All the Way Around the World

UN Day.

This year they had a parade of countries.  When the kids' country was called, they would walk out dressed in their special outfits and everyone would cheer.  It was cool.  There was a lot of pride for America.  I was happy Rhon and Dare walked out together.

Then they did the songs.

Dare played some drums.

And Rhon did some dancing.

Then all the kids came out for the encore.

Candy and Cheese

BA made a bookmark with her Halloween candy wrappers.

Which is super cool, but I mostly thought this was a pretty picture of her.

Crunch Berries

We are always exited when packages come from Walmart.  We are excited to get packages of any kind, but we know Walmart means. . .

. . . cereal!  We don't even want to think about what life would be like without cereal from America.

If only I could get these on sale.

For some reason, I was craving Hot Tamales.  So I ordered them online.  It is genius!  Even though I didn't get them for a week, and by then my craving was gone, I was still happy to have them.

Rain

It's rainy season!  Jakarta has the types of rains that will flood the streets in minutes.  It really comes down.  Sometimes if there is not much thunder and lightning, I'll let the kids play in it.  They get soaked in seconds.

Nerds.

I like the rain.  I like how it cleans the air, and keeps things cool.  I like hearing the thunder and the downpour on my roof.  The other night, the girls and I walked home from the movie theater in the rain. It was fun.

I don't, however, like the mosquitos the rain seems to bring.

Loophole Girl

Dare turned 9!

I can't believe another year has gone by already.  I feel like I just posted about her baptism.  She hasn't changed much.  She is still her happy, fun, active, always asking for things self.  On her birthday she went to school, and we went swimming when she got home.  Of course.  This kid would swim 3 times a day, every day if she could.  We had barbecue chicken for dinner, and cinnamon rolls for dessert.  Her request. 

She got rollerblades!

I don't do sleepovers, but I let Dare have a sleepover.  :)  Justification:  I only approved 2 friends, and I know both of their parents really well.  It worked.  It was fun.  Thursday and Friday were holidays from school, so they came over for dinner Thursday night and I took them ice skating on Friday morning.

I decided not to ice skate this time, so my pictures didn't turn out so well.  This is the best one I got of the girls on the ice.

Dare, Kathlyn, and Amelia.

Technical

Basketball ended a few weeks ago too. 

Dare's basketball worked more like a clinic than games every week.  But the last Saturday, they played multiple games.  Dare did so good!  One game she got like 18 points!

*****

BA and Rhon were in the same league.  And on the same team.  They would have a practice during the week, and a game on Saturday.  They both did so well too.  

The last Saturday was a tournament.  They played shorter games against all the teams (only three others).  Storm didn't have enough players, so Rhon played for them.  She was sad about it at first, but it turned out to be good for her.

Check out the height difference...

Here they are defending each other.

I'm glad they got to do basketball again.  I'm not sure if they'll continue on, or if it will even be a choice, but I hope so.  They had a good time, and it's fun to watch.

Slow Lane

Biggest snail ever.

Rhon and Dare told us there was a huge snail, and we went to check it out, but we were still surprised at what we saw.  It was easily the biggest snail we have ever seen.  We could see the trail of slime it left on the street.  And since it was slow (duh) we moved it off the road to avoid a fatal accident.  I'm sure we saved it's life.  

Much Pleasure

The boys drew Christmas trees...

Figgy Pudding

We put our tree up on November 4th this year.  A new record for the earliest by far.  I really wanted to get the holiday spirit started, and it seemed like a good way to do it.  No one in the house disagreed.  In fact, everyone was completely on board.  We also started listening to Christmas music just after Halloween.  It is an experiment.  Hopefully we don't get tired of all the decorations before Christmas even gets here!  So far I'm still excited and I feel like I have more time to enjoy and prepare.

Nutmeg

Soccer season ended a few weeks ago.  It was a good time.  Mads improved a ton from last year, and he was really fun to watch.  He worked really hard, and he did a great job.

At practice.

Mads got hit twice really hard with the ball.  Both times he was hit so hard it knocked him over.  Once was in the chest, and the other was in the face.  Both times he walked off the pitch, took a few minutes, and went right back out and played.  

He played for South Korea.

He always volunteered to play goalie.  The first time I was super nervous.  But he did so good!  I was really impressed.  Then all the other times he was goalie, I was just the regular amount of nervous.