Mother’s Day

Mommy had a nice day hanging out with her 3 babies!  Being a mom is hard, but definitely worth it.  Mommy just melts when Katelyn says in her sweet little voice, “I love you Mommy!” Unfortunately, Joseph has already reached the age where he says it is “yucky” to tell your mom that you love her.  That’s okay though because Mommy knows that he does love her.  Silly Audrey is just fun to be around.  She’s so playful and cute making her a favorite with teachers and just about everyone she comes in contact with.  These guys can be incredibly infuriating at times, but Mommy loves them!  Aren’t they just so cute?

Sports Day

The kids both had sports days last week.  The preschool age kids had their Sports Day on Thursday.  Grades Kg thru 5th grade had their Sports Day on Friday.  Sports Day is just for fun!  The kids get to participate in a variety of activities.  At the end, each kid gets a popsicle and the principle grills hot dogs for everyone. The younger kids also got medals.  Mommy and Katelyn went up to school both mornings to watch Joseph and Audrey. 

Thursday morning, Mommy and Daddy both went up to school to participate in the 1st grade Transportation celebration. The kids had been working on transportation projects that they got to share with the parents and the rest of the kids at the school.  Joseph’s transportation project was called the “Amphibious Jet,”  It was a vehicle that he said could go underwater like a submarine, on land like a car, and in the air, like a plane.  He put a propeller on it and a fish-like tail plus “jet” engines.  There were all sorts of ideas that the kids came up with. 

Joseph was upset that Mommy and Daddy couldn’t stay very long.  Daddy had to run off to work, and Mommy wanted to go watch Audrey participate in Sports Day.  Audrey looked like she was having a great time.  One of the dads that was helping out commented that Audrey was very athletic.  She did look like she was really enjoying the activities.  Some of the other kids were starting to look tired and worn out before all the activities had been completed. Daddy and Mommy joke how our kids are like the Energizer Bunny…they just keep on going!

Friday morning was busy for Mommy too.  The driver said he couldn’t come in so Mommy and Katelyn had to quickly find someone to get a ride with since the activities started at 7:45am.  Mommy was also asked to help out in the preschool class with their cooking activity so it was a busy morning.  Mommy and Katelyn watched Joseph do a few activities before we had to go do the cooking class at 8:30am.  Mommy helped the kids make rice crispie treats.  At around 9:30am, Mommy and Katelyn went back to watch Joseph participate in a few more activities. 

The last couple of days have been busy but fun!

 

The "Amphibious Jet”

 

Telling someone all about his transportation project.

 

“I love Sports Day!”

 

Getting her well-deserved medal!

 

Joseph is 7!

Today is Joseph’s birthday.  Mommy can’t believe he is 7 years old.  He is definitely growing up.  Most of the time he already acts like he is 17 instead of 7.  He wants to be treated like a grown-up even though he is just a kid which does cause Mommy and Daddy a bit of grief as he likes to argue/negotiate with us over just about everything.  Still, we love our little man.

Joseph is an amazing kid.  He really is super smart.  There is always something brewing in that head of his.  Joseph loves to play board games.  He picks up on them so quickly.  He especially loves games that he sees are rated for older kids. His recent favorites are Pandemic, Dutch Blitz, and Qwirkle.  He loves sports.  Soccer is his favorite so far.  He also likes Tae Kwon Do, swimming, tennis, and ping-pong.  Today he is starting golf so we will see how he likes that.  He did not like T-ball at all.  I think it was too slow-paced for him.  He has also asked to try badminton so that may be something we will let him try at some point. Joseph has an abundant amount of energy so Mommy and Daddy are glad he likes to engage in physical activities.

In school, Joseph’s best subjects according to his teachers are math and art.  He is also a great reader and loves to read.  His favorites right now are the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books.  He has read all but the newest book…Cabin Fever.  Apparently that one is always checked out of the library.  He has been on the waiting list the entire school year, but his turn still has not come up.  Mommy and Daddy are planning on buying it for him when it comes out in paperback so that he will have an entire set.

Joseph loves geography like his Daddy.  He is learning about different countries and participates in the passport club at school.  He loves the little globe he got from one of his teachers at Church and can point out many of the different countries.  He likes to travel and has gotten a lot better about trying different kinds of food. 

Joseph loves Texas and the U.S.  He is always asking to go back “home.”  He is so excited to be going back to Texas for the entire 2-month summer break.  He is looking forward to celebrating his birthday with his cousins and to spending lots of time with friends and family.   

Mommy was too tired to throw a second birthday party this year since we’ve done so much traveling recently plus Mommy has been sick.  Tonight we are having pizza and cupcakes with just our family and one of his friends from Church.  Mommy and Daddy said he could have a big party with his cousins at Chuck E Cheese when we get back to Texas…definitely something to look forward to.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOSEPH!!! WE LOVE YOU!!!

 

 

Jobs for the kids

For a while now, I've been thinking about giving the kids a way to start earning their own money. Ideally, I had hoped to have the kids do manual labor outside, but since we live in a serviced apartment, we had to improvise.

So about a week ago, we implemented a jobs program for the kids. Basically, they don't get paid an allowance (money for doing nothing) or for doing what they are already supposed to do (dressing themselves, picking up toys, doing homework, etc). However, they can earn money by doing approved chores above and beyond the usual routine (such as washing dishes, putting away clothes, etc).

So far I am happly to report that the kids have really taken to earning money and it is great to see them excited to do work. Let's hope the enthusiasm continues....

One year in Indonesia!

On 23 February, we celebrated one year in Indonesia. We had a nice dinner at Samy's Curry restaurant which serves Singapore style Indian food. It was delicious, but as a co-worker pointed out, a bit ironic that we didn't have Indo food. Oh well, LOL.

It's been crazy fast as we've done so much in so little time. We've many new friends and had so many amazing experiences. Most mornings I wake up and can't believe we live in SE Asia. Its like a dream come true...for me at least.

The family has done remarkably well at adapting to life here. I think that is largely due to my previous experience of living in Singapore and Malaysia, our family trips to Belize and Taiwan, and our even living in another state (Oklahoma) from our native Texas.

Really, life is very similar (with a few notable differences). We still have to get the kids out the door to go to school in the morning and I still do the same job (although I walk here instead of drive). The main differences would be that traffic dominates any decision of what activities to participate in and we live in an apartment instead of a house.

All in all we are enjoying our stay here and are looking forward to another great year in Jakarta!

Saturday

We finally had a Saturday where there was nothing on the agenda other than Joseph’s t-ball game in the morning.  Mommy must admit it was really nice to just stay home and not do a whole lot. 

The kids just played at the apartment for most of the day.  Audrey had wanted to go swimming, but sadly, the complex pool is very green.  Funny thing was Mommy looked at it yesterday morning, and it was blue.  The pool certainly did not look very appealing in its current green state.  Hopefully the pool will be back to its lovely blue color sometime in the near future. The kids love going swimming. 

Joseph decided later on that he wanted to go play tennis, and the girls wanted to ride bikes.  After playing tennis for a little while with Daddy, the kids decided they wanted to go to the playground.  We stayed at the playground until dusk and then headed back to the apartment. 

 

Here are some fun pics from today.

 

Joseph looking a little hot after playing tennis with Daddy.

 

Sweet little Nunu rested on the bench while waiting for Joseph and Daddy to finish up so we could go to the playground.

 

Cute little Audrey peeking out of the tunnel window. 

Gone Fishin’

Mommy and Daddy considered taking the kids to Carita Beach this last friday.  We thought it would be fun to play on the beach and also get a view of Anak Krakatau (Child of Krakatau, a famous active volcano in Indonesia).  It would have been a 4 hour drive to the beach (without traffic) so Mommy thought that it was not a good idea for a day trip.  We might consider doing a weekend trip to Carita Beach at some time in 2012!

Mommy found a place called Kebun Wisata Pasirmukti that seemed like a good place for a day trip.  It was about an hour’s drive from Jakarta.  The place is an agrofarm and has facilities for a variety of activities including fishing.  Daddy loves to fish and the kids had not been fishing in a long time.

We left about 9 am friday morning and arrived around 10:30am.  We paid the entrance fee and made our way around the farm/orchard til we got to the fishing ponds.  There were two fishing ponds stocked with different fish.  Daddy paid for 4 fishing rod rentals which included bait. 

We originally tried fishing for gurame (a good-tasting fish)  but were unsuccessful.  The fish did not seem to care for the bait we were using.  Daddy noticed that there was a lot of action at the second pond so we went over to try our luck at the other pond.  All the kids were able to reel in fish.  We caught a lot of fish over the few hours that we were at the pond.  We paid about US $8 to keep our lot of fish.  We threw back the smaller fish and kept the 7 largest fish. 

We had lunch at the local restaurant and then headed for home.  We even made it home in 1.5 hrs. which was a miracle since it was a friday in Jakarta and raining too!  Daddy conceded that it was a good idea not to go to the beach as we all had a fantasic time fishing!

It was a great day!  We even saw a water buffalo at the farm which was funny since Daddy had just said the night before that he was surprised he had not seen any water buffalo in the 10 months we lived in Indonesia.

 

Traffic jam even outside of Jakarta…we found ourselves in a sea of blue vans.

 

No luck catching any gurame fish.

 

Our little fisherman…the girls lost interest in fishing after awhile and were happier mashing up fish bait and tossing them into the water to feed the fish.

 

Reeling in a bawal putih fish…they have big teeth!

 

Not sure who caught the largest fish, but Daddy certainly caught the smallest!

 

Taking a break from fishing!

 

Our sweet little Nu Nu!

 

Daddy just enjoying being outdoors!

 

Checking out the final fish count.

 

7 bawal putih!

 

Heading back to the car.

 

We saw some fun things at the agrofarm:

“Sausage” tree

 

Some kind of large beetle that fell in the pond

 

Check out the lovely mouth parts…ouch!

 

Happy to be back in a tree instead of floating in the pond.

 

Water buffalo!

 

Views from the onsite restaurant

 

Three happy kids!