommy thinks we will definitely be going to the movies again sometime.

Wet ‘n Wild

Joseph had a “Wet ‘n Wild” swim activity at school last tuesday.  Mommy and Katelyn went up to school to watch.  The kids had so much fun.  The kids participated in relays and also had free swim time.  Joseph loves to swim.  He also has swimming in P.E. for the month of November.  They have swim classes each term for all the students starting in Kindergarten. Audrey is very disappointed that she doesn’t get to swim at school this year since she loves to swim too!