A-ma and A-gong

The kids were very blessed with a spontaneous trip by A-ma and A-gong, who came and spent Tuesday with us. Lizzy stayed home from school. We went to the Sheraton for a breakfast buffet, then went downtown to walk around. After our afternoon rest times, we played for a little while at home and then went out for dinner again.

What's an outing with A-gong without ice cream?

Reading for A-ma

International Day

Last year, Lizzy dressed "Australian" for International Day. This year, they combined International Day with China Day, so I dressed her in the traditional Chinese Qi Pao. There were carnival games, good food, and performances. Fun!

A friend of ours recently started teaching at Lizzy's school. Lizzy recognizes him from him coming over to our house often, and exclaimed, "what is HE doing here?"

Lizzy sitting with her class to enjoy the performances

Can't help being silly! Her teacher is Canadian - thus the Canadian flag.

Bored with chicken nuggets

One time I took Hayden to the office, and he was such a good boy that I rewarded him by taking him to KFC's for some chicken nuggets for a snack. He looked bored with the nugget, but ate it all.

Tianjin Amusement Park (part 2)

After a few rides, we took a break and ordered some McDonald's Sundae. Here the children are waiting eagerly in front of this smoking man

this was the favorite ride of the day - the canoe ride

motorcyle

I got a little nervous but let the kids go on this fairly fast ride all by themselves

Tianjin Amusement Park (part 1)

A few saturdays ago, I took the kids out to the TJ Amusement park for a morning of fun! Here's L & H on the train (very boring for mom, and only minimally entertaining for the kids, but it was a good first ride to ease into scarier rides).

Here's the more scarier ride, dolphin ride - it spins around and could get up to pretty fast speeds.

with the three of us in the dolphin, Hayden kinda gets smushed

Merry Go Round - classic.

Hayden's still too little to be on an actual horse himself, so he rode in the carriage with mom

Xiao Bai Tu

Hayden recently learned this song:

Literal translation from the Chinese:

little white rabbit
white and white
two ears sticking up
with her lips open wide
loves to eat carrots and loves to eat vegetables.

Merrells

like Daddy's!!

Our little houseguest

A couple of weeks ago our little friend Adah had a brand new baby sister join her family! Last weekend, we decided to have Adah over for the day so her Mommy can have some bonding time with baby Claire.

The girls had a ton of fun together playing dress up and polly pockets

Adah helped Hayden with some puzzles - she will be such a helpful big sister

After their rest time, we played outside for a while before Adah went home.


We all enjoyed having Adah here and hopes she can come again soon!

Learning Pinyin

This past summer I gave Lizzy a crash course on Chinese pinyin. I am hoping she will really be able to read pinyin by the end of the school year. Here she is, reading a pinyin book. Hayden, of course, has to do everything his sister does, and frankly I'm surprised at how much he picks up. Here he's sounding out the four tones of Chinese all by himself! I had no idea he was paying attention while I was teaching Lizzy this summer.

Grape Apples

We love the variety of fresh fruit we can get here. One such fruit is a fresh date. They are small and crunchy with a small core. My friend Shannon calls them mini apples. Lizzy calls them grape-apples. Lizzy can eat tons of them in one sitting.

really, that's a LOT of grape apples

Hayden is a bit shell shocked at how many Lizzy has eaten.
He's not as much of a fan.

As promised

I mentioned in a previous post that we will buy Hayden a bike seat.

Playground Fun

Spending lots of time outside before it will become too cold.

Nussa

One of our breakfast staples is bread with Nussa. Nussa is an European equivalent of Nutella (chocolate/hazelnut spread). It can get messy with two year olds.