Fall Festival

The annual Fall Festival usually falls on the last Friday of October every year. This year it was a week late. We have taken Kayleigh to almost every one of them since she was about 18 months old. I think this year was the first year she was able to really enjoy it fully. She could actually participate in most of the games and her main motivation of course was candy! Look below for some highlights!

We can't get real round pumpkins here so this background has to do for our fall picture.

They played games like toss the bean bag into the Jack-O-Lantern.

Decorated some cookies that Zeb thought would be best by just licking off the icing.

They also both got fake tattoos.

On the upward slope!

Well, I am feeling much better now however right when I started feeling better Kayleigh and Zeb got the stomach virus AGAIN! I am pretty sure this is the third time they have gotten it since September. I have decided that all the sickness is due to Kayleigh going to pre-school. She is bringing home all these new germs we have never been exposed to before. The good news is that when Zeb starts school he will hardly ever get sick since Kayleigh has been kind enough to share all the germs with him. In other news winter arrived today without any warning. Yesterday, John and I were talking about how beautiful the weather was and how nice fall as been here this year. John and I both miss the fall in America out of all the other seasons. It has been a nice blessing to have such a beautiful fall. Today it was freezing and the high was 60 degrees. Tonight the low is going to be 45 degrees. Where did the fall go? I guess it is time to get out the layers and tell Kayleigh that she can not wear her flip flops any more. She was still wearing them in the afternoons when it was warm. She would wear flip flops everyday of the year if I let her. Today she told me that it was not too cold to wear her flip flops. I politely disagreed!

Going to the Police Station

This morning started out as a typical morning, no real incidences or mishaps. It was only 10:00 in the morning and someone already had 2 spankings though. We needed to go to the police station near our house to register Zeb so he could get a new visa from the government. In China, you must register with the police every time you move houses, enter or leave the country, or add new members to your family. The later option is the one we had to obey, so we made an appointment for Friday morning around 10. As it had rained the entire night before, Kayleigh wanted to wear her new boots borrowed from Erin Ashley (pictured above and below).



As we headed towards the police station to register, we decided to take a taxi instead of taking the stroller as it looked like it would start to rain any minute. Turns out that it didn't rain one bit while we were out the entire morning, we guessed wrong. We finally arrived at the police station with no real incidents.






The police man that helped us loved Kayleigh because he has a little boy about 3 and a half years old. I took a picture of him and Kayleigh (below) and he wanted to download it onto his computer. After searching the entire police building for a USB cable, he finally downloaded the picture for himself.



It was getting to be lunch time and we decided to eat out around the police station so we walked to a restaurant nearby. On the way, Kayleigh tripped and fell onto the wet, muddy, sidewalk. She did not get hurt, but her clothes, hands, and torso were destroyed! She hated the fact that she was dirty and let us know exactly how she felt with her facial expressions.






So after the trauma of being dirty was over, we arrived at "the corner" restaurant to eat lunch. We finished off a great morning with some iron skillet sizzling beef, stir fried corn and broccoli, and Kung Pao chicken.






Zeb did not want to be left out so he decided he needed to eat too! This is an example of one of the many odd places in China I have had to nurse!



After getting home I decided to give Kayleigh a bath. I was really glad I did because her shirt had moved up when she fell so she her belly was covered in mud!