She is our sweety,and she turned eight years old today! Happy Birthday sweet Pascaline!

The one thing and ONLY thing that made Pascaline nervous about this trip was she would turn eight years old while we were in Thailand. Eight years old in Thailand…what would that look like? Pascaline was convinced it wouldn’t feel like her birthday being so far from home. I’m happy to say she went to bed tonight saying this was the BEST birthday she’s ever had! 🙂

The morning started with her and Gina having a magical moment when they saw the white haired Gibbon apes! Some people. who have lived here a few years, have yet to see the Gibbons for themselves. But Pasc was up early keeping Gina company as she packed to head home. And from what I hear, they both saw the Gibbons in the trees!

After breakfast, Pascaline and I bought longtail boat tickets to go to the mainland and spend the day shopping together. At home we have this little tradition where she and I bring our journals and pens. At her request, we spend the afternoon shopping at Nordstrom (she is a Nordstrom fanatic! I don’t quite get it since I never go myself, but Pasc LOVES that place. She’s already been offered a job there when she’s old enough. :)) After we shop a little, we have lunch together in the Nordstrom Cafe. We take out our journals and colored pencils and do sketches of whatever comes to mind. And then we share them with each other.

Well, we don’t really have a Nordstrom here, but we did find journals and colored pencils at a mini mart! And we also found Swensen’s Ice Cream!

First we had ice cream, then we shopped, and then we had lunch–the order it should be for birthdays. 🙂 I wish I had images to show you of us journaling and doing our sketches together, but I refrained. I wanted Pascaline to feel like today was only about her.

Pascaline wanted to go to the Skunk Bar for dinner. Yep, that is really what it’s called. 🙂 But the walk is a little far which felt a little risky with the evening rainstorms we’ve been having. So we resorted to our stomping ground here, The Flaming Tree. And to our surprise, when the staff heard it was Pascaline’s birthday they went to work on a secret surprise!

While we ate dinner, we could see them huddled together working away. The staff made a sign for her, they found birthday candles, and then about 15 of them came out to sing “Happy Birthday” in English to her!

They even made her a beautiful bouquet of flowers!

Pascaline looked at me and said, “Wow, people only do all this when they love someone. I feel so loved.”

Oh, I wanted to cry. The staff loved on her so much tonight. One of the ladies told me how special the kids are to them, and how happy they were to celebrate with Pascaline tonight. For the sake of the fun memory, here is a blurry but fun family photo. 🙂 Notice the waiter in the background. 🙂 He is one of our favorite people here, and he’s a turkey for getting in this shot!

Over the last couple weeks, Brian and I have debated the idea of taking the kids to more locations since we have all this time. But in the end we decided to stay in one spot, for at least a month, so we could really sink in to the people and local community. After a night like tonight, I’m so glad we stayed put.

Flaming Tree is an open aired restaurant that sits on the beach front like most of the places here. To get home, you walk along the beach with your flashlight. If you forget your flashlight, you wait for the lightening to illuminate your next steps. The lighting was ever present tonight, and we sang happy birthday to Pascaline all the way home…beating the rainstorm!

What are some of the things that blow me away about Pascaline?

She is Brave. She is the ONLY one out of all four of us who gets up in the night and fearlessly walks to the bathroom to pee (our whole place is open aired here), she is unafraid of encountering Tokay geckos, bats or whatever else we here in the night! Pascaline also runs barefoot across the beach at night, dancing her heart out. Crabs run crazy when the moon rises, but she doesn’t give them a second thought. Blaze and I feel like we’re walking over hot coals as we stress about a crab pinching one of our toes.

Pascaline is also strong in spirit. She’s wise beyond her years. She’s full of creativity and magic. And the list goes on and on. I love her so much.

I love you, my sweet and beautiful Pascaline.

Love, Mama

(As I finish writing this, the rainstorm has become a full on rain POUR! The bamboo screens aren’t really keeping us dry. The kids are sound asleep, but Brian and I are hiding under our mosquito net b/c a bat has flown in for cover from the rain. But then, of course, ALL this craziness makes me have to pee. So Brian walks to the bathroom with me, on bat patrol, the rain is coming sideways which means I’m being rained on, AS I pee. AND, there is a wide eyed Tokay (gecko on steroids) hanging out on my bathroom mirror looking at me like I’m an idiot! If you aren’t getting my Twitter updates, you should be! 🙂 You can find me on Twitter as “merakoh”. Now to find a towel that isn’t wet!)