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.