Lucy & Allie Stay the Weekend

Our friends Luke and Missy were brave enough to run in the Beijing Great Wall 1/2 marathon. We offered for their kids to stay with us so that they could enjoy their time there. Lucy and Allie are great friends of Elizabeth and Alex's so everyone was looking forward to it.

On Saturday, we went to Century Park to the amusement park area. Alex went on his first ride by himself in the cars. He was so proud. It was a really hot day, so we didn't stay long. Also the Steven's girls are blond so everywhere we went, people were gathering!

The girls slept in Alex's room, but there was not much sleeping going on. I think they were all worn out by the time they went home. Great time!

Elizabeth's School Music Program

Elizabeth had her spring music concert in the new theatre. They all sang nice and loud! It was a great concert and we were really proud of how well Elizabeth did on stage.

Major Earthquake in China

A major earthquake hit China Monday the 12th at 2:28pm local time. The center of the earthquake was in Wenchaun which is in the Sichuan province. This is about 1800km (11oo miles) from Shanghai. The earthquake registered 7.9 on the Richter Scale. This earthquake was 10 times stronger than the one that hit San Francisco and toppled the Bay Bridge in 1989 (6.9). Estimates are that maybe 50,000 people lost there lives with tens of thousands still missing. Kirk was at his office when the earthquake hit and did not feel anything, but Kath and Grammy felt the apartment shake. The earthquake was felt all across China and many buildings in Shanghai evacuated.

There was a moment of silence at 2:28 on Monday the 19th to honor the victims. Many organizations are collecting donations to send to Sichuan. Many countries have sent rescue teams. Our church's offerings this week are being sent directly to Sichuan through the Caritas program. It's difficult to read the papers or watch the news because there are more sad stories than great ones. Although they did find a lady 150 hours after the quake happened. I think that is God showing that miracles do happen.

Mother's Day

Mother's Day was a great celebration. We went to church, then we went to an awesome brunch at the Westin. Free flow champagne! The kids had a playroom that they could go to. Even decorate their own cake to give to Mom.

The afternoon was filled with a birthday celebration. Alex's friend, Chloe Eng, turned 3. They had a bounce house and that is all you need to fill up an afternoon of fun for 3,4, and 5 year olds! You can see a picture of my friend Kim Young with their new baby, Cormac who was born in Shanghai.

Thanks to the kids and Kirk for making our day so special.

Visit to SheShan Park & Cathedral

Since the kids and I enjoyed SheShan so much, we went back with Kirk, Grammy, and our friend Romo for a day. It was a nice sunny day and we packed a picnic. Once again, we had a fabulous time except for this day, there was hardly anyone at the park so it was even more enjoyable.

Last time, we didn't make it much past the beach. This time we got Alex to walk on and we discovered many other fun places. The most fun was the bounce area. You can see from the pictures and videos that the adults had just as much if not more fun than the kids.

After the park, we drove up the hill to where the Cathedral is. I stayed in the car with the sleeping kids while the others walked the remainder of the way.

The She Shan Cathedral stands on the hill named She Shan which lies to the north of the Songjiang county. This construction was built during 1925-35. The design of the cathedral is under a Roman style influenced by eclecticism. The Baroque domes and Gothic inner ornamentations get in harmony with each other. Along the zigzaging path leading up to the Cathedral, there 14 'hard-walking pavilions' at all the corner-turnings which portray what Jesus had suffered during his life time.

Kath Work Trip to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

After Australia, I made a stop in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to visit a customer and look at a potential warehouse. I was only there for one day, but between the meetings and my plane, my co-worker Sunther took me to a couple places. This is a picture of the largest Hindu statue in Malaysia. This temple is an area that people to give thanks when something good has happened. There were a lot of stairs to get into the temple which are in caves. This temple is called the Batu Caves. See explanation of caves below:

http://tamilelibrary.org/teli/malaysia03.html
Batu Caves, as it is popularly known, is located about 12 km north of Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia. It is nestled close to the main highways leading to the northern parts and the eastern coast of Peninsular Malaysia.When the caves were in a pristine state before 1860, several of the 18 cave mouths were used by the indigenous Besisi people as transit shelters when they went out hunting from their jungle hamlets.As early as 1860, Chinese settlers began excavating guano for fertilising their vegetable patches. It was only in 1878 that British Europeans came upon the complex of hills while on a hunting trip.Behind the cupolas on the zigzag bridge (foreground) is the staircase leading up to the Temple Cave. The landings are designed for viewing the scenery from different heights and for the aged and infirm to rest before continuing on the next flight. The landings offer a grand view of the lush scenery from various heights. On a clear sunny day, the topmost landing offers a view of the fortress-walled range of hills enclosing suburban Kuala Lumpur townships sprawling over the fertile floor of the valley. The western coast of the Peninsular where the emerald sea rolls into the Bay of Bengal lies beyond the green, f orest clad range of hills.A flight of 272 steps leads up to the temple. The stairway is divided into steps which each lead to a landing. Along the balustrade of the staircase and at some of the landings that offer the least competition from their fellows, the resident long-tailed macaques hang around unceremoniously for treats from visitors.The generously fed flocks of pigeons swamp the courtyard before the ground level portal of the temple. The pigeons are tame and they give way to passing visitors graciously.Apart from the annual Thaipusam festival, tourist and devotees visit Batu Caves regularly. Throughout the year, the Temple Caves attract between 3,000 to 5,000 people daily.At the base of the hill, at the ground level, there are three caves with statuary and mural depictions of scenes from the Ramayana, Mahabharat and the lives of renowned Tamil poets.The three caves are known as the Valluvar Kottam, Art Gallery and the Ramayana Cave. The depictions are spectacularly graphic. The Ramayana Cave presents a concise but comprehensive narration of Lord Rama's history.

Afterwards, we drove into the city and did some shopping at Petronas Towers. These towers used to be the biggest in the world at one point and time.

Grammy's Birthday

The kids were able to celebrate Grammy's birthday with her. They loved singing happy birthday song to her in English and Chinese. And of course, they loved eating the chocolate cupcakes!

Shanghai Center (Future Tallest Building in China)

Construction has now begun on an even taller building in Shanghai that will surpass the new World Financial Tower (492m) that is nearing completion in Shanghai. This new building will be called the Shanghai Center and will be 580m tall. It is expected to be completed in 2010. Below is a link to a website that keeps track of the worlds tallest buidings. This link shows the tallest buildings in Shanghai.

http://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?c6

Kath Work Trip to Melbourne, Australia

Since Grammy was here, I took her up on her offer to help with the kids and took the opportunity to make a short trip to Australia and Malaysia to visit with the teams there. This was my first time and I visited Melbourne where our Delphi offices are located. I have no idea why my Melbournite friends who live in Shanghai would ever want to leave Melbourne. WOW! This place is really beautiful. It reminded me a lot of Minneapolis. There was a river and lots of shopping and restaurants. I ran through some beautiful gardens one morning. There is also a large cultural/art presence with many sculptures in the area. It was their autumn when I visited, but the temperatures were still mild. I would love to go back and bring Kirk and the kids with me.

World's Longest Bridge

CHINA opened the world's longest cross-sea bridge on May 1st, linking Shanghai with Ningbo in Zhejiang Province.

The Hangzhao Bay Bridge cost 11.8-billion-yuan (US$1.7 billion) and took 4.5 years to complete.

The bridge, with a 32km section spanning the East China Sea, begins at Jiaxing, near Shanghai, and ends at Cixi, about 70km from Ningbo. It will reduce the 400-kilometer drive between Shanghai and Ningbo by 120 kilometers and shave driving time between the two cities from four to two-and-a-half hours.

We hear that the traffic is slow on the bridge due to many people stopping to take pictures. We will likely wait a while before taking a trip over the bridge.


In June they will open an observation station with hotel and restaurants in the middle of the bridge.

Shanghai Music Festival

The Shanghai International Music festival was at Century Park again this year. We went last year with friends. This year, we took Grammy. The music artists weren't that great, but the atmosphere was a lot of fun. The kids had fun rolling down the hills but it was a hot day. You can see our apartments in the background.

Xian - Big Wild Goose Pagoda & City Wall

This next stop was to the Big Wild Goose Pagoda. This is a Hindu temple built a long time ago. This was a really beautiful area....inside the area that you pay to get into. The walk up to the entrance was crazy. It was a national holiday so there were tons of people! Once you got into the paid entrance, there weren't so many people. It was such a peaceful place with beautiful gardens. There were several temples and buddhas to admire.

After this, we drove to our last stop, the City Wall. This wall is still intact after hundreds of years and it is the only complete city wall left in China. Most cities had walls to protect them. We took a rick shaw bicycle ride around a portion of the wall. The drivers could only speak Chinese so as far as getting explanations about the sites and signifcance of certain places, we could only understand a bit and there were a lot of charades. They were very nice though. IT was so hot this day, I'm not sure how they didn't keel over driving us around.

This was the end our of Beijing/Xi'an trip and it was a good trip.

Xian - Huaqing Hot Springs

Our next stop was the Huaquing Hot Springs. See the description below. It was a hot day and the kids were getting pretty tired of touring by this time.



Situated at the northern foot of Mt. Lishan in Lintong County, 30 kilometers (18.6 miles) from Xian City, Huaqing Hot Spring is famed for both its dainty spring scenery and the romantic love story of Emperor Xuanzong (685-762) and his concubine Yang Guifei in the Tang Dynasty (618-907). Its long history and location among the wonderful landscapes of Xian should entice any visitor to visit and bathe in this hot spring.

It is said that King You built a palace here during the Western Zhou Dynasty (11th century BC-711 BC). Additions were subsequently made by the First Emperor Qing (259 BC-210BC) and Emperor Wu during the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC-24). During his reign, the Emperor Xuanzong spent dizzying amounts of his funds to build a luxurious palace, changing its name to Huaqing Hot Spring or Huaqing Palace. Over the course of 41 years in his days, he visited the palace as many as 36 times. The palace thus has a history of 3,000 years and the hotspring a history of 6,000 years! Ranked among the Hundred Famous Gardens in China, it also has the status as a National Cultural Relic Protection Unit and a National Key Scenic Area.

Xian - Terra-Cotta Warriors

After Beijing, we flew to Xi'an. Kirk met us here. Xi'an was the capital of China during the Tang dynasty. There was an emperor here who decided to build a huge army to protect him in his afterlife. A farmer discovered this Terra Cotta Army of Warriors when digging for a well. It is truly a breathtaking experience to see thousands of life size warriors and horses in these pits. They are not even finished excavating. It is believed that this army is all around this emperor's tomb and that there are maybe over 10,000 soldiers in total. No one has been able to excavate the tomb because it is protected. Kind of like you would see in Alias or Indiana Jones!

After, we had a great Chinese lunch and then we toured the city a bit. You can see from the sign that we were there 100 days before the Olympics start.

Beijing Trip with Grammy

This is the start of the world wind China tour with Grammy. She did not get an opportunity to visit Beijing the last time she was here. Beijing is the capital of China and there is so much history to see here. Just the kids and I took her since Kirk had work people here. We visited the Great Wall, The Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven, did a Hutong Tour, and visited Tiannemman Square. We completely tired the kids out everyday from touring! We also went to a famous restaurant in Beijing to have famous Peking Duck. This is roast duck and is very good. Similar to dark meat turkey. The kids loved it, Grammy not so much.

Night River Cruise on the Bund

Whenever Kirk and I are out on the Bund, we always say we want to take the kids for a boat ride on the Huangpu. We decided to do this for Alex's birthday weekend. We went at night so that we could see the lights. Although the weather was mild, the boat ride was windy and cold. It was neat seeing the Bund from a different view. The kids really liked it too, but Elizabeth fell asleep!

Alex's 3rd Birthday Party

We decided to have a neighborhood playdate for Alex's birthday party. I rented a bounce house and put it in the little playground behind our apartment. All of Alex and Elizabeth's friends from the neighborhood came over. Most of them girls, but a couple boys came too. We also had other kids who were playing join. They all had so much fun jumping around. Alex loved getting all of his presents. Thank you to all who sent them from the US. He was opening presents for at least a week after his birthday!

Alex's School Birthday Party

Alex turned 3. At his school, they celebrate schoolwide birthdays on a certain day. Anyone who has a birthday in the particular month gets to go to the celebration and the parents can also attend. This day there were about 20 kids and their parents in the school's multipurpose room. They showed us a video of the kids and the theme was the Olympics. Afterwards, we got on a bus and traveled to a local stadium. The kids got to run around on the field. They loved it!

Grammy Arrives

Needless to say, the kids get excited when visitors come. This was no exception to having Grammy come to visit. Elizabeth kept talking about it everyday for the week before she arrived. She would say "Mama, only 5 more days", " Mama, only 4 more days".....

I kept them up to take them to the airport with me to pick her up. Kirk had a work function and couldn't go. They were both so excited. Her plane was scheduled to arrive at 9 PM. Elizabeth made it about a mile into the trip and passed out. I couldn't wake her up when we got to the airport. Alex and I went in to meet her. He was so proud to be carrying flowers to give to her. Of course, he made me hold them when he found another little boy with a car to play with! Finally she arrived and he was excited. We made our way back to the car, but Elizabeth still wouldn't wake up! She finally woke up when we got back to the apartment.

Alex sings the ABCs

We were playing in our hallway this day with the alphabet foam letters and numbers. Alex started singing his newly learned ABC song. It is sooooo cute! I had to capture it on video because unfortunately this guy is growing so fast and I know that he won't sound like this forever! Alex loves to sing. He loves music. Especially classical music that he's learned from the Little Einsteins. I'm doing the all important job of also introducing other styles and artists to him. Like Beyonce!

2008 Beijing Auto Show

On Sunday Sean & I attended the Beijing Autoshow. It rained that day and caused total chaos. The drive to the exhibition center should normally take under 1 hour but because of the rain and general disorganization of the event, it took us almost 3 hours to get into the show. Once there we were dropped off at the wrong building in the pouring rain. We were lucky enough to find a guy selling umbrellas so we were able to keep somewhat dry. The auto show inside was pretty good. They were introducing a record number of new models in China. Early in the day many of the executives brought in from around the world to do the introductions were delayed in the traffic. As we were leaving we noticed that the building where all of the suppliers were located was flooding. We were lucky to catch a cab to get out of there. I am glad that they alternate the Autoshow between Shanghai and Beijing every other year.

Kirk's Trip to Beijing, Summer Palace & Great Wall

Kirk and a good work friend, Sean McGuire from Dura were in Beijing over a weekend for an Automotive Conference and to visit the Beijing Autoshow. On Saturday they were able to get away to visit the Summer Palace and a section of the Great Wall.

The Summer Palace was constructed during the Jin Dynasty (1115-1234). It was set up as a luxurious royal garden providing royal families with rest and entertainment. It was originally called 'Qingyi Garden' (Garden of Clear Ripples). Like most of the gardens of Beijing, it was taken by Anglo-French allied forces and was destroyed by fire. In 1888, Empress Dowager Cixi embezzled navy funds to reconstruct it for her own benefit, changing its name to Summer Palace (Yiheyuan). She spent most of her later years there, dealing with state affairs and entertaining. In 1900, it suffered again, being ransacked by the Eight-Power Allied Force. After the success of the 1911 Revolution, it was opened to the public. These days it is a popular park for people to visit to get away from the congested city as you can see from the photos and video.

Sean and Kirk then visited the Juyongguan Pass section of the Great Wall. This area was a miltary stronghold going back to 770BC. This area was connected to the Great Wall as early as 389. During the beginning of the Ming Dynasty (1368) the first emperor Zhu Yuanzhang instructed that the wall in this area be rebuilt for protection from the Mogolian Tribes. The structure of the wall is much the same as it is today though it has been restored several times, most recently in 1992 and 2000. This section of the wall does not have a cable car to take you up to the top so Sean and Kirk had to climb all of the way up. They both soon realized they were out of shape.

School Trip to SheShan Park

I always cring when I hear about school field trips. Especially for 3 year olds. It was no different when I got the notice about Alex's school going to a park for a field trip. They also said that siblings could attend. It worked out that Elizabeth didn't have school that day so she could go too. Kirk was out of town. I had a meeting early and then I could meet them later. So Xiao Ju took both of them on the school bus to the Shanghai Sculpture Park. Kim Young couldn't go since she just had Cormac so her Ayi took Orla and Ciara.

When I arrived just after they had their lunch, the Ayi's looked a little bedraggled. I think they were tired from chasing the kids around. We made our way to the beach area and the kids had a ball playing in the sand. This park is so nice. There are many different areas and activities to do. A Beach, a wading pool, playgrounds, a big tree house, etc. We didn't make it through the whole park before it was time to go. In fact, the kids were so tired, that they were ready to leave.

YuYuan, Bund, Urban Planning Museum & People's Square

We went exploring today with Romo. We took him to all of the popular Puxi sights. Alex had a ball running around YuYuan and people still stop and ask to take the kids pictures. We also walked around People's square and again Elizabeth and Alex had fun running around the fountain area. It was a really clear, sunny day, great to be outside exploring the city.

Concordia Black Tie Dinner

Again this year, we attended the Concordia Charity Auction. This is basically prom night for the Concordia parents. It was at the Shangri-La again. We sat with the our friends Missy and Luke, Heather and Jim, Kevin and Angela, and Molly and G2. We also ended the night hanging out with Robo, Stacy, and Romo at Jade on 36. It was a fun night, but this year we didn't buy anything.

Crystal's 5th B-Day Party (Elizabeth's BFF)

I am about one month behind in my blog updates so bear with me. Elizabeth's best friend Crystal had her 5th birthday party. Now Crystal is an only child who's parents adore the heck out of her (as they should). They invited 28 of her closest friends to her princess party. All the kids had fun making masks, eating chicken nuggets, but the best part was a magician. He even had a real dove. They also played many games. Elizabeth was the last to leave as she was having so much fun with Crystal. What a great friend!

Alex

Alex is fully potty trained now. All the way down to the "playing the video game to pass time" tactic.

Someone has a crush on Elizabeth

This is Ben Pigott. Ben is in Elizabeth's class. He has proposed to her once already. As we were leaving school the other day, he gave her pink roses. He is a very sweet boy and who knows what could happen in 20 years!

(Not so) New Pets

I can't believe it has taken me over 3 months to write about our pets. When we got back from the US for xmas, Xiao Ju left the kids a gift. A couple of goldfish. Elizabeth named them Cherry and Berry. Both kids absolutely loved Cherry and Berry. Note I said loved. They made it about 2 weeks before kicking the bucket. We used the opportunity to talk about life and death and held a flushing ceremony.

So then came the second Cherry and Berry plus about 6 other friends. I don't think the bowl was quite big enough because they all lasted about a week. One by one, they kicked the bucket. This became a normal process and the kids did not grieve at all.

About 2 weeks ago, another Cherry and Berry showed up. Again, the kids love them. Elizabeth goes to the bowl first thing in the morning to see if we have floaters. We are down to one now. Not sure if it's Cherry or Berry!

Now you understand why we don't have a dog??????

Caved in and Bought the Kids Play Dough

It was a rainy day, so we took the kids to Hongqiao to a place called Kidstown. This is a play place for kids set up like a miniature city with a market, a house, a beauty salon, firehouse, etc... Alex loved it because they had lot of cars, including his police car. Elizabeth had a lot of fun pretending that she was my hairdresser. I had to physically drag Alex out after 2 hours. Even the promise of ice cream didn't help!

We did follow through on the promise. There is a Coldstone Creamery right next door and it was GOOD!

After ice cream, Kirk wanted to go to the Hongqiao Pearl Market where they have a fake market as well to buy a new wallet. I had to go buy jewelry for an outfit so Kirk took them for 10 minutes to give me some free time. A big rule was broken in that 10 minutes. No, not the "not using bribery to get kids to behave" rule, we don't have that. The "no buying Playdoh" rule was broken. I hate the smell of that stuff and it always ends up ground into the furniture! However, it was a big hit and entertains the kids for a long time. So I guess we'll have to keep it around more.

Day Off in People's Square/Century Park

Elizabeth had a day off of school so I decided to take them out for the day. We started by going to Puxi to the Indian Visa center to pick up my passport. After that we went to People's Square. It was a warm, sunny day. The fountain was on in front of the Shanghai Museum. There were a couple people wanting pictures of Elizabeth and Alex, including the one in this photo. They had fun running around and after finding a grassy area and playing for a while, they were kicked off by a security guard. Not a very kid friendly park!

Easter Sunday

Elizabeth was very excited about the prospect of the Easter Bunny showing up. Sure enough, he brought baskets and hid eggs. They had a great time running around the house looking for the eggs. We had to coach Alex a little. After the egg hunt, they both really wanted to eat all of their chocolate!

We went to church and afterwards, we went to Brunch with the a large group of friends. Elizabeth was such a good girl at church. After church, she saw her friends Lucy and Alli as well as Emma, her friend Ben's sister. That is the cute picure of the girls.

Elizabeth's School Easter Party

I was able to join the Easter party at Elizabeth's school. They had fun making bunny ears, having bunny snacks, and an Easter Egg hunt.

Alex After a Long Day on Patrol

Yes, he parks it next to his bed and sleeps next to it most times.

Another Friend Visits Shanghai

Small world again! Jim and Jeri Ward have a good friend who now works for Delphi, Dennis Buser. I stood up with him in their wedding. He traveled here for business so we were able to meet up and show him around a little. We had fun visiting some of Kirk's favorite hangouts and Romo joined us as well.

GMI Friends in Shanghai

It is a very small world and Shanghai is getting smaller and smaller. Mike and Julie Romanski (Kath lived with them for a couple semesters at GMI) are moving here. Mike has already landed and Julie and their girls get here in June.

Once Mike came into town, we found out about other past GMI friends traveling here. In these pictures are Mike and Jeff Shumaker (AKA Shuey. We went out on the town one night while he was here and pretended to be in college again. We had too much fun and all paid for it the next day but it was worth it.

Elizabeth on Roller Blades/Alex in his Police Car

Elizabeth got roller blades for her birthday present from us. I was a bit unsure of how she would do as she inherited my clumsiness and lack of athletic ability. I had no need to worry. Kirk took her and Alex (in his police car of course) down in front of building 7 and they rollerbladed for a couple hours. By the end, she was really good.

Elizabeth's 5th Birthday

Elizabeth woke up on her birthday to a decorated door which has become a tradition now. Daddy did a great job (his only job). She opened many presents from many relatives. Thank you all so much for thinking of her.

Elizabeth's friend Ben and his twin brother had their birthday party at Megafit, a local fitness center. She had so much fun that she decided that she wanted her party to be there. She originally wanted all of her neighborhood friends and all of her classmates. That would have been 24 kids. That would have been crazy. So we pared it down to 15 and also had a classroom party. The kids had fun!

Elizabeth's New Haircut

Elizabeth got her spring haircut today. She originally wanted it much shorter like her friend Lucy, but she settled for shoulder length. She loves it. However, when she woke up the day after, she complained because the curls came back!

Elizabeth's 5th Birthday Party @ School

Again, Elizabeth wanted to have all her friends at her birthday party. That would have been 25 kids including Alex and Elizabeth. No way.

Grammy sent over a ladybug bookmark craft and we had a party in her room for her classmates. They had a lot of fun doing the craft. For her birthday snack, I put out bowls of Cheerios, mini marshmallows, animal crackers, raisins, and chocolate chips. They each had a cup and took one scoop of each until they had a trail mix. This is her favorite snack and all of her friends liked it too.

Elizabeth was on cloud nine all day.

Alex's New Police Car

When we left the US, Alex's favorite toy, the red Cozy Coupe, did not make the trip. It had already been through all 4 Thompsons and Elizabeth and was on its last leg and we didn't think we would have room for it. Well that was a huge mistake. I robbed him of 16 months of pure joy.

Everytime we go anywhere that has one of these cars, he always monopolizes them. One day at Elizabeth's school, he saw one locked up and was crying at the door to play with hit. Refer back to last summer's pictures of the kids at Cole's houes. Poor Olivia was shoved out of her's a few times.

I finally said it was time. We took him to Toys R US one afternoon to buy a car. Well, they didn't have it in stock. He was so distraught. We had his hopes up only to dash them down.

After a week, Kirk came home one night and rang the doorbell. He brought home a special package. The Police Car Cozy Couple. Alex was so excited. He had been talking about it for days. He helped Kirk put it together.

His days now go something like this.......
1. Wake up.
2. Get into Police car (which sometimes is by his bed).
3. Drive car into bathroom and go potty (with prodding from Mama)/
4. Drive car around in the morning until he has to go to school.
5. Put up a fuss that he has to leave it to go to school.
6. Come home from school.
7. Get into police car, eat lunch, play, watch some tv.....all while in the car.
8. Drive into bedroom for nap.
9. Wake up from nap and get back into police car.

I think you get the picture. What a joy to see his face with his car. Kirk was concerned that he will get bored of it very soon because he is growing. I don't think so!

He uses his imagination freely with it too. It's not always a police car. Yesterday it was a blue taxi. Today it was a golf taxi. Great investment!

Allie Stevens' 4th Birthday Party

Elizabeth was invited to Allie Stevens 4th birthday party. It was at the spa at Vizcaya. The girls had their hair braided and their nails painted. They were all so pampered and looked beautiful afterwards! Only in China.

Elizabeth's Valentines Roses

Elizabeth in total recieved 36 roses from her admirers. PopPop sent roses first and they were supposed to be pink. They delivered red. After letting them know that they delivered the wrong color, they then delivered pink but she was able to keep the red ones. Kirk had to fly to the US unexpectedly on Valentine's Day, so he made sure to buy roses before he left.

Alex & Elizabeth School Pictures

The kids both had their pictures taken at Concordia and Alex had his taken separately at Victoria. These guys are growing fast.

Chinese Cooking Classes with Liu

Liu was driving Elizabeth and I to school one day soon after the CNY and I asked him what he did during the holiday. He told me that he ate a lot of jiaozi (dumplings). These are meat or vegetable filled pasta pouches that are very popular here. I told him that I liked them also.

I went out for a run (6 miles that day!) and when I came back there was a wooden board full of dumplings. I asked Liu if his wife made them and he said no. I assumed he bought them. Later I asked him where he bought them and he told me that he made them! We had them for lunch and they were very good. I told him that I wanted to learn how to make them.

When you tell Liu something, he gets right on it! The next day he brought all the fixings and we sat down and he taught me how to make dumplings. I think I'll need more practice because mine definitely weren't as pretty as his.

2008 Year of the Rat

Above is a picture of Alex and Elizabeth in front of a statue of a Rat. You can read more details behind the Year of the Rat below:

According to the Chinese Zodiac, the Year of 2008 is a Year of the Rat (Earth), which begins on February 7, 2008 and ends on January 25, 2009. First in the cycle of 12 Animal signs, Rat Year begins the sequence and recurs every twelfth year. It is a time of renewal in so many ways. From New Year to Valentine's Day, to the arrival of spring, may all the blessings and delights of the New Year be yours.

A Rat Year is a time of hard work, activity, and renewal. This is a good year to begin a new job, get married, launch a product or make a fresh start. Ventures begun now may not yield fast returns, but opportunities will come for people who are well prepared and resourceful. The best way for you to succeed is to be patient, let things develop slowly, and make the most of every opening you can find. People born in an Earth Rat are said to be logical realists, shrewd, charming, ambitious, and inventive. Of course, the entire horoscope must be considered when making any personality assessment.

In Chinese, the Rat is respected and considered a courageous, enterprising person. People born in the Year of Rat are clever and bright, sociable and family-minded. They have broad interests and strong ability in adapting to the environment and able to react adequately to any changes.

They are gifted in many ways and have an easy going manner. They are active and pleasant, tactful and fantastic, and are able to grasp opportunities. They seem to have interests in everything and hope to participate in doing it and usually do it very well.

新年快樂/Xin Nian Kuai Le/Happy Chinese New Year!

We came back from Sanya on Chinese New Year's Eve. Starting at 7 pm, fireworks started going off. Not organized ones over the park, random people just setting them off. We had ones right in front of our apartment. Some of them were so close that I couldn't go onto the balcony to take pictures for fear of getting hit. This went on until after midnight. At midnight is when the mass fireworks started going off. I looked back at the video and saw at least 20 different locations that were shooting off. That was only in the front of our apartment. To the rear, there were about 10 locations shooting off, including ones from the houses just behind us. It was crazy!!! They were still shooting them off today on New Year's Day.

Trip to Sanya, China

We left for a short holiday on Friday, Feb 1 to go to Sanya, Hainan Island, China. We left just in time, as Saturday came 8 inches of snowfall and shut the airport down.

Hainan Island is a Chinese Province. It is south of China and East of Vietnam. It is called the Chinese version of Hawaii. Most expats stay away from here during major holidays because they become very busy with nationals. I think we were the only Americans staying at this resort but we didn't find it very busy at all.

We stayed at the Sheraton and it was a very nice resort. It was right on the beach and it was a very nice, white sandy beach. It had playgrounds (indoor and outdoor) for the kids, bounce houses and many pools to swim in. The weather was only in the low 70s and overcast, so we stuck to swimming in the heated pool.

Elizabeth's favorite part of the trip was dancing with the resort entertainers. They had a lounge singer named Ware that she loved. She also loved the band from Paraguay at one of the restaurants.

Alex's favorite part was his 100RMB ($14) dump truck that he saw one day at the kids center. We normally buy a bucket and sand toys when we get to our destination for about $5 and then leave them there so that we aren't transporting big items back and forth. Well this toy made the trip back. #1 it cost $14. #2 it is now his favorite toy. It will probably break soon since it is plastic and since it was made in China, but it sure makes him happy.

Kirk's newfound talent that will not amount to any money making is sand sculpture. Forget the sand castles. He made a mermaid, a monster, and a car. There were many onlookers and admirers.

The flight was short, only 2.5 hours so we would definitely go back. The service was very good, the grounds were beautiful, and it was clean.

Also note in one of the pictures that Alex is wearing underpants. Yes, just like he did with walking, he decided on his terms that it was finally time to start going potty! He has only had a few accidents and has really good bladder control unlike his sister. He still is using a pull up at night, but I don't think that will last long.

Chinese New Year School Festivities

Elizabeth's class had many different activities to celebrate the Chinese New Year. One day they got to dress in their Chinese clothes. Another day, they had a professor come in and demonstrate the art of Chinese Calligraphy. They also had musicians come in and play traditional Chinese instruments. One of the high school students demonstrated Kung Fu and there was a lady who taught Chinese dancing. The kids all loved it.

Playing in the Shanghai Snow

The big news lately that I'm certain that many of you Stateside have seen in the news is the weather in China. Specifically snow! This is the most snow that Shanghai has seen in over 3 decades. You can see the picture of Century Park from our apartment. It's a much different view than we are used to.

This has caused such a problem with the transportation. Especially since this is the heaviest travel season and all of the migrant workers are trying to travel home for their annual leave. This is the only time of the year that many people get home to see their spouses and children. Kirk followed up with all of his employees that were traveling and they did make it home after much delays at bus stations, train stations and airports.

The kids loved it. And not expecting this, I left their snow stuff in Michigan!! Not very smart. You can see from the pictures that both kids had a ball. Elizabeth actually had a snow day. Kirk took her out and they built 2 snowmen. When I came home from work, I took her and Alex down to the playground to see them, but someone had knocked them over. She was so upset, you all know how dramatic she can be. I explained to her that probably whoever did it had never seen snow before and didn't know what they were and wanted to play with them. That didn't seem to help that much!

It is still cold here and there are traces of snow left.

Dura Chinese New Year Dinner

Kirk and his co-worker Rob took their employees out to dinner to celebrate the Chinese New Year. This holiday is equivalent to our Christmas so there are usually many celebrations. The kids and I went as well as Rob's wife Stacy and their son Roman. The kids and Kirk wore their outfits that Mr. Liu, our driver, had bought for them.

We went to a Japanese restaurant that was in Puxi and it was really good. All of the employees seemed to enjoy themselves. Rob gave a speech about how much he appreciated his employees, especially Mr. Gu, his driver. Kirk also gave a speech and toasted to his employees.

The kids had a great time running around with Roman. Elizabeth also had a lot of fun with Kirk's secretary, Joyce. Joyce bought the kids Mickey and Minnie mugs. Elizabeth accidently dropped hers and it broke and Joyce took her to buy new ones.

Snowing in Shanghai

Along with cold weather came snow today. It's been snowing for the last few days but nothing that sticks. Yesterday it snowed huge snowflakes and last night when it was colder it stuck. This morning Elizabeth looked out the window and was so excited. It didn't stay much past 10 am. And we didn't go out and play in it because I left all the snow pants in Michigan!

Super Brand Mall Playground

It has been soooo cold here since we got back. It has been in the low 30s everyday which is not usual for Shanghai. I don't think we've seen sunshine either. So in order to get the kids some exercise, we went to the Superbrand mall play area. I surprised the kids and picked up Lucy and Allie Stevens on the way back fromm work and they went with us. They all had a blast playing and of course didn't want to leave. We'll be doing a bit of that over the next couple weeks because it's supposed to stay cold.

Good-Bye Claire W.

One of Elizabeth's closest friends in preschool, Claire Wang (better known as Claire W.) is moving back to California. This picture of Elizabeth, Claire and Crystal was taken on her last day of school. She will miss her and Kath will miss her mom Terri as well.

Packer Fan

In support of Grammy and her favorite team, Alex donned his Brett Favre jersay on game day. He wore it to school as well. Unfortunately they lost, but we were cheering.

Alex's New Bed

Before we left for the US for the holidays, we ordered a bed for Alex. They delivered it when we got back. It turned out really nice. He really likes it and has had no problem transitioning to the bed. Elizabeth loves it too. She loves to sleep on the top bunk. We only let her sleep in there on the weekends because the two of them goof off too much when they are sleeping in the same room.

Trip to Florida

After the snow filled wonderland, we packed up and migrated to sunny Florida. Except it wasn't so sunny and warm when we arrived. I specifically packed separate Florida and Michigan suitcases due to the warm weather/cold weather thing. That didn't work out so well as we had to go to Target to buy warm clothes because it was cold!!

The kids really wanted to swim but we found other activities. One of the best was going to see Enchanted. Elizabeth, Kath, and Grammy really enjoyed that. Alex and Kirk were going to go see Alvin and the Chipmunks but Alex fell asleep in the car on the way.

The other fun activity was to go to a park in Estero where they had a playground for kids and a separate one for dogs so Sophie could join us. The kids had so much fun the first day there that we packed a picnic and went back the next day too.

By the next day, it was sunny enough to go swim at the community pool and the kids had a ball doing that. Both of them were fishes who did not want to get out. Alex is getting even more comfortable in the water which makes us have to be more careful.

We were able to visit with Aunt Gretchen one night. Kirk and I were able to get out together by ourselves a couple times and that was nice. Except every trip out included a stop at whichever Best Buy we were closest to to try to find Guitar Hero for our Wii. No luck :(

And of course no trip to Florida would be complete without a stop at Naples Beach followed by Cheeburger Cheeburger. Yummy! And yes, Alex still eats sand.

This was a fun and relaxing trip and next was our flight home.

New Year's @ Harris's

We counted and I think this is the 12th year we've spent New Year's with Chesna and the Harris'. We hung out at the Harris' house with Beth and Chesna and some of Pelton's friends. I think Pelton, Harris, and I were the only ones awake at midnight and weren't awake 5 minutes after that. Yes, we live a very exciting life now!

Dufon Christmas

On Christmas afternoon we drove back up the the farm to celebrate Christmas and Bumpa's birthday. Nicole, Dale, Olivia and Buddy were already there. The next day, the Thompson's drove back from Arkansas and the Dufon's made the trek from Minneapolis. We had a lot of fun playing with the Thompson's big Christmas gift, Guitar Hero. Even Gigi was jamming on the guitar.

We were able to watch Josh's hockey game, go bowling, go ice skating.....lots of fun. On Friday, while we were bowling, a huge snowstorm started and left over 10 inches of snow. That was fun for the kids to go snowmobiling and play in the snow again.

It's amazing how fast everyone grows and it was great to be able to spend a few days of quality time with everyone.

Roessler Christmas

Back to to Kevin and Chrystal's to celebrate Christmas with the Roesslers. Pop Pop and Sophie flew in from Florida after lots of trouble. PopPop made it first but his luggage and Sophie went to Chicago. Poor Sophie, but she made it to Kevin's the next day. Weather played tricks with all the travelers. Grammy had to make an unfortunate last minute visit to Wisconsin due to the death of her brother, Mike. Her plane was delayed into Detroit due to fog and snow, but she finally made it. The kids were all excited to see Grammy.

We celebrated by going to Christmas Eve mass and then having dinner at home afterwards. We of course, stuffed ourselves with great snacks and food. Kirk passed out and didn't even have his dessert. The kids left cookies and milk for Santa and carrots for the reindeer.

On Christmas day, we woke up and sure enough Santa Claus had come to the house and left a ton of presents. Alex was enamored with Ethan's big gift - Crash up cars. The kids all got Leap Frogs and loved those as well.

Dufon Farm

On Tuesday, we left to drive up north to the farm. We stopped in Grand Blanc and met up with Sarah Wenstrom and her mom Cyndi. It was great to see them.

The kids napped on the way up and were excited to get to the farm. We didn't have a lot of snow last year, so this is the first year the Elizabeth and Alex got to enjoy riding on the snowmobiles. They loved it. And of course, Alex had to have at least 30 minutes a day outside on his favorite swing. Bumpa and Gigi had built a snowman outside of the door to their house. He was a great greeter!

The kids were able to play with Jake, Josh, Alli, and Anna. Elizabeth had fun with the girls.

Home to Michigan for the Holidays

Okay, we've finally put up Christmas photos only about a month late. We took a lot of pictures during the holidays and hopefully you'll enjoy. We flew into the US on Dec 15th and the next day there was a huge snowstorm. The kids were able to go outside at Kevin's and play in the snow, it was great. Kirk took them on sled rides and after he threw Alex off a few times, Alex was in fear of sleds for the remainder of our trip. The kids had fun playing with Ethan, Nolan, and Tyra.

Elizabeth's School Christmas Program

Elizabeth's Christmas program was on Thursday, Dec 13. They sang Christmas, Christmas, Mary Had a Baby, Willie Bring Your Little Drum, and Pasko. Pasko is a Phillipino Christmas song taught by Elizabeth's teacher, Miss Alforte, who is from the Phillipines.

They all were so cute. See the photos and the videos. They all sang their little hearts out.

After the show, when we arrived home, Santa Claus had left presents for Elizabeth and Alex. These were the presents that he couldn't bring to the US. He must have came in through the window and Elizabeth found some of his suit that must have ripped. They were both very excited and had fun opening presents.

On Friday, I didn't send Alex to school because he would not leave the car garage that he got. He didn't leave that toy all day!

Pamela - Elizabeth's Chinese Teacher

Pamela is Elizabeth's Chinese tutor. Elizabeth really wants to be able to speak Chinese because she has several Chinese friends and it frustrates her when she cannot communicate with them. Pamela was recommended to me by my friend Sophia. She is a university student and teaches through play.

She comes to our house once per week. When she is here, they just play different games and sometimes flashcards. This past week it was balloons. Elizabeth is not fluent by any means, but she is starting to use more.

Alex Haircut

It was time for Alex's haircut again. I try to avoid this painful experience, so Kirk takes him. The hair salon behind our house now has a race car that he can sit in. Still took three people to hold him down and it wasn't very good haircut! Now his bed head sticks up everywhere.

Murder High School Whodunit Party

We were invited to our first "Murder Mystery Party". It had a 1980's theme so since we both grew up during that time, we thought it would be fun. We were emailed our characters about 2 weeks before the party and we couldn't tell anyone who we were. Kirk ended up being a football player in highschool, and went on to the NFL. Kath was a cheerleeder. Since neither of us had experience being either of those things in highschool, we had to use our imagination.

Once again, when Kirk decides to do something, he goes all out. I think the mullet speaks for itself. The really sad thing about me was that I really used to wear my hair that way! Check out the pant rolls on Kirk and our friend John. The music was like really awesome and there was some totally rad dancing at the end.

Turned out, neither of us were the murderer or the victim, but we still had a lot of fun.

Kirk & Cronley in Hong Kong

Cronley was in China this week and finished off his trip in Hong Kong. He was free Friday so I took a day trip to spend the day with him. Cronley gets to live the good life when he travels, he gets to stay in the nicest hotels in town. I stayed with him at the Shangri-La Island Hotel which is a very nice and expensive hotel.

We first went to the electronics market to see if there was any new cool gadgets worth buying. Our next stop was the Peak that overlooks Hong Kong. It is a great place to view the city on a clear day, unfortunately it wasn't very clear when we visited. We decided to buy a ticket to the wax museum and the peak lookout to allow us to go to the front of the long line. You will see some nice pictures of Cronley and myself with the celebrities of the world.

In the evening we went out to Lan Kwai Fong which is an area where there are a lot of Bars and Restaurants. We went to a couple of bars including an Irish Pub his brother had been to a couple of years ago. We then went to an Italian restaurant for dinner. To finish off the evening we went to an African Bar where they had live music. We didn't disappoint the crowd with our dancing capabilities. I think that we got back to the hotel sometime past 2 in the morning so it was a short night of sleep since we both had early planes to catch.

All in all we had a good time, but Cronley did need to get home as his wife Suzanne is due with their second child in two weeks. Maybe they will have a Christmas baby???

Elizabeth's Picture with Santa

We finally got around to scanning the picture Elizabeth took with Santa.

Alex & Elizabeth on the Slopes

I couldn't resist when I saw this. Here are Alex and Elizabeth snowboarding and skiing.

The Roessler's as Santa's Elves

Please click on this link to experience the Roessler's as Elves

We miss you Mama!

Mama, we hope you have a safe business trip in India! We miss you! Please come home soon. We love you!

Yes, I'm back in India for a follow up visit to my visit in September. Since I never finished my post then, I figured I'll update you on that visit here.

In September I wrote:

I hope I can copy from word into the blog. I thought I should take a few minutes while I had it to write about my thoughts of India.

Vineeta and just about everyone else said that when I got off the plane, it would smell. Well I guess if you are coming from the US, this would be true. Coming from Shanghai, the stinky capital of the world, I could smell nothing out of the ordinary.

We worked a lot this week and didn’t get much time to tour. It would take an hour to get to work, and some days two hours to get back to the hotel. There is so much traffic here. The roads are not the best, so this makes for many traffic jams.

I have eaten some really good Indian food. They talk about food in two ways, veg or non veg. Many people here are vegetarian or they honor their favorite gods by fasting and not eating meat. They, of course, never eat beef since the cow is sacred. They also do not eat pork. Chicken and lamb are the only meat they eat.

They love music and dancing. In fact, one evening, I watched a wedding procession in front of the hotel. They had a lot of singing and dancing and bright lights. I didn’t know it was a wedding procession at the time, but the next day, one of my hosts Rajiv explained it to me.

The Indian culture is very big on building relationships. This is a different mindset than most Americans have. We met with suppliers and customers and they both were very generous in offering tea, coffee, soda, water, and other munchies. It would be seen as rude if you didn’t have a cup of something while you were talking. I always went with the tea or chai. Many times our business discussion would only take 15 minutes of the hour and the rest was spent in just socializing over tea. Most of the people I met were well traveled and experienced in business.

Thank goodness I talked to a few people before I went with regards to attire. Although it is very hot this time of year, the Indian women dress conservatively. Not that I don’t already dress conservative, but I left all the sleeveless shirts at home. It was a strategy that worked well for me as I think I would’ve been uncomfortable.

We finished all our work on Friday so that Saturday before my flight we could tour. My other host, Rajesh, took me around Delhi. I would’ve like to travel to the Taj Mahal, but that is at least a 3-4 hour drive and timing wouldn’t allow it. I will definitely have to come back to check that out.

Rajesh took me to the Lotus Temple. The Lotus Temple is relatively new and is a place for all religions to worship. It is surrounded by beautiful gardens. You cannot wear shoes into the temple, so you must check them before you walk in. It is a place for calm and peace. No cell phones or cameras allowed. The floors are cool marble, a nice break from the heat outside. We walked around the temple and then sat for a few minutes to pray.

The next place we went was to the Incon (I need to check on this name) temple. This is a Hindi temple which is dedicated mainly to the Hindi god, Krishna. Again we had to remove our shoes. It was much smaller than Lotus Temple and was decorated with many paintings as well as statues. Here, there were a group of men chanting.

It was starting to get hot now and really humid. I guess I didn’t realize it during the week because we were in the office with air conditioning.

The final temple we went to Akshardham Temple. It was by far the most beautiful place I have ever been to. This is a Hindi temple that was recently build and it was the vision of a Hindu person, kind of like a really holy guy. I have to look this one up on the internet. Here, we couldn’t even take our phones and cameras into the facility. When you walk in, first you pass through security, then you walk down a pathway that is outside. You pass through an area that is surrounded by structures with water falling down and when the wind is blowing, you feel an awesome cool breeze. You can see perfectly manicured lawns and shrubs. Then you walk through a building where at the entrance the pillars have hand sculptured statues of Hindi god servants going up and down the pillar. This building houses a gold statue of the person whose vision it was to build. There is also history of what makes up the temple and how it was built.

After you pass through this building, you go back outside (in the sweltering sun) and walk down a wide sidewalk toward the temple. One thing I noticed is the perfect symmetry as you look at the temple. The gardens, the pattern on the wide sidewalk, the temple itself is perfectly symmetric. I like symmetry, so I thought this was especially beautiful.

Once again, we have to stop and take our shoes off and check them. Oh – you also have to wash your hands before you enter. Now the pavement is reaaaalllly hot! They have carpets that will shield some of the heat, but still hot.

The inside of this temple was all marble. Marble sculptures, marble floors, marble ceilings, just beautiful. We walked around, and had to be quiet the whole time.

http://www.akshardham.com/

You can paste this link into your browser to see pictures. It was breath taking. After this temple, we stopped for a road beer and went to do some shopping. We went to the department store that Ghandi founded and bought some wraps. We also bought some spices there including saffron.

I flew back that night and was glad to be home.

That was the end of the September trip. This trip is a quicker trip since it is hard for Kirk and the kids when I am out of town.

Mal is in town, so I'll get to see her, but I not sure how much shopping I'll get to do.

I really would like to see Taj Mahal, but it is about a 4 hour car ride so you really need a whole day to devote to that. I love India. I think it is an amazing country whose people are gracious and respectful and hard working. You definitely see a lot of poor people and the roads and infrastructure aren't good, but they are working on it. I think it will be a good trip to bring the kids when they are a bit older.

BTW - I really miss the kids too!!!! I miss Elizabeth waking me up and I miss watching Alex run everywhere as he doesn't know how to walk!

Dinner at the Paulaner

This past weekend, the Paulaner restaurant in the French Concession sponsered an event called, Christkindlmarket. This is a traditional European market, I think mostly German, French, Swiss, that they have in Europe during Christmas. Vendor set up their wares in small wooden huts and people can walk up and down very narrow aisles with mulled wine and purchase Christmas gifts.

We planned to meet San, Sophia, Oia, Chloe, and Bella Eng there. By the time we got there at 6 pm, there were lots of Christmas lights and Christmas spirit, including a Chinese Santa Claus that gave out candy. They made it there before we did and made dinner reservations for us at Paulaner. There are a few different Paulaner locations in Shanghai. This is by far the nicest as far as the ambiance and was decorated very nicely for Christmas.

Paulaner is a German restaurant, so Kirk ordered family style for us. A bunch of meat! Pork knuckle, sausages of all kind with sauerkraut, beef and good wheat beer. The kids of course goofed off together during dinner, especially Elizabeth and Oia. After dinner, we walked around outside for a bit more and let the kids burn off some energy.

While we were leaving the restaurant, Kirk was helping Sophia by holding Bella while she got the kids stuff together. When Sophia went to take her back, Bella refused to leave Kirk. San tried to take her as well, but she was drawn to Kirk. She is a sweet, smart little girl. She just turned one and she is walking and speaking in sentences. It's so funny to hear someone so small say "Wo yao niu nai" (I want milk) perfectly.

The picture on the swing is my favorite. From the left is Chloe (1 month younger than Alex), Oia (1 month younger that Elizabeth), Elizabeth and Alex. They all had a really good time together and were disappointed when it was time to leave.

Bella finally left Kirk! He definitely liked the attention from her.