Valentine's Day

So, the tradition here is that you go home for CNY and when you return to your work city, you bring traditional foods from your hometown to share with your friends.  Well, it seems that this year is the year for FRESH poultry!  Yes, those ducks are just enjoying their ride in the back of the car and I just LOVE the saran wrapped chicken/hen to the hood.  Too funny!

Here are a couple more from my friend who was traveling on the roads...and yes, they are always alive.

but I think this one was a little overkill...are they going to start their own farm? ;) I guess they just have lots of friends.

I think it's funny that My husband who is not a cat fan has 2 cats that like him :)  Gracie loves to watch what computer and tv screens.

Lauren's little friend asked her to come do fireworks the other night.  They had already had showers and getting ready for bed, but I didn't want her to miss out on that. SO, I took Lauren and Katherine down to watch.  This picture makes it look bigger than it was.  It was just a couple that went in circles for a few seconds.

I was trying to get a picture of the rest of our crew trying to watch from the balcony.  Our family has been really sick still so I wouldn't let them all go out.  I probably shouldn't have gone out, but was ready for some fresh air.

The boys got flowers for the girls on Valentine's Day.  So glad they can smile even when they are sick

Hudson gave some to Lauren.

And Jonathan gave some to Katherine.

These were mine (sorry...no pictures of a sick Mom)

This was what we gave to the kids....sweet tarts and oreos.  They were so happy!

Even this little guy was super happy. He was trying to hide because he had a tear rolling down his cheek because he didn't get any flowers.  He was fine once he realized he got something, too. :)

This just made me happy.

I love playing ball and was glad that she wanted to for a bit.

Benjamin designed a new house for us on paper and then started building it with Legos.  He's like his daddy!

L loved the living room...guy watching Star Wars on the couch

and the bathroom...so creative...even has a little guy on the toilet....haha!

The little ones got to do their first poster project.  I really left it wide ope for them.  They needed to choose one kind of flower to do it about and I gave them free reign over the craft box!

Lauren did a Dahlia flower.  She told us all about how a caterpillar turns into a butterfly and then it lands on a flower and the pollen sticks to the butterfly and is taken to another flower to make more beautiful flowers.  :)

Katherine chose fox glove.  She made her flowers 3D and even had a scale (on the left) to show how tall the flower would be compared to herself.  I was quite impressed.  We did not give them any ideas...just let them go with it.

Hudson chose a pansy (and maybe some palm tree?) :)  He said that it was a flower.  It is called a pansy and it's small.  :)  They did so good.

Year of the Monkey

 So this year we did not take off from homeschool for Chinese New Year (the year of the monkey...how fitting for my crew).  However, the kids have had some added fun to their days and maybe a little less stressful school days (some days just doing the essentials and leaving out things like art and sometimes history).  So it started off by our little friends spending the day at our house while their mom visited a friend in the hospital. Playdough food is always a winner.

 Hudson wanted to play with his bear and all of the girls' kitchen/tea set stuff.

 They did lots of drawing and crafty things, but wanted to watch a Barbie movie while painting pictures of Elsa.  They were so funny.  They would all three paint and get distracted by the movie at the same time.

 Katherine wasn't interested in painting this time because she wanted to make her bunny cakes that she got for Christmas. She had a lot of fun.

 And sometimes you just have to dress up for school.  It was time to start the day and we had a pirate, princess, transformer ninja santa, and 2 other transformers below.

 And what a good Daddy.  He made the "queen" so happy that he came to the first class of the day and dressed as a king.  (I was told it better not be on Facebook...but it's too sweet and the smile on that face is too priceless not to put somewhere) :)

 We did spelling a little different one day....finger paint for all.

 Lauren had  a 2 week winter dance class.  She was chosen to have a solo performance in it.  I'm am just so impressed how these girls pulled of a 3 1/2 min dance that never stopped and stayed so together the entire time in just 2 weeks!  They are supposed to perform at some point, but that got delayed because of the weather.  So we shall see.  I'm glad I got to see the practices!

 Benjamin got a haircut.  It looks much better!  It's quite a bit shorter in the back, but still long enough for him to be happy.  The hairdresser told me that he wouldn't cut it any shorter because then it would not look good. "Long hair is more handsome," he said. Benjamin liked that :)

 And yes, this is so that I have proof one day when she gets married that she is spoiled rotten!  She is almost 7 years old and she can still get Ayi to spoon feed her!  spoiled.  (This is not an all the time thing, but I refuse, so she gets spoiled on the other side of the table.

 This is the spoiled cat who is well loved...and tolerates being carried around by Hudson ;)

 WE got a care package that had some really cool Star Wars snacks in it and some amazing white chocolate! Yumm!  The kids loved that their chocolate was in the shape of fake teeth.

 Sporting the new pj's to stay warm!

 Gracie taking on Katherine with the light saber.

 Lauren has probably done the most since the last blog.  She had her dance class for one, but besides that Regan was really sick for about a week. So Lauren's best friend invited her over to play and spend the night.  Perfect timing!

 They went to see Kung Fu Panda 3 (which the other kids are very jealous about)

 She went out to eat and just had a good time.

 Katherine has decided to add a little Star Wars to her door decor.  She cut them off of the macaroni boxes that came in the care package :)  The kids don't waste anything that comes form America.

 The Star Wars jello came in very handy since Rgean couldn't keep anything down.  So fun!

 This little guy was SO EXCITED that he is finally big enough for taekwondo. He got signed up for the spring and has his first uniform and white belt.  He just had to try it on right away.

 My chefs in the kitchen....their happy place :)

 We finally had everyone feeling decent and decided to walk to the park to see the lights for the new year.

 It was a nice break and the weather was great!

 This picture cracked me up....Hudson in the front posing, Lauren in the back posing, and Katherine just loving everything about the lights.

This girl still amazes me on this skate board thing. She makes it look so easy.  I have tried it and can't do it. :) 

 The kids climbed around the complex.  Look hard and you can find Regan and Hudson.

 One of the few times Benjamin let me take his picture.

 After Regan and Katherine got well, Jonathan came down with a cold, then I did, now Hudson and Benjamin have it.  It seems Lauren is the only one that has avoided it so far.  Maybe because she keeps going all over kingdom come with her friends. They went to ride bikes around a lake...

 ...and played on grassy hills in between.  She always came back AFTER bed time (but we knew that is how it would be).

 My flower girl...."Mom! Flowers! Take my picture!"

 Hudson enjoying his Cherry Blossom ice cream from McDonald's.

 Again, Lauren out to eat for dinner...

 playing soccer and riding scooters...

and of coarse climbing rocks.  I hope by the time I get around to the next blog that EVERYONE will be 100 percent :)

Record Cold

Lauren has been on cloud nine because one of her little dance buddies has "tippy toe shoe" and has let Lauren wear them during break time at dance class (this is her NON ballet dance class).  She was so excited that I got there at break time because she wanted me to take pictures and video.  She wants those shoes so badly, but the ballet teacher says she's not old enough.  Lauren insisted that the teacher did NOT know what she was talking about and her friend is six and already has them.  So, to prove my point I had her go ask her little friend how old she was.  The look on Lauren's face was priceless.  "Mom, she said she is NINE!" :)

This week we have been seeing record lows and unusual weather for our region. It has been in the 30's and many around us saw a dusting of snow and we had sleet! (that's one for the history books)  I know we have been in much colder in the States, but it always seems way colder here.  I think in part because the city is built for the usually warm climate, so there is no insulation, everything is made of concrete, and you can forget about central heating!  I felt so bad going to wake the girls up this morning for school. Lauren was completely covered head to toe sound asleep and it was COLD!

 We have a thermostat for school that we used to see the temperature inside our house.  It is a balmy 52 degrees WITH the space heaters going.  Even the cat is cold. Haha!  He kept getting closer and closer to try and steal some of Regan's body heat.  I missed the best shot where he had his head buried in her armpit and the rest of him was in as small of a ball as possible!  My friend gave me a "hot water bag" for Christmas and boy has it saved my hands!  It's my new favorite item.

 And just another way to know it's cold is when your children sleep in earmuffs, jackets, and gloves.  No not all of them, but they are bundling up.  Not to mention showers...it's a love hate relationship... hate the ice cold tile floor in the shower, love the hot water to warm you up, hate the ice cold water that sits on the floor after you turn the water off.  Thank goodness for space heaters!

 A few of the blankets did not get delivered with the others, so a friend just sent me a few pics from her phone when she delivered them.

 The timing couldn't have been any better!  It just started snowing.

 Katherine's finished train track.  She's not normally one to play with it, but I think it gave her an excuse to sit by the heater. haha!

 And this cracked me up...my son, Benjamin, and his not so subtle hint about his upcoming birthday.  He wants a vet party and apparently he thinks we are getting him a golden retriever....keep dreaming buddy. Now to brainstorm on how to pull off a vet party! Hmmm.