LOVE, LOVE, LOVE CAMBODIA! (Day 1 & 2)

Sammy, Bailey, Carson & I spent 5 days in Siem Reap, Cambodia this last week. This trip was up there with Sumba (Indonesia) and New Zealand as one of our faves. Here are some highlights:


Hanging out with our good friends the MacArthurs! They were with us for the first 4 days.



The first photo is our initial view of Cambodia after stepping off the plane.

Our first stop in Cambodia was to a local market to buy food for 10 families who belong to our church in Siem Reap. We bought enough food to feed these families for 6 weeks. Sondra and I split the cost - $37USD each. (I spend that much on one meal for my family from Carl's Jr.) Here we are in the market waiting for the ladies to scoop up the rice.




On Sunday (Mother's Day) we went to church in Siem Reap. There were missionaries there with headphones to translate the meeting for us into English. There was no translation for the kids in primary for 2 hours though. They were awesome though and lasted in primary for the whole 2 hours...they found one girl who was visiting from Phnom Penh who could speak English. She was 4 years old and helped them understand what was going on a bit. The kids told me the only part of primary that they could really understand was "Do As I'm Doing" and "If You're Happy and You Know It."



After church we played with the kids outside with some of the bubbles we'd brought...a great way to mingle together when you can't understand each other! One of the boys we were playing with after church is wearing a Singapore American School uniform with a clip-on tie. He was so darling I wanted to eat him up right then and there! I love how he's hanging out in a tree after church.










Next we went out with Pres. Loy (branch pres.) to make our deliveries to the families. This was the highlight of our trip! We brought balls, bubbles, clothes, books and food to the kids in their villages. Carson is blowing up a ball for some of the kids.



These are some of the kids in the first village that we visited...they're showing us how they get their water...out of that well. They use a bucket to get it out and have a homemade filter to try to clean out some of the impurities.




Here's some of our group in front of a lady's house who has NOTHING but that house made from palm trees. However, she has photos on the wall of her baptism and a "temple box" with money she's saving to try to go to the temple someday.



Happy, beautiful girls who are loving their new outfits!





Livin' the simple life in Cambodia...



Sweet, yummy children are everywhere you turn in Cambodia!



This is Chetana. She is a bright, shining star in Cambodia. Her father was our driver and is the branch pres. in Siem Reap. She went everywhere with us and was our B.F.F., interpreter, tour guide, etc.



This lady has a much more modern way of getting water in her village...she has a water pump! She's helping Bailey wash off her shoes b/c she spilled bubbles on them!



We went to dinner at a restaurant called "The Blue Pumpkin." The kids got to relax while eating on these couches in the restaurant.

Easter

Easter was fun!!!
These 2 photos were AFTER church, unfortunately! It was too hot to smile or be sweet for the photo...

Spotlight On Sammy Daynes

11 years we've had with this girl so far and we are so lucky! I finally got a picture of her with her glasses on. She doesn't need them for reading, just distance. I made her put them on for an action shot anyway! Now she really looks like an author. With her intense love of the world of fiction, can't you just see her as the next J.K. Rowling?

Lady In RED - Here she is getting ready for That Dance Thing. "TDT" is for 6th graders to get together on a Friday or Saturday night and learn ballroom dance. They have a fancy dinner where they learn etiquette first and then they dance...with boys! There's always lots of good stories after TDT so Mike & I are looking forward to chaperoning it a lot next year so we can see all the drama first hand!:) We had a difficult shopping trip trying to find her a fancy dress. I don't think anyone has ever thought about importing 'tween clothing into Singapore! After a couple of hours we found the perfect dress that was only about 2 sizes too big. After some quick alterations though it was perfect! I love the photos of Sammy waiting for her ride to show up with Bailey & Lydia anxiously standing by.

As long as I'm documenting stuff about Sammy I must also mention that she just got put on the bronze honor roll at school...for getting all A's and B's this term. Do you think she's more suited for Stanford or Harvard? We're proud of you Sammy!

Now there's one last item to mention...Sammy's meeting with David Archuletta. Mike arranged this through some of his contacts here in Singapore for Sammy to meet him. He was here promoting his album CRUSH for just one day. He made an appearance at a mall, signed CD's and put on a small 3 song concert. Sammy got to meet him, with Mike, ask him a question, get one very AWFUL photo taken with him and that was pretty much it. You really need to hear the story from her.

Poor Bailey was extremely jealous since she's A LOT more starstruck over Archie than Sammy. Bailey attended the concert with her friend Kierica and their family. I've been told that she was the one leading the pack of kids up to the front of the stage to get a closer view.

spring break 2009

Here's how spring break has played out so far:

Sunday night - Dinner at the MacArthur's (Lydia's family) - YUMMY crepes!

Monday - Took Jack to the dr.; trip downtown to Orchard Road; visited Mike at his office; kids watched Enchanted in the conference room at Mike's office while Becky & Mike made a visit to the local bank to get Bec a checking account, lunch at Subway and haircuts.
Becky in charge of dinner - hamburger helper; Lydia stays for dinner
Family night - pray for Jack!
Monday night movie - Camp Rock

Tuesday - Sam, Bails & Carson go to Jurong Waterpark with Lydia's family; Bec & Jack stay home/Jack still sick.
Bailey in charge of dinner - homemade pizza crust & homemade pizza sauce, BBQ chicken chopped salad; Lydia stays for dinner
Tuesday night movie - Night at the Museum; Lydia sleeps over

Wednesday - Took Jack downtown to a "real" doctor, paid $200 for all of his asthma meds, Jack's back on the nebulizer again; Jack takes a nap while Bec takes Sammy, Bailey & Carson to see movie "Hotel For Dogs" (soooo cute!)
Sammy in charge of dinner - sloppy Joe's and green beans; Lydia stays for dinner
Sammy & Bailey go to achievement days at the church; Lydia's family drives them both ways
Wednesday night movie for Jack & Carson - 101 Dalmatians

Thursday - Took Sammy, Bailey, Carson & Lydia hiking at Bukit Timah Nature Reserve; hiked to the highest point in Singapore (don't be too impressed it's only 163 metres high! maybe 600 feet?); saw squirrels, monkeys and a big ol' spider! Lunch at McDonald's drive thru, ice cream from the gas station, then home and a swim in our pool. Jack stayed home to rest, still sick.
Thursday night dinner - leftovers
Thursday night t-ball game out in the street - Becky vs. Sammy, Bailey, Carson & Jack
Thursday night movie - Cars for Carson & Jack; sleepover at Lydia's for Sammy & Bailey

Friday - Crisis at the house where Sammy was "fish sitting' for our friends while they're in Egypt. Their power went out so had to figure out how to get it back on; long story.
Wild, Wild Wet with the MacArthur's (Lydia's family, of course!). This was our first time to this water park. It is a fun one b/c there are tons of water slides that Carson and Jack can go on! Everyone had a blast.
Friday night dinner - Subway/McDonald's.
Friday night movie (in car on ride home from water park): Racing Stripes
Lydia sleeps over

Saturday - Easter Egg hunt in the morning for Carson & Jack
Forest Adventure - Mike, Sammy, Bailey & Carson went with the MacArthurs to swing from the trees on ziplines. Check out the photos! I stayed home with Jack and some other friends who came over after the egg hunt.
Lydia in charge of dinner - Minestrone Soup
Saturday night ultimate frisbee games up at S.A.S. - kid's game on one field and adults vs. youth game on another field. 2 guys on the "adult team" (mine & Mike's team) collided going after the frisbee and both had to be taken to the hospital - stitches and reconstructive surgery on both guy's faces! It was nasty - the game ended after that...Mike took both guys to the hospital. We do have photos of the guys in the hospital but they're too gruesome to show!
Saturday night swim back in our pool in the DARK for some of the kids - we turned out all the lights for "Earth Hour" in celebration of Earth Day!

Sunday - Last Day of Spring Break! We went to church and went on a "last walk" with our neighbor's (MacArthurs) dog. Our kids had to say goodbye to their dog who was leaving the next morning on a plane to move back to the U.S. Can you believe how many times a month my kids say goodbye to their friends and friends' pets? It's pretty sad! When Lydia moves back to Texas in June we are really going to be in trouble. She has become a member of our family and we are not looking forward to it one bit!

RECAP - What a fun week! We had lots of family time and enjoyed the extra free time to work on things like memorizing articles of faith and playing board games. It was quiet because most of the neighborhood kids were on trips with their families to exotic Asian destinations but we had Lydia so what else did we need?! The kids all thought that Wild, Wild, Wet and the Forest Adventure were the 2 biggest highlights of the week. I'll miss Sammy, Bailey & Carson when they head back to school tomorrow!

Supermodel - back at work!

Carson skipped the morning of school on Valentine's Day to flash his grin to the cameras again. This was the day he lost his tooth so it was barely hanging on and I thought it was going to fall out any second. It held on though until later in the day when it fell out at his friend Trey's house across the street. I like these shots of Carson with all of these cute Asian kids! It was a very hot and muggy day in the woods for the first shots and still hot even over at the beach for the last shots. I think Carson's hair was a little too short here but this is our hair cutting strategy: let it grow out long, buzz it, let it grow out long, buzz it. Mike only really knows how to buzz short so it's the only option unless we want to start paying for Carson's haircuts.

Once Upon A Playground

For anyone who knows and loves Sammy I feel sorry for you that you weren't in Singapore this week to see her in her first school play. It was just awesome to watch her in action performing on stage. The play she was in was for 6th graders only and was followed by another play for 7th and 8th graders. Sammy's play was called "Once Upon A Playground." It's a story about 7 tomboys who all make fun of a girl on the playground who has a funny nose. The irony is that each one of the 7 girls has a flaw of their own but they all take their insecurities out on "the girl with the funny nose." It's poignant yet sweet. It's definitely a story that speaks to anyone who has ever felt left out, put down, or different...the perfect plot for middle schoolers!
Sammy played the part of Dixie, a tomboy who thinks she's tough but is struggling with having to wear braces for 3 years. I have attached a video segment of Sammy's (Dixie's) longest monologue in the play where she explains her insecurity...this is segway'd by "Dixie" cheating at a game of poker with her friend.
I was Sammy's biggest groupie and attended all 3 performances. Carson, Bailey & Mike attended 2 shows and Jack nil because he was home sick with a fever. Carson's laughter during the show could be heard on all sides of the theater!
Bravo Sammy!
(bummer video would not cooperate so it's on youtube instead. Search Once Upon A Playground SJD monologue to find it.)