Dinner :)

This is what our house-helper made us for dinner. Home made spring rolls and fried rice ( not pictured though). They were HEAVENLY!! Even when I took a bite out of one and saw a tentacle, I still ate two more!! LOL Can you believe it??!?! Check out Lizzie eating them...and "NO" I did not tell her about the tentacle. Hee hee And of course we have Josh...eating Mac and Cheese. SHOCKER!! Although he did have some fried rice. Oh, and she also made my kids home-made cinnamon rolls today. So good and not all that sweet. She is awesome.

Lizzie on Drums

This is for Angie Klovstad!!!! Here is Lizzie at her drum lesson. LOL I thought I had taken some video but I didn't actually hit the record button, BUT I will do that at this Saturday's lesson. Lizzie has got some good rhythm and keeps the beat really well. That is her instructor Tuan ( pronounced Two-nine). He is awesome on the drums and plays in a Jazz band. He gave us directions and over Fall break we are going to go and see him. :)

Steve and I

This is Steve and I having lunch by one of the pools here in Ciputra. It is a Australian restaurant called J.A.F.A. The food here is pretty good and it is only about a 10-15 minute walk from our villa. :)

Moon Festival

Tet Trung Thu ~ Mid-Autumn Festival/ Moon Festival/Children's Festival

"Tet Trung Thu is the Children's Festival, which comes at the time of the harvest moon. It is a grand party for the kids, who are given gifts and candy in abundance. The children are honored and reminded to show love and respect to one another and to be good citizens. The Moon Festival originates from a Vietnamese folk tale about a naughty boy named Cuoi, who always played tricks on people. Consequently, he was taken up to the moon to look after the heavenly cows all by himself. He is sad and lonely there, so every year at the full moon, children play drums, do the dragon dance, and march with lighted lanterns to let him know that they are thinking of him and wish for him to join them on earth. Moon cakes are a central feature of Tet Trung Thu. These cakes are made of rice flour and filled with peanuts, lotus seeds, duck egg yolks, raisins, green beans and more. At night, children march through the streets with their lanterns, playing cymbals and drums. Lanterns can be in the shape of fish, boats, dragons, or other animals. Many areas of Hanoi have a Dragon Dance; young men from the local dinh (dinh means the local community) dance through the streets. If you leave your door open, the dragon will enter and not leave until it has been appeased with an offering of money, which goes to the dinh. With the energy of the dancing young men and the loud beat of the drums, the children are delightfully frightened. Even for a grown -up, it can be a little hairy to offer money right into the mighty mouth of the dragon." Taken for the book, Hanoi Guide
Wanted you to get a feel for what we went through this past weekend. Josh's class put on a little performance of the Dragon Dance. It was cool. I wish I would have had a video camera with me. The music was amazing...I felt like I was in a club back in Austin. LOL And the little boy who dressed up as the dragon was a total HAM, which the kids all loved. Josh was a little em brassed, but this was his first time introduced to this festival. I thought he did just fine. Even Lizzie's class sang a song, but I couldn't get a good picture. :( But it was entertaining none-the-less. Those are the first set of pictures.
The next set of pictures are from our little community here called Ciputra. They put on a little show here as well. We missed the dragon dance ( we were so bummed), but we did get to play in the bounce house and see the different lanterns and people. Lizzie was a little overwhelmed and wouldn't get her picture taken with the man dressed up as the Pig. Haa haa We didn't stay to long, it was VERY loud, again club music playing, but it was still an experience that we enjoyed.

Lizzie's "All About Me"

For the past few weeks Lizzie and her classmates have been sharing their culture with each other. It was kinda hard, since our boxes hadn't arrived yet, but we managed. She wanted to bring in her American Girl Doll, that was something that was unique to American. But we decided to bring in some the American Girl Doll books instead. On Friday all the students brought in food that was from your country. I really wanted to make Apple Pie, but I didn't have my baking pans, so I made Chocolate Chip Cookies. All the Korean ladies thought they were so good. LOL Ya see, the cookies here are hard and crumble easily. The spring rolls were AWESOME!! Some of the students dressed up in the home-country style. It was great to meet some of the moms from all the countries. Everyone here is so nice. The lady is purple is the teacher's aide for the class.

Update

Sorry that I have not been keeping up. The kids school closed two weeks ago because of the Swine Flu, Meanwhile Lizzie picked up streph throat and influenza A. No one else in the house got it, A small miracle but thankful. But before she got sick she was able loud attend one of her after school Activities, Art Murals. Shocker!! Lizzie doing art! lol Anyway, The teacher emailed all the parents what the kids made that first day. Thought you might like loud see it. They had loud make art out of recycled items. She made Transforming binoculars. Hee Hee

Taxi Ride

I have never been put in a more stressful situation than tonight and come out of it the better. I was going to pick up Josh from a playdate and used my cell phone to call a cab to the villa. I then realized my phone was not working so I used Steve's phone. I called the cab and then his phone rang so I gave it back. Meanwhile the cab came and I got in and forgot to grab Steve's phone. But being over-confident I thought I knew where I was going and didn't think I would need my phone. LOL Can ya'll see where this is going??? My friend gave me the right directions but the taxi driver didn't really know where he was going. We pull up to where I KNOW I am supposed to get out, but it really didn't seem like it. So I asked him if the Hotel was near this street. He laughed and then called someone on his phone and then handed it to me when he got them. They barely spoke English and it sounded like they were at a party. She kept telling me to write down the address, but I didn't know it. Usually you just tell the driver a street name and major point of interest, but this time was different. I then pull out my Vietnamese phrase book and wrote down the two streets and pointed to the word "nearby", in the book so I could see if they were close. Well of course not!! We were on one of them but the other street was about 14 miles away. Well I couldn't call Steve or anyone else for that matter, but I just knew I was in the right area. So I had to ask the driver to use his phone ( I was going to call a friend that spoke both English and Vietnamese) and the driver didn't want to give me his phone at first....but I made him .LOL And when I got hold of her, she knew where I wanted to go and she said that I was in the correct area. Now in case I give my parents a heart-attack, the ONLY reason I got out of the cab, is because I was in front of a hotel and tons of taxi's hang out there. So in case I really was lost I could just grab another taxi and head home. So I walked around about maybe 5 minutes and found the right hotel that I was supposed to go to, found the pool and Josh and his friends. PHEW!!!!! I was pretty proud of myself. I was very calm as I thought of what to do. Now when I sat down with the other mom's, I did order me a beer. Ugh, what a waste, it was warm.