Snape Junior?

One of Cody's birthday presents from his friend Kate was a trip to the salon to get his hair colored. He has been talking about doing it for a while and all things considered I would prefer that he do weird things to his hair rather than tattoos or piercings. So now his hair is black instead of brown and I have noticed a startling resemblance to one of the characters in the Harry Potter movies. What do you think?

15! Well Almost

Today was Dakota's 15th birthday party. His birthday is really Monday but he has to go to school then so we partied today. The celebrations were held at the American club due to the fact I won't allow large groups of teenagers in my house. I would rather have cattle in the house than teenagers. Yes Mom, I know you had to replace the carpet after my Holstein dairy cow wandered through the house, but trust me she only ruined the carpet, teenagers could ruin so much more.

We held the party poolside and after a slow start the kids seemed to have a lot of fun. They had pizza, which they inhaled, popcorn that was used for a food fight and carrot cake. They ate the cake and smeared frosting all over each other. Since it was made clear in advance that our job was to a) pay for the party and b) not actually talk to the teenagers as that would be embarrassing to the birthday boy, David and I watched from the sidelines and only stepped in to make sure that no food was thrown into the pool. The rest of the party was spent playing in the pool and basically acting like teenagers.

Swiper No Swiping

This entry is for all the kids back in Mainland Square who used to call Grayson "Swiper" especially a certain "Grumpy Old Bridge!"

Grayson and I made oatmeal cookies this morning. I gave him ONE cookie to eat as soon as they were cool enough. Then I went to put up some toys he left out and when I came back he was still nibbling on that cooke. Odd, he normally gobbles cookies as fast as he can shove them in his mouth. I didn't worry too much about it, I just figured it was a new phase. The oven timer went off and I went to the kitchen to take out the next batch of cookies and noticed that instead of 11 cookies on the cooling rack there were only 7. Right about that time Grayson's fat little hand snaked over the edge of the counter and he swiped his 6th cookie. The little piglet gobbled down half a dozen oatmeal cookies. That's like eating a bowl of oatmeal! Oatmeal is healthy, Right?? At least that is what I am telling myself because he didn't even look at his luch. He probably has a tummy ache.

The Bat

Every evening when we go outside we get to see nature close up and personal. It is either the lone toad that you almost step on or the many cicaks scurrying along the wall or on the house. But the coolest thing we get to see are all of the bats. It is not like in Texas where we see a few flying by the house at dusk. It is more like the old tunnel toned down. We have a tile roof on our carport and the bats have taken a liken to it, so every night at dusk we get to sit under the carport and have the little bats fly around our heads just inches away eating bugs or heading out in search of fruit. The other night we got to see one land in one of the trees, so I ran to get my camera. I ran fast thinking that it would fly, but fortunately for me he was not the shy type. He “hung around” for a good five minutes for me to take some pictures. I hope y'all enjoy the one I have posted here.

Tattoo

Look Mom, I got a tattoo! OK so it is a henna tattoo and will wear off in a few weeks. It still looks cool.
This last weekend was very busy. Friday night Cody, oh excuse me, Dakota (he has forbidden his friends to call him Cody) had a concert. He plays tuba in the concert band. The Concert Band performed along with the String Ensemble, Wind Ensemble, Concert Choir and the Dance groups. David and I took Colin to watch. He enjoyed seeing and hearing all the different instruments but he really liked the dancers. The best part was when Colin yelled “HI CODY” as the Concert Band took their places on stage.
Saturday we went to Family Fun Fair at the Pondok Indah campus of JIS. It was pretty much like a school sponsored festival back home except more over the top. Lots of inflatable bouncer type of rides. There was a climbing wall, a big slide, an obstacle course and even a Velcro wall. Which Cody thought was fun until he got stuck upside down on the wall then the Velcro let go and he landed on his head. We ate junk food, passed on the pony rides, I got tattooed (you were wondering where the tattoo fit in weren’t you?), checked out the bazaar, and rode the little “train” around the campus before Grayson tired out then we all headed home. That evening Cody watched the younger kiddos while Dave and I went to the music lounge at the American Club to watch our friend Matt Marlow perform with Eric and Ray. It always amazes me how much talent some people have.
Sunday we did our usual morning swim and lunch at the American club then headed home to let the kids have a rest while I went to my book club meeting. This month we read The Collectors by David Baldacci. It was a pretty good book and as always the meeting was enjoyable, although towards the end much of the conversation moved to the upcoming pack out dates of many of our members who will be leaving Jakarta this summer to move on to posts all over the world. I am both excited for all those moving on to new adventures and a sad to see them go. Such is life in the Foreign Service.

Easter Bunny Spotted on Island of Sumatra

The boys saw this in the newspaper this weekend and are convinced that it is the Easter Bunny......How else did they get all that candy???

Zoo

We went to the Rangunan Zoo here in Jakarta during spring break. We were pleasantly surprised at the quality of the animal collection. They had a wide variety of animals from all over Indonesia as well as the typical zoo animals. Lions and tigers and bears! Oh my! The boys each got to get up close and personal with the giraffe by feeding him a peanut. Who knew a giraffe's tounge was that long??! Because the zoo was so big there were many things we didn't get to like elphant rides on a Sumatran elephant, boat rides, the primate exhibit and most important to the boys the PLAYGROUND (unlike San Antonio there are very few parks and even fewer playgrounds in Jakarta). We enjoyed the walk through the expansive grounds with lots of tall trees and green space. It was a nice escape from the hustle and bustle of Jakarta. Definitely will be going again.

April Fools Day!! but this entry is no joke

Art Auction

Today Dave and I went to our first ever art auction. We bid on two pictures and won one. Our winning bid is on a typical street scene of Jakarta with a bajaj and kaki lima carts. It was my choice. I really wanted a piece that shows the Jakarta I know from living here. The one that got away was a large picture of a field worker coming in from the rice fields. It was David’s choice. It was truly a beautiful piece but very quickly was out of our price range. We have decided to hang on to the money we didn’t spend and perhaps go to the next art auction at Sidharta Art http://www.sidharta-auctioneer.com in early May.


Blog Problems

We are having some technical problems with the blog. It was missing entirely for a couple of weeks (at least we couldn’t access it here in Jakarta) now we are missing blog entries, they have disappeared into the great unknown. So we will try to solve this mystery and at the same time there will be some changes to this website. Sometime over the next few months we should at long last get some picture galleries up and try to archive older entries.