When my friend, Kara, asked if her family could visit us in Vientiane during the Chinese New Year holiday, the first thing I thought was, “Woo hoo!” The second thing I thought was, “Oh crap, how will I entertain her two little kids?”

Kara and her husband, Dave, are friends from Shanghai American School, where we worked from 2005-09. They have two gorgeous daughters: Isabel, grade 2, and Abigail, grade 1.

Turns out I didn’t need to stress about keeping the girls occupied. They stay very busy in the yard! They pick up leaves and sticks. They pull weeds. They sweep the driveway. They play in the sprinkler (until the water ran out … that’s another story). They swing in the hammock. And they make furniture for their botanical fairy houses.

I took this photo only seconds before the knots unraveled and the hammock ‘o’ girls crashed to the ground. No major injuries reported.

The munchkins also enjoyed the Wii Fit. Isabel even mastered the top level of the Table Tilt balance game. Monday night, we played Cranium, and Abigail – who is SIX – actually helped our team win! They are both such great kids, and I love seeing how much they’ve changed since we saw them in June.

Dave joined the Team Dai training ride on Sunday. We pedaled out to Rivertime Lodge (the same place we rode on Saturday, but it was a much harder ride on the second day!).

Dave jumped in the river to cool off.

Dave’s contribution to the Hunks in Laos Calendar competition.

I was amazed at Isabel’s mature contributions to some of our conversations. When we went to a restaurant for lunch, I commented that Tony and I will probably always compare every city to Istanbul and every school to SAS. Isabel thought about that and said, “Maybe if you had worked in Laos first, then this would be your favorite place and you would always compare everything else to Laos.” How smart is SHE?!

The girls in Mr. Kek’s tuk tuk.

On the way to lunch at Sticky Fingers in downtown Vientiane.