Zoe Turns 1, January Adventures in Cambodia 2018

January was a month when a lot of things hit at once. I know I can usually eek out a blog post between the kids, and the part time job, and the house work, and the Bible study, and the homeschool, and the working out, but this time it just wasn't happening. But that's for another post. Today I want to celebrate the good things that happened this January.

On the top of that list, is our sweet Zoe turning 1!!!


I remember when our first child turned 1 and had a party with lots of relatives and gifts. By the fourth child you realize that 1) you don't really need that much stuff and 2) they're not going to remember it anyway. There's always the drawback of missing family while abroad, however.

We tried this astringent tasting fruit at the market again.

We found a really cool place with a great swimming pool and playground where you can go for free if you buy food. That’s why Talia has rosy cheeks here, she’s a water baby who will stay in the pool until you make her get out!

The playground was really nice too.

It’s next to a golf driving range, so everything is covered with a net roof to catch stray balls.

The kids really enjoyed it and slept for a good 2 hours when we got home! Ben was at an Environmental Summit in Singapore for five days because the group of students needed the principal along for the trip abroad, so napping children meant more sanity for me!

Ben came home really impressed by Singapore! It was clean!

It had great museums.

And he especially liked the Singaporean chicken and rice!

I’m glad he’s back home!

Cambodian International School-Year Closing Ceremony

The school year has finally come to an end. Friday Talia's class launched the rockets they made as part of their space unit for the last day of class. We mixed a tiny bit of baking soda and vinegar at home to see the reaction because she was so curious about how it was going to work. The next day they used a lot and made the rockets go almost all the way to the roof of the pavilion!

For the closing ceremony Saturday we got up at 6 to leave at 7 in a tuktuk and get to the other side of the city by 7:45. Preschool and Kindergarten productions were in the morning. Ezra wasn't too shy and did a good job following his teacher's dance cues.

Elias graduated Kindergarten! He's proud to be going to first grade. Surprisingly, he wasn't too shy and went across the stage without crying.

There was only an hour for Ben between the lower grade and upper grade ceremonies. Since we had kids in both, it made this a whole-day ordeal. To get some energy out, and because the boys did a good job, we took the kids to Urban Space, on the same side of town. The kids had a blast in the pool and playground. Then it was time to go watch Talia's ceremony.

My phone died, so I'll have to get photos from the school's Facebook page, (edited to add) but Talia did a great job. Her class sang The Lion Sleeps Tonight. She got a certificate for being the best in Social Studies in her class. It was her last day to see her amazing teacher as he's going back to the UK. He took time this year to connect with Talia and make sure any gaps from changing curriculums were covered. He took time to develop relationships with his students and Talia will miss him. Relationship is the most important part of teaching I keep finding.

Zoe did a good job through this long day. As long as I was there to hold and feed her, she was fine. She thought her brothers were hilarious and kept laughing at them. 

The program ended around 5:50 and neither boy had taken a nap. I'll let you figure out what that means... We went to pick up the rental van for our next adventure, ate supper and crashed. 

The next adventure is coming up soon...