Safety Pins

 This is G "getting into character" before the preschool Halloween party.

He had been so excited about being a punk.  There was a lot of deliberation about what costume he wanted to wear.  One day while we were trying to decide, I showed him a bunch of costumes online.  It took him about 3 minutes to go through about 10 costumes that he was excited about.  He would confirm what he wanted to be, and then change his mind about 10 seconds later.  He started out with werewolf.  I tried to change his mind because that seemed hot, and not very easy.  Some of his other ideas were:  coyote, punk, skeleton punk, a monkey, and all the Star Wars characters.  And after I showed him each and every Jedi, he said, "Show me the cheetahs."

 I really wish this picture was in focus.

So after that whole process of deciding, he decided the punk sounded the best.  He was so excited.  He told everyone he saw.  All that changed when it was time to actually dress up.  I painted his nails.  That was a big mistake.  So we took it off.  The only way I was able to even get him to wear his costume was by saying that he couldn't go to the party without it on.  So we got it on.  Then I did his hair.  He was not happy about that either.  Then I put eyeliner on him.  That was a HUGE mistake!  He was so mad at me.  He cried and wiped his eyes enough that it was gone.

 Attitude was not originally part of the costume.

 G and his chick buddies.

 We made monster crackers.

I've decided G loves attention, but only on his own terms.  Once he thought he was choosing to wear the costume, not me, he was happy.  What a punk...

The Club House

Making fun with big moving boxes.

I don't think this thing will last very long because it has to stay outside, and there is a lot of moisture out there.  But we don't want to forget it!  The girls spent hours planning and brainstorming.  The PG girls were involved too, which makes it even more awesome.  They had passwords, club membership cards, cardboard locks, secret names, and secret locks.

*****

I can't believe I only posted 4 times in October!  Where is all the time going?

Taman Safari

We finally did one of the "must-dos" of Jakarta.  Taman Safari.

Columbus Day was a perfect Day.  The kids were off for fall break, and Nate gets all U.S. holidays off, so we went.  It's my new favorite holiday.

It was a 2 hour drive, which was very pleasant.  It reminded me of the drive to our home from the airport when we first arrived in Jakarta.  Seems like forever ago.

As we were approaching the safari, we saw these stands all along the side of the road...

There were so many carrots!  We bought some from these boys.  We bought 8 little bunches, which was about 50 carrots.  We should have bought more.

Looks a little like Virginia, right?  Actually it reminded us more of Jurassic Park.

This was the first sight of the animals.

These animals know we had carrots.  It wasn't hard to get them to come closer.

There was no warm-up to this.  You didn't see a few animals here and there, and then begin to feed them.  We were ambushed (in a good way) by zebras almost immediately after entering the park.

This guy kept bumping the car with his horns.  Those things are dangerous!

Everyone scrambling to get a good view.

Lots of llamas.  We gave them a lot of our carrots because we were afraid they would spit on us if we didn't.

Hippos!  We fed hippos.  Crazy.

The animals were in such great shape.  They were beautiful.

We kept trying to throw carrots to this giraffe.  I don't know what his problem was, but he could not track it.  Or maybe he wanted bananas.  Either way, we chucked some carrots at that guy that went uneaten.

That was cool.  Then we went through 2 big metal gates and the signs said to put your windows up.  We do it, but I don't really believe it's necessary.  The cats can't be that close, can they?

Yes!  Oh my gosh!  I couldn't believe how close we were.

See that road next to the lions?  That's the road we were driving on.  So awesome.

Stunning.

Have you ever wanted to see what a wildebeest looks like up close?

Love this one.

This ostrich was gorgeous.  I never thought I would say that.

So after the drive around part, you get out of your car and go to the zoo part.  There were elephant rides, and camel rides.  They were 30 minute rides, so we passed.  We saw kangaroos, wallabies, crocs (fat ones!), snakes, bears, rhinos, komodo dragons, otters, chimps, bats, and more.  There was also this cool bird exhibit with all kinds of tropical birds.  And we went to a birds-of-prey show.  Dare got to hold an eagle!  Well, I think it was an eagle.  I couldn't understand what the dude was saying. 

Then came the baby animals...

Chillin' with the baby elephant.  He was 5 years old actually.

Baby tiger.  We paid extra money to go into these little pens to take pictures with the cat cubs.

So worth it.

This guy looks a little bigger than a baby.  Look at the size of those paws!

Dare and I got to hold a lion cub.  Seriously, dream come true.  There are pictures, but I was trying to cut down for this post.

Can you even believe this?!!

She was so sweet.  She was 2 years old.

We each got a turn with her.

Seriously one of the coolest things I have ever done.

Bamboo Basket

Sometimes it's cool hanging with just the boys.

The girls all had a party one Saturday night, so Nate and I took the boys out for some dumplings.  It was so fun to watch them enjoy food so much!  They loved making their own sauce.  That's Mads gnawing on a chicken foot.  We ordered them just for fun, but they were a hit.

Their favorite kind was the soup dumplings.  Nate showed them how you put a hole in the dumpling and let the soup run out into your spoon.  They are rather good.  I could just drink the broth and be happy.  Mads said this is his new favorite restaurant, and he wants us to take him there for his birthday. They were very, very happy.  I can just imagine how awesome it will be when we can get them with pork!

The kids are going to love the food in China.  We all will!

Oh, speaking of China, I have an interesting bit of news.  Our next post got changed up a bit.  You remember how I said nothing is ever set in stone?  Well, I was right.  But this new plan is awesome too.  More awesome?  I don't know.  Again, I don't want to get my hopes up.  Taipei isn't next after Jakarta.  We are going to Beijing first.  We just have to learn to live in cold weather again.  And learn Chinese.  So that is the plan.  For now...

Look Down

 My bud.

We went to the Mexican restaurant by our house one day for lunch.  It looks like Mexican food.  It has all the ingredients of Mexican food.  But it's not quite there.  I think I will eat nothing but Mexican food when I get back to Arizona.

He left that car there that day.

 I went to an exhibition about Batak weavers.  It was not as interesting as I was hoping.  But there was this band there.  When they were not playing, I picked up the drumsticks and started banging on the drums.  A bule can get away with just about anything here.  They thought I was hilarious, and had me sit down, and the other dudes started playing with me.  They kept trying to tell me to do something.  I couldn't understand them, so I just kept banging away.  I sucked, of course, but why not give them something to laugh about?  I'm not even going to mention the dancing that happened later...

 We got another package from Uncle Ry and Aunt Kristy!  And I agree with Ry.  The chocolate-vanilla ones are the best.

 Mads got to go to a birthday party at Lollipop's.  This one was in a different mall, and they had this game there.  Those ropes are elastic, and the dude would pull him down by that rope hanging between his legs (I know), and then shoot him up in the air like a sling shot.  He couldn't stop laughing.

 I almost feel completely put together at home.  The bare walls are depressing, but I was still able to have a mini party.  We had a gang over, and it was the kids' primary teacher's birthday.  We put 50 candles on that cake!  And the best part was, he blew them all out in one blow.  It was truly amazing.

 Nighttime is perfect for critter-catching around here.  The kids love searching for geckos and toads.  They are getting braver.  They are starting to catch them.  I don't know if any of them caught any with their bare hands, but it's a great improvement from not wanting to go near them.

 Love that Dare reads to the boys.

We are loving having our books back.

 And our piano.

Indonesian fabric store.  See those white chicks in the back?  Those are my friends!  I wish I would have gotten a better shot of the sign on the top of the store.  "We are on sale!!!"  Funny.

Accent Puppet

Life has felt pretty normal over here on the other side of the world.  

One way Nate entertains the kids at dinner is to do accents and impressions.  They repeatedly ask for his Scottish and Irish accents.

The night I took this picture was a special.  We had an awesome time listening to Nate.  Everyone loved his Dobby impression.  He didn't stop there.  He did a French Dobby, and a German Dobby.  Good times.

He is resistant at first, but once you get him going, he likes to perform.


And no, we are not fancy at dinner.  It is something I'm working on as I move into older kid territory.

Soccer and Hoops

Here's a bit of what's been going on lately...

More to come!

Also, I just wrote my first post on another blog I started for my experiences overseas.  It still needs work, and I haven't even decided if I will continue, but maybe check it out.
CLICK for Parallel Radar

Level Orange

 The last morning some of us did some fishing.  Owen and Neil each caught a squid.  The girls really felt bad for the squids at first.  They were planning a rebellion where they would throw the poor things back into the water.  It wasn't long before they were dead, and they enjoyed picking them up and scaring each other with them.

 See that island behind BA?  That's the last island we stopped at.  I guess it was a good area for fishing.

 We saw these fishing huts (?) so we knew there were fish around.  And then we snorkeled again and saw all the fish.  It was amazing!  More fish than even the day before.

 Took the opportunity to get some shots of the kids.

 They are looking in the ice chest.  There was only drinking water in the cabin, and it wasn't cold.  Since no one wanted to drink room temperature water, and everyone avoided going into the cabin, we drank a lot of soda.  Note to self:  Bring bottled water next time.  Lots of it.

This is where we dock and go home.

I almost forgot to mention we were supposed to sail to Anak Krakatau.  That is the island that formed in the place where Krakatoa blew itself up 100+ years ago.  It was supposed to be one of the major features of the trip.  But it was too windy the day we started going that direction.  So we played it safe.  We were all very disappointed.  But we had a great trip anyway.  It just means that we'll have to go again sometime in the next 20 months.

I'm sad it's over!