4.28.2012

Wedding Bells

Rylie and I came home a bit earlier than the boys to raise a little support and to celebrate this FUN friend!!


Laura and I have been friends since 9th grade in Youth Group and she is one of my dearest friends.
I am so thrilled that she and Colby have found each other!



Anne, Laura, and me at the rehearsal dinner



Beautiful Bride!!

4.26.2012

Scavenger Hunt


We had a fun scavenger hunt for the school age kids on a day they had off of school. 
Sonya was the creative one who found it on Pinterest and printed it out for us.  The kids had a great time and did really well. They were a bit competative at times :) but they were excited when all the teams won!


Team Kindergarden


Team Third Grade with a little help from K-4


Team 1st/2nd grade

4.21.2012

Egg Hunt

The Saturday befrore Easter we had a really fun Egg Hunt for the kids with some friends in the city. Even though it was overcast and drizzling a bit, they had a GREAT time!


Rylie getting ready to go hunt some eggs!


All the kiddos that were there


And they are off!

 Ry found one in a patch of clovers

               Ry spied one in a tree                                                      Reid pauses for a picture for me :)


Everett climbed a tree to get one out of the branches--he was very serious about finding his eggs!



Everyone counting their eggs. E's determination paid off! He had the most eggs and won 10 kuai!

me and my sweet girl


Happy Easter!
 We hope you all enjoyed celebrating the Risen Savior!


4.20.2012

Easter Baskets


I just love the fun colors of Easter Baskets!


E finding his basket hidden in the ottoman.
Matt's family has a tradition of hiding Easter baskets and everyone has to look for them Easter morning. The kids love it!


Happy Easter morning!

4.19.2012

Walking Street

There is a street near our house that we call walking street. No cars can drive on it, there are restaurants on the sides, and some water that slows down the middle. Now that the weather is a bit nicer, the kids LOVE to go play there. It is also close to Starbucks, but this non-coffeelover doesn't get too excited about that :)


Ry likes to gather leaves, flower petals, whatever she can find....


and then likes to "wash" whatever she has found in the water.


She hasn't fallen in yet, but I know it is only a matter of time.....


such a sweet girl!


Love the adventures she and I have!

4.18.2012

Fire Cupping

Ok--so I wasn't so sure about posting this, but Matt said I should, so here we go :)

A couple of weeks ago we were getting a massage at a local place, and there was someone getting the "fire  cups" as we call them.
I was totally fasinated by them. I watched the lady do it--was so curious how it worked, what it did, etc. Probably not a huge surprise to those of you who know me :)
And then she asks if I want to do them. um. well. Sure!
So, I thought she might do a couple...maybe 4 or 5.


oh no. 20 cups later, here I am.


They are supposed to draw blood to the area, which in turn draws out the toxins and promotes healing.
Can't really say if it did anything at all besides make my inner dork happy because now I know more about the process :) 


It really didn't hurt at all. But did leave these marks/brusies on my back for a while.
I think it may have been more painful for Matt to watch than for me to get it done!

4.17.2012

Pandas

For more Spring Break fun, we went to see the pands at the Panda Reserve. Most, if not all, of the pandas in the zoos in America come from our city. Kind of fun :)





We had a littel mid-morning snack picnic at the tree trunk table


I'm thinking of getting a copy of this sign for our house. It worked pretty well there........


Matt and the kids with the toddler panda in the tree


Me and the kids


E and the red panda, or lesser panda as they call them over here. E thinks they are anything but lesser. He loved the red pandas. This one was missing a tail and sweet Rylie was very concerned about it. We looked all over the reserve for it, but never found the tail. Don't tell her, but another panda chewed it off.


We then went down to the lake to feed the fish. Luckily I had a piece of pizza in my purse. It was leftover from dinner out the night before and I forgot to take it out and put it in the fridge. Turned out my forgetfulness was great for the kids and the fish! The fish were huge--perhaps they had eaten pizza before?


In front of the panda statue.


4.16.2012

Sleepover

During Spring Break the boys wanted to have some friends over to spend the night. Cooper and Cameron are homeschooled but their teachers said they could take a day off to play with us :)


Cooper, Reid, Cameron, and Everett
Reid apparently didn't get the memo that this was not the silly picture......


They had a great time watching a movie, playing the Wii......


and sleeping in a fort!
So thankful for these sweet friendships!

4.15.2012

When in Rome......



Here are Rylie and Reid "walking" baby across the street. Reid looks thrilled doesn't he?
Oh, what's that puddle in the background? So glad you asked.


 It's Rylie's pee. Yep. My little girl peed on the street. And I told her to do it.
She had just really been potty trained and she told me she had to go. There are no public restrooms in places on the street, and also no grassy areas.....so on the sidewalk it was. ugh. But that is what ALL the Chinese people kids do. So, I guess when in Rome......


And I will leave you with this sweet picture of Ry eating her first mantou, which is steamed bread. Sounds super gross? It is. But the Chinese and Rylie love it. One more thing she has in common with the locals.

4.14.2012

Pineapple on a stick



So I think Spring is finally kind of here.
 And with it comes pineapple. on a stick. sold EVERYWHERE on the street. for 30 cents. 
We have at least one a day.
 Who can say no when the kids ask for fruit?
Ry drops hers off the stick (which makes it VERY uneatible) at least half the time, and we have to get another one, so hers really cost more like 47 cents. but she's worth it :)

4.13.2012

Birthday Parties

Rylie had three sweet friends turn 3 in March. We missed the first party because we couldn't find a cab home from a work picnic.....sad day. Everytime we get in a cab now Rylie says "I'm glad we found a cab so we don't have to miss (whatever we are going to) like we missed Abi's party". Poor girl.


Moriah turned three a week later and had a fun Butterfly Party. Moriah's dad went to highschool with Matt and they hadn't seen each other since highschool. They ran into each other in Augusta and realized they both lived/were about to live in the same city over here--such a small world! We have loved getting to know them and their kids better!




The next day Laura Kate had her third birthday party and had a butterfly cake too!
Rylie and Laura Kate are besties. Close as sisters. And they argue like sisters :) Thankfully they LOVE each other like sisters too!

4.12.2012

Sunshiny Day

So, two weeks without a computer---the hard drive crashed (less than a year old), we got it replaced free at an HP store here, picked it up and it was all in Chinese. My tutoring hasn't been going THAT well, so wonderful Amy came to the rescue and TOTALLY restored it for me in ENGLISH!
But I couldn't update the blog (or do ANYTHING!) without the computer, so I have a lot of posts to catch up on!

A couple of weeks ago we had a couple of days filled with sunshine so we had to take advantage of them!


Here is Ry pushing her duck in the grocery cart in front of our apartment complex.


We walked with some friends to find a park and stumbled upon this one. The kids loved it!
Rylie, Sydney, and Lily


They played train and walked around the playground like this for a long time.
So thankful for sweet friends!!