Out of the Country

I have loved seeing the sparkle in this girl's eyes this week!  We had to leave the country to get new visas (we did not receive the ones we were hoping for before we left the states).  So, we are here and have had some very welcomed surprises...some of which have been sunshine, family time, ice cream and a little swimming!  

 Not to fear, the kids are enjoying homeschool while we are here!

The kids are very studious!  Swimming is a good incentive to stay focused!

 Here is a new treat we tried.  We saw the table next to us with one and decided to try it.  I'm still not sure what all is in it, but two main ingredients are ice and ice cream.

We were in the mall and Katherine found this awesome helmet.  I wish we could have gotten it for her, but she was awfully cute walking around the store in it.  I could just picture her skating at school with it..haha!

 We also saw these neat little treats!  It was a stick cone filled with ice cream and sprinkles on top.

You had the choice between chocolate or vanilla wafers and chocolate or vanilla ice cream.  It does not take much to see pure joy on her face :)

Here is a little swimming picture for proof.  I love that the weather in this country is warm all year long!  

Hugs from Papaw!  .

New Routines and a Little Fun

 This was a great treat for our youngest.  She got to have her very own Skype time with her best friend, Bryan.  They were cute to watch.  Besides all the giggles and silly faces, I think my favorite part was when Bryan showed Lauren his teddy bear named Lauren.  She went to get her doll to show him and he disappeared from the screen.  He said he couldn't look at anything girly :)  so she went to get her favorite seahorse.

 Benjamin reached 100 books!!!  Great job!!  The reward was 100 tokens at an arcade.  He was the luckiest kid I have ever seen.  He kept wanting to play these impossible games where you spend a token trying to get jackpot but end up with nothing.  Well, he now thinks I am crazy for telling him not to waste all his coins on those things.  On several different games, he got jackpot FIVE times and 100 tickets THREE times and I lost count of the other big numbers!  He also won a stuffed animal on a game.  I am glad he had fun with his reward.  He worked hard for it.

 The girls got to join in the fun, too.  They each got seven tokens and then had to use their own money if they wanted anymore.  They decided that they would put their tickets together so that they could get a better prize at the end.  Although, I am about to go crazy with all the noise from the two whistles that the little girls got.

 We found a tutor this week for the kids!!  Hooray!  The original plan was to have someone come to the house to tutor them in the local language, but she thought it would be a good idea to try her place instead.  It was a perfect idea!

 The kids had such fun learning and made new friends!  I am excited about this new opportunity.  We have been looking for ways to get the older two with kids their age since they are not going to public school this semester.

 I had a birthday!  It was a great day filled with surprises!  These were the flowers from my son!

 We ate pizza for my birthday lunch.  It wasn't nearly as good as America, but it was still good.  It just doesn't seem like a birthday without pizza ;)

 I am soooo glad that we squeezed a cake mix into our "bring back from America" pile.  I have been wanting to cook it for a month now!  It tasted so good...and I claimed the last piece.

Finally, a card from Benjamin.  It has a dog on the front (perfect from my dog lover) and the inside says "Happy Birthday from me and my dog- I signed the card and my dog licked the envelope!"  My girls burst out laughing and then Benjamin says, "Doggy Bones really did lick the envelope!  I took it in there and he licked it for me!"  :)  Love my family!

Break is Over

 We have two very happy girls!  They have been waiting a long time for this day to finally arrive.  Katherine is in the oldest grade of Kindergarten and Lauren is in the middle grade.  The first day back to school and Katherine was chosen to put the flag up on the flagpole.  She was so excited.  Only kids in the oldest grade are eligible.  When I asked Lauren what she did at school, her response was, "The whole school got to watch Katherine put the flag up."

 The annual "parade' was last week.  The kids wanted to go again.  Jonathan and I were not as enthusiastic about it, but decided to go.  We found a decent spot to watch...we were an hour earlier and only 3 rows of people back.  It did not take long for people to notice our kids and the 3 shorter ones (yes, that is Benjamin in the hoodie) ended up getting front row seats.

 This is a majority of what the parade consisted of...groups of people wearing matching jackets, waving little flags and carrying a banner describing who they are.

 We also had Valentine's Day...I think we were the only ones that celebrated it this year :)  Jonathan got me some beautiful flowers and some chocolate.

 One of the joys of having kids...you never know what you are going to find where and who put it there.  These little toy frogs have been my companions on my sink for the past week...and I know that Katherine put them there.  It just makes me smile every time I see them there.

We made one more blanket this week.  My friend really enjoyed getting to make it.  I'm sure she will get plenty of use out of it this week.  We had a false alarm of warmer weather...got up to 50,,,but the cold came right back the next day.

Weather Changes

 We are still in the midst of the longest holiday of the year, but our friends are slowly returning to the city and to their jobs.  Jonathan was sick for a few days last week, so the kids and I went out on the town.  We tried to find new places, met new friends, and ate at McDonald's once.  Only two of my kids actually like McDonald's, but it was the easiest thing at the time to do to feed some hungry bellies.  We sat down at the table and withing two minutes (literally) the store manager was approaching with two girls (ages 11 and 12).  It was one of the girl's birthday and she wanted my kids to come to her party, so we spent the next two hours at a birthday party.  We met several new people and swapped numbers for future play dates with several people.  Thankfully, the weather was nice, so we spent most of the day outside.

 Benjamin enjoyed making some Lego creations.  We broke out the short sleeved shirts and slept comfortably with windows open.

 Then the rain hit.  It rained for several days, but did not keep us from going out ....although I am sure we were a site with all those umbrellas.  :)

 The rain made it difficult to burn some energy off outside, but we found other ways.  We discovered that playing a Wii Dance Kids game really wears them out :)  They make Mommy join in (I think to have a good laugh).  Lauren is not too interested because she says it is too hard.

After the rain came the REALLY COLD weather.  I guess we were getting spoiled with the nice temperatures.  And yes, this is how she is dressed INSIDE our house!  It is so cold. It's not quite like the polar vortex that we had just before we left the States, but at least we had heat in our house.  Outside here is in the 30's, which means inside is too.  Everyone is wearing 3-5 layers of clothes, socks, and jackets.  It helps a little, but I can't wait for warmer weather!  We looked at the forecast.  If we can fight through another week, we should see temps in the 50's and 60's again.

Happy CNY 2014!

 I don't believe it!  Another new New Year!  Our internet has been sporadic to say the least, but that hasn't slowed us down, just made some things more difficult (like the blog).  So what have we been up to?  Well, my baby girl (4 yrs old) lost her first TWO teeth.   She was so excited that they were wiggly and that she would finally get a visit form the Tooth Fairy because she has just waited soooo long ;)  I wanted to snap a quick picture with her and Katherine together.  Katherine is missing her top two teeth and Lauren missing the bottom two.

 She was trying to show me her teeth and her lack thereof at the same time.  She actually dropped one of them.  We thought we found it, but it turned out to be a grain of rice.  No fear, big sister, Regan, came to the rescue.

 The kids have been so happy to see Ayi again.  Katherine was helping with the dishes after dinner.  You know she is happy because she just hums and sings while she is working or playing.

Ayi was about to go back to her hometown for a few days.  She asked me to teach her how to make one of the blankets like what I made for the kids.  It took under an hour between the four of us (Ayi, Regan, Katherine, and myself).  She was very glad to have a warm blanket to take home with her.  It can get very cold there.

 The kids thought it was great to help and Katherine loved that the fabric matched her blanket.  I'm not sure who missed who more, the kids or Ayi.

The kids were begging to go for a bike ride.  I was a little nervous about it because Lauren has only been riding for a short time.  I finally agreed, but made Lauren prove she could stop without her feet AND she had to put the training wheels back on.  We went on a 3 mile bike ride and they all did great.  I kept close to the younger two and every time I looked at Lauren she had a look of determination on her face.  She had something to prove....she IS a big kid ;)

All the parks and the entire city is decorated to bring in the new year.

 No, we have no idea who these kids are.  I do love how Lauren just put her arm around the little girl like they were best friends.

 Another random kid picture.  This boy is 8 just like Benjamin.  We were talking to this family in the park and they asked the ages of the kids.  They heard 8 and immediately thought it was Katherine and was trying to pose the picture.  Then they realized that our kids are bigger and traded Benjamin and Katherine.  I think it made B and K happy....she had already been grabbed for some pictures :)

On the bike ride back home, the kids wanted to stop and get a picture by some of the decorations.  They actually light up at night.  It is the year of the horse.  According to tradition all my kids are now a year older. HA!  Only one birthday a year for my kiddos, but they tried.  They have figured out the culture well enough that they wanted to spend almost all of Feb 1 outside playing because they knew it was likely some adults passing by would give them little red envelopes with money inside because it's new year!