The Easter Bunny visits....and then we head to our 1st family bowling day!

So like I said we had a small egg hunt for the boys early this morning....had to be sure and get out there and get to the eggs before the monkeys did! Only in Malaysia!!  Luckily, we beat them because about 30 minutes later as we were having breakfast, they did actually visit us on our back porch!  The boys had a great time and loved opening all the eggs they'd found to see what surprises they had inside.  The Easter bunny was also very good to them again this year (ahem...I mean Bebe and Boss....thanks for supplying all the Easter goodies for the boys' baskets!)  - they got coloring books, markers, chalk, bunny candy, bouncy balls, books and lots more.....he even brought them 2 of E's favorite Ben 10 characters....Swampfire and Heatblast!!  And many thanks to Nana and Pop for the pjs they sent the boys for Easter - E loved his Ben 10 ones (he wants to wear them every night) and Cooper loved his "choo-choos"!  It was a great morning and we are already looking forward to celebrating it again next year...in Texas (it still makes me smile when I think about the fact that we will finally be moving in just a few shorts weeks!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 "Look at all the great stuff in our Easter eggs, Dad!"

 Cooper ate the snacks as he opened them....forget the ones with special toys inside of them!

Bunny bums! 

 Heading out to the bowling alley....

After our breakfast, we headed out for our Easter Sunday Funday activity - bowling!  They opened a new alley last year about 5 minutes from our house so we thought we'd try it out!  We weren't sure how well it would go over, but we were looking for something different to do.  The boys actually did great....Cooper made it through about 7 frames before he completely lost interest, but Evan made it through the whole game!  As for Mommy and Daddy.....don't even ask - we didn't even break a 200...together!  It was a great outing and lots of fun and it is definitely something I can see us continuing to do, especially as the boys get bigger and are better able to do it on their own!  We then had a great lunch out at Nandos and then headed back home for a nap...Mommy included!  What a great Easter!  I'm so very blessed!

First up is Evan.....

If they'd all gone this way, he probably would have had even more fun...we had quite a few gutter balls!! He was so excited when the ball actually knocked down some of the pins....but I swear our lane was tilted....at least that is the story I'm sticking to!!

And then Cooper is up.....

Yay for me! It was the cutest, he would even clap for himself when he was done....even on all the gutter balls!

That was fun....and now for ball #2  "Dada...me!"

Bowling buddies!

Love it!

I'm sure this one ended like most other frames...with a gutter ball!

Daddy gets himself a spare!

By the end of the 10th frame, Cooper had totally lost interest and found it more entertaining to hide between the seats!  I'm actually impressed he lasted as long as he did!

Happy Easter!

Wish we were spending Easter this year with our families, but it is enough for us to know that next year that will definitely be the case!  We hope that everyone has a very Happy Easter!  As we did last year, we will have a small egg hunt at home with the boys....I'm sure they'll think it's the best thing ever!  Little do they know what a true egg hunt is suppose to be like!  It gives my heart warm pleasure in knowing that they will be able to start experiencing true versions of our traditional American holidays soon!  While yes there are Christians here and people go to church for Easter Sunday service (don't even get me started about how awful I feel knowing that we haven't attended a church service in over 3 years now....this is one of the first things we will immediately start doing as soon as we are stateside - I know the boys are going to love Sunday school....they love listening and singing to their Veggie Tales Sunday School Songs CD now!), they don't do much in the way of the Easter bunny thing!  Evan is at that age (and Cooper is about there) where these holidays are so much fun for him, even with just the little things we do to celebrate them....so I know he'll enjoy them that much more when they are over-the-top...like they traditionally are in the US!!  So everyone, have tons of fun at your church service and egg hunts...and most importantly, just enjoy your family time!  With or without all the Easter celebrations here, we will definitely being enjoying just being together!  

These were my feable attempts at getting a good picture of the adorable Easter pjs BeBe and Boss sent over for the boys!

And here is my comparison picture to last years (left side is this years)...you can tell Coop has grown, but E looks almost the same (although he does continue to grow and is about 3 inches taller than the same time last year...I just measured him yesterday since he just turned 3 1/2).  HAPPY EASTER!

An evening ice cream run!

Tonight, we all treated ourselves to an ice cream bar after dinner.....and the boys had the proof of how yummy it was all over their faces!

Tonight, it was a 3-man driving session

Andrew's Pro Shop!

There are a few things that have just become normal to us since we've been here and now that we are getting ready to leave the place, I've tried to take note of some of the things that just made us laugh when we first moved here and made us say "what in the world is that and where have we moved to" and Andrew's local "golf shop" is one of those places!  Guess with no overhead costs and selling balls you've gone and fetched out of the jungle, you can afford to sell your golf balls for RM10 for 10 balls (equiv of about $3).  Needless to say, Andrew has loaded up on his fair share of Titleist Pro Vs and Nike golf balls to take back with him!

Texas, we are coming home!!

It's official....FINALLY!!  We are making the move back to Houston by mid-May.  Andrew landed a Director of Planning role in the Corporate Planning and Strategy group and is really looking forward to it!  We are so pumped that we finally have some news.  We knew a move was going to be happening soon, so we've kind of been in limbo lately playing the waiting game and now we finally have a date!  Now that it's become a reality, it's really getting us thinking about all we are leaving behind.  It's been a fantastic experience we've had, but it sure will be nice to be back to all things "normal". 

To celebrate the good news, we went to one of our favorites, the Bamboo Bistro, for dinner.  The boys like it because it is outside and they get to see all the tourists walking around downtown and all the trishaws.  Well, after nearly 3 years, I finally rode one tonight!  Guess with our leaving date now set, I'm trying to make sure we've done all the things we said we wanted to do and still haven't.  E and Andrew had done a ride before, but this was a first for Cooper and I.  Evan and I rode together in one, while Cooper and Marte rode another....Andrew was our photographer! It was a good night and we are so proud of Daddy!  So....now the fun starts - the moving process! Wish us luck and we'll be seeing everyone very soon!

Here are a few pics from tonight...

Going out to wait on a trishaw

"Look Coops, it's coming!"

They had the best time and loved the fact that the guy pedalling the bike had the music blasted so they were jamming away as we took a small stroll.  We made it a quick ride because it was raining out, but Evan was already making plans to go back again before we even got off!  According to him, "next time Mommy, you ride with Cooper, I'll ride with T, and Daddy can ride by himself!"  Sounds good, bug! 

And on a side note, we saw a turtle crossing the road today and had to stop and snap a picture of it.  It was a bit ironic that we ran into one today of all days (we've never seen one out here before) because yesterday at school the boys glued eggshells to a turtle picture for their art project.  The turtle quickly started to hide in his shell when I got out to get the picture and Evan was quick to tell me that "turtles put their heads in their shells to hide when they are scared!"  Smart boy...I just couldn't get over how grown up he sounded when he explained it to me! There was also a funny moment - as we continued to watch after I got back into the car, he headed over to the golf cart path and I said "Look, guess he is going to play golf" and Evan responds with "Haaa, he can't play golf......he doesn't have a golf club!"  Not the response I was expecting, but okay...so I said "yes, I suppose you are right".  He then said "he is probably going to go back to his turtle home first to go get one....Mom, where is his turtle home?"  He is really getting the imagination lately and just makes me roll with some of the stuff he comes up with sometimes!  I think his Daddy's (apologies....Dad's) creative nighttime story telling is really helping him stretch his imagination.  It's so fun to watch those wheels in his head turning!

I even asked if they wanted to take it home with us (joking of course) and Evan said "he can't live in our home"....I left it at that!

Eggs, eggs, and then not so many eggs!

As I mentioned before it's gotten alot more fun now that Cooper is older and able to participate in more activities with Evan, BUT it's also gotten to be alot more work to manage both of them during these said activities!  Today was a good case in point....Easter egg coloring!  Wow, what a mess that ended up being! Well, it could have actually been alot worse, but let's just put it this way, Cooper is ALOT more hands on than I ever remember Evan being (or maybe it just seemed easier because it was only him at the time!).  It was almost impossible getting them to take turns dropping the eggs in each of the cups...luckily Daddy was home early enough to lend a hand, so I could catch some pictures!  After Cooper had his turn and Daddy was helping Evan to color his, we find Cooper digging his entire hand in the blue dye trying to fetch his egg out!  He only managed to drop about 3 eggs and tip half a cup of yellow dye over, so that was the worst of it.  Luckily, I had put a mat over the table and about 20 newspapers on the floor - I was prepared for "the destroyer"!  I still find it amazing how different these boys tend to be....Evan is still the serious, take-your-time, get-it-just-right, stay clean and keep everything else clean kind of kid while Cooper is just the bam, bam, bam , let-me-at-it, all-in kind! I struggle sometimes because while I love the fact that Cooper is so hands-on and full of energy, Evan was just so easy and I don't know how to manage Coop's activity level sometimes without getting so stressed out!  Oh the joys of motherhood!  If only they had a book for every different personality....

You can sort of notice Andrew's tight grip on Coop's hand....that is because he SO wanted to do it all by himself....which is the case with EVERYTHING lately!  "Me, Mama, me" or "me, Bubba, me"...we hear that an awful lot lately!   

And why wouldn't Cooper want to do it on his own, he sees how easy his big bro makes it look!!

A total Thompson....why do they insist on SMELLING everything?!?!?

See mine!

E's handy work!

Our lone survivors...to be fair I think E dropped and cracked a couple of them as well!  E's is the blue one on the left, Cooper's is the green one next to it, Mommy's is the pretty pink bunny on the right and Daddy's are the middle yellow and orange ones!  Despite the chaos, we had a wonderful time coloring our eggs as a family!

And then for some reason, they decided to break out their Halloween masks (guess they still hadn't gotten their bunny ears at this point) and chase me around!  Cooper was the kitty cat and E was the lion

The masks continued the next day as well, but Evan became the cat and Cooper was the lion!

Another set of postings!

Apologies for my delays in posting anything.  Once we returned from Thailand, I became a bit overwhelmed with completing the post about our trip.  I had over 600 pictures to sift through to pick just the right ones, and you know me I can't just pick my favorite 10-20, I have to be sure our entire trip is documented and that every detail is accounted for....I don't know, it's just me!  But after 2 weeks its finally completed (I had to break it down into 2 parts just so it didn't seem so long....and I think I still ended up with over 80 pictures!!)!! I have now also posted all the other things that have happened since then. I've been busy working those every other day or so, but I didn't want to post them and then go back and post the earlier ones, like I did at Christmas time....so now you just get a whole lot of reading at once again...sorry!! But in case you are wondering, I am happy with the final result of our Thailand trip recap....I don't think I left out anything....as you'll see!!  Enjoy!!