Easter

Hope you're having a terrific Easter!

Sara and Tia woke me at 5:30 this morning as they were excited to hunt for their Easter Eggs. Boy is that Easter Bunny a good hider. :-)

I think a few of the 142 eggs are still missing but luckily the 9 hard boiled ones were found.

The girls both wanted to "make something" for Easter breakfast so Tia made some cinnamon rolls and Sara used the same dough to make brown sugar filled sweet rolls. Hard boiled eggs, smoked salmon, and warm sweet rolls. Yum!

Pulau Putri Thousand Islands

We came home yesterday from a 3-day trip to Pulau Putri, one of the "Thousand Islands" located North of Jakarta.
Many of the "Thousand Islands" are privately owned or managed by resort companies. Our good friends, Steve & Lila and their two kids went with us. We took a 60-person capacity boat out to the island and stayed in a couple of the 75 bungalows. Food was cafeteria style, pretty basic but all-inclusive so just fine and each meal included several items that the girls were happy to eat.
There was a small patch of sand to play in, a decent dive shop, and great snorkeling in the bath-water warm water just off the pier. I don't think I've ever seen such a colorful variety of coral. And the fish made me feel like I was swimming in a giant tropical fish tank. :-)
Steve and Quyen rented a couple "kayak" boats one afternoon and rowed the kids over to visit an adjacent island.

One fun thing was the Kimodo dragons who wandered freely around the island. It wasn't uncommon to run into one on the route from our bungallow to the cafeteria. We leaned to identify their trail (wavy swishes in the sand) and as long as you moved slow, you could get pretty close. No Grandma, not TOO close. :-)

Two nights was just about perfect. White sand and tropical trees waving in the wind seem so idealic, the snorkeling is great, but the mosquitos were pretty fierce.

Overall, a great trip.

Dying Easter Eggs

Happy Easter Everyone! Hope you have a wonderful Easter weekend and hope that God sends lots of beautiful spring flowers to remind you of the joy he gives all this time of year.

Tia and Sara dyed Easter eggs last weekend. No Paaz egg dye kits here in Indonesia but we did pretty well with some food coloring and vinegar. Colorful eggs and fingers. :-) We have a 4-DAY weekend this weekend so we're trying to take advantage of it by checking out the "Thousand Islands" area north of Jakarta. I think we'll come back with some stories. We plan to be back by Sunday but if the weather's crummy we might be a little later.

Barbie has a Jilbob

The girls and I were visiting the toy store in the mall and saw these very Indonesian "barbie dolls." Each of them is dressed in a head scarf, Jilbob.

Honestly, most little girls in Jakarta have Mommies, Aunts, and Grandma's who wear their Jilbob everyday so the dolls look pretty normal. Hit me as something unique to a Muslim country and worthy of sharing with my friends and family in the Western world.

Consider yourself culturally broadened. :-)