A weekend of friends and fun!

Our friends, the Taylor's, came to visit us here in Uasothon for the weekend. They are currently living in Chiang Mie as Jim is posted over here with DFAT. They have 4 gorgeous girls, so the 10 of us had a great time! On Friday we explored Yasothon and attracted lots of attention. Everyone was interested in all the kids and the Thai women kept coming up asking who owned which kids! Then we would see them pass on the info to their neighbor and so it would carry on like Chinese whispers throughout the town! Clearly they like to gossip as much as Aussies do! Jim was saying that less than 1% of travelers visit Yasothon so we probably make up their years worth at once! On Saturday we all went to the orphanage for the day and ran activities and English lessons for the kids. Jim
Speaks Thai very well so it was great for the older kids to have lessons with someone who speaks both languages! The younger kids really enjoyed having so many other kids to play with and I have some gorgeous pics of all the blOndes playing with them! Melissa also has a baby so she was very pillar with the older kids and spent most of the day being carried around by them. On Sunday we had planned to go to the elephant show, but it was raining and Mae Thiew phoned to say that we shouldn't go as she didn't want to risk any of the kids getting sick! What a great mother she is, I was fully prepared to take mine out in the rain! So we had to find activities for the kids to do on Sunday too! We played volleyball and soccer, did some more English lessons, watched a Thai elephant movie, played tunnel ball and also with the parachute again. I was definately feeling weary by this time, so in the afternoon I just let them all play while I sat amongst them and watched their happy little faces! The dinner on sun night was donated by a local restaurant which a Korean style BBQ. It was very cool to cook our own meat and see the kids enjoying the food! On Monday we had a rest day to recover some energy and regroup for the next few days. My kids have been doing great and have adapted so well to do much, but the sensory overload on the weekend definately took its toll on them and they needed a break. Today they are feeling much better and keen to get back out to the kids! We bought some books yesterday that will help with tonight's lessons so we're looking forward to being a bit more organised! We also bought some skipping ropes (about 20) so will play some games with those too! We only have two days left, and have very mixed feelings about it. We will really miss these gorgeous little kids and the happy environment over here, but we are all getting homesick and missing everyone very much!! xox