Tuesday, May 1, 2018

Daily Life and Visa Run

Lauren got a new book.
The dogs "are not allowed" in the schoolroom. They snuck in and fell asleep at Regan's feet (and yes, that is Dave the skeleton behind her chair...he's great for science class...but a little scary when I see him in random pictures like this..haha!)
Katherine was taking notes on all of Ayi's dishes so that she can make them anytime she wants :)
One of the keys of homeschool...you don't always have to be at your desk reading a book :)
This girl cracked me up. She was so into this book and look so serious. I'm not sure when she finally noticed that I was standing there.
The puppies love to play fetch.  Well, maybe I should clarify.  Shadow (black) likes to play fetch.  Scout (brown) likes to crouch and wait to ambush his brother as he is bringing the toy back to try and steal if from his mouth.  He prefers to do as little running as possible...haha!
We left the country to get new visas.  We had just gotten there and Jonathan had kitchen envy ;)
Regan got her picture made by the huge Apple Store and we tried to get the really tall building in the picture as well.
This little guy adores his big sister, so that means he also needs his picture in front of the Apple Store :)
Perks of leaving the country....treats like this.  Yes. We ALL enjoyed a small chocolate milkshake :)
This is Jonathan. He loves architecture.  He's always looking at the way buildings are made and taking pictures of them.
This was the building that caught his eye.
We traveled around the city on the subway most of the time.  The kids LOVED the HUGE advertisement for Infinity Wars at this station.
I had Regan go stand up next to the sign for perspective.
Yep, we are the tourists still looking at the poster :)
And analyzing all of it.  Regan and Benjamin want to see the movie so badly, but it's not out here yet. They have to wait a little longer.
These two wanted to go to Disneyland.  This was as close as we got...another advertisement, but it seemed to satisfy them for a bit :)
Other modes of transportation...ferries.
ENGLISH BOOKS!  I could have spent so much money in this store!  We just did some wind shopping though.
Toys R Us.  It's the biggest toy store around.  I know they aren't doing so well in the States, but this store was huge and busy. Even Captain America was there ;)
Katherine was in stuffed animal heaven.  Look at that face!  She just couldn't handle all the cute fuzziness....yes, she spent the last of her own money and got a new stuffed animal.
Thomas the train set up in the store

Lauren also spent the rest of her birthday money for Waffles.  She loves this little puppy.
The day that we had all been waiting for....our splurge of the trip....Outback.
We savored EVERY bite. :)
I have no idea what was so funny, but it made for lots of smiles.
We had paid and all had left...Katherine said, "No, I can't leave. I still see meat on that bone!" It wasn't even her plate.  She is too funny. She was not about to let any precious meat go to waste. (I didn't see any meat on the bone, but she said it was there)
Hotel living....get out of the shower and the next thing you know there are pictures staring back at you.
We had the "Family Room" That means two queen beds pushed together...and that's it....zero walking or standing room.  And yes, we still did SOME homeschool while there.
This was the other restaurant that we ate at...a burger place.
Waffles enjoyed the ferry
The kids like the ferry.
Smile :)
Hudson wants to know if he can buy this car.  No. I don't think so.
Then can we buy this one? :). He has good taste.  Boys.

Our view as we were about to head back to daily life.
When we got back, Lauren found out that her certificate had arrived for passing level 4 of ballet.
This is my neighbor and her friends.  Last week, I had told them what chips and salsa was.  They got so excited when I said I would bring them some to try.  I have never seen them get so excited over salsa before!! Picture let to right: Anna, Lucy, SiXuan, Happy, and Polly.
Hudson and I had some time for just the two of us.  He wanted to go get haircuts, so that's what we did.  He also took the selfie :)
Only my kids.  Yes. That is a chicken.  Only my kids will find a chicken (in our city of 2.5 million) and want to keep it as a pet.
Thankfully, they knew better than to ask us, so they convinced our neighbors to keep it as a pet before we ever even knew about it.  Katherine said that she had already trained it to sit on her arm and that it was going to lay eggs for our neighbors. oh dear.
WE asked Polly to come up and try fajitas with us.  She was eating dinner with her family, but she's been wanting to try these.
Hmmm.  I guess they figured that they didn't get in trouble last time when they snuck in that as long as they are near Regan we won't make them leave :)
Katherine decided to make a car for Scout out of a box.  She cut leg holes for herself and made a spot just for Scout.  After they tried it out (and Scout liked it) She decided it needed to be prettier.
So she worked on making it nicer.
Scout now has a school bus.
Katherine was begging to make French fries.  She went and bought some potatoes at the store and made these all by herself.  They were amazing!  We made tiny little hamburgers to go with them :)
self portrait :)
Hmmm. I wonder who this could be?
Lauren got some special Mommy time this month as well.  She chose the Japanese restaurant.
Then we went on a hunt for an arcade because she has read over a 100 books and the prize is arcade tokens.  Well, since we have moved, I have not seen any arcade type places.  We searched and searched and found nothing. We did discover these gigantic balloon animals.
Since we couldn't find an arcade, I took her to a park nearby that has a ropes coarse.  She's been wanting to try it, but we've not ever let them.
She said it was a lot scarier than she thought it would be.  This was the tight rope section.  She now thinks that the people in the circus are crazy for walking on these without a harness.  It was actually quite cute to see her go across this section.  She did not do it the "typical" way.  She felt it was unsafe, so she did one of her ballet moves all the way across!
She did so good and made it past all of the sections.
She said this one was the easiest and she could even go down in splits if she wanted to :)
Success!
One last picture before heading back home
Guess who has started swim class!! The pools should be opening up later this month, so we signed him up for swim lessons.  He is doing great! He is so much more confident in the water compared to last year.
His coach offered to give us a ride home...in his Mercedes "sports car" as Hudson calls it.  That is a happy boy.
Finally, the air conditioner broke in the girls room.  It is soooo hot in there.  The repair guy came and tried to fix it.  He said he needed to go out a different window. It may look like he is standing, but he is just hanging out the window....and we live on the 17th floor.  No thanks.  He was not able to fix it, so we have been waiting for a new one to arrive and be installed.  It is being installed as I type this up, so hopefully, the girls will sleep much better tonight! :)