Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Pryor TV

A few weeks ago we decided to ditch the cable. I found that I was letting the kids watch the TV way too much during the summer break. I bought a few of their favorite shows on DVD so I could limit them to 30 minute episodes and move on to something a little more active or creative.

Mike is the creative parent in the house, most nights after dinner he does something fun with the kids, make up their own type of sharades game, play pictionary, make a TV and come up with shows.

Check out a few of our first channels. Coming soon: Tiger Channel, Robot Channel and possibly some remakes of our favorite books.

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Maggie's First day of Preschool

She really loved her uniform...the school was out of skirts, so she wore her own. I think the pink totally goes with her shirt :)
Maggie started school today and being the big girl that she is, she was totally ready. I can't say the same for me. Maybe it's because Finn was being taken care of by other people ever since he was born, so seeing him off to school never never made me think twice, but dropping Maggie off today made me weep. Pathetic, I know, but I'm so used to having her around and I really love to listen to her playing her own games in her playroom, without big brother around to boss her into his games. She can be a total terror, but when she's good, she's really good.

She got up this morning, sweet as can be, ate her breakfast and did everything that I asked her to do. She packed her snack and her backpack and kept asking if it was time to go yet. Such a big girl. The thing she was most proud of was her uniform. She excitedly told me that her uniform has buttons and she LOVES it! So sweet. I'm going to miss her face for 3 days a week, but she's totally ready and HAPPY!

The only thing we could get her to tell us about her first day was that she danced like a princess in the art room and learned about painting :) That's my girl!

Vang Vieng

With the rainy season seeming to be coming to a close, or at least a whole week without it, we decided to head to Vang Vieng so Mike and one of the English Teaching Assistants could do some rock climbing and I could sit by a pool :) We only spent a night there even though it was a long weekend. Laos doesn't recognize Labor Day, so Finn had his first day of school Monday and would've flipped had he missed it.

I wouldn't say Vang Vieng isn't worth the trip, but it's definitely not my favorite place so far. Now if I didn't have 3-kids under the age of 5, I would probably like it more. There's lots of adventurous stuff to be done there: rock climbing, tubing, hiking waterfalls; all very fun stuff, but not so easy with the kids.

While Mike got his first experience in lead climbing (climbing to an anchor to clip on to, then continuing on to the next anchor), I was hanging at the pool with the kids and walking around the little town. I have kind given up on walking with purpose since getting here. Either the kids are fascinated by something they see or we're stopped every 4-feet to be talked at (still learning the language), touched or sniffed; it was more just to have an idea where places were so we could go eat when Mike and the ETA got back. In the end the walk was pointless except the kids found a puppy to gawk at while every person along a 30 meter stretch held and sniffed the baby.

We went back to the hotel to let the kids swim again with Mike and the ETA then wandered back into town for the most awful food EVER! Seriously, I didn't think it could be hard to muck up some papaya salad, but this place did. Also, for anyone interested in what Vang Vieng has to offer other than adventure stuff, just do a little search and you'll find that every "restaurant" has short tables with cushions and TV's playing, of all things, Friends. That's right, the TV show Friends was playing in almost every place we passed. We thought the random blogs had to be outdated and that this couldn't possibly be true, but it was. If it wasn't Friends it was Family Guy. Sadly, Vang Vieng is known to most backpackers as the party spot in Laos, with "Happy Shakes" and peaceful places to hang out after a day of drinking on the river. Although, while we were there Happy shakes were not advertised on menus, most places did advertise cheap buckets of whiskey cokes.

Even if it's not exactly a kid friendly place, I'm not opposed to going back. Just give me a pool and a hike and I'm happy. The kids weren't too thrilled about the waterfall, maybe because they are used to the slow moving, short waterfalls close to Vientiane, after we got home Finn told me he thought it was "pretty cool".



Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Summer 2011

Here's an update of our summer. We were a tad bit lazy, I mean busy...or lazy :) Had lots of adventures and lots of lazy days.

Here are some photos of our first hosted Baci ceremony, a ceremony meant to bring prosperity, good health and good luck, for special occasions. Our Baci in our house was for Mike's boss leaving Laos, and 5-months in, us arriving. 



 
Receiving a blessing from the maw

After our first Baci, we went on a trip to Luang Prabang. A beautiful world heritage city in the North of Laos. One of the top places to visit according to Lonely Planet. Mike had to work most of the trip, but it was still lovely to wander around.


Hiked the top of Phusi

Over 300 steps up

Headed to a waterfall


The waterfall.
 Most of August rained off and on. So we stuck pretty close to home. A few Sundays in a row we headed to Taht Vangnawng for a swim and picnic.

Our picnic spot.

Playing in the water