Fourth of July

Yes,  I know it's about three and a half months after the Fourth of July, but I was looking through some old pictures and found these.  This year, the Fourth was right around the end of the month long Muslim fast of Ramadan (the date changes by 11 days each year, so it's not always around the Fourth).  People have big celebrations, so fireworks were for sale.  Hooray!  We took our neighbors out for dinner to eat pizza (to celebrate the breaking of the fast for the day) and bought some fireworks on the way home.  We invited other neighbors out to watch, too.  It ended up that the neighbors across the street had family in town and they all came out to watch, too (and the next day they came over to play).  It was quite a fun little July Fourth celebration.  

Sorry that most of them are dark and blurry.

 

 This one isn't from the Fourth, but they're dressed like it.

Some Cuties

We had a good view of the mountain in a nearby city the other day. It was a good opportunity to takes pictures of our kiddos.

Paisley's got some moves!

 I think they were worn out on the way home!

Dodge Ball

Our kids have started playing more with the neighborhood kids.  It's really cute to see.  Our kids are starting to use some Indonesian phrases more and we're proud of them!  Tru loves to play sepak bola (soccer) and our neighbors like it, too.  Sometimes they play Monkey in the Middle, which is called kucing-kucingan (cat-cat) here.  Yesterday, Michael and I were out playing with all the kids, too, and decided to teach them the nice friendly American game of dodge ball.  It was a hit!  There were 3 neighborhood boys playing with us and they had a blast.  Unfortunately, Michael and I were so busy playing that we didn't get any pictures of it.  Also, the "putuh guy" came by and I got us all a snack.  Putuh is made with shredded coconut and brown sugar inside.  It is then put in little bamboo shoots and steamed.  Yummy!  Here are a few pictures from the afternoon.

Beach fun

We had a great beach trip a few weeks ago.  One of our friends went with us (just in case you're wondering who the random girl in the pictures are).

These first ones are from Michael's favorite restaurant at the beach, Bubba Gump!  Besides the fact that they have good fried shrimp, it's his favorite because they have free refills on drinks.  That's a specialty here!  

One of the cutest things that this boy did at the beach was say that he could "stop the waves" and then do this motion of controlling the waves.  He did this for a good 15-20 minutes.  We just sat and enjoyed watching him, probably along with all the other people on the beach.

 

 Our kids are always having their pictures taken by random people.  These guys are trying to convince Tru take a picture with them.

Laughing and playing in the waves is always a highlight of our beach trips.  It does this momma's heart good to see such joy in his eyes and laugh.

 And this little one loves spending her time playing in the sand.

Truett is mad in these pictures because the waves were WAY to big and we wouldn't let him go in the ocean.  The waves were going almost all the way up to the wall that is the entrance to the beach.

 

 The last day, Paisley got braids in her hair and her toe nails painted.  She loved it!

 And Tru got two henna tattoos.

 These kids LOVE their daddy!

 And their mommy.

These pictures are from Michael's phone.

 Paisley loves posing!  Sometimes it's a little embarrassing . . . 

 We found some kids to play with on the beach.  Their dad was a worker on the beach, selling drinks.  I guess they just hang out with him at the beach all day.  So, Michael invited them on over to help build a sand castle.

 Isn't he handsome!!

Sometimes there are random people we meet who just want to speak English with us.  This was one of those times.  We met our friend at the airport on the way to the beach.  She was super friendly and went in to much of her life story.  She even bought the kids some candy while we were waiting for the plane.  She was supposed to be on holiday for a couple of weeks, but ended up cutting her trip short and was on the plane with us on the way home, too.