Finley's 1st Day of R1

Getting ready in the morning.  The kids can wear red or white polos, but of course Finley chose his favorite color red for the first day.

Here comes the bus, bringing our big R1 student home after his first day!

Din Tai Fung

Before Finley started school at HKIS, we needed a trip to Din Tai Fung to celebrate!  We filled our bellies with dumplings, string beans, noodles, and more. Elise kept calling it "Din Tai Phone".  :)

Elise 22 Months

I better get a 22 month update posted before this little lady gets any older!  At 22 months, Elise is full of spirit and has very specific wants and ideas.  She is talking up a storm, often in complete sentences.  She can sing all the words of many songs, such as Twinkle Twinkle, Great Big Stars, Go to Sleep, Rock-a-bye Baby, etc.  Elise has been daytime potty trained since about 20 months old.  She still gets fevers at the drop of a hat.  Elise takes one nap a day from about 12:30-2:30pm, but it can be difficult to keep her awake until nap time if she wakes up too early in the morning.  Elise wears size 18-24 months in bottoms but 2T in tops/dresses.  

Tea Party

A piece of pasta Elise stuck in her nose.  Fortunately we got it out and didn't need a trip to the hospital.

OP

Just a few iPhone photos from a morning trip to Ocean Park.

Last night Nate and I went out to dinner. People were burning offerings (including plenty of fake money) all along the streets for the Hungry Ghost Festival.  This is a time when restless spirits are believed to roam the earth. Sometimes we forget we're living in such a faraway part of the world, but then something like this reminds us how different it can be here. 

Back in the Saddle Again

Sorry no blog posts for a bit, but this mama's been busy! I'm now splitting my time between (paid) work and the munchkins. Here are a couple of photos of what I've been working on at school. Still a long way to go, but making progress!

My room-- only a few boxes left now!

R1 shared space-- construction still going on and lots of boxes. 

Say a little prayer for the kiddos during this time of adjustment. They are having a hard time with me working, and their behavior reflects it...

NC July 2014

As our last leg of our Tour de States 2014, we spent a wonderful week in good ol' NC.  No joke-- I had three bbq sandwiches while there, and many hushpuppies.

Who knew playing in the back of Granddad's pick up truck could be so fun?

Or so cute?

Or turn everyone's feet so black?!  (see Finley)

Poor Elise got quite sick with an ear infection thanks to the stuffy nose she had the week prior, but she still hung in there for family fun at the Greensboro Children's Museum.  There were all kinds of real vehicles for the kids to explore-- semi, ambulance, fire truck, race car, and airplane.

All three of the kids loved the beautiful chickens in the museum's garden!

Such an adorable little barn.

The pretend grocery store was a huge hit (and a madhouse), too!

On Wednesday we had a fun afternoon celebrating Granny and Papa's 80th birthdays with swimming and dinner at their club.

Isaac really enjoyed the yummy poundcake Grandmommy made.

The kids got in plenty of quality time with Maddie.  Here's Elise trying to catch her tongue.

Our last night ended with a great family dinner and annual tractor rides with Granddad.  Finley started asking about the tractor the moment we arrived in NC!

Yep, Finley is strangling and kissing me at the same time.  That pretty much sums up our relationship.

Love the total joy in this photo.

The next morning we had to say sad goodbyes to our family and the US of A.  We barely had room for the kids in the rental car with all our luggage!

Now we're back in HK and trying to get over the jet lag.  For those who aren't used to traveling across the world with young children, it's basically like this: everyone waking up at all hours of the morning and refusing/unable to go back to sleep, then tired, cranky, and misbehaving the rest of the day, and wanting to eat at weird times.  Fortunately we've had a sunny and beautiful (albeit insanely hot) week to welcome us back to HK and help us over the jet leg.

HUGE thanks to all our family for letting us disrupt your lives for 4 weeks and being such generous hosts.  We had such a great time!  We love you all and miss you already!  XO