Marshall's Special Day at School

Today was Marshall's "special day" where he got to bring in a bag with his favorite toys, book, pictures, and anything that he wanted to share with the class. Then he got to sit in the teacher's chair and talk about it. He did a good job and then got to share a snack with the class. He also got to be line leader all day which was the best thing about it for him. That is all he could talk about. They also had a picnic for both EC4 classes and I put some pictures of that on here. He is with his 2 buddies- Liam and Owen in the one picture, and his friend and neighbor, Natasha in one. Also I put one of Miss Lucy, who is the TA for his class. He really likes school. Lauren has been really busy, she has after-school activities through the school on Mon and Tue until 4:30- she does a sports medley which is where they play PE games, and String Art, she likes both. She also has ballet on Tue, gymnastics on Sat, and tennis on Sun. She has been busy, but she likes all of the things she is doing, so I don't think she minds. She has been making better friends with the girls in her class, which is nice.
Things have been interesting here because of the milk recalls. Luckily (I guess), Lauren does not like any of the milk or yogurt here so she has been fine. I did throw away these yogurt drinks that Marshall just loves, because it was on the list of "badly contaminated" items. Yes, apparently there is a list of items ranging from badly to mildly contaminated. He must have had about 30 of those drinks since we have been here. They have also taken all of the milk products out of the school cafeteria. I am still giving him some milk, but I went and bought some boxed milk imported from France. I just try to find some that don't have any Chinese writing on them at all, because even the Nestle milk produced here had some melamine in it. It is most dangerous for babies because that is all they drink, but from what I hear, most products here have some melamine in them, not just the milk. It's just that there were now large amounts in the baby formula. Scary.

Other that that, things here are good. It has been a little chilly and rainy the last couple of days- in the 50's but may get a little warmer later this week. We are going to Thailand next week so that will be fun (and warm). Still trying to learn Chinese (and will be for a long time!)
Take care everyone, we miss all of you

Our Weekend

Hi everyone,
We had a good weekend here. Marshall started soccer practice on Sat morning, it is held at the other school here, about 20 min away. He is on the orange team with a few of his friends and they had a great time. They were so funny, 3 of them were the "goalies" and they were posing and laughing and not paying attention at all to the ball. At least they had alot of fun. After that, he went to a birthday party for Liam who is in his class and on his soccer team. It was a batman party. Lauren had gymnastics and did well.
Today, they both had tennis in the morning and then Marshall got a haircut. They have school pictures the next 2 days, so I figured it was time.
Lauren had a friend come over, Lailila, and they played for a while this afternoon while it rained. Lailila had some excitement since she lost her first tooth while she was here. She and Lauren giggled about it. Lauren then asked me if the tooth fairy was real, since most of the girls in her class said it was their parents who put money under the pillow. Well, I can't wait until Christmas, let's just ruin that at age 7.
I am getting them in bed now, take care everyone, we miss all of you

A Special Day

It was a special day indeed, not only did I find squeeze bottle ketchup, but also Cookie Crisp cereal, which Lauren will be very excited about. They may be dented and slightly stale, but they are ours anyway. I may go back and buy the rest, but at almost $8 a box, I have to pace myself. You just never know what will be in these grocery stores. It seems like they wait to run out of almost everything before they get a new shipment of food in. They also had Diet Pepsi, which I very rarely see, so I bought some for Todd's parents and Lolo when they come next month.
Yesterday, Lauren's ballet started. We switched from Jazz, she just doesn't like it, so we'll try ballet. There seem to be alot of kids switching around the first couple of weeks. Then I went to a Brownie meeting at her school. It is pretty well organized, they will meet 2 Sat. mornings a month.
Today Marshall only had a half day, so we went with a friend (who also has a boy in EC4- Jack) to the China Railway Museum. It was a huge (and dirty) indoor area with probably 40 engines and train cars in it from all around the world. You can climb up into them and play with all of the levers and buttons. It is probably very unsafe and I'm sure is something that would never be allowed in the US, but it is just fine here! It was neat, my friend took some pictures and I will put them up when she e-mails them to me.
Still working on my Chinese, I try to talk to the driver and ayi in Chinese and they both look at me strangely and then correct me. It is working out well, although, they probably think I am nuts.
Hope all is going well, we miss you!

Sports have started

Well, this was the weekend that the kids sports started. Lauren had gymnastics on Sat morning, and they both had tennis on Sunday. Lauren loved the gymnastics class, there are about 11 kids in the class with 3 teachers so it is pretty manageable. They also liked tennis, but it was so hot and after about 40 minutes, Marshall and the rest of the 4 year olds were about done. It was cute though and they both liked it. On Saturday, we ran alot of errands and bought Marshall a big boy bike. I also got a new one with a granny basket on it. It is great. Bikes here are inexpensive and are actually pretty good quality (one of the few things). Marshall rode it around the store for about 45 minutes while they were putting my bike together. Lauren finally decided she was ready to ride her bike without training wheels, and on Sunday, rode up and down the street for the first time ever. She just needs to get turning and stopping down and she will be all set.
They had Monday off of school for the Moon Festival, so Marshall played at Zack's and Lauren had a girl from down the street over. The poor cats will need alot of time to recover. They wouldn't leave them alone. We grilled outside last night and roasted marshmallows. The weather has been great lately and we even went to the pool for a while yesterday.
The kittens are doing well, but they have already pulled down out mosquito netting and Lauren just came in and told me they pulled hers down also. They are into everything!
I saw all of the rain in Peoria and Wheeling, and saw Jenn's pictures of the "river" in her backyard- Crazy!
Hope everyone is doing well, we miss all of you!
PS Thanks to Kristin for the Webkinz cards and to Greg for bringing them over with him!

There is something different about Marshall

Marshall had an exciting day, he lost his first tooth...at school. Last night, Marshall told me his tooth was loose and I felt it and it was barely hanging in there, but he wouldn't let me try to pull it out. I sent a note to his teacher telling her about it and that I knew about it. When I went to pick him up today, I saw her and she said "It came out". Apparently, Marshall got up by himself and got a paper towel and pulled it out. He didn't cry or anything. She put it in a bag for him and took a picture. He looks so cute! The other one won't come in for a long time, I'm sure. It only came out because he hit it when he was 2 and it has just gotten looser and looser each year.
Lauren had an up and down day...friend issues. She came home just crying and so upset because her favorite friend "Lalila" had to move to 1st grade. So she lost her lunch buddy and recess buddy. It got better later because she went over to her house and they played High School Musical on the Wii. Such drama, but I know it is hard for her. I know she will be fine, it is just hard seeing her get so upset. She is fine now and was helping Marshall get his tooth ready for the tooth fairy.
I went to the school today to hear about school safety and security. There was a speaker there from the US Embassy who was really interesting, giving information on what to watch out for, what actions to take. I'm glad I went.
Not too much else new, the kittens are doing fine and now walk all over the house exploring.
Take care everyone!

Our Visit to Xi'an

We went this weekend to a city called Xi'an, which used to be the capital of China for alot of the time when Emperors ruled it. It was about a 2 hour flight. You, know me, I was kind of worried about flying on a Chinese airline, but it was fine. Just like in the US, except they served "food" (if that is what you want to call it), it is a Chinese airline after all. I particularly liked the extra big packet of MSG, nothing like MSG to add to a pile of white goo for breakfast. Anyway, we had to leave the house at 5:00 am, so the kids were really tired the entire day. It was very busy, we took an arranged tour of the city, which was alot bigger than I thought. The reason we went there is because of the buried terra cotta warriors, there are thousands of them buried around the tomb of the Emperor Qin which they found, only in the 1970's. They were buried with him to protect him after his death. It was really neat to see, it is huge. Then we also saw some of the city. They wanted us to eat lunch at a Chinese restaurant, (the only restaurant around), but I told them the kids would not like anything there. I think our guide was a little ticked off, I don't think she does this tour with a 4 and 7 year old much. We did go to a teahouse and luckily they had some grapes, apples, and some rolls that tasted like icing-less cupcakes, the kids ate 10 of them. Between that and the goldfish, pretzel sticks, and fruit snacks, they survived. We stayed in a really nice hotel and went swimming after we got home, but were all asleep by 9:00. The next day, we went to the City Museum, a Chinese mosque, and a jade factory and then back to the airport, we got home around 10:00 pm, so needless to say, it was a challenge getting them to get up for school today. It was fun and busy weekend.
Today, I am going to go and order a larger mosquito net for Marshall, we tried to modify one from Ikea, but it just doesn't fit and he keeps getting bites. Today, when I went in to wake him up, there was one just sitting on his pillow, I think I am actually trapping them in. I am going to ride my bike there, I really like riding it now, it feels good just being able to go where you want, although, I can only buy what fits in a backpack, I need to get on of those big granny baskets for my bike.
We sent some Olympic stuff back to the US on Aug 11th, 2 of the 3 boxes have just recently gotten there, we weren't sure how well it would work, it doesn't seem very reliable and it was not real cheap. Oh well. I also bought my first fake purse, it is a fake Prada purse that I bought for about $14 US dollars. I like it. I also got some DVD's from "Tom, the DVD guy", who comes to your house with big bags of movies. I bought the new Barbie movie, Speed Racer, Sex in the City and some others. He said he would probably get High School Musical 3 the week after it comes out in the US, Lauren is very excited about that. The ones I have tried have all worked so far, but I'm sure not all of them will. He did talk me out of the buying the new Indiana Jones he had because the quality was not that good, he said he would be getting another copy soon.
Chinese lessons are going well, I really like it and tried to say some words this weekend, I was so happy when they could actually understand me.
Hope you like the pictures, I love the one where Marshall looks like he is contemplating Buddhism. You can also see the mountains in the close-up picture of Lauren, they were really pretty. I also put some picture of them acting silly in the hotel. Marshall was kind of bored in the museum, so he put on his sunglasses and found a seat for some of it. It was really neat, they had things in there dating back to at least 700 BC, it was amazing. The one picture shows a pagoda which we climbed to the top, it was a steep climb. After that, we had to stop for Popsicles.
We had a really good time.

The Kittens are Settling In

Mia and "the orange one" are settling in nicely. We just can't all agree on a name, I know we are terrible. We will take suggestions! They are starting to venture out of the kitchen now. We brought them upstairs and they immediately took over Lauren's doll bed and fell asleep. They played the entire day yesterday and then just crashed at night. They now come up to us when we come in the room, instead of diving under the cabinet. They are really nice kittens and are already litter box trained, which is nice.
I put a picture of the kids with Miss Geri. Her husband is in the hospital, after I think he had a stroke. She wrote out a few words for me and it said a blood vessel in his brain and she said his arm and leg were numb. I made her stay home Friday but she insists on coming still. I do make her leave early though. I feel bad but she won't stay home. She is great and now she is helping me with Chinese. I had my first class today, it was so fun! There are 4 other women in it who are also beginners and the teacher is really nice. We had alot of fun doing it today. She used little flash cards with the alphabet like we were in preschool to learn the pronunciation. Some of the sounds I have never heard in my life and my mouth just doesn't know how to make them yet. But I think the class will be great. I am the only American in there so to hear some of us try to say the same word with different accents was hilarious. We were all laughing so hard. I have it 2 days a week for 3 hours a day. It seems like alot, but it went really fast.
I then went to the gym and after that, I dusted off my bike and rode it to a shopping area, just to see if I could do it. It may seem little, but I was proud of myself! I hadn't ridden it for a couple of years, especially on crowded streets in China. Again, it is the little things, isn't it?
Hope all is well in US. We miss all of you!