Egg Hunt

The Saturday befrore Easter we had a really fun Egg Hunt for the kids with some friends in the city. Even though it was overcast and drizzling a bit, they had a GREAT time!

Rylie getting ready to go hunt some eggs!

All the kiddos that were there

And they are off!

 Ry found one in a patch of clovers

               Ry spied one in a tree                                                      Reid pauses for a picture for me :)

Everett climbed a tree to get one out of the branches--he was very serious about finding his eggs!



Everyone counting their eggs. E's determination paid off! He had the most eggs and won 10 kuai!



me and my sweet girl

Happy Easter!

 We hope you all enjoyed celebrating the Risen Savior!



Easter Baskets

I just love the fun colors of Easter Baskets!

E finding his basket hidden in the ottoman.

Matt's family has a tradition of hiding Easter baskets and everyone has to look for them Easter morning. The kids love it!

Happy Easter morning!

Walking Street

There is a street near our house that we call walking street. No cars can drive on it, there are restaurants on the sides, and some water that slows down the middle. Now that the weather is a bit nicer, the kids LOVE to go play there. It is also close to Starbucks, but this non-coffeelover doesn't get too excited about that :)

Ry likes to gather leaves, flower petals, whatever she can find....

and then likes to "wash" whatever she has found in the water.

She hasn't fallen in yet, but I know it is only a matter of time.....

such a sweet girl!

Love the adventures she and I have!

Fire Cupping

Ok--so I wasn't so sure about posting this, but Matt said I should, so here we go :)

A couple of weeks ago we were getting a massage at a local place, and there was someone getting the "fire  cups" as we call them.

I was totally fasinated by them. I watched the lady do it--was so curious how it worked, what it did, etc. Probably not a huge surprise to those of you who know me :)

And then she asks if I want to do them. um. well. Sure!

So, I thought she might do a couple...maybe 4 or 5.

oh no. 20 cups later, here I am.

They are supposed to draw blood to the area, which in turn draws out the toxins and promotes healing.

Can't really say if it did anything at all besides make my inner dork happy because now I know more about the process :) 

It really didn't hurt at all. But did leave these marks/brusies on my back for a while.

I think it may have been more painful for Matt to watch than for me to get it done!

Pandas

For more Spring Break fun, we went to see the pands at the Panda Reserve. Most, if not all, of the pandas in the zoos in America come from our city. Kind of fun :)

We had a littel mid-morning snack picnic at the tree trunk table

I'm thinking of getting a copy of this sign for our house. It worked pretty well there........

Matt and the kids with the toddler panda in the tree

Me and the kids

E and the red panda, or lesser panda as they call them over here. E thinks they are anything but lesser. He loved the red pandas. This one was missing a tail and sweet Rylie was very concerned about it. We looked all over the reserve for it, but never found the tail. Don't tell her, but another panda chewed it off.

We then went down to the lake to feed the fish. Luckily I had a piece of pizza in my purse. It was leftover from dinner out the night before and I forgot to take it out and put it in the fridge. Turned out my forgetfulness was great for the kids and the fish! The fish were huge--perhaps they had eaten pizza before?

In front of the panda statue.



Sleepover

During Spring Break the boys wanted to have some friends over to spend the night. Cooper and Cameron are homeschooled but their teachers said they could take a day off to play with us :)

Cooper, Reid, Cameron, and Everett

Reid apparently didn't get the memo that this was not the silly picture......

They had a great time watching a movie, playing the Wii......

and sleeping in a fort!

So thankful for these sweet friendships!

When in Rome......

Here are Rylie and Reid "walking" baby across the street. Reid looks thrilled doesn't he?

Oh, what's that puddle in the background? So glad you asked.

 It's Rylie's pee. Yep. My little girl peed on the street. And I told her to do it.

She had just really been potty trained and she told me she had to go. There are no public restrooms in places on the street, and also no grassy areas.....so on the sidewalk it was. ugh. But that is what ALL the Chinese people kids do. So, I guess when in Rome......

And I will leave you with this sweet picture of Ry eating her first mantou, which is steamed bread. Sounds super gross? It is. But the Chinese and Rylie love it. One more thing she has in common with the locals.

Pineapple on a stick

So I think Spring is finally kind of here.

 And with it comes pineapple. on a stick. sold EVERYWHERE on the street. for 30 cents. 

We have at least one a day.

 Who can say no when the kids ask for fruit?

Ry drops hers off the stick (which makes it VERY uneatible) at least half the time, and we have to get another one, so hers really cost more like 47 cents. but she's worth it :)

Birthday Parties

Rylie had three sweet friends turn 3 in March. We missed the first party because we couldn't find a cab home from a work picnic.....sad day. Everytime we get in a cab now Rylie says "I'm glad we found a cab so we don't have to miss (whatever we are going to) like we missed Abi's party". Poor girl.

Moriah turned three a week later and had a fun Butterfly Party. Moriah's dad went to highschool with Matt and they hadn't seen each other since highschool. They ran into each other in Augusta and realized they both lived/were about to live in the same city over here--such a small world! We have loved getting to know them and their kids better!

The next day Laura Kate had her third birthday party and had a butterfly cake too!

Rylie and Laura Kate are besties. Close as sisters. And they argue like sisters :) Thankfully they LOVE each other like sisters too!

Sunshiny Day

So, two weeks without a computer---the hard drive crashed (less than a year old), we got it replaced free at an HP store here, picked it up and it was all in Chinese. My tutoring hasn't been going THAT well, so wonderful Amy came to the rescue and TOTALLY restored it for me in ENGLISH!

But I couldn't update the blog (or do ANYTHING!) without the computer, so I have a lot of posts to catch up on!

A couple of weeks ago we had a couple of days filled with sunshine so we had to take advantage of them!

Here is Ry pushing her duck in the grocery cart in front of our apartment complex.

We walked with some friends to find a park and stumbled upon this one. The kids loved it!

Rylie, Sydney, and Lily

They played train and walked around the playground like this for a long time.

So thankful for sweet friends!!

Couples Skate

Hailey's 7th birthday party was last weekend and she had it at the skating rink. And I found out there that neither of my boys had EVER been rollerskating. WHAT? How did that happen? Anyway, we laced them up and off we went.

They had a lot of fun and

After a lot of this.......

they caught on pretty quickly and had a GREAT time!



They want to go back again and practice, and Reid said he might want to have his party there this fall. A fun day that brought back lots of fun childhood memories!

Hot Pot

While we LOVE the food over here, there are some things that still haven't totally won me over. Hot pot is one of them. It is a very famous meal that originated in a city not too far from ours.

I would compare it to fondue, but I am afraid that might bring too pleasant of an image to mind. 

Here is a picture of hot pot. It is pot full of oil/water/spices/unknown things. This is a split pot with spicy spicy on the outside (red part) and mild on the inside (white part). You wait until it boils and then

they bring you the food that you have ordered--we had potatos, lotus root, beef, mutton, duck tongue noodles, and tofu--and you put it in the pot to cook and then fish it out with chopsticks.

Matt LOVES hot pot. It is not my favorite. So when our crazy  adventerous friend was in town from America and she said she wanted to eat hot pot, I was all on board with taking Matt because then I didn't have to go later by myself. See, we had 8 of us at the table. Therefore, I could pretty much put my chopsticks in the bowl and dig around every once in awhile and get away with not eating a thing. Thats right, I didn't have to eat it but my hubby enjoyed it and I got to hang out with fun friends. Brilliant.

sweet friends!

I have known Lauren and Jane since my freshman year in highschool.

We went to youth group together and now Lauren and I are serving over here together! Jane came to visit on her spring break this year. It was so great to see you Jane!!

Super fun package!!

We received a really fun package from a wonderful family today!!

Thank you so much!! What a fun blessing!!

Roar!

Rylie roars everytime she sees one of these lions. And they are everywhere.

 These two were at the antique market where i quickly made a decision we spent a LONG time picking out the entertainment center that Matt and I gave each other for Christmas. The lions provided a bit of entertainment for Rylie while we bargained, which I was very grateful for. Antique buying isn't what it used to be over here.....so much more expensive. But I still love the pieces! So unique and fun.

Earth Puzzle

E had his first science project this past week and he picked Earth.

They had to write a report and do a visual project. He made a puzzle with questions on the pieces and the answers underneath.

He worked really hard on it, and I think it turned out great!!

and for all of you wondering, I did really well pretty good with letting him do all the work himself. My OCD, prefectionist tendencies took a back seat to the wonderful, innocent creativity of his third grade mind. Oh who am I kidding--I practically had to tie my hands behind my back, and its really dangerous to let a third grader use an exacto knife by himself right? and the don't get me started with the handwriting......

Can you hear......

....the Hallelujah chorus??

We are singing it loud and proud in these parts of the world!

This little girl is POTTY TRAINED!!!

We have been doing a lot of this.....

a little playing games on the phone while we wait....

and now we are here!!

And the poor thing still gets sad when I tell her she can't go to the bathroom standing up. She just wants to be just like her brothers :)

We are so proud of this girl!

As much as I greatly dislike potty training, Rylie did great!!

She might be 8 before she stops asking for treats after she pees, but candy is cheaper than diapers :)