Making Memories in the Rain

Rainfall in Thailand throughout the day

 Every time Josh goes TDY, we plan one night as pizza picnic and movies.  It's our little thing we do, just Mommy and the kids.  It makes me happy to see their smiling faces whenever I mention this night.  Tonight was the night. After we had taken a cold swim in the community pool (clouds were hiding the sun all day making the water colder than normal), the kids changed clothes while I called ahead for a large cheese pizza and one small Hawaiian (they put fresh pineapples on it. Yummy!). Because of our lack of vehicle transportation at the moment, we were on our own to deliver dinner home via petal bikes.  The kids were thrilled!  I put Kyle in the front bike seat on my bike and Emma gladly sat in the pulling trailer attached.  She agreed that it was her job to hold the pizza and the trip back.  Cameron petaled along side us and we were off.
I should have looked to the skies before planning our bike ride.  Dark clouds were moving in and before we could leave the village gate it started raining on us.  The kids were troopers and actually loved the new experience of riding in the rain. :-)  We stopped half way to the pizza place under a store hangover.  Cameron said we should just keep going. I decided to cover the trailer and the little ones with the rain top; Kyle would have nothing to do with being covered and Emma didn't want to share her dry space.  Okay. So we headed out again and the rain came down more heavily.  Mopeds were zipping by. Thais were smiling and some were laughing.  I'm not sure if they thought we were crazy or if they thought we were awesome to tread in the rain like a local, going through the day.  As we approached the pizza store (a 2 room pizzeria with outdoor seating) I could see the English girl looking at us.  Yes, we must look like drowned rats.  Cameron didn't understand the meaning. lol  I explained our craziness and she responded by stamping an extra stamp on our coupon card.  Sweet girl.
As you can see, we made it back home with dry pizza, soaking shirts, and a few cans of Rt Beer (treats for the kids coming with me in the rain).  The kids danced in the rain while I took some photos of this moment and then we got into dry pajamas to have our family picnic.  Memories ...make some with your kids.  They will treasure them throughout their years.

Kyle's newest face reaction he makes.  So cute!

Cookies for Father's Day

Aren't they adorable?

Kyle

I noticed that I had 3 small bags of M&Ms laying in the kitchen, leftover from Cameron's teacher gift.  They were begging to be eaten.  I couldn't do it, so I suggested the kids decided to make M&M cookies for Daddy for Father's Day while I prepared my first fish dinner for him.

So my 3 little helpers tied on their aprons, boys matching :-) Emma had to wear her baking hat or the cookies wouldn't turn out right (birthday gift from Andrea Wynne and her adorable boys).

Cameron

Emma

With the mixer turning and the measuring spoons in hand, we got started.  Soon the flour was flying from getting to close to the moving beater and spoons were being licked before I could stop it.  They were having a blast.

 Kyle wasn't much into the mixing of the batter until he saw his sister scoping out balls on the cookie sheet.  He climbed up on the that chair before I could help.  With clean hand (I think) we helped place them in rows and even scoped big handfuls of batter.

 They were so happy when their Daddy came home from work and wanted to eat share their cookies.  That was the first time I saw them rush through dinner so they could enjoy their creations. What should we make this week? Banana Muffins? We do every week.  Maybe some applesauce? We will see.

Group photo taken by our maid.  I have no idea why Cameron looks that way.  He is so dramatic and loves to show it.

Canning Mango Lemonade Concentrate

 When I first decided to take up a new hobby after moving, I thought it would be easy and I could find everything I needed in this agriculture country.  I have come to find out that this is not true.  I purchased all of the canning materials via amazon and waited patiently for it to arrive while browsing recipes to start with.  Josh was interested in some strawberry jam.  I was all for it and went to the market with kids in hand happy to start.  I was disappointed to find no strawberries.  I knew that they were in season in the US so I figured that they were here.  I was wrong! On to Plan B, a tropical jam. But first type something with one fruit. 

Emma has become my helper in the kitchen.  She helped me with the banana muffins earlier (in the back of the picture)

She is learning how to cut a mango ...with no knife

Thailand has an abundance of mangos.  I figured I could whip up something great with this fruit ....Mango Lemonade Concentrate!  Here's how I started.  The link to the recipe is located at the end of the blog. I enlisted my 3-yr old helper to assist.  She was very happy to be involved and loved all the pictures I was taking.

My water bath for the jars on the left. The jam boiling on the right.

First, you need mangos (fresh!). About 6 large mangos. You dice them as small as possible (don't worry, you will puree them after cooking to smooth it out). You add to a large pot and add sugar.  Boil and then add lemon juice. After it boils for about 15min, pour the hot liquid into your blender and puree until smooth.

While the lemonade is boiling, sterilize your jars and lids by placing them in hot water.  Pull them out right before filling with the liquid.  Because the filling is hot, you need to keep your jars hot so they don't crack.  To do this, place a dish towel on the counter and place the jars onto. Clean the jar lips after filling and add the seal top.  Tighten by hand only, not too tight.

The perfect amount. Leave a little room at top.

 When the water bath is about to boil, add the jars gently.  Cover and boil for about 15min (check your altitude and recipe for times. Different size jars have different times). This is to kill any bacteria and seal the tops. Pull out and set on the dish cloth to cool.  After it has cooled, tighten lids with the canning tool.  Enjoy!  We are on our 2nd jar. You can pull this out when company comes for game night or dinner.  Just add Sprite and cold water and ice.

http://www.sbcanning.com/2012/04/strawberries-and-summer-strawberry.html

Elephants Everywhere

The bridge we had to cross to get to the elephants.

When we were first told of our wild move half way around the world to Thailand, we pictured elephants everywhere surrounded by jungle and foreign food. Two out of three ideas are true.  We are happy to report that there are elephants but they roam around in isolated areas. A planned visit from a friend gave us the idea to finally visit the elephants. Emma was so excited about this and wouldn't stop talking about our visitors and the elephants for weeks.

The tour that I found picked us up from our house early, 6:15am. We drove 1hr north through Mae Rim and the mountains.  It was so beautiful! Right before we turned the corner to the elephant camp it started to rain. Josh was bummed and we thought the day would be ruined.  We were wrong.  By the time we crossed the bridge over the muddy water, it stopped. Because of the rainfall, the air had cooled down and there was little humidity.  It was very nice. 

Mama elephant and baby. Baby is exactly the same age as Kyle!

Emma is having a blast!

 Our tour guide had arranged 5 elephants for us to ride for 1-1/2hrs that morning. We split up the 5 kids. Huang Jia was the only one with 2 kids: Emma and Ethan on the way to the jungle tribe village and then Cameron and Rowena on the ride back.  Kyle was teething which caused a fever so he was with me on one elephant.  I wish I had the photo of Josh on the elephant with Cameron and then Ethan because he looked like he was backpacking through the jungle for a month!  He had the camera bag and his backpack.

Jungle everywhere. You can seriously get lost.

Kyle's first tribal hat.

Pulling up to the stop point to visit the village

Rowena and Emma had a shadow when exploring the tribe village

Emma playing with the little tribal girl

Bing and Yin were the first to tread into the river with their elephant.

Our elephant caravan minus Josh, who was taking the photo.

 After the ride, we were taken down to the feeding area to feed the elephants that were our guides through the green jungle. 2 bunches of bananas for 30baht ($1usd) and we ended up buying 10 sets.  Everyone had a blast. Ling was funny.  Her elephant kept sneezing on her when she fed him. lol

Emma liked to see how far the trunk would go to get the bananas

 After the long ride and their lunch, the elephants got a bath in the river.  It was neat to see how the trainers yell their commands, more like whistle. One word and all the wonderful mammals sat in the river, each in their own unique way.  My favorite was one of the baby elephants.  You can see him in the middle sitting like a human. The older ones laid on their sides while the water washed over them. The trainers scrubbed their ears, backs, face, etc. The most exciting part was when the elephants took water in their trunks and whipped it onto their backs to help with the wash.

Did you know that elephants can paint?

 After the bath show, we were led to the show area.  Here we were shown how the elephants can move logs with their trunks, heads, and tusks.  Many of those pictures were too blurry to post. Did you know that elephants in Thailand use to be in the royal army and helped in battle? We have seen many murals depicting the elephants in the old days.  Fascinating animals! 

At the end of the day (afternoon) we were escorted back home in 2 vans. As you can see, everyone was whipped out from the day.  Everyone in van 2 was passed out when we took that picture.  Bing is holding a very heavy Ethan on his lap. :-) Our van, well we will just say that we had all the other kids. It went quiet half way home, which was nice.

We are hoping to check out the other elephant camps during the time we are stationed here.  They say that one of the camps has elephants that wrap their trunks around you. Awesome! That would be a great birthday gift for Emma.  We will see. :-)

Catch Up in Thailand

Where to start? I've been so busy with our household good delivery at the beginning of the month, adjusting to Thai culture and food, and a week full of wonderful friends at the end of May. I think I will just start with our week with old and new friends that visited us.  I will add other posts later. :-)

 The week started with a trip to the Sunday Market where I found out that my new international friends LOVE to eat and try new things. Huang Jia is pictured above with her first food purchase.  Below is Bing ... he is a character. "Oookay!" was his week-long saying. :-)

 We were lucky to get an empty songtaew for 6 adults and 5 kids! It was an experience for them and they learned to be locals very quickly. They look a songtaew to the zoo and home all by themselves on the 3rd day here.

 After playing 200baht ($8usd) at the play area and jumping around, I treated the five kids to ice cream cones with sprinkles.  They were in heaven.

Monday was a long day with massages in the morning for our company, playing time for the kids while waiting, and then we took a 6.5mile drive up the mountain to Doi Suthep Temple. From the base we climbed 306 stairs to the temple.

              Step 1 ....                                                                                            20 more to go ....

The kids were excited to see all the statues, Buddha, craving on doors, and the prayer bells.

When we were walking out of the restrooms Huang Jia got a unusual "gift". At first she thought one of the kids threw a water bottle at her head. To her surprise it was a flower bulb that fell out of the tree onto her crown.  Ouch! In Asian culture, this is considered good luck.  Well, we found out that night while playing games with her that this is true.  She kicked our butts! :-) The next day before walking into the mall Huang Jia got hit with bird poop. lol I refused to play games that night with her.

On Wednesday, we drove to an elephant camp (will post about in a post of its own soon) and came back famished.  We took a small walk up the street to our favorite restaurant and dined on wonderful Thai cuisine while being surrounded my trees and sounds of water flowing. They loved it!

I had to share this photo of the "Cup of Noodles" from China.  They eat them for breakfast! It could feed a family of four.  That day I took them to the Lanna "Food Court" in the mall for lunch and they decided to ditch their "Cup of Noodles" and just go there for all their meals. :-)