A long time ago at a Monkey Business far far away

(I had been looking for these pictures FOREVER and finally found them... hence the 2 month old post) We had our goodbye party! Not to toot our own horn but this was SUCH a fun good bye party. We totally got the hook up thanks to our friend Cady! We arranged a switch where I did a photo shoot at one of their ballet recitals and in return we got to have our party at MOBU for free! This was perfect because the majority of our friends have at least one child and we wanted to be able to have one last hurrah with everyone but there was no way we could fit in our tiny Oakwood apartment. First the kids got to have their face painted. Liam wanted to be a dragon

Sam wanted to be a pirate. He was actually very nervous to get it done and I had to really talk him into it.

He loved it once I showed him how it looked in the mirror

Riley liked the Drago idea and decided to go with that

Little Miss Kate was a gorgeous butterfly

Then Cady broke out the instruments

The kids had a blast with the sticks, egg shakers, scarves and bells.

We had to get a picture with our favorite babysitter Rebecca. I only hope that we overlap in the states again with her family, they are AMAZING.

Ryan brought the most crazy delicious cupcakes to add to our smorgasbord of snacks (She told me the frosting is just melted chocolate and whipping cream-- YUM!) I asked Sam what he wanted at his goodbye party and he said white doughnuts so we had some of those too.

Once the party started winding down we got to spend some quality time with our good buddies Atticus and Gwyneth.

Brandon was brave enough to come with both of them on his own (Elizabeth was in charge of the Enrichment that night- bummers) When Sam saw these pictures today he said "How 'bout we go to Atticus's house. Thats a GREAT idea."

Liam wandered upstairs and came back with these sunglasses on and carrying a pink and purple cash register.

After everything was all cleaned up I said my weepy goodbye to Cady and Khanyi and we headed back to our very empty apartment. We spent our last day running CRAZY errands and feeling very flustered. We had our "final" meal at one of my favorites Potbellies, with some of our favorite people

I looked ridiculous in the parking lot sobbing but hey what can you do when your saying goodbye to such fabulous friends? The next morning we were up at the crack of dawn at Reagan National and looked like this as we headed toward security:

I heard gasps as we rolled up in all our glory... and the rest is history! Thanks for the fabulous send off friends it was a BLAST!

And Back to the beach pictures....

So I heard it snowed in UT for Easter... yeah we did not have that problem here. Christopher's work gets all American AND Timorese holidays off-- it is AWESOME. On Good Friday while the majority of people (keep in mind Timor is 95% Catholic) was at Mass, the Crawford's and the Heimstra's headed to the beach. We had heard of a really good one south of Dili Rock and thought we would check it out. The only instructions we could get from ANYONE was "You just go on that road for 45 minutes and then your there." Seriously that is what several different people said. So we loaded up the cars and started driving. It was a gorgeous drive. I didn't want to make us stop on the way to the beach and hold up Jan and Meredith but I couldn't wait for the drive back when I could stop every ten feet and take a picture haa! After about an hour of driving we still hadn't seen anything that resembled an awesome beach.. I mean all the beaches are pretty nice but nothing had jumped out to make us stop. I mean I wanted to stop at this place:

but since we were plum out of repelling gear for the kids... Imagine the snorkeling around that rock:

I suggested putting the kids in the huge tupperware storage thing we haul everything to the beach in and just sending them flying down the hill. I loved Chris's response "Yeah but then how would we get back up?" Haaaa! As if that was the real problem not our children flying down the side of a mountain towards this tree:

(Don't let the zoom lens fool you, we were up HIGH and it was STEEP). We got back in the car and decided to head on. The thing about Timor is they REALLY need A president like Roosevelt because this country needs ROADS-- I mean BAD. They are awful. They go up and down and over and around and are all chunked up. We kept saying "well lets see whats around the next bend". Finally I was afraid we were going to reach the border so we decide to unload and hike down not quite as steep a hill to what we dubbed Cactus Beach. Abby and I LOVED it:

I bet everybody 20 bucks that Liam would get himself covered in prickers from these guys before the day ended:

(I owe everyone 20 bucks, he was great and stayed away-- thankfully). Since we had been sun burned so bad at Dollar Beach Chris wisely ordered a sun shade tent and it came just in time.

The water near us at Caz Bar and Dollar Beach is very warm, almost uncomfortably so. It was nice and cool here. The boys and Amanda went straight in and then spotted a butterfly (they are EVERY where down here) and decided to chase it

What is so funny about kids chasing things is that they never know what to do when they actually catch it. The other night there was a HUGE toad in our driveway and Liam and Sam were laughing hysterically while trying to get it. The laughing turned to crying and freaking out though when Liam actually stepped on it and caught it. Anyway, Chris taught the boys how to boogie board on their little inflatable rafts

Sam got pretty good and could ride the little waves all the way in. Which was surprising because he is WAY more cautious in the water then Liam.

Then again Liam spent the majority of his time sitting on Jan's back or eating sandwich's and dropping them in the water. It was hilarious because he would drop the sandwich and then try to grab all the soggy pieces to shove in his mouth. He couldn't care less that they were soggy he just didn't want them to get away.

We played around and ate and swam and it felt like only 20 minutes but 2 ours flew past when Jan commented that the tide was rising. It is such a good thing he noticed because by the time we had packed up and hiked back up the hill we were almost under water! On the drive back the kiddos zonked and Meredith and I were able to pick up some baskets from this little town that is apparently well known for their weaving.

The Heimstras then headed off while I made Chris stop at all of the cool places I wanted to grab pictures. Like this old, one would think but could not be certain, abandoned school:

which was right on a cliff over looking the ocean and next to this little old church

The nun was out front sweeping up after morning mass. They just gather together palm fronds and use them as brooms. I have no idea how they do it but it works pretty effectively. We went through a town that I guess was the head quarters or something for the Portuguese when they were ruling. They had this HUGE gorgeous mansions that I would have LOVED to have seen during their hay day:

The park at the center round about had this cool arch way with a boat on the other side... to bad I don't know what the inscription on the plaque says

This one in particular I REALLY wanted to hack through the bushes to get closer to but I was in a sundress with flimsy flip flops and afraid of what was IN the bushes so I just stood on our car instead.

Building here in Timor is hard due to the lack of trees that yield Lumber appropriate for building. Every now and then you will see these amazing loan trees

I guess we are coming to the end of the rainy season and soon everything will be dead and brown so we are enjoying the green while we can

It is my goal to take a picture of the kids at the Landmark that defines each place we visit (ie. the colosseum in Rome or the Pyramids in Egypt, both of which we are visiting this fall woo hoo!) In Timor I would have to say they are these hut type structures. I know they have a specific name I just don't know what. We got the kids out of the car, dragged them away from the hundreds of goats that were wandering, got them set up, took one picture and my battery died- DANG IT. The picture is okay and its not like we are going anywhere soon right?

I of course like the black and white better and Chris actually agreed with me on this one, so maybe it will be a black and white themed endeavor...

Oh I almost forgot, so the house around the street from us that is covered in Wallpaper is NOT in the minority. A TON of houses here are like that. There was a gorgeous little girl sitting in front of this one but when I hoped out to take a picture she RAN back to her own house. I was so bummed but didn't want to chase her down and drag her back haa! So it is just the house

Most of them are actually a little nicer then this one but I loved the orange windows. Chris is talking to the Embassy translator to see if he will come with us to talk to the family that lives near us and see if we can trade taking a picture of their family in front of their house for a printed copy of the picture (It is rare to have actual photos here). I am REALLY hoping that transpires, but we'll have to see!

Bubble Tunic

I have had material all cut out and ready to go to make yet another tunic for Abbers. I had totally planned on doing a tutorial because they are so easy to make. But um, those are A LOT of work and I am SURE there would be a much better one out there, (garunteed somewhere in the Ruffles and Stuff there's one). Boy am I glad I didn't. I decided I wanted to do something different and do a bubble tunic. I am sure they are out there, I am not that original, but I don't remember seeing one specifically. So I sat dow to make it thinking it would be cake. The first 90% went super fast. Once I have everything cut out and ironed it usually takes me about 15 minutes to sew... not this time. I sat with my sewing machine at the dinner table for a good 45 minutes trying to figure out what in the world I was doing wrong. Every time I went to turn the tunic right side out after sewing, it wouldn't turn and was all twisted up. Chris must have asked me 3 or 4 times if I was okay, because I literally was staring into the abyss for minutes on end trying to work it through in my head. When I did figure it out I of course felt ridiculous and it whipped together in a minute or so. Oh my gosh do I LOVE it. Abby had already gone to bed (bathed and jammied by her Daddy so mommy could sit and slip slowly into madness trying to figure it out) but I was so tempted to wake her up to try it on. I resisted until the morning. We were woken by an early morning call from the states so I was already up at 6am when Chris came back inside from heading to work out to tell me I really wanted to see the bay right now. I trudged out in my hideous jammies (winter flannel pants that I had received my freshman year at BYU to go to a jammie dance, that had torn at the knee so I just cut them off into shorts, paired with a HUGE ugly shirt from AE, and my sweet fake sweater Uggs, I think I saw our guard throwing up after seeing me) It was worth it though because I got to enjoy this:

I then twiddled my thumbs, and waited the 20 excruciating minutes until Abby woke up. The poor girl woke up and I immediately got her all dressed and dragged her out in the bright morning light (not the best for pictures or poor baby) I did a horrible job with these pictures, I mean Abby is adorable but I am pretty bad at positioning so that the clothing is the centerpiece. I am NOT good at taking pictures of "products" or table top photography. These pictures don't do it justice at all.

There are little pearl buttons on the straps and it is so cute and fluffy. I guess I could actually put forth some effort and take some pics of the tunic on its own but, I am pretty burned out for the moment on this thing and just want to enjoy seeing Abby in it. So there you have a whole huge long post about one little tunic, for one cute little girl.

1,000 easter eggs equals a lot of fun!

Our wonderful CLO Jodi, planned an amazing Easter Egg hunt for the Embassy families and "friends" of the Embassy. If you were American, or invited by an American, you were able to participate in a 1,000 egg, Easter egg hunt at the Ambassadors residence. This was the first time I had been in the residence and it was amazing. Because of security we don't want to post to many pictures but the boys loved the "tunnels" that the Ambassador had in his "castle":

The children were gathered together to listen to Ms. Meriella read some Easter books and to discuss hunt etiquette. We had read a few books the previous evening and talked with the boys about sharing eggs and making sure everyone has fun. Not that it would be a problem with under 20 children and 1K eggs, but it is a good lesson to learn.

Abby was pretty overwhelmed but listen intently to the rules, just in case she decided today was the day to crawl.

Sam wanted to wear the bunny ears he had made at school this week. I thought they were soooo cute!

The younger children were directed to a special area where the eggs were more out in the open. Of course Liam found three or so eggs and was content to sit down and figure out how to open them.

I loved all the Timorese basket the children used as Easter Baskets. I had just bought Sam and Liam ones from a village down the coast from Dili. (Pictures forth coming of course!) Or you used whatever you happen to have at your house that would hold eggs, Noah used a small laundy basket:

Carmen used the cool baskets they made at preschool that week:

That is one of the things I LOVE about living here. Everyone uses whatever is available and nothing is wasted. This was far and away my most relaxing and easy going Easter ever because of this wonderful island living attitude.
Abby found a few eggs that she enjoyed shaking.

Then we were shown to the Ambassadors garden with the older children for afternoon tea and to find more hidden eggs. The cuties had fun opening all the eggs and finding out what was inside. Jody had purchased them from a company that employees solely those with disabilities, which I thought was wonderful to seek out and support. Mace, Noah and Roman are my friend Krista's three boys. They are all SUPER close in age just like Sam and Liam so we have a lot of fun together. Roman plopped right down next to us to open all his eggs... a dangerous thing to do to a photographer

He was pretty excited about the TINY spaceship he found in one of his eggs.

Noah was hilarious and would act shocked each time he opened an egg.

He is SUCH a funny guy. When we are at school the other day talking to the kids about bringing in food and clothes for the local orphanage. His response (in his cute Kiwi accent): "You mean their nudy rudi and starvin marvin ALL the time?"
I think all the commotion was a little much for Mace. He laid down on the floor and cried for a while.

But perked up when the ambassadors wife brought around huge chocolate eggs. (His eyes are soooo crazy blue they look almost purple.) I like that photo in black and white but just to show you his crazy gorgeous eyes:

Carmen (the adorable little girl with the great accent) arranged hers all according to color and then opened them. My kind of girl, gotta love organization.

This little guy is a twin...

not identical though his twin brother has blonde hair and blue eyes! His mom is from Sweden and his dad Rwanda. Isn't that so cool! Katie is also in Sam's class. The same day we talked about bringing food and clothes they were also told the next day would be picture day. She came and whispered to me "I am going to wear my princess flippy floppy special shoes-- but don't tell anyone!" I think the cuteness of these little guys is augmented by their accents haa! Anyway, Katie's mom forgot her camera so she asked me if I would mine taking a few of her girls-- um yes please!

Katie is always dressed so gorgeously in light linens and sun dresses I love it. On this particular day her mom tied gorgeous gold ribbon through out her curls and then a little matching bracelet.

Ana, her little sister, comes to our music and movement group and is very shy

I loved her tiny little basket.

She opened up when we asked her to show us all the eggs she found. I love those piggy tails. I can't wait until I can do Abby's hair!

Reirnan, was all smiles and laughing to loudly I had to take a picture. His Dad is from Ireland and we had a lovely time chatting about the many gorgeous places to visit there. His mom is from Ethiopia and is such an amazing lady.

On this lovely Saturday most of the locals were playing in the water or fishing. The kids love jumping off the various pilings and walls all along beach road.

I am soooo grateful that Jody put on this Easter egg hunt, and that they had one at Sam's school because none of the Easter items I ordered online had made it in time. When we got home and while the kids were napping the "Easter Bunny" came and took back the empty eggs... then brought them back again last night!