Our Garden

We are lucky to live with a master gardener - Pa!  Not only is our lawn beautiful and full of flowers, bushes, and trees that look amazing but we also have food growing in our yard.  It is a fact that none of these things would be alive if Matt and I were in charge.  Here are a few of the exciting treats we have growing in our yard...

Tomato plants:

 A close up of the budding tomatoes:

Mint bush:

Peach tree:

Close up of the delicious fruit that will turn into peach cobbler later this summer:

Pomegranate tree:

So many pomegranates!

Apple tree (not producing any fruit yet but has flowers):

Garden plot with watermelon and pumpkin planted ... we are excited to watch them grow!

All in an easy day's work for Pa! 

Cinco de Mayo and Mother's Day

This week the kids celebrated Cinco de Mayo at their school.  There was a performance by each class and then lots of Mexican food and sweets afterwards.  Unfortunately my pictures of the performance turned out horrible because we were in the back (seeking shade from the hot afternoon sun) and the kids were under a blue awning that made the pictures dark.  It seems like I always have an excuse for bad pictures at school performances.  Maybe one of these days  I will actually prepare better and take some good pictures!

Matt before the performance started:

Kara and Jack's class -- this is the first time that both of them actually stayed on stage for a class performance!  Kara did the whole dance...Jack stood near the wall and looked at the paint, but at least he stayed on stage for once! (click on the picture to enlarge so you can actually see Kara and Jack):

 Kara with Matt after the performance (that is lipstick all over her lips):

Ainsley dancing with her friends on stage:

Snacks/cake afterwards:

On Saturday Matt rode in a 100 mile bike ride to Shiner, Texas (Great Austin to Shiner Pedal, GASP).  Ainsley and I drove there to see him finish and to bring him back to Austin:

For Mother's day we enjoyed a nice Sunday.  The kids slept in until a glorious 7:40am(!), Matt let me have my coffee in bed, then off to church and lunch, and then some of our good friends came over in the afternoon for swimming and dinner. 

Mother's day is a good day to reflect on how blessed we are to have our children, and how lucky I am to be a mom to three great kids :-)

Cousin Time

Kevin and his kids came to Austin for a visit.  Fun was had by all!

The only group shot I got included Jack having a fit.  He refused to cooperate...nap time was a bit overdue :-)

 

From left to right: Jack (2), Mason (8 this month), Madison (4), Ainsley (4), McKenzie (11), Kara (2)

Happy Easter

We enjoyed a great Easter weekend.  Easter Sunday the kids enjoyed an Easter egg hunt followed by brunch, playing and swimming. Oh, and the Easter bunny finally came (first time), so almost a perfect day for the kids!

Jack was lining up his next egg while he put one in the basket.  Laser focus!

Kara loved finding the eggs.  Any guesses what her favorite color is?  It is a bit out of control...

This is Ainsley's basket before she started.  Competitive Ainsley assured us when we left that she had the most eggs and that she won.  Ha!

The egg hunt crew...

What else have we been up to other than celebrating Easter?  Just enjoying friends, playing in our backyard, and loving Austin...

Ainsley learned how to shuck corn:

Ainsley and Matt in the pool:

Loo Loo!

Princesses unite!  Who doesn't like to dress their best for dinner? Jack opted out of the princess game.  It is a good thing Marie's next baby is a boy, Jack needs help to dilute this crowd of girls :-)

Jack was learning to share the Ranch dressing...a hard lesson for him:

 Slide time!

Good Weekend

We have now spent two weeks in Austin and we are starting to feel somewhat back to normal.  The kids are happy and have adjusted really well to living in the US.  Matt and I have adjusted to commuting in our cars and doing endless chores, and while the weeks are long, it makes us appreciate the weekends even more.  Life is really good.

Grandma and Grandpa D are in town for a visit!  The flight from Ohio to Texas is much easier on them than flying all the way to Singapore.  The kids are in heaven with Grandma D, Grandpa D, and Pa all in our house to dote on them.

Kara showing off the jewelry that Grandma D brought her:

Since everyone tells us that Kara looks like Grandma D, I asked them to cheese it up for the camera, side by side:

Ainsley on the back deck holding her egg of jewels (with Pa in the back grilling our dinner):

Jack's necklace from Grandma broke and he hid the beads in the tree.  I would like to point out that he is wearing underwear!!  Not all the time, but huge progress for Jack.  A bit too casual that he is wearing underwear in the backyard, but after debating with him his desire to be naked in the backyard, underwear seemed like a fair compromise:

Our neighborhood had a Spring Fling party at the local park on Sunday.  The kids hunted Easter eggs, played games, decorated cookies, and got to pet/see animals.  Of course the kids loved it.

Ainsley with her Easter egg loot bag:

And the cookie that she decorated:

Jack petting a goat:

Ainsley riding a pony:

Kara's turn on the pony, she wanted Pa to hold her hand:

What better way to end a great weekend than Tex-Mex at Maudies :-)

Jack normally loves chips and salsa, so he stared the night with salsa...

 ...but it wasn't long before he ditched the chips, picked up a spoon, and started eating the queso.  I can't fault him, that is what I wish I could do too! 

We get to enjoy a full week with Grandma/pa D.  While they are in town Jack is bunking up with the girls.  So far no fights or mischief...we'll see how long that lasts! 

Our Adventure

The last few weeks were very busy for the Diamond family!

First Week of March: with our furniture gone and us in "camping" mode we were running out of things to occupy the kids.  While cleaning out some cabinets we found some birthday party stuff and they pretended to be having a birthday party.  I loved watching their imaginations come up with the party plan.

 

Packing Day: 13th of March we left our apartment and moved into temporary housing (Great World City serviced apartments).  The kids helped pack (well, sort of)...Ainsley packed her animals and swim suit; Kara packed the lego set; Jack packed one ball.  We got a kick out of seeing what they found most important.

After we moved into our hotel Matt had a business trip to China, then Ainsley and I took a quick trip to Bangkok to visit a good friend, we squeezed in a Disney on Ice show, said good-bye to friends, paid bills, closed accounts, and re-packed our suitcases.

Leaving Singapore: We were supposed to fly out of Singapore on March 23rd, a Wednesday.  However, Ainsley caught a really bad virus and the day before we were supposed to leave she was admitted to the hospital.  We rescheduled our flight for Friday morning and extended our stay in temporary housing.  Then Jack and Kara started to run a fever and we thought it could be a week before we made it to Austin.  Luckily their fevers broke within a day, but then Ainsley's virus ended up much worse than expected and she didn't actually get released from the hospital until Friday.  Our flight was once again rescheduled and we finally left on Saturday. 

The Flight Home: we caught the "maxi-taxi" at 6am on Saturday morning and headed to the airport with 11 suitcases and 3 carry on bags.

Luxury Travel: while the flight from Singapore to Austin was long, we were very fortunate to have business class seats (part of the repatriation package).  So, overall no complaints!

Matt soiled two shirts (vomit from Kara) and had to buy a new t-shirt in Tokyo.  Here he is wearing his new shirt and holding what he thought was lemon-flavored water, but turned out to be lemon-flavored beer.  Why did he think it was water?  Because it was for sale at the gate.  Go figure!

The flight from Tokyo to Dallas the kids slept most of the flight.  They had a hard time waking up when it was time to land.  We were so thankful for the extra room in business class. 

Arrival in Austin: we landed at 6pm-ish Saturday evening in Austin.  Pa met us at the airport with our car seats and to help with the luggage.  (You can imagine how out of place we looked arriving in Austin...jet lagged, dirty, three cranky kids, and 11 pieces of luggage to take off the belt!)  We loaded the kids into our rental car and headed home!

Home: we have been in Austin now for one week.  Jet lag has passed and we are enjoying our house.  Matt and I bought cars, and counting both sets of car seats plus Pa's set, we have nine car seats at the Diamond household.  Haha!  The kids have adjusted really well to our new life.  Unfortunately I misplaced the camera until today so I have no pictures to share since we landed.  The sea shipment arrived and now all of our furniture, clothes, toys, etc. are here.  Pictures are hung on the wall and now it really feels like home.