This summer break has been really fun for the girls. Nisha and Soraya loves playing and doing activities with their cousins. Even though they get in fights time to time but they still enjoy eachother’s company.
Coconut painting.
Face Painintng
Play-dough
We often goto origami-club.com to get origami ideas.
Learning Hiragana
A lot of pool time.
Making hats from newspaper.
It’s been awhile since I last posted. There has been a few things during the time. I will start on this year’s Songkran, which was during mid April. It was one of the hottest summer this year. Just perfect for the water festival. Every year during Songkran we go out to the temple where our grandparents ashes are kept. The temple is on the other side of the Chaopraya river so crossing over is always a fun and exciting time for us and the kids.
Leo, Soraya, Yo, Nisha
We had a chance to visit Laos for a couple of days. Eric needed to go out for his visa to a Thai embassy outside the country. We decided on Suvannakhet, Laos. It was an all night drive, we left home around 9:00 pm and got at the border around 8:00 am. We parked our car at the border, it was 150 Baht/night. After that we got border passes for the girls. Went through the Thai immigration, got an international bus ticket to cross the Thai – Laos Friendship Bridge II (50 Baht). We were there just in time for the bus. Crossing the Mekong was really quick before we know it we were already in Laos. Here are some of the photos we took with our phone. The lens somehow got dirty so the it turned out kind of spotty.
This is a restaurant close to where we stayed. Food was alright but staffs were really friendly.
Nisha tired from a long trip.
Soraya tired but still smiling.
Laos is very much similar to Thailand. People in Laos watches Thai TV and listens to Thai music. Communication is not a problem at all. Suvannakhet was a slow, quite town. Laos used to be colonized by France so you can see a lot of old buildings with European style architect. Local food like Pho and Kao Ping, and their French bread was great. We read a lot about their sandwiches but didn’t have a chance to try. Thai food is really not recommended. We ate at a few places which wasn’t that good.
We came to Chez De Bourne a couple times. Their coffee and food was great!
We went to a dinosaur museum.
We had Pho and Kow Ping ( grilled sticky rice with egg coating) for breakfast. Both were really good, just perfect for the chilly morning.
หอยนางรมทอด
ส่วนผสม
- หอยนางรม 10-15 ตัว
- ต้อหอม ผักชี ถั่วงอก
- แป้งข้าวจ้าว 2 ชต.
- แป้งทอดกรอบ 1 ชต.
- แป้งท้าวยายม่อม ½ ชต
- น้ำเย็นจัด 40 มล.
- พริกไทยป่น
- ไข่ 1 ฟอง
- ซอสพริก + น้ำจิ้มไก่อย่างล่ะส่วน
วิธีทำ
- ผสมแป้งทั้ง 3 อย่างกับน้ำเย็น
- ใส่หอยและต้นหอมผสมให้เขากัน
- ตั้งน้ำมันให้กระทะร้อนแล้วเทหอยลงไป กระจายให้ทั่วกระทะ
- ตอกไข่ใส่ ทอดให้เหลืองกรอบแล้วค่อยกลับ
- พักหอยไว้ข้างกระทะ ใส่ถั่วงอกผัดกับซอสปรุงรสหรือน้ำปลาเล็กน้อย
- ตักถั่วงอกรองจานแล้ววางหอยทอดทับ โรยพริกไทยต้นหอมผักชี กินกับซอสที่ผสมไว้แล้ว
ไม่คิดว่าหอยทอดจะทำง่ายขนาดนี้ สูตรนี้แป้งกรอบอร่อยมาก
It was Eric’s idea to take a picture with a dragon statue for our new year’s card. So we decided to visit a Chinese temple by the beach in Chonburi. As soon as we got on the highway I realized we forgot the most important thing of the trip …. our CAMERA !!
Oh well, we went to give respect at the temple and took some pictures with my phone anyway. Afterwards we stopped by Bang San beach. It was Soraya’s first time at a beach. She was a little surprise in the beginning and got used to in very quick.
The weather was perfect for a beach day. The girls had a lot of fun there.
ไข่พะโล้
ส่วผสม
- ไข่เป็ด
- น่องไก่ หรือ หมูสามชั้น
- เครื่องพะโล้
- น้ำตาลปีบ
- เกลือ
- พริกไทยเม็ด
- กระเทียม
- ผักชี + ราก
- ซี่อิ๊วขาว
- ซอสปรุงรส
วิธีทำ
- ล้างไข่ให้สะอาดแล้วเอาไปต้ม
- ตำพริกไทย รากผักชี กระเทียมพอหยาบ
- ใส่น้ำมันในกระทะ เอาน่องไก่ไปผัดพอสุกแล้วแยกออก
- ในกระทะใบเดิม ผัดผงพะโล้กับเครื่องที่ตำไว้ให้หอม
- เติมน้ำตาลปีบลงไป ผัดไปจนน้ำตาลไหม้เล็กน้อย (ถ้าไม่ไหม้พะโล้จะไม่ดำ)
- ใส่น่องไก่ ไข่เป็ดผัดไปกับน้ำตาลแล้วเติมน้ำซุป
- ใส่ต้นผักชี เครื่องพะโล้ ปรุงรสด้วยเกลือ ซี่อิ๊วขาว ซอสปรุงรส
- เคี่ยวไฟอ่อน 30 นาที
- ชิม ถ้าจืดให้เพิ่มเค็ม หวาน แล้วเคี่ยวต่ออีก 30 นาที
ทำไข่พะโล้ไปทั้งหมด 10 ฟองผ่านไป 1 มื้อไข่หมดไปแล้ว 6 ฟอง ^_^
This year we got a little Christmas tree for the kids.
We enjoy making ornaments, the girls did most of the drawing and coloring. I helped with the cutting and hole punching. That big one is Nisha’s creation of what she called a salad with a spider and a snake.
Nisha loves to draw. Here is a clip of her explaining about her drawing of a playground.
We always wanted to come by this place whenever we see the huge three headed elephant statue driving by the highway. It was really close to the apartment we stayed during the flood. So finally it was our chance to come inside.
Inside the three story museum.
After walking and running around for a while it was lunch.
We enjoyed our time here and hope to come back again.
Soraya’s birthday was just in the middle of all the flood. We got her a banana cake but no candles. Sorry not much of a birthday cake but it was the best we could do. It really didn’t matter if we had candles or not because they were blowing it anyway.
Here is a slide show I made of Soraya since the day she was born. Now at age 2 she sometimes let us know when she wants to use the bathroom. She’s still small and very picky with food. She loves rice and sweets more than anything. She still take her naps regularly. She loves to watch Maisy and Little Einsteins. She knows her colors and shapes. She doesn’t know numbers yet but we thought it was kind of funny and surprising when she referred to money with the word Baht.
