A Day at Taman Safari

Last Saturday we got out of the hustle and bustle of Jakarta and spent the day at Taman Safari park.  It was wonderful to be in a different setting and enjoy an afternoon away.  The driving safari is fantastic with a wide range of animals.  Our first sighting was of the elephants and we were lucky enough to see a little baby having a swim with it's mother.  As it got out of the water the pack started trumpeting to one another, which was just fantastic for all of us to watch and hear.  We stayed and watched them for quite awhile.  As we made our way through the various animal sites, we were greeted by several "grazers" who were happy to enjoy the carrots we had for them.  

Amelia intently watches the elephants as they noisliy round up the little one.

A friendly camel stops by for a carrot.

Amelia feeding a camel - at a safe distance of course!

Look, it's a giraffe!

And the highlight was meeting baby Shirley an orangutan.  Jim could have held her all day!  

Howdy Partner

Little Bryce loves to do what his "sis-sis" does.  So when Amelia brought her red boots out and stomped around the neighborhood, Bryce clomped around the house.  It's a short and sweet one and my voice is a bit annoying, but he is too cute not to share!

Scooter Girl

Go Amelia!  Thanks to Grandpa Steve and Grandma Nancy for the awesome birthday scooter.  We are having so much fun with it.  And yes, that is Jim riding his long board with Bryce on it.  Send any messages of concern directly to him:)

Fighting the Rainy Season Blahs

It has been raining, raining, raining and RAINING!  I have never seen so much rain in my life.  And we live on high ground so we haven't even seen the worst of it.  So many Jakarta residents have been devastated by the flooding - have you seen it in the news?  We hardly have anything to complain about, but it's easy to loose perspective.  So, to beat away the blahs of to much time indoors we got creative this Sunday and made our own fun.

A cardboard box and old t-shirt make for a perfect puppet theater.

Just in time for a breakfast show.

What do you think Bryce?

Bunny and Duck are SO funny!

Decorating the theater with some magazine clippings.

Homemade playdough time!  

Sorry Bryce you can't eat the playdough.  

How about some cheese and crackers instead?

Amelia's playdough stamped "cupcakes"

And finally, an indoor bike ride.  "Beep beep!"

We've had over 9,000 page views!

Wow, I was very excited to see the activity report on our blog today had exceeded 9,000 page views.  Pretty incredible to think that our committed family haven't given up on us despite some pretty long lapses in writing!  Thanks for sticking with our blog, we are glad you are still here!  That alone is enough motivation to stick with my goal of 50 posts this year.  How am I doing so far?

Amelia the Butterfly Fairy

This weekend, Amelia and I attended a lovely fairy birthday party for her little play mate, Ella.  We suited up with our wings and away we flew to a magical morning of face painting, crown decorating and nail polishing!  Amelia wanted to be a butterfly fairy, which was the inspiration for her outfit.

Amelia the Butterfly Fairy gets new wings at the party, 

because really, can you ever have enough wings in your dress-up box?

Face painting time...sit still, very still

One wing, almost done

Two wings complete, and now for the outline...

Time for a treasure hunt!  Loooook, we found bubbles and a princess sticker book!

Amelia and Hailyn - two butterflies from the same cocoon!

If you love hummus, you must try this...

One of my creative outlets lately has been a bit of "cooking" on the weekends.  My years in the Middle East have left me with a serious hummus habit - I simply love the stuff!  It is one of my staples in the summer, but when we are in Jakarta I don't get to have it as often as I'd like.  Chickpeas are often expensive and hard to come by.  So with a little searching online I found a wonderful new recipe for roasted carrot hummus from the Washington Post.  It is a MUST try!

My first batch of carrot hummus

What do you think, Bryce?

Yummy!