Boun Hua Fai

The Lao Light festival, took place back in October...I know I'm a little behind, but attempting to catch up.

The Light festival is a Buddhist ceremony that signifies the end of Buddhist lent. From what I've been told this is when the monks shelter themselves during the rainy season and shouldn't be seen walking the streets or tending crops. Things have changed a bit. Monks were still out, but there were several big temple holidays when people would go to give alms to the monks to help feed them during the rainy season.

During Boun Hua Fai in Vientiane, banana leaf boats and several larger boats were set ablaze and sent down the Mekong to celebrate. There were also really beautiful lanterns released into the sky (think the movie Tangled). From what I've found many Buddhist countries do similar celebrations, but all vary. A week after our light festival we went to Phuket, Thailand and saw advertisements for the following weekend light festival events.

One of the many larger boats we saw float the river that night.

Language mix up

It all started with a scooter in the driveway and ended with 1 proud nanny and a very confused mommy.

Monday was just hectic, whose Monday isn't? Tess had been sick all weekend and I had to take her in to the Health Clinic to get some antibiotics for an ear infection, so instead of driving Finn to school, a friend, M,  was set to pick him up.

On my way out of the house I noticed Finn left his scooter in the driveway, right where M could run it over, so I called nanny number 2 and asked her to tell Finn to pick up his scooter it'll get run over.

While at the HC M calls and starts off by telling me that Finn is at school...okay. But that she didn't take him. She got to my house and nanny number 2 told her than nanny number 1 took him. WHUCK? (Most people may not know this but the main transportation of people in Laos is a motorcycle.)

When I got Tess home nanny number 2 apologized, she was confused about what I asked her on the phone, while nanny number 1 proudly told me that she took Finn to first the wrong school, then called another nanny from the embassy to find out where Finn's school was.

Great! I tried to hide the shock on my face.

Somehow nanny number 2 got: Take Finn to school from Tell Finn to pick up his scooter.

While this was not the first language mix up and certainly won't be the last it was kind of the most humorous and terrifying all at the same time. While I love nanny number 1 for going with it, even though she had no clue where she was going, it shouldn't have happened. Finn rides Mike's bike all the time, but it's a different story when it's the parent and the caregiver.

Also if you noticed I name 2 nannies, it's true and maybe I'll take the time to update on how I went from wanting NO one in my house to having 2 people.

The breakdown

Most people with a boy over the age of 3 has at least seen the show Phineas and Ferb at least once, right? Well it's Finn's FAVORITE! We no longer have cable, but do have DVDs of Phineas and Ferb so he can watch 30 minutes after school.

I think it's a fun show, but yesterday Finn had a complete breakdown from watching an episode where the Evil Dr. Doofenshmirtz decided he no longer wanted to be evil nemeses with Perry the Platypus and replaced him with Peter the Panda. There's a long scene of Perry walking alone thinking of all the "good" times and there's a sad song in the background. Well, somehow this had an effect on Finn that was beyond me. He got up in the middle of the scene turned the TV off and came over to me crying telling me how sad it was that Doofenshmirtz didn't want Perry anymore.

I thought I had some time before my kids started getting emotional over TV, but Mike and I both agree there's probably a real reason this could have an effect on him...DUH, we've had 2 BIG moves in his short life and with both moves he's had to say good-bye to LOTS of friends. Mike said the scene in the show probably reminded him how quickly someone can be out of your life, and he's still too young to comprehend why it would bother him so much.

After this and the way he acted out the day before our BIG move, I can clearly see it's going to be a trying 18-years with the kids and FS.

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.

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".

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