Happy Mother's Day!!

Happy mother's day to my mom, my sister, my mother-in-law, my wonderful friends, and all of those expecting mommies!! I hope everyone had a beautiful day! I feel so blessed to be surrounded by such wonderful moms! I know I never have to look far for an ear to listen or advice if I need it on raising my lovely munchkins! I have some of the best role models on mothering and I am forever grateful for them!

We celebrated my special day by going to Beijing for the weekend (I'm assuming this is a huge surprise for most of you!)! On Saturday we shopped and in the evening shared a lovely Italian meal with our dear friends. Then, off went my wonderful husband (until 4:30am) to enjoy the nightlife in Beijing, while Karen and I were content to get foot massages and share a bottle of wine!! The children must have realized it was our special day because they were so good!! On Sunday we took the boys to get their hair cut (Eens is blond again!) and then we went to enjoy a lovely brunch at The Orchard (new favorite restaurant in Beijing!)! This place is quite a little gem, nestled in a suburb of Beijing! They grow their own salad and herbs on site to use in their dishes. They also have orchards of pear and apple trees. There is a lovely lake that you can take a walk around after your meal. And best of all, the food is delicious! Even Danny was impressed and that is rare!

When I was growing up, I always dreamed of being a mommy! I love my three free spirits from the bottom of my heart and I am so thankful my dreams came true!!

Be Fit Your Way in May!!

On my final day of subbing, the elementary students participated in sports activities all afternoon! It was a great way to end the week and we thankfully had beautiful weather! Our PE teacher organized the event and boy, the kids worked hard! Each grade level started out by running 400 meters around the track in front of everyone. Then we split up into grade levels and rotated through the events. The little kindy kids had one event and then they had to go back and run another 400 meters - many of them were dragging, but they were having a great time and they all tried their best!! I was extremely proud of Eens because he didn't choose to come in last like he did last year!! He didn't come in first, but he didn't come in last!!

Here is Eensie doing the ball toss! I think grandpa will probably have to work with him on throwing a ball this summer!

Ellie is our little track star!! I imagine her long legs will serve her well as she grows up!! I don't think she actually won her second race, but she was neck in neck with one of her best friends! Her form is great and I could definitely see her running the 800 meters like her mommy!!

El is in red on the inside lane of the track!! I think I have several pictures of myself at this exact spot on the track taken by my Grandpa Kimler right after the gun went off!!

And Coopie got to participate in the afternoon by playing in the bounce houses!! That was enough organized activity for him, although if they would have allowed him to run the 400, there is no doubt in my mind that he would have given it his all!!

A Most Interesting Lunch

A couple of weeks ago I went to lunch with some friends at a hot pot restaurant! I believe the English translation was something like drain pot submarine!! It is a chain restaurant that has 4 different locations in Tianjin. Danny had been to a different location previously and he always raved about the customer service! He was definitely right about the customer service - they take it to the extreme!!

If you have to wait for your table, you can do it while you enjoy a manicure!

Then, I had my iphone sitting on the table beside me, so they came over and put it in a little baggie so it wouldn't get any food on it.

Next, they brought us all aprons to wear during the meal!!

The food came immediately. We chose one spicy broth and also a mushroom broth to put our veggies and meat in! I had the tiniest of tastes of the spicy hot pot and could hardly breathe, it was too hot! I stuck with the mushroom broth and the veggies!

Finally, towards the end of our meal we were entertained by the noodle man. He did a little kung fu movement while he made the noodles - it was very entertaining!!

I would definitely go back and eat here again! As you know, this is not always the case with many new restaurants I try here! I believe that the entertainment value of the whole meal was worth my burning mouth and throat!! Plus, it's always important to be surrounded by wonderful friends!!

It's been a long two weeks!!

The past two weeks have been rather hectic and busy at the St Martin household. I spent the first week teaching kindergarten in Eensie’s class and this past week I have played catch up! I also managed to sneak in a pity party or two for myself!!

Eensie’s teachers went away two weeks ago to a reading conference in Chicago. I was asked to substitute teach for the week they were gone. I was quite hesitant because Eens is always a little monkey when I drop him off and pick him up. I didn’t know if I could effectively teach the rest of the children while dealing with Eens. After a few chats with the teachers and the principal, I decided to do it! It turned out to be a great week. Eensie was so well behaved, I was thankful and impressed! The rest of the children, whom I know quite well outside of school, were also fantastic! I’m sure I have my mommy friends to thank for possibly bribing their children for my benefit!!

We started off on Monday with a lovely pirate book. I thought I would impress the boys with my love for pirates. It turns out I actually ended up impressing them even more with the topless mermaid in one of the pictures. I learned straight away that I should preview everything before I dive right in!!!

I counted myself lucky that I only had one case of blood! One of the children got a little over excited for reading groups and knocked another one in the mouth with the book basket!! I feel very fortunate that I only had that one incident considering every time I had them standing nicely, the second I turned my back they somehow ended up in a pile on the floor!!

I struggled a bit with the non-English speakers. I have no training in teaching ESL, so I really didn’t have any strategies for those children who were learning to speak English. As a teacher it is easy to get frustrated when they don't follow directions, but I kept telling myself to imagine sitting in a classroom and the teacher only spoke Chinese. I would understand every few words, but not enough to really get the message.

After working for the entire week, I was exhausted, but excited that I survived! I'm sure the kids were very excited that their favorite teachers were back on Monday!!!

Last week I spent time trying to get myself organized again!! I have so much respect for working moms - I worked for one week and everything at home got turned upside down! I also allowed myself a couple of pity parties during the week, which unfortunately my dear, sweet sister had to deal with!! I was just anxious about going home for the summer! Of course we want to come back, but it is a bit difficult to keep everyone happy when you are not in your own home! It is also hard for the kids and I to be away from Danny - we are so used to spending all of our time together, so it throws us all a bit when we are apart for long periods of time. I know that is a good thing that we are so close knit, but it doesn't help in this situation! Danny is trying to make it easier on me and he will stay a little longer this summer because of Steph's wedding in July! I know in my heart it will all work out and there will be tears when we have to come back after a great summer, but right now the planning is clouding my frame of mind!!

It could be anywhere!

We have been spending a lot of time outside these past few weeks as our long winter finally turned briefly into spring and then quickly into summer! We are all trying to get used to not having all of our close friends outside enjoying the weather with us. Ellie and Coop insist on racing their bikes around a ready made track on our street and Eens is content kicking the soccer ball!! We're patiently waiting for our grass to grow (yes, it has been almost 21 days and it is scarce, but you can see it!) so we can play in the backyard!!

Last Friday while we were walking to the park I took some pictures of our new surroundings! Maybe I am completely out of touch, but it looks like these houses could be anywhere in America. The only difference is, only about 60% of them are occupied!! There are also the dramatic features in many yards, such as the naked woman fountain, the life sized zebra, and waterfalls or ponds in almost every yard!! Other than that, I feel right at home!!

I mean, who wouldn't want a zebra in their front yard (crazy people!!)!
And of course, the same people with the zebra have the boobie lady (as the boys say)! Seriously, I thought we lived in a kid friendly neighborhood!!
This is the main street that our little mini street is off of. At both ends there are guard gates and there are many speed bumps, so the cars usually go slow. But, since there are so many empty houses, there really aren't that many cars!
This is not our exact cul de sac, but we live at the end of a street just like this! The house on the left usually has chickens and roosters scattered about! I love getting woken up bright and early by the rooster!
This is the built in race track! Coop and El can go round and round!!

Our final destination on this beautiful day was to the park that is nearby! It appears to be fairly safe and the kids love to play on the exercise equipment!!

Trash Mountain!!

I've mentioned trash mountain in a previous post because one of our new favorite restaurants is located there! Trash mountain is a fake mountain in Tianjin! The story goes that the "mountain" was created from all of the dirt that was used to dig out the space for the two huge Olympic stadiums that are only a couple of blocks away. Locals claim that one day they woke up and there was a mountain, so it has been nicknamed trash mountain! The government has made trash mountain into the first public park in Tianjin that does not have a fence around it. Imagine people being able to roam freely through a park!! This is not a big deal to us, but to the people here, this is huge! Of course, there are still plenty of guards roaming the park and sitting at designated areas, but this is as free as it gets!

The park has trails to climb the mountain, a pagoda at the top, a sledding hill in the winter, an actual proper running track around the perimeter, and two children's play areas! Last Saturday was the first time we have actually got to explore the "mountain" after eating a yummy lunch!! The kids loved running up and were not scared when we came to steep hills, however, I was not so brave and almost had to resort to sitting on my bottom and scooting on the way down!!

On our way up!!

This is the running track that they were just finishing!!

This looks like a lovely bridge, but I was a bit skeptical about the glass. Of course this was for good reason...on the other side of the bridge was this

Like mother, like daughter!! She loves to read!!

Thanks Grandma!!

It only took grandma 4 1/2 months to get Ellie her birthday gift this year!!

The entire first year we were in China we had no problems receiving boxes from the US! We had very dear family and friends who helped us keep sane by sending care packages quite often. We were thankful last year that boxes typically arrived in one week, it rarely took longer than two. An even bigger surprise was that the boxes were in good condition! This year we obviously are not getting as many packages because our family has visited and realize we can find a lot of what we need here (at typically triple the price!)! However, we still get boxes at birthday times and the kids get soooo excited! There is nothing better than coming home from school and seeing a box waiting for you with your name on it. They always know it is love from America!!

This year my mom put El's birthday box in the mail two weeks before her birthday to make sure it was delivered on time. We were also moving at about the same time and I was unsure how delivery would be at our new place so I wanted it to go to our old place! Two weeks came and went, Ellie's birthday came and went, and our move came and went and no box arrived. Ellie was sad, but she understood that grandma had put it in the mail and all we could do was wait. We came back to the US for Christmas and found out the box had made it to Tianjin, but not to our address. Then about a week after we returned to China, mom received the box back - there was all that shipping money down the drain!!

I'm not sure what my mom was thinking, but the next birthday up was Coop's so she put his gift in a box and shipped it over. It arrived in less than 10 days. Ellie thought for sure that her birthday gift would be in there, but instead she found underwear from grandma. This did not go over well - she told me one day she was going to write grandma an e-mail, I got nervous!!

After Coop's birthday, she forgot about not getting her gift yet, and she was pleasantly surprised and a bit confused when her daddy brought it back from America two weeks ago!! This poor gift made it to China twice, but Ellie has said she is glad she was so patient because she loves it! Below she used her American Girl doll book to fix her doll's hair just like hers!! Thanks grandma!!