Bangkok Week 772 — Mika's Photos

The first of many festivities this week is Easter, which Arlo is celebrating at school today.

Lucy has her last swimming lesson for a few weeks, given the upcoming long Songkran holiday.

Practicing her wall kicks, looking thrilled.

Cup conditioning...

... and getting better at jumping into the water.

Modeling her spiffy "new" bathing suit, another one courtesy of P'Sally.

At pick-up time, Arlo is excited by the very fancy egg he decorated at school today.

The egg festivities continue at home.

Trying the minimal-mess egg dying kit that Grandpa bought for Arlo.

Applying the glitter, with much focus.

It's a full family affair.

Look at these beautiful, shiny, formerly-white Easter eggs!

Special dinner courtesy of Granny: Yakisoba and mapo tofu. Delish!

Saturday morning, Dad is showering in Children.

Lucy and her lower lip mean business!

Reading Chirp magazine together.

Happy 30th birthday, Auntie Jasmine!

Bringing out the iPad is always an opportunity for some mess-free drawing!

Arlo's playing piano and Lucy's heading out. See you later, Lucy!

Special Saturday activity: Harborland! Here we go!

Granny jumped into the course with agility. Here, we're already 2 levels up.

Granny takes the low ground, Arlo takes the high ground.

Time to get our slide on!

Zoom zoom, here they come from all the way up there.

Everyone's still got their trampoline knees (and calves).

Arlo's enjoying himself. He's much more adventurous than when we came last June.

Meanwhile, in the baby zone, it's Lucy's first time at Harborland.

Our little climber was a little bit uncertain about the new environment.

What are these balls about?

Very interested in the elephant's little nose...

... and all these new toys!

Independently climbing up the padded stairs...

... trying not to get knocked out by the punching bags.

Getting ready to go down our first slide of the day.

Giving the balls another try.

Balls for the win!

Meanwhile, Arlo's doing some construction, both macro...

... and micro.

The tricycles are much more entertaining when you have a passenger to drive around.

Hold on, Lucy! Your driver is a wild man.

New vehicle: standing room only in the back. Now you really need to hold on tight, Lucy!

Uh oh! The crazy driver -- with hostage in trunk -- is being chased by the police. Will he pull over calmly, or will this chase continue?

Arlo surprised us all by scaling this (really rather vertical) volcano slide by himself.

Spot the buried treasure!

More punching bags: this time, for bigger kids.

And trying this zipline-like thing.

That's one way to enjoy a donut.

Here come Arlo and Dad on another slide.

The two, playing together for one brief iota of time.

Lucy's doing Round 2 with the balls.

She found the hovering balls very interesting... but I think it might have been the vibrations of the base that she enjoyed so much.

Trying to drive with the other kids... but not quite there yet.

And tryin the parkour course.

Surprisingly fearless (well, at least compared to last time!)

Starting to wind down: calmly painting a car.

Demonstrating great concentration.

The finished masterpiece!

Back at home, Lucys' feeling refreshed from her Harborland nap...

... while the morning's activities have caught up with Arlo and Mum.

Happy Easter! The Easter Bunny visited our house last night and left little chocolate eggs all over.

Lucy and Dad have found one (although they've also missed one, as the keen observer may see).

But speedy Arlo has found the majority!

Testing his haul.

Lucy's still not sold on this whole Easter thing.

It's Easter, so it's Sunday. And that means it's swimming for Arlo, too.

Showing off his new outfit: trunks, top, and goggles!

The ever-elusive back float.

Lucky Arlo: stopping for a cookie yet again!

Where are we, Lucy?

Special Sunday afternoon trip to Nong Bon park! It's Lucy's first time here.

Lucy is supposed to be napping, but instead is soaking everything in!

But the bigger news is from Arlo! He cracked pedaling, and can now ride his bike with ease!

There he goes, nothing but open roads, blue skies, and shade.

Granny and Dad, enjoying the walk, no children in sight.

Arlo made it all the way to the end of the path -- a whole 1.7 km!

Stopping to enjoy the view, now that we're here.

Lucy's enjoying it too.

Hanging out with Dad.

Group shot!

The hat ladies.

Everyone, and Arlo's newly-found pebbles.

Lucy, the nature scout.

Arlo was very excited to find trees the same height as him.

The ladies with the printed tops.

Spotted on the way back: one of Granny's friends. Her trip to Thailand is now complete.

And one of many egrets out for the afternoon.

Stopping to picnic and refuel on the way back. Less than a km to go, Arlo!

Lucy enjoyed the opportunity, to dog-watch. So many dogs in all shapes and sizes.

And the monkey sizes up this tree. Can it be climbed, he wonders?

Monday morning: a chocolate egg for breakfast? This day is off to some start!

Inventorying his shells -- it's been a little while.

Poor Granny, reading two books at once out of either side of her mouth.

Trying a home-made popcicle for the first time.

It's a hit -- but it's cold, right Lucy?

The two jailbirds.

Testing the water guns from last year to see if they still work. (Answer: no, not really.)

Granny has an instant audience making her smoothies.

Two thumbs up from Lucy!

Another breakfast, another chocolate egg? Someone is spoiled!

Lucy's getting an early start on her daily check of the book shelf.

This chair -- now also a jungle gym and jumperoo -- is probably not going anywhere anytime soon.

Oh my! Lucky Arlo got a new water gun to replace his old one. And it seems he and Dad went straight to the big leagues.

Learning about water pressure.

Poor neighbors.

Lucy's giving an evening lecture to her diligent students, Blueberry and Lucy Pig.

Good morning! It's Songkran, the day we've all been waiting for!

Lucy's got her camera out, ready to document the day.

Posing in the stylish Songkran shirt that barely fits her.

Lazy Songkran morning.

Is it Songkran, or is it Christmas?

Yes. These two look up to no good.

The little soldier struggles to maneuver his weapon, but he succeeds at testing it on his sister.

Here we are, right on time, to ring in the Songkran celebrations at K-Village.

We got there early -- which was fortunate, because it quickly became chaotic!

Warming up, getting their bearings, and waiting for victims.

Taking aim.

Mister Innocent there, pretending he's not up to anything.

Aiming at his own father.

Maybe this is fun?

Dad and his two trainees.

3-on-1? I'll side with you, Arlo!

Coming face-to-face with the enemy.

The ladies.

Mum and the babies -- it's the first time Songkran has been on for real since either Arlo or Lucy has been around to celebrate it!

Refueling break!

Vertical file! The view is better from up here.

Someone is gleeful and has gotten the hang of this.

My Wes Anderson shot.

Someone might be finding all of this a bit much!

Taking a break and browsing the food stalls nearby.

Meanwhile, the pool is finally full, and Arlo's in line for the slide at once!

A fun, but mild, first attempt -- the slide was still dry.

A significantly wilder second attempt. Bang on the bum!

The crowd by the time we left -- around 11:30.

It only seemed to get busier than this, as Songkran went on!

Well, someone is pooped!

I stand corrected. Some people are pooped!

Lucy's awake and refreshed from her nap.

Granny's refreshed her Songkran shirt. In fact, she has more Songkran shirts than I do!

Late afternoon walk around the neighborhood. Who's that cutie in the mirror, Lucy?

Too tired to walk? Oh boy, how are we going to take on Days 2 & 3?

We end this very long, very busy, very tiring week with Arlo pretending to be Mum at work.