National Day

Tomorrow is National Day in East Asia. The whole country will be taking about 8 days off to celebrate this holiday. Kayleigh's school decided to celebrate too with a performance today. John dropped her off this morning and came back home to tell me to go to her school at 10am for the performance. I should have seen it coming since she has been dancing around the house and singing in Chinese for the past couple of weeks. Kayleigh did not warn me of this performance and neither did her teachers. Notice Kayleigh's attire. All the other little girls are wearing nice white dresses and Kayleigh is in her every day clothes. They gave me no warning to dress her up. However, the teachers did compromise by putting make up on her. We were so proud of her. Last year during this performance she just basically stood there. This year was very different. She knew all the moves to the dance and even knew some of the words to the song. She did a great job!

Notice above that Kayleigh is singing on the microphone. I was surprised and proud at the same time!

Hard Hat Zone

Kayleigh and Zeb's friend Nathan had his 4th birthday party on Saturday. It was a construction party. It was full of fun games like painting a house, a wrecking ball that knocked down boxes, and a race with dump trucks. The kids had a blast! I am pretty sure my friend Brooke ( Nathan's mom) is the next Martha Stewart. She had hard hats for each of the kids with their names on the back. She also sowed each of the kids a tool belt that had goodies in it like a tape measure. She is amazing!

Painting the house.

Dump truck race.

Zeb the construction man!

Kayleigh the construction woman!

Just Hanging Around

There hasn't been much going on here and I like it that way. Sometimes we need to slow down for a while. We have just been hanging around doing some fun activities at the house. I suppose now is the time to announce to the blog world that I am pregnant. Yes, number 3 will be arriving sometime at the end of February, beginning of March. My due date is March 2ND. Kayleigh is super excited. She is voting for a girl. It is really neat to see her understand this time around. Zeb on the other hand understands a little but I still think he is going to be pretty shocked when this baby arrives. While we wait, I am taking advantage of the time I have to do fun activities with the kids. I know when number 3 arrives my time will be limited.

One day we were doing stamps and Zeb found a bug on his stamp. I am pretty sure he watched that bug for a good 10 minutes. He was so intrigued with it. Maybe I should find him bugs to play with more often so he will sit still??

Kayleigh taking a picture of herself.

And finger painting...

Zeb's version of cleaning himself up from the paint!

My Birthday

I don't think I have ever met anyone that shared a birthday with me until I met Justin Barber. What are the odds that in our small community of Americans that someone would have the same birthday? I think pretty slim. Not to mention that he was born in 1988 and I actually remember what I was doing in 1988! That makes me feel old. However, Kayleigh made me feel better when she guessed that I was 21! I thought I would take that offer. We had a great time celebrating together. We went to the Japanese steak house which is one of my favorites. Also, my mom friends had a picnic for me in the courtyard with a chocolate cake. It was a lot of fun! Later on this week, John plans to take me to a nice Thai restaurant, just the two of us.

My cake turned out a little crazy looking but it still tasted wonderful! Give me chocolate any day and I will be a happy woman!

Justin and I may have been born on the same day but we are complete opposites in how we like our desserts. His choice for a cake was a fruit pizza. It was good but doesn't beat chocolate in my book!

Rice and Other Things

In an effort to keep my little ones busy in the morning I am always looking for activities for them to do. My friend Laura had a great idea for them to play with dry rice. They love it! They will spend about 45 mins filling cups with rice, measuring rice, using cookie cutters to make shapes and pouring rice through funnels. I am so thankful I have a balcony because lots of the rice ends up on the floor. Especially, when Zeb gets bored and just starts dumping it on the floor.

Lately, Kayleigh has been saying some funny things. First of all she still thinks you can get small again. I was recently pulling out her old clothes for a friend of mine and she asked when she gets small again if she can wear them. I try and try to explain to her that you only get bigger and older but I'm not sure if that concept has sunk in yet. Sometimes however she gets it. The other day she told me that she thinks when she is 21 she will be able to ride her bike without training wheels. I assured her that she was right!

Friends

In our second and third year of living here there was a family that lived here with us. The Montague's had 4 girls and were such a blessing to us. They were here when Kayleigh was just a baby and gave John and I a ton of parenting advice. We had to say goodbye as they returned to the states. They decided to return and spend three weeks here this summer. We were so glad to have them come and visit. Kayleigh and Zeb especially loved the two younger girls who showered them with tons of attention. Below is a picture of Mary Van, Kayleigh, Ruthie, and Zeb saying goodbye. Mary Van and Ruthie had made some special things for Kayleigh and Zeb and they loved it. Here is to great friends!

Saying Goodbye

Saying goodbye is never easy. My parents have spent a month with us and we have had a blast! Kayleigh and Zeb have thoroughly enjoyed having their grandparents around and to be honest I have too! Yesterday we both had flights to catch. Ours was back to our city and Mom and Dad's was back to the USA. We had to say a fairly quick good bye because we were going to miss our flight. It was such a quick goodbye that I didn't have time to get sad however, today is different. The kids keep asking where their Nana and Popa are and well it just breaks my heart. How do I explain to my 4 and 2 year old that they won't see their grandparents for a while? I am pretty sure Zeb was convinced that my parents had moved here. He keeps naming random things around the house as Nana's or Popa's. After 6 years of living here you would think that the goodbyes would get easier but they haven't. In some ways they have gotten harder. The older my kids get the more they remember their grandparents and the more they miss them. However, I feel so thankful that they could come and spend a month with us and see our life here. I wouldn't change that for the world.

Beijing

As my parents were ending their time here we flew to Beijing with them to see some tourist sights. We had a wonderful time and John and I especially loved eating at Outback Steakhouse! It is a huge treat for us to eat there since we don't have many American restaurants located close to us.

We had a great time at the Great Wall. I can now say that I have been on the Great Wall with every one of my immediate family members except my brother Johnathan. Johnathan, you need to come over here! Despite my mom's fear of making it down the hill from the Great Wall on a sled, she did a great job. I was proud of her.

Everyday we were there we spent every morning site seeing. Kayleigh refused to take naps while we were there but the traveling got the best of her. This is a picture of her on a public bus. It was very crowded, loud and about 100 degrees yet she slept through it all! When it was time to get off the bus we had to pick her up and carry her. She was so tired!

The weather was unbelievably hot there. We would be outside for 15 mins and had already sweat through our shirts. Despite the heat we had a great time and I am so glad my parents got to see Beijing.

Swimming, Swimming in the Swimming Pool!

We have lived here for 6 years and still find little treasures every now and then. Earlier this summer my friend Brooke introduced me to this awesome pool! Before this time there hasn't really been a good pool for us to swim in here. There is one pretty close to us but because the weather stays around the high 70s low 80s all summer the pool basically doesn't get warm and stays freezing cold. It doesn't make for a good swim. The pool Brooke introduced us to is heated so even on a cooler day we can enjoy a nice swim. The whole month that my parents were here we went to the pool about once a week. We would go for the morning and take a picnic lunch and stay till nap time. I am convinced that Kayleigh would live in the water if I let her. She cried almost every time we had to leave. She even asked me once if we could live there. The pool was extra special this time because my parents were here. Kayleigh and Zeb always had someone to throw them around in the pool or someone to jump to. We had an awesome time every time we went and we are so glad to find another treasure like this one!

West Mountain

I have lived here for 6 years and never been to West Mountain. I think some of the times when people were going I was too pregnant to do the hike. Then last year when my sister Hayley and her husband Charlie were here, we planned to go till Zeb got sick that morning and we had to cancel. So this time when we planned to take my parents I was really excited and a little on edge that something else might come up to keep me from going again. The West Mountain was as new to me as it was to my parents. We had a wonderful time. We rode a chair lift to the top and then hiked our way back down the side of the mountain. I wasn't sure how my mom was going to take the chair lift but she survived. At times my children became as much the attraction as the mountain they came to see. The view was amazing and beautiful. I was so glad that I finally got to go!

At points in the hike there were tunnels dug out of the mountain for us to go through.

A view of our city from the top.