Goodbye for now

I hate goodbyes...with a passion. Hello's are the best. Obviously. Like I already said, our last day with my parents the sun decided to come out, so we went to a famous spot in our city to take some photos together and have a nice view. This seems like forever ago (maybe because it was over a month ago!). Can't wait to give them hugs next year when we come home for 6 months!

The 6 of us.

With the grandparents.

I love this place. These guys are always painting scrolls and fans while of course smoking a cigarette. Ha. Their fans are so pretty. My mom got one :o)

We only had to take a bajillion pictures to get this great one. It was worth it and my mom was so proud that she took it. I'm proud too :o) Love my sweet family.

Until we say hello again, so happy to have you in our home.

Just another day...

We really wanted my parents to experience our 'every day' life. We of course took them to the more famous parts of our city, but they also got to see the places even our kids know how to get to. So, it was nice to have just another day with my parents.

One place we took them was our favorite play place that's about a 5 min walk from our house and requires no stairs or walking across the street (as long as you take the giant hill behind our complex and not the 68 stairs in front!). We all loved Caden's new Nike outfit that my grandmother sent.

 I love this photo of Grady in the ball pit. He has a slight obsession with ball pits.

 Look out, here comes the police!

 I love that my mom and Caden kind of match. My mom went all out when it came to building blocks.

 And Caden went all out at knocking them down. You can't see him well in the picture, but he's in the middle knocking the blocks down!

 I think dad got bored.

 Another thing that we loooooove to do is get massages. We are good friends with the owner of this place, so Britton and dad went one day. I wanna go now!

 Some friends wanted to take my parents out to introduce them to the culture. I'm so proud that they both ate with chopsticks and really well I might add!

 Such a pro!

 With our friends

 The last day my parents were here, the sun finally came out!! It was cloudy the whole time they were here until that last day, so we got out as much as we could. This is in our complex and is very much a part of every day life. Got their muscles moving.

 Hahaha! I love this. My mom will always be flexible.

 I love this of them.

 I loved all of Grady's new clothes, and he loved his new toys. He and I especially love his new soft tool set. The drill even vibrates. So cute.

 We also all enjoyed our weekly pizza and movie night. This particular night, we watched 'Megamind.'

 Oh, Caden. The only time he is still is when the TV is on. My mom loved watching him. It's hard not to.

Chilling out with the 'rents

We had plenty of time to get out in our city, but it was also great just to chill at home with my parents and go to our 'normal' spots in the city.

We took them through our old neighborhood then to one of our favorite hole-in-the-wall places to eat (and I do mean hole-in-the-wall!). On our way, we stopped at our local supermarket, and my mom found it fascinating that I get my flour out of a big bin. I'm just glad on this particular day that she didn't see the dead crickets that have been in there before! :o) I can get a huge bag of flour (around 10+ lbs) for ~$3.

On another day, we went to another favorite shopping area with most of our import stuff where my mom and I got to do some shopping! The boys went to the arcade, and next to the arcade were these live (I guess pet) pigs. So random in the middle of the mall. They don't get bigger than this.

Going down into my favorite grocery store. Both boys love riding in buggies.

Mom, please don't hate me! I think she looks adorable in these local pj's! Everyone around here owns a pair of pj's like these...not this cute though! And they wear them outside. Mom refused to wear them out, but she's looking great inside!

On another day, my dad and I went out for a walk together. We had a great time just walking around and chatting about life. Priceless moments. We enjoyed part of our walk along the river that goes through our city.

Every day Caden insisted on doing his monster sticker book with my dad that they gave him for his bday. It only took them half the time they were here to figure out that they were doing the book wrong! Ha! They got it all straight.

I love just a good ole relaxing, take-it-easy day.

Caden's 3rd Birthday-Part 3

Why does this kid have 3 parts to his birthday nearly every year?! I think I'm setting myself up for failure!! Nevertheless, their birthdays are still fun and exciting every year...for all of us. Since my parents were coming and Caden's birthday was on a weekday, we knew not many people could come to a party on his actual bday, so we waited til the weekend. That Saturday morning, we had his best buddies and local buddies over for a big party including bowling, a ball pit, a giant coloring puzzle, and cake...all Toy Story themed. I'm pretty sure Caden felt like he was in heaven!

The party table

 The Birthday Boy

The bowling area...yeah, Grady loved this area the best.

the party table a little more up close

the cake a little more up close...talk about a sugar rush!

So, I actually thought these giant poster things were a bit much, then my mom brought one. Ha. We couldn't not put it up, and both Caden and Grady loved it. In front of the giant poster is a coloring puzzle that everyone got to color on.

We used the pool again to have our ball/balloon pit.

Let the party begin!

Cake time! I love that the locals ate up the cake.

happy boy

feed me cake!!

And here's 2 videos. One of singing Happy Birthday again to Caden, and the other was after the party of Caden and Grady playing in the ball pit. This has to be Grady's favorite thing in our house.

Happy 3rd Birthday, Caden! We love you, sweet boy!

Caden's 3rd Birthday-Part 2

After naps on Caden's birthday, we went to Pizza Hut for dinner. We had to have pizza since that is Caden's most favorite food in the world. Living here with less than a handful of western places to eat, poor Caden hasn't been exposed to the world of amazing food! As a result, if we are ever eating pizza, Hut is attached. So, even if we are eating homemade pizza at home, he's ready to eat Pizza Hut. If we go to Coach's Pizza in Thailand, we are eating Coach's Pizza Hut. So very sad. I must say that when we are back in the states, we will NOT be eating Pizza Hut...so, please don't take us there even if Caden requests it!! Oh my. Nevertheless, we made the kid happy and ate at Pizza Hut. We then went home and enjoyed some graham cracker bars, although I knew Caden would want cake, so I made them look like cake (you'll hear him call it cake in the video below) :o) Then we opened a bajillion presents. This kid is spoiled. We are all spoiled! Before we get to the celebration, I really wanted to include something about Caden and what seems to sum up his 3rd year of life. I think I would sum it up with the funny things he says, so here are just a few of the things I've written down that crack us up. Love this kid.

-When singing 'row row row your boat' he says 'gently down the street' instead of 'stream'

 

-he calls me honey because that's what I call him

 

-I asked him if he could say 'omniscient' once and he said 'hakuna matata'

 

-he was so sad he couldn't push the button to get out of our door and cried for 20 minutes. I finally asked if something was hurting and he said yes. I said what hurts? He said 'my feeeeelings!'

 

-he often says, 'you're so cute mommy,' because I often tell him he is cute

-I was out one day and when I returned he said, 'we lost you, mommy'

-we watched 'Rise of the Guardians' that included the Boogey Man and Caden called him the 'Booger Man'

-when referring to someone older he actually says 'big' ('where's big Ayi?' when referring to our 50 year old house helper and calls my 28 year old tutor 'little Ayi')

 

-he says 'this is mine's' instead of 'mine'

-A dialogue one night:

          -Caden: "Oh, I like that mom. It tastes like candy"

          -me: "Well Caden, it tastes like candy because it is candy. You need to ask mommy or daddy before you eat that. Do not eat it unless mommy or daddy say you can."

          -Caden (10 seconds later in another room): "Oh dad, can I eat that?"

-his 'z's' are silent: 'yip it up', 'yebra'

-he says 'yes man' instead of 'mam'

-A dialogue while dressing Grady and Caden was still in the bathtub:

          -Caden: "I need to pee"

          -me: "You're gonna have to hold it buddy. Don't pee"

      ...2 min later,

          -me: "Caden did you pee?"

          -Caden: "No I didn't pee, mom"

          -me: "Good job buddy, keep up the good work"

          -Caden: "I'm not working, mom"

-A dialogue one night before bed:

          -Britton: "We're all going to pick a song. Grady you're turn"

          -Caden: "Oh he can't talk dad"

 

We love you, sweet boy. Thank you for teaching us and bringing smiles to our face each day.

Happy 3 year old. I got him and Grady both shirts that say I am 1/3.

 ready for some cake and still cute as a button

 Attempting to blow out his candles...that is still a work in progress. The kid can only seem to spit everywhere when trying to blow. He uses his teeth rather than his lips. Maybe it's a schemeful way of claiming the entire cake!

 I brought his gifts out from us in his new grocery cart to go with all the food he got last year from my parents and the cash register they got him for his bday this year. We got him a toy story plate and utensils, the softest toy story sheets, Dr. Seuss books, and the first Toy Story movie. See a theme?!

 My aunt and uncle sent a giant Woody both for Caden and Grady, and they actually surprisingly share it!! They both enjoy pushing Woody around in the grocery cart.

 I don't think I could even begin to list off all he got, but this load plus the load he got in Thailand from Britton's side of the family, he really racked up in the gift department.

 He was surprisingly interested in his new sheets...I'm certain it's only because they had Buzz and Woody on them.

 Wow.

 The next morning he was still so excited for his new light-up shoes. Around here new shoes are special because it's the one time you can wear them inside. Yes, my kid wears an 11. They look even more ginormous in his tight pj's.

Here's 2 videos of singing Happy Birthday and watching Caden try out his new light-up shoes.

We couldn't leave out Grady for bday gifts from the family. We opened his the next morning :o)

Happy 3rd Birthday, Caden!! We-Love-You!!