An Ordinary Week

 Well, I had another kid draw a picture and write their name...yep, this time it was Lauren.  She wrote her name in characters and then drew and L for Lauren and drew a curly headed stick figure :)  I love it.  By the time she is 4, she will probably be writing more characters than me! ;)

 We had some friends come over to play on Saturday.  They said they would come over in the morning (and in our past experiences with people that meant about 10:00am).  They brought their breakfast over and apologized for being late.  I'm glad I was dressed :)

 Benjamin love the youngest girl and she liked him, too.  She kept wanting to get in this little bridge but could not do it herself, so Benjamin kept carrying her to the top.  It was really sweet.

 Lauren enjoyed swinging with her doll.

 Oh, we did see some sort of skate club rollerblading through the city.  There were at least 200 of them....the line of them went on and on and on.  It inspired the kids and they all went home to get their skates on, too.

 Regan gave her first presentation this week.  She is learning American history this year, so I told her that she needed to make a poster and write a short story about Thanksgiving.  She presented it to us and did a good job.  I video taped it, too. 

 I stole this idea from my friend, Jenny Moore.  I thought it was a great idea and the kids have loved doing it and I love explaining to EVERYBODY that comes to our home why we have a tree on the door!  I can't wait until it is complete on Thanksgiving day.  It should be full of many thankful leaves. (everyone gets to put a new leaf on each day)

 I love that the weather is sometimes in the 70's now.  It means that the kids are all in their fall/winter uniforms.  I think they are extra cute wearing warm-up suits everyday....especially when you see hundreds of other little ones just like them.  This is a little girl in Katherine's class.  They wanted to walk to class together.

Katherine was very excited to have this shirt to wear!  I believe it was a shirt that her class wore last year for the end of school performance, but Katherine was no there.  Because all the kids are the same, they just pick a day randomly and ALL wear the shirt.  Katherine was so sad that she didn't match her classmates on those days, so her teachers bought her a shirt to match.  I had to pay them back, but that was fine with me.  She does so well at the school.  I am really proud of her and all the kids!

Girl's Time

Regan and I took a trip this past week.  It was just the two of us.  Jonathan watched the others at home.  I met up with some other foreign ladies for a few days of relaxation and I dropped Regan off at her very good friend's house.  She has been looking forward to this week for a while.  This family moved the same time we did and so we have been planning how to get these girls back together.  We both had a wonderful time!

 This was our first day there.   You could not separate these two!  I'm so glad that she has been able to have such a good friend over here. 

 One of the gates of the city.

 The city we went to relax has quite a few foreigners there.  Regan and I were sooooo excited to find special western treats there (many that we have not seen in this country before)  So for breakfast, we went out for coffee/hot chocolate and cinnamon rolls.  YUM!  They were excellent!

 I opted for the cinnamon roll but my friend was adventurous and got the green tea cheese cake.  There is just something about green tea and cheese cake that just don't sound right :)  but you would be so proud...I DID try it and it was not bad at all.  When Jonathan saw the picture, he first thought the camera messed up the exposure. ha!

 We went shopping and had a great time bargaining for things.  I thought this picture was funny because I saw it and thought how crowded it was, but while I was there I did not even one time feel crowded or like there were a lot of people around.  I guess I have officially adjusted to the culture!  When we come back to the States I will probably be thinking "Where is everybody?" 

 The girls bought "friendship cowgirl hats"  They got a great deal on them, too!  If you ever want a good price on something, you should get a kid to do the bargaining.  I don't think they can turn them down.

 This was a sign at our hotel.  I'm still not sure what they were REALLY trying to say, but I think we weren't supposed to walk in the grass.  The sign says "Under the grass urge foot remains blue" hmmmm.  maybe they used google translate ;)

 On the way back home, the plane served us a snack.  I got a kick out of it....a black vacuum sealed egg, and a muffin (I think similar to cornbread) wrapped in a Merry Christmas wrapper.  No, I did not eat the egg.  I still can't bring myself to eat eggs that are black and have the name of "million year old egg."

 I was so excited to get home to see Jonathan and the kids only to find my son locked in my bedroom.  We managed to take the handle and lock off but still could not get him out.  We had a good conversation through the hole in the door though!

 The locksmith finally arrived and after about 30 minutes Benjamin was rescued.  I did feel much better that the locksmith had a hard time getting in.  He broke the lock into MANY little pieces and said he could come back the next day to replace it.

 It was also Halloween, so the kids all dressed up as Daddy.  It was so so so cute to see them walking all over the house like that. 

 The next day, the kids went to a baseball birthday party.  I think I had as much fun or possibly more fun that the kids did. 

This was Katherine's first time ever to play.  She did pretty good and even got a hit!  So that about covers our last several days. 

Building Up

Katherine started liu bing ke (roller blading class) at her kindergarten this week.  She was so excited about it.  I had to go out the day before class to buy her some pads because they would not let her skate without them.  They were too cute to watch.

 This little exercise had to be done with their hands behind their backs.  She was quite good.  They did this other thing where they lined up and were in a crouching position and the teacher would blow a whistle.  When he blew the whistle their arms would fly into a "racing position" with one arm in the front and one in the back.  He would blow the whistle again and they would switch.  I tried to get a video, but as soon as I got my video ready they were finished.

 So this week we were focusing on building each other up.  To help the kids get a visual Jonathan and I did a couple short sketches for them and then we had our block project.  Every time someone was "caught" building someone else up, they would get a building block.  At the end of the week, we would bring all of our blocks together, work TOGETHER and see how TOGETHER we could build a cool building.  Our little project was fun and the kids seemed to really get it.  It may not look like a lot of blocks in the picture, but everyone had some to contribute and they only earned the blocks at home after school (which is after 5pm in this country).

Jonathan was enjoying his massage.  The kids were having so much fun.   

 Benjamin contributed with all the "exercises" that they do in school every day.  At school in between each class the kids are required to exercise/massage their ears, temples, nose, forehead, fingers, and arms.  It's supposed to help them learn better.  Maybe....

 Katherine helping with dinner.

 Lauren seeing what she looks like in Daddy's glasses.

 So, this is what the view from our apartment looked like for the first 3 months we lived in our new city.  It was such a nice changed to be able to see a little sky and a pretty view.  Well, it appears that those days may have gone and the pollution is bad in this city, too.  It is unbelievable to me how little we can see.  I took this picture today (below) and things have actually improved a lot this week, but as you can see, still not great. 
I met two ladies this past weekend from America.  They don't live in my city but a nearby one.  They are new to this country and wanted to know what I miss most about America.  My answer?  The sky and sunsets :)   My answer may change from month to month, but I think that will be in my top ten for awhile! 

Field Trip

The kids have been looking forward to this for several weeks.  We have made friends with a handful of other foreigners that also homeschool.  They decided that we should all get together and go on a field trip.  It was a lot of fun!  I haven't been ice skating since we left the States!  We loaded up a bus a took the 2.5 hour drive to the rink and just let the kids play.  I was amazed at Katherine...she was really good...and Benjamin was so fast and looked so natural out there.  I was also so glad to see them making these memories.

We came prepared for the cold.  Outside is still in the 80's but it was fun to wear pants and jackets.

Regan made a new friend on this trip.  These two hit it off very quickly.  I hope we can get them together again soon.

Regan having fun!

Benjamin trying to skate on one foot :)

My other little speed skater.

Yes, I was out there, too. 

Lauren was not a big fan.  She decided that she would rather sit with the moms that were watching and play some game son the iPod.  Another little girl was so sweet and kept offering to hold her hand, but Lauren would not.  She asked me why Lauren didn't want to skate and Lauren piped up "BECAUSE I'm scared!"  Poor thing.  She even had a dream a couple nights later that she fell on the ice and hurt herself.  I guess she will not want to skip school if we get a chance to go again :)

McDonald's is the easiest place to eat (and fastest) with so many kids.  Katherine stole her daddy's hat during the meal....too cute.

Other big news....Regan lost another tooth!  Number 9  She was very excited about the "tooth fairy" coming to visit and about showing off her new space in her mouth.  Everyone she showed would say oh great did you throw it on the ground or on top of a building.  They are thoroughly confused as to why she gets money for it.  I even had someone ask me (very seriously) "If American teeth are not thrown on the ground then during the night it magically turns into money?"  When I tried to explain...well, let's just say I think I cleared it up but they think we are a little weird ;)

Holiday Week 2012

This past week was a holiday for the national schools and businesses.  We did not stop homeschooling, but the kids did have a break from the local schools and we had fun-filled afternoons with friends nearly every day!  Some very good friends of ours from our previous city came to visit.  It was so good to see them! 

When our friends arrived, we all went out to eat lunch.  There were not enough seats for ALL the kids to sit right next to Haley.  This time, the little ones got to.  Lunch was very good and we even found a dish that tastes very similar to one in the States.

 It is the custom for the kids to walk around with paper lanterns with candles lit inside on this particular holiday.  Last year, we were amazed at how many people were out and how much fun it was.  This year, we were amazed that WE were the only ones out!  So, you can imagine we didn't stay out for a long time, but had fun letting the kids walk around.  After the kids were in bed and we were heading that way ourselves, we heard a lot of noise outside.  You guessed it!  We went out too early!  In our previous city, they went out much earlier than here.  We now know that the others with lanterns start coming out around 10:30.  Through our window, we could see all kinds of fires burning.  It was very interesting.

 The holiday continued and we ventured to a park.  Someone offered to take the picture to let me in it (Jonathan was off watching the bikes while we got the picture...we had forgotten the locks)  Katherine really does not like all the attention they get sometimes...and on a holiday weekend when everyone is out having fun, the crowds of onlookers can be a little more intense.

 At the park, a little kid was playing with bubbles and the little ones joined in.  It was great because they didn't even pay attention to all the people taking their picture.  One guy had a very nice camera and stayed a long time taking their pictures.  I finally went over to talk to him (he was trying to be discrete) said hi and asked if he would please email me any good pictures that he got.  He did! And this was one of them.

 The kids also talked me into letting them spend their own money on turtles!  I still can't believe that I let them, but they love the little guys.  They were so cheap, but Lauren didn't have enough money.  So, Benjamin used his own money and bought one for her.  So far, the only one that has a name is Freddy.  The others are still waiting to be named :)

Benjamin showing off his new little pet!

 The kids also had fun playing with this hover disc.  All the kids had them out at the park, so we gave it a try as well.  It's basically just a helium balloon with a metal coil inside to make it some back down after you throw it.  The kids sure did have fun with it.

 This little girl REALLY wanted a picture with Regan.  She chased us down in the park and then got all shy on me.  I new what she wanted, since she had a camera in her hand, and started talking to her.  WE found out that she and Regan are the same age.

This is a typical scene of the kids trying to relax in the grass off the beaten path.  They still draw a crowd.  The only one you can see in the picture is Benjamin.  I'm not sure he ever noticed the other people were there :) haha.

 So, I figured if I have my picture taken all the time, I could take this lady's picture.  It made me laugh so hard.  She really did fall asleep in this rock.  I guess it's as good a place as any.

This was a neat little rock formation in the park.

WE also had a friend come over and Katherine got a kick out of her shoes.  They were really high heeled shoes.  The funny thing is...they fit Katherine!!  So my newly 5 year old can wear the same shoes as our 22 year old guest.  I guess a size 1 is a little big for a 5 yr old, but I think it HAS to be a little small for an adult!
I had a few more pics that I wanted to show, but it looks like they will not upload this time.  I hope you enjoyed what I could get up.  We'll have more next week!