Turkey Bowl

There is a super-fun tradition here called the Turkey Bowl. They have been doing it since we were here years ago, and it is so much fun. 

The Saturday after Thanksgiving people from all over our region come to our city to play a little game of football. They usually play SEC vs ACC (with some borrowed people filling in).  Everyone goes out and either plays or cheers the players on....or chases children around. I only have a couple pictures, because I was in the latter group. But it was fun anyway :) 

here they are in action.....matt is in the royal blue shirt

and here is the whole group after the game.

and yes, this is what our city looks like most of the time.

Rylie insisted on wearing her brothers thug hat with the bow sticking out......and it wasn't even really cold.

The kids had a GREAT time running around and playing with each other. 

And the football game was a tie if you were wondering. kind of lame I think :)

Thankful Tree

This is a picture of our Thankful Tree this year. I FINALLY finished it about a week before Thanksgiving---better late than never I suppose!

But it was a fun project! I went to the fabric market with my new, fun crafting buddy Lori! I am so thankful she is here! We got the fabric and cut it to size, and then did a little sewing (on her machine---oh how I miss mine!) and a little painting, and volia!

Ok--well, we cut a lot some leaves too!

But we really enjoyed having the tree this year. Everyday the kids got to write on one (or 3 if you are trying to fill the tree fast) leaves what they are thankful for. They got to pick their leaf from the ones at the bottom and then put it on the tree when they were finished writing.  It was neat to see what each of the kids said...here are a couple....

ry--"that God made me" "my new friends"

everett--"the world", "God"

reid--"clean water", "Jesus"

and in honor of full disclosure they were also thankful for their DS, food, clothes,candy, and toys, least you think I have totally grounded kids :)

So glad we made this and can't wait to use it for years to come!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving last week, even though we missed our family and friends at home a lot! We started the morning out skyping with some of our family/cooking the dishes we were bringing to our meal at noon. We went to our sweet friends house for lunch. The Todd's were so gracious to open their home to 9 adults and 13 kids---wowsers! But we all had a wonderful time and enjoyed good food and wonderful fellowship! I didn't get a lot of pics from the day but here are a couple.

Sweet Ry with her turkey dress and big smile. Clearly we had already eaten---stains all over her dress. that girl is a mess!

 

Rylie and Mommy 

Reid and his fun Indian feather hat from school

And this is what the kids did ALL day! Which is why I don't have any pictures of the boys---they couldn't be distracted from their games for pictures!

These are the big set of kids......

They played Monopoly, Bang, Jenga, and played outside.

The littles took out a lot of games............and enjoyed the pieces :)

We had a great day and are so thankful for friends who become family when you are so far away!

Chinese Wedding

A couple of weekends ago,we got to attend the wedding of a dear friend from college and our time here before. She got married in our city to a guy that she met over here. 

It was my first Chinese wedding and it was SO much fun!

This is Becca and Justin. As you can see she wore a traditional American dress, but the rest of the wedding was pretty traditional Chinese. The whole ceremony was in Chinese (Justin doesn't speak English), and I could actually understand more than I thought I would.

They did a sweet serving of the tea, where the bride served tea to the grooms parents and the groom served tea to the brides parents.

During the ceremony we all sat at tables in a ballroom and then when it was over, we stayed at the table for the reception.

And then came the food......

I was pretty excited about the dish on the left above--pesto pasta maybe? one of my favorites!

oh no. chicken feet in some sort of not pesto green sauce.

And the soup--meatball minestrone maybe? nikki--you know what I'm talking about! 

oh no. that's a turtle. a whole turtle.  

And because the chinese aren't big sweets eaters, they brought one piece of cake for the whole table to share. What? We asked for another one. Several times.

 Here is a pic of us after the wedding. We had such a wonderful time celebrating Becca and Justin. And it was so great to be out with some other couples without kids!

Thanks for letting us be a part of your special day Becca!

Lost Tooth

This happy boy has lost another tooth!! 

And he is also happy to report that the Tooth Fairy got word of our move and found him here!

Fall Fair

 This past weekend we went to the Fall Fair at the boys school. It was their first year putting it on and they did a fantastic job!

Here are Madison, Hailey, Reid, and Everett riding on the hayride. It was basically a motorcycle with a truck bed. They rode it around the track at the school. We don't have very many hayfields here, so you have to take what you can get :) 

But the kids really enjoyed it!

They had lots of fun games with fun prizes and the boys enjoyed them all!

They had a "jail" where you could pay 10 kuai to put a friend in jail. They could then either pay 15 kuai to not go,or stay in for 5 minutes. E got put in 3 times by his new friends at school, and although he acted like he didn't like it, I know he was secretly loving it :) He did decide to become a sheriff to help put people in jail, and it kept him safe from going back in!

(by the way--this was a great way for the school to make money! it cost them nothing and once it caught on, it was FULL!)

They also had a game where you raced to see who could eat a doughnut the fastest without your hands. Doughnuts are a rare treat over here, so E was super excited to play this game. And this picture was taken by his mean mom who was laughing, i mean encouraging him, as he played. E has no front teeth and is missing one on the bottom. He really didn't stand a chance :)

He did finish the doughnut, but did not win the race!

Overall the Fall Fair was really fun!! It was great to meet some of their classmates and see the kids interact with their friends.

Football in the Fall

We LOVE football. Watching it on TV, listening to shows with people talking about the games, and especially going to games. A little glimpse of heaven is a football Saturday in Athens, end of October/beginning of November.....ah, I can feel the crisp air, see all the red and black, taste the yummy tailgate food........

Well, we didn't get to the "perfect" game, but we were SO thankful to go to a game before we flew around the world. We went to the Georgia/South Carolina game in September, and although I would have liked a better outcome, the day was wonderful!

Aunt Andi and Uncle Scotty joined us, and Reid decided he wanted to play at Nai Nai's house with Rylie, as long as we promised to bring him some cotton candy :)

So, being half-way around the world during one of our favorite seasons has been a bit tough, but thanks to our dear friends Alan and Shannon, we have gotten to watch several games!! We have to be careful not to see scores and then we watch them on our Sunday afternoons.  It is such a fun time of fellowship with friends and fun football!!

Here are all the kids---our three and two of Alan and Shannon's--Cameron and Laura Cate

And here are the boys sporting their jerseys. As you can see this was from the game on Saturday against Auburn. Alan is an Auburn fan and his little boy Cameron has his AU jersey on and they were both good sports about the game, despite the outcome :)

Here are our little Bulldogs! We had such a fun time watching the game with good friends!

Halloween

 

The boys were Green Lantern and Superman. I had capes and masks made and then I worked hard (or colored with markers as we were walking out the door) on their shirts. They were pretty happy with the results!

Rylie was a purple/pink superhero with a tutu. Don't judge people. Halloween costumes didn't make it into the 10 suitcases. Maybe next year........

Superheroes save the day!

We did get to go to trick or treating, even though they do not celebrate Halloween over here. There was a neighborhood that organized trick or treating for all the foreigners in the city, and it was really fun! We did get quite a few interesting looks from the locals :)

First Day of School!

The boys in front of their new school!

They were super excited to go!

 Everett and his 3rd grade teacher Ms. Dwight

Everett has a couple of good friends in his class--Madison, Nick and Ji Min. Madison lives in our apartment complex, so they get to play a lot.

Everett has 7 boys and 11 girls in his class---the boys were very excited to have another boy join the class!

Reid and his kindergarten teacher Ms. Maruschak. She used to live in Columbia, SC--yay!

Reid has a friend from our apartment complex in his class--Canyon--and they are 2 of the 9 boys and only 3 girls in the class. 

We are really excited about the school and think it is going to be GREAT for our boys!

Chopsticks

 So, we had a couple of days of internet/computer issues, and then I was sick for a couple of days with strep--all the "you should have had your tonsils out" posts will be deleted :)

but we are up and running now and the posts should keep coming!

 For all the worried grandparents........

 

they are figuring out how to eat just fine :) 

Both boys have picked up eating with kuaizi so well! 

They are eating fanqiejidan, which is basically scrambled eggs and tomatoes and all three kids LOVE it!

No pictures of Rylie but she is figuring out how to eat without silverware too. Not always as pretty as one might hope.

These were actually taken just a few days after we got here, which is why they both look like they are going to fall asleep in their food! We are totally over jet lag now--everyone really did great!--and are adjusted to our new schedule.

Carving Pumpkins

We decided to carve pumpkins in the States before we left, just in case we couldn't find pumpkins over here. And because I saw this cool Star Wars carving kit and thought the boys would love it!

Well, they LOVED the idea of Star Wars pumpkins, but neither one loved the cleaning of the pumpkins and the carving was WAY to hard for them to do, so Matt and I did most of it :)

But the boys were VERY pleased with the results!

Nai Nai and the boys with their pumpkins

Anakin and the Clone

Saying Good-bye (part 3)

We had another fun weekend at Aunt Andi and Uncle Scotty's house celebrating Everett, Reid, and Scotty's birthdays!

KK with Everett and his new Action Bible. SO great for boys. Highly recommend it! 

KK and Reid with his new Legos!

The Birhday Boys!

Saying Good-bye (part 2)

 E and Nai Nai on his birthday--thanking her for his Kindle!

side note--e got to pick where we ate for lunch and dinner on his birthday. he picked mcdonalds and pf changs. tried to tell him we were moving to china where they have a mcdonalds and chinese food. he couldn't be swayed.

 We stayed with my mom for the last couple of weeks we were in the states--with visits to other family--and we did LOTS of fun things!

 Reid picked Bennihanas (japanese) for his birthday. Yummo!

Snuggling with Aunt Caroline watching football while we did some last minute packing the night before we left.

Saying Good-bye (part 1)

Before we left, we tried to spend some good, quality time with each of our families--in the middle of moving, packing, and finishing raising support!

We had a great trip to Augusta, where we spent time with Matt's family. 

Everett and Papa---apparently Everett is getting ready for China. Chinese people always sneak a peace sign into the picture at the last minute.

The boys played some football.......

 

it was Matt and Everett against Papa and Reid, and paying for dinner was on the line...... 

 

Rylie wanted to go explore the playground with KK......

but soon the game was over.

 

the game ended in a tie....and somehow the girls were responsible for dinner....hmmmm..... 

but luckily the girls had gift certificates that took care of it! (we ate at Outback....i would love some Outback right about now.......)

Reid's Birthday in China!

We arrived in our city at 8 pm on Reid's 6th birthday. After traveling for 28 hours. Happy Birthday to him. 

Our sweet friends had this fun sign in our apartment when we arrived and made him cupcakes that we waiting for us!

We sang happy birthday to Reid 

and then the kids ate up!

Enjoying his birthday cupcakes made by our sweet friends the Todds!

Ry shared in the celebration too!

It was definitely the most adventuresome birthday he has ever had.....I mean flying to another country for your birthday.......quite a birthday present :)