Hungry Anyone?

Right away we had to feed my starving parents! Apparently, on the plane they ran out of turkey sandwiches for the second meal, so instead of eating the noodles that were offered (they are not very tasty), they ended up starving before arriving!! We took up suitcases to the room and then headed out to Wanfujing Street for dinner! We decided to start them out easy and went to Outback Steakhouse for some American cooking!

After that we wandered down the walking street to people watch and see some of the local foods available! At the very end of the "crazy" food street, my dad shocked us all by saying that he would really like to try some fried starfish. He kept talking about Samantha Brown on the Discovery Channel trying it and it couldn't be that bad!! Whatever it takes, I was proud of him for totally stepping out of his comfort zone!! I was also propositioned with some, "testicles", which I passed on! The kids loved their fruit soaked in sugar!

They've Arrived!!

On Friday, after months of planning and waiting, my mom and dad arrived in Beijing! Ellie and I went to the airport to meet them. It seemed like we were waiting forever for them to finally come through the arrival gates! We were extremely worried because the quarantine policy right now is if anyone 3 rows in front or 3 rows behind you has a fever or flu like symptoms, eveyone in those rows has to be quarantined! My mom said that at O'hare, they continued to come over the speakers and warn everyone that if they were sick, they should reschedule!

Seeing my parents for the first time in 5 1/2 months brought tears to my eyes!! I was so happy to hug them and excited to show them how we live our life here in China!! I hope they can understand, in this short amount of time, why we find it so fascinating and frustrating all at the same time living far away from home!

We had a surprise waiting for them after we picked them up, we had been upgraded to the penthouse apartment at the hotel!! It was perfect because mom and dad had their own private suite on the first floor close to the living room and kitchen, and then the rest of us all had rooms upstairs with another family room!! Thank goodness for the quiet so they could actually sleep! Jet lag is not fun!!

Parties Galore!

We celebrated Eensie's 5th birthday with his class on Sunday! He decided that he wanted to invite his whole class a couple of months ago, so I reluctantly agreed (5 is a pretty significant age!!), not having a clue where I would have the party. It's not like in the states where you can rent bounce houses or go to Chuck E Cheese, I had to put my creativity hat on to come up with some ideas! Finally what emerged was a water party...we had water guns, water balloons, and water games (fill the bucket with a hole in the cup relay, toss the ball into the water, fishing in a baby pool!). Thankfully it was a beautiful 90 degree day, so the water felt fantastic and the kids dried quickly!!

Danny also had to put on his creativity hat to decorate the cakes! Ethan and him finally decided on monster cakes! On Sunday morning Eensie helped his daddy perfect the cakes! He loved putting candies on for the face - he is quite the creative little boy and my dear husband cook probably go into decorating cakes for a living!!

Eensie received some great gifts from his friends, including burst a balls, transformers, Ben 10 figures, Legos, and remote control cars, but I think his favorite was his backpack on wheels!! He has stored all of his treasures in there and keeps telling me he is ready for the airport!! The only thing is, he keeps putting a water bottle on the side and I keep telling him security won't let him through with that (hehe)!!

After Eensie's friend party I decided that one party just wasn't enough for the day, I mean, I had the tables all set up and it is easy enough to double recipes, so I invited all of the families in our compound for dinner. I'm not superwoman, so I have to admit that I did have the main dishes catered, and everyone brought a little something to add to the spread! The kids in the compound had more water gun fights and the water balloons were gone in a matter of minutes! It was a great opportunity to relax with all of our lovely friends before we all fly off to our home countries for the summer. I am very grateful that this was not a good-bye party - amazingly, all of the families will be here for at least another year!

After entertaining about 70 people over the course of 7 hours, I was completely exhausted, but also, once again overwhelmed by the many blessings we have in our lives!! I am very, very thankful!!

The Ship is Complete!!

I cringed when Eens said that he would like the Lego pirate ship for his birthday. All I could think about were the thousand little, teeny pieces that I would likely be putting together! I decided a few days before his birthday to hint to the older boys (there are 4 who love Legos) that Eens may be getting some Legos soon and they were welcome to come and help him build. It was a genius move on my part!! In less than 3 days, we have the island and the ship built and ready to play with!! Of course, I'm imagining that it will only take 3 more days until it is in pieces again, but for now, it is complete...

Happy Dragon Boat Day!

On Thurday we celebrated Dragon Boat Day here in China. The story (from what we understand), behind this holiday goes something like this...there was a famous poet who got very depressed and decided to jump into a river to end his life. The people were very upset so they decided to row their boats to the middle of the river and throw sticky rice cakes (there's a name for them, but I'm not sure how to spell it) in so the fish would eat the rice cakes instead of the poet's body. This is obviously a very simplistic retelling of the story, but because of these events hundreds of years ago, the government decided, for the first time this year, to make the day a national holiday, which meant Danny didn't have to go to work! The kids still had school because our calendar was already set before the day was declared a holiday!

Danny and I decided to keep Coop home so we wouldn't have to go out to school at 12:00 and pick him up, but, could instead go explore the Italian concession and have lunch! The Italian concession area has just recently been renovated and it is quite lovely. There are still some buildings that are not complete inside, but the facades are all done and you can picture what the area possibly looked like from 1901 - 1947 during the time in which it was governed by the Italians. In 1947 the area was relinquished to the Chinese government. Tianjin was one of the first cities in China to give authority, in certain areas (concessions), to European countries during the the late 1800's and early 1900's in order to protect the foreigners that were there to provide the goods that were desired by the Chinese market. There were a total of 8 concession areas in Tianjin.

I have read several historical fiction and biographies about Europeans living in China during the time period of the concessions. While we were walking down the street I told Danny that I could just see the ladies in their elegant dress, pretending as if they were still in Italy. I could also imagine the entertaining that went on in these grand houses and the meals that must have been cooked. The funny thing is, we don't live in a concession area, but we do live in a compound where we all, in our own way, try to recreate our home country in this strange, wonderful country!

After exploring, we had lunch outside while we listened to the saxophone player and some violinists!! I almost forgot we were in China for a bit!!

We're Filling the House!!

I have always loved furniture and putting together spaces in our houses, but I really thought that being here would hinder my ability to do these two things! Thankfully, I am using my creativity, and despite a bit of smudged paint in places, I have been able to update our house here. Over the past week I had our office painted because I couldn't live with the white walls anymore. I just did a light chestnut, it makes the room a bit softer and more inviting! I also had my entryway painted red to match the wall in our family room. The primary reason for this was the white wall was showing my lovable children's handprints. I was worried that the red may make the space look smaller, but it just makes it a little more cozy!!

Of course, if I get new paint, I really need new furniture! Actually, it was the other way around...I bought new furniture and insisted that we needed to have some of the spaces painted!! Last month I picked out several new pieces and one old piece of "Asian inspired" furniture. I didn't want any difficulty in importing the things I have bought here back to the US, so the new pieces are actually reproductions of older pieces! It is fun buying all these pieces and imagining how they will fit in with all of our furniture that is in storage in the states!! Oh, the possibilities are endless!!

Our "old" entryway table and nine dragon screen carving...Our "new" chair and table set - the chairs have a little peony carved in the back...The "new" altar table with Danny's dragon vases on each side!

Elegant Ellie's Art

I have forgotten to post pictures of Ellie's last two paintings from her art class! We have seen tremendous improvement in her ability to finish the pieces without much direction or help from her teachers. In the first picture, her teacher sketched the drawing and El did the watercolor painting. In the second picture, Ellie sketched the drawing herself off of an image from the computer and she also painted it. It takes a lot of patience and she can now sit for about 1 1/2 hours before she gets antsy! We're excited to see what she will be able to accomplish next year!!