Happy Early Halloween!!

Happy Halloween everyone!! We started our celebration early this year because the kids did not have school today due to parent teacher conferences. The kids convinced me that we should have a party, so with lots of love from America, mom's bargains at the end of the season last year, and Danny's full suitcases from America in September, I was able to pull off a "proper" party!

The kids and I made up names for all of our snacks we were serving. We had witches fingers (aka Cheetos), Green Goblin dip and bones (aka Tastefully Simple Key Lime dip and Scooby Snacks), bat food (aka cups made into bats with popcorn, M&Ms, and ghost marshmallows), monster bites (aka crackers with chees cut into bats and cats), toes, fingers, and tongues (aka carrots, cucumbers, and cherry tomatoes), and slimy eyeballs (aka peeled tangerines)! Everytime we thought of a new name we would giggle, we even had our ayi in on it!! She must think we are very interesting people!!

Our friends asked if parties like these were "normal" in America. Danny surprised us by coming home early and quickly informed my friends that parties were normal, but I was not quite!!

We started off the party with a chopsticks game. How appropriate - right?!! The kids had to use chopsticks to move different kinds of candy from plate to plate. After they did it, the candy went directly into their mouths!!

The next game we played was to wrap each other up like mummies. The littlest munchkins had a bit of difficulty, but the older kids were great!!Our last game was to go out and hunt for little pumpkins (made out of orange ping pong balls) which my friend Karen had hidden in our garden.Eensie's favorite part was eating the food! We all had a great time and it was so much fun sharing this wacky little holiday with others. One of Cooper's little friends had never carved a pumpkin so I sent him home with a big one to tackle tonight!

Watch out Shanghai!!

I believe I wrote this summer that while the girls are away the boys will play, and that they did. So, this past weekend, myself and four very dear friends took off to Shanghai. Our intention was to shop and dine to our hearts content and I think we were very successful.

Friday night was one of those nights that I will giggle about for a long time to come!! I don't "let my hair down" that often, but when I do, watch out world!! I should not be allowed to drink tequila, but we were at a Mexican restaurant and I can't turn down a good margarita. So the night began with margaritas and proceeded back to the Ritz for a nightcap in the bar, that according to the concierge did not exist (they tried to tell us there was not a bar in the hotel - I think that was a hint!), then the worm came out (in the hotel lobby, I know, real appropriate and mature!), then some singing with the singer who apparently didn't know any words to any songs, and finally management knocking on our door at 3 am asking us to please quiet down!! Even Danny couldn't believe 5 moms could cause that much mischief in one night!!

This was the singer at the Ritz bar who must lip sync because we all knew more lyrics than she did, but she was a good sport, and a good time was had by all!!!

On Saturday we had our car come at 10:00, which was way too early, but the shops were calling our names! We shopped for 8 hours straight with only one small break and that was to eat lunch at Hooter's! Myself and my North American friend thought that our friends from across the pond should not miss out on the opportunity to dine at one of America's finest establishments! We laughed and laughed and the greasy food tasted so good!!

After our full day of shopping we went out to a delicious dinner at M on the Bund. Danny and I had taken the kids there last spring, but we were there during lunch. The view in the evening was amazing as we could see all of the amazing architecture lit up on the Pudong side of Shanghai! It was so nice to have a leisurely dinner, which even included coffee and dessert!! We were all pretty exhausted from the shopping and excitement from the night before, so we enjoyed a quiet night just chatting away!!

Then we went to get taxis and when we gave the driver the card for our hotel, he said he can't see very well. At this point one should maybe rethink getting into that taxi, but not us, in we go, we couldn't wait to sleep!

On Sunday we returned to our lovely husbands who all did a fantastic job with the children!!

One of my favorite days!

One of my new favorite days of the year is United Nations Day, which is celebrated at the kids' school towards the end of October. This year we celebrated last Friday. The kids and I were much more prepared this year and we were in as much red, white, and blue as I could muster up! Thankfully I knew what to expect, so this summer during 4th of July I grabbed a bunch of table decorations, tattoos, American flags, and clothes so the USA could be properly represented!!

The school community did an amazing job of showcasing all of the different nationalities we have in our school. The first thing they did was to parade the children into the gym behind a gentleman playing the bagpipes. I got tears in my eyes as I witnessed the pride that all of the students share for their own country, while at the same time how respectful they were of their friends' nationalities. Once we were all in the gym, many different groups came onstage and performed songs, dances, or with instruments unique to their country. One of my favorite performances was a drum performance done by about 40 students from the Japanese school (which is located very close to ours). My ears were ringing, but it was fascinating! After the assembly was finished, the children enjoyed a lunch brought by the PFO. I made 4 apple pies to contribute - I figured you can't get more American than an apple pie!! After lunch they all spent the rest of the day participating in activities to promote world peace! We can't ask for much more than that!!

The Aussie thanked the Brits for sending all of their prisoners to Australia!! Quite humorous!!

Coopie's First Field Trip!

Today I was able to accompany Coop on his first field trip! When I got the note from the teachers my first thoughts were, they are either very brave or completely crazy to take 20 little 3 year olds out of the confines of the school! I decided immediately that I needed to go since my little Coop is quite the wanderer. We made our way to a new EMart to visit a bakery. I think the purpose was to watch some baking, but in reality we bought a snack, ate it, and then got back on the bus!! I'm not sure what the educational value of it was, but I think the kids had fun and I enjoyed spending some time with Coop and his friends!!

Before we left the school, the kids got into the spirit of visiting a bakery by singing their brown buns song. Coop started out as a bun, but as you can see in the second picture decided that the pressure of being a bun was too much. He sweetly said, "Ms. Bridget, can I go see my mommy." And then he burst into tears!! Nothing lots of hugs didn't fix!!

At the bakery he was all smiles as he tried everything on his other teacher's tray. She must have good taste because he only spit one thing out (all chewed up on the table!)!!

Unpacking the "stuff"

I went up to Beijing yesterday to visit a good friend who is awaiting the arrival of her second baby. I'll explain...her, her husband and three year old live in TEDA, about 40 minutes from Tianjin. Unfortunately, the only "western" hospital close to us is in Beijing. We can be treated and seen 24 hours a day at our SOS clinic here in Tianjin, but for anything major, we must be transferred to Beijing or flown out of the country. From October through January we have many "fog" days and on these days, the highway from Tianjin to Beijing is closed until the fog lifts, making it impossible to get to Beijing. Therefore, the hospital recommends that pregnant women move to Beijing towards the end of their pregnancy. My friend had her first baby early, so she will be living in Beijing for possibly 5 weeks until she gives birth. Thankfully we are all so used to living out of suitcases during our summer home leaves that she should be just fine! However, it is a great reason for me to escape to Beijing for the day!

Yesterday we spent the entire day at the silk market. I have to start early on buying purses to bring home for Christmas...I now get quite a few requests and I personally needed a couple of new ones for the fall. Danny is not real happy with my purse obsession! Yesterday when he opened one of my closets to see how many I have accumulated, they almost all fell on his head!! Anyway, I discovered yesterday how all of the goods get delivered to the market...
It's funny because they try and be so secretive with the unloading, but everyone around knows that they are unloading their fake goods!! Oh well, it is a fun place to visit as long as you go in with the attitude that anything you buy may break or fall apart within a day!!! You also must bring a bit of Tylenol to take from the headache you will inevitably get from all of the bantering!!

Big News at the St. Martin's!!

Well, big news for us anyway!! We have made the very difficult decision to move out of our compound and be closer to school. This is what has been occupying my thoughts over these past few weeks. I know if we were in the states and had the opportunity to move closer to the children's school it would not require much thinking, but here, it is a much bigger dilemna. We have had to seriously weigh the pros and the cons of both places and try to keep what is best for our family at the center of the debate. After much thought and prayer, yesterday, we came to the conclusion that moving is the best thing for all of us right now (it also helped that our manager called during our discussion and told us they were turning the water off for 2 hours in the middle of the afternoon!!)!

So, last Friday I went and looked at 5 houses in, what we have dubbed with our neighbors, the OC! These houses are reminiscent of home...big kitchens, open spaces, fenced in backyards, and we can walk to the school!! We did look at some homes in this area when we were here for our look and see, but at the time it was too new. Now they have a pizza place, a coffee shop, a pet shop, a gym, a very nice swimming pool, a golf course, and two convenience stores (one happens to sell my favorite coffeemate - the first time I have ever seen it in China - must be a sign!!). There are also many expats that live out there so the kids will have plenty of playmates. Unfortunately, our dearest friends are not out there, so when we do move, it will be bittersweet.

We are currently negotiating for this house...

It is brand new and we will be able to pick out all of the furniture and window treatments, which here in China is a big deal!! We can actually go for the warm, cozy look, instead of the stale, modern look that is very common here! The house also has a water purifying system for the entire house which means that we can safely use the water out of all of the taps - yeah, no more bottled water for brushing teeth!! It is a three story house. There is a beautiful kitchen and open dining and living area on the first floor. There is also an office, which we will turn into a playroom, along with a full bath. On the second floor we will have three bedrooms and two full baths - I am so excited we will all be sleeping on the same floor again and the master suite is wonderful! The third floor is designated as a guest suite with another bedroom and bath and TONS of storage!! We also have a great deck and a teeny fenced in back yard!!

We realize that we will most likely have issues with this new house, but we are hoping that the owners will be a bit more cooperative than our current management. If all goes well, we hope to be in the new house before the kids and I come back for Christmas!!

Eensie's Animal Exhibition

Last Friday Eensie had his first Unit of Inquiry presentation on animals. Throughout this year the kindergarten will explore six different units of inquiry and at the conclusion they will do some sort of presentation for the parents. Units of inquiry are part of the curriculum at the school. They attempt to combine all subject areas into the study that generally takes about 5 to 6 weeks. They have one unit that will carry on throughout the year, and that is Celebrations. It is truly amazing what these children know by the end of each unit.

Eensie's first exhibition included a short speech (we're talking about 10 seconds) on bats in front of all kindy students and their parents (most mommy's were there as it was in the morning) and then he took me to his classroom where we both did activities and looked at all of the animal projects he has been involved in since the beginning of school. I am so proud of him, it nearly brings tears to my eyes when I see how much he has accomplished in just these first two months of school!

Way to go Eensie!! You are turning into quite the inquirer and thinker!!

Feeding Fish (and mammals)!!

Finally, I'm back!! Too much has been going on, but I am hoping for a little more free time in the next few weeks!!

Last weekend we went to the Tianjin Natural Museum (it was the same one that I visited not too long ago with Eens). Danny and Cooper had not visited it yet, and it was a gorgeous day for a walk. Once again, we did have a very good time and it was super clean, even though it was a weekend!

The most interesting thing we saw and participated in was feeding fishies with a baby bottle. We paid less than $1 and received our bottle with water and fish food in it (I'm really not sure, but am hoping and assuming that is what it was!). It was actually quite gross to put your hand close to these huge sucking carps, but it was a bit interesting at the same time. I guess you could say it was a China experience!! It will probably be one of those things the kids remember when they are 20..."remember that time when you took us to the museum in China and made us feed fish with a bottle?"

The kids also enjoyed feeding the seals with chopsticks. Eens was much braver this time and actually let them jump up to feed off of the sticks. Ellie was a pro (she eats with chopsticks a lot) and she kept wanting to do it over and over again. Coop was very curious, but a bit scared. He did let Danny hold him up one time, but the seals were a bit over zealous and jumped very high to get the food. I think they were a little too close for comfort!

As you can tell from Coop's smile, it was a good day at the museum!!

Tianjin Tuesday!

Oh goodness it was definitely a Tianjin day today. Really I should clarify that and say it was a Tianjin morning, most of the things that happened today occurred before 12:00.

The day started like any normal school day with me pestering the kids to get their shoes on and not to forget their backpacks. We made it safely to the bus where I got both Eens and Coop buckled in and about 2 minutes later they unbuckled and proceeded to come crying off the bus because Ellie had decided to sit with her friends instead of them. Back on the bus they went, not at all happy, but Danny was standing there, so they knew better than to make more of a fuss!

I went back home ready to enjoy a quick breakfast and a chat or two on skype and then I was planning on going to the gym. I ended up skipping the gym at that point for several good causes - dear friends on the other end of the telephone line!

At 10:00 I had scheduled a PROFESSIONAL ( I must capitalize this because our compound considers their engineers to be professionals at fixing everything - I have said before, I really don't think being able to tape anything and everything back together qualifies!) to come and give me an estimate on cleaning all of the air ducts in our house! One of the secretaries in the office had helped me make the arrangements. She accompanied the gentleman to my house and helped to translate. It started out fine, but quickly took a turn for the worst. I am explaining to her that I want them to clean, and specifically look for mold. She looks at me odd and then tells me that it should be quite easy to find the MOLE!!! After several attempts at spelling and explaining what MOLD would look like, I think she got the picture!!

I was not having good luck, but I decided that there would be no better time to ask for her to hire another PROFESSIONAL to look at my clothes dryer which lately is only allowing one piece of clothing at a time. I had the "engineers" look at it three times in the past week and of course they found nothing wrong!! Somewhere along the way we miscommunicated. She assumed because I had said I would pay for the duct cleaning (which really should be included in our maintenance, but is not) that I would pay for the dryer man also. I have never in my time here in China had anything fixed so fast and correctly. After she had left with the duct guy I quickly ran to the gym and by the time I returned home their was another man in my laundry room fixing my dryer. It turned out to be one small piece that needed to be replaced for 75 RMB (a little over $10). I refused to pay it and ended up with the "head engineer" in my house arguing with the man that the piece only cost about 35 RMB. The dryer man basically said that is true, but you weren't smart enough to figure it out, so now you must pay me for my time. I'm giggling because I can understand the conversation and also because I realize at that moment that there is no way the compound will make me pay, the "head engineer" was too embarrased about "losing face" in front of me!

While all this was happening my ayi noticed that the neighbor's dry cleaning that she had collected for them was mysteriously gone. I didn't think much about it until I realized that it wasn't gone, it was in Danny's luggage for his business trip to Shanghai!! I called him quickly just to make sure that he had packed more than that pair of pants because the neighbor and him are not the same size. I assumed he would be fine because who takes only 1 pair of pants for 5 days worth of meetings?? Apparently my husband does!! Now we had to get our driver involved...he had to bring Danny's suitcase back home where we unpacked the clothes that weren't his and repacked it with proper clothing!!

After spending my morning putting out fires, my ayi started questioning me about new pans I bought at IKEA on Monday. I couldn't figure out what she was getting at until she asked where the old pans were, then I knew she thought I should give them to her. I had put them near the rubbish for housecleaning to pick up, so they were already gone. She was horrified that I had not given them to her. I tried explaining to her that the pans were scratched on the bottom and they were not good to cook in, they could make her sick. She wanted none of my explanation, she just kept telling me that she wants everything that I buy in America!!

After a long morning, my neighbor and I walked to a coffee shop and I enjoyed a mocha, which was really just coffee with perhaps a bit of Hershey's syrup in it!! I'm happy today is almost over, but thankful for all of the friends I got to spend time with in person and on the phone, and that my dryer is finally fixed!!

Family Time!

One of the best things about Club Med is that they completely cater to the family. The kids got their own playtime with friends and activities, while mommy and daddy enjoyed tennis, drinks by the pool and intimate lunches (not so much, but at least we got to eat without getting up a million times!) during the day. The rest of the time was devoted to spending time together and making memories!!

Sharing the land and the sea!

We were located very close to the jungle, so it should not have been a surprise to learn that we would be sharing our space with some very spunky monkeys, but I was still in shock every time one of them showed up for a meal!! Danny and I played tennis every morning and on several occasions our audience consisted of monkeys playing in the trees! They also loved to congregate on the rooftops around the pools which always got a giggle out of the kids, even Eens grew to like them!!

Danny's favorite creatures were the huge lizards. Coop almost "ran" into one (quite literally) the very first day we were there. He let out a deep bellow and then I screamed my head off so much that one of the GO's (people that work at Club Med) thought I was being attacked!! Danny insisted it was a komodo dragon, but was told countless times that it was, in fact, just a very large iguana!!

One day we walked to the turtle sanctuary, which was located just beside our resort. They protect the baby turtles once they are hatched and keep them in a safe environment until they are ready for the sea. Unfortunately, we arrived just after the turtles had laid their eggs on the beach.

Another not so nice species I stumbled upon was the jellyfish. I was stung on the very first day we were there. It hurt like crazy for the first 30 minutes, almost like someone had slice my leg. The bartender at the beach put some vinegar on it (I preferred this to the pee!) and it felt a little better. I am still waiting for the after effects because one of the Aussie's we met said that it would start to itch uncontrollably soon. I'm over a week out and I'm still fine!

Here are a few other species we met along the way!

This crabby wasn't home at the time, but don't worry, Danny caught plenty that were!!