Father's Day

Father's Day Click above for pictures

I couldn't have asked for a better Father's Day. All you have to do is look at the pictures and you will see why my day was so much fun. I was woken up by my two lovely children who gave me beautiful picture of themselves for me to hang in my office. You can see the pictures in the link above.

Snow White Ballet

Snow White Ballet click above for pictures

Kim and I took the girls to see a Russian Children's ballet perform Snow White. Orla, Ciara, and Elizabeth absolutely loved it and were really good.

Elizabeth's Last Day of School

Elizabeth had her last day of school as a 2007 Ladybug. She will be returning to Concordia in the fall and most likely Mrs. Chiu will be her teacher again.

From the left, Mrs. Taylor, Lauren Round, Mrs. Round, Crystal Tan, Mrs. Chiu, Elizabeth and Samantha Chow. Mrs. Taylor, Lauren and Mrs. Round will not be back this fall. Mrs. Taylor and her family moved back to Australia. Mrs. Round and Lauren moved back with their family to Warren, MI.

Kirk's Trip Down Under

Kirk's Trip Down Under Click above for pictures

I made a trip to Melbourne, Australia on business to visit Ford about an opportunity for my company on the new Global Truck they are developing there. I met an old work mate and good friend Jeremy Gill and his wife Crystal there. Crystal was able to get time off work to make the long trip.

Melbourne is a really nice city. It was nice to visit a Western City after being in Asia for so long. It is amazing how much you miss the little things. For one I can eavesdrop on conversations there and understand what the people are talking about. We spent most of the time wandering around the city. Jeremy and I spent most of the time preparing for our meetings while trying to stay top of work issues back home. We will have to come back as a family on vacation where we can spend more time touring.

The pictures in the link above are from around town. They have a free cable car that takes you around town that tells information about the key areas of the city.

Elizabeth's Ballet Recital

Elizabeth's Ballet Recital click above for pictures

Finally after all the practicing the recital was here. It was a production of the Nutcracker and it was held at the Portman Hotel Theatre. It was really amazing. It was like a professional production of the ballet. The dancers were amazing and all the practicing really paid off. Miss Li is the teacher in the middle.

The little girls were the youngest and really did an outstanding job for being so young. The craziest thing at the end though. You know how you give your ballerina flowers after???......Well you do that here as well, but in true Chinese fashion, all the parents rush up onto stage at the same time, while all the dancers are there on stage at the end, to give them the flowers. There are about 200 people on stage at once!! Chaos.

Elizabeth fell asleep in the car on the way home!

Elizabeth's School Recital

Elizabeth's Recital at School click above for pictures

A lot of singing practice for the school recital was happening during the last couple months of May. The preschool and elementary school classes performed American Folk Songs. Elizabeth's class sang: I've Been Working on the Railroad, Shoo Fly, Knick Knack Paddywack, and Polly Wolly Doodle. Alex loves to sing Shoo Fly with Elizabeth. Kath loves the Polly Wolly Doodle song.

They all did a great job and it was a lot of fun watching the concert.

Oh yeah......more of Alex's antics on the last picture. He pulled one of Elizabeth's Easter Bonnets out and decided to wear it! Ha Ha

Ready for Big Boy Bed???

Alex's Ayi couldn't find Alex one day. She was very worried searching the house and the outside hallway (Alex has been known to sneak out when the door is open and ride the elevator down). Kirk was working from home that morning. Looks like Alex was playing schoolbus in Elizabeth's room and fell asleep on her bed! Shou Ju put pillows around him and let him take his nap there.

Pretend Sleepover

Orla and Ciara came over for dinner one night and we had a pretend sleepover. We had pizza for dinner and popcorn for dessert. We watched a movie and had a lot of fun. When it was time to go to sleep, Kim and the girls went home. A lot of fun for 4 and 2 yr olds.

Field Day at Elizabeth's School

Field Day at Elizabeth's School click above for pictures

The preschool and elementary classes had a field day. They had a lot of fun doing running races and other outdoor activities. The day was hot and humid and the kids were pretty tired at the end of the day.

Dance Recital Practice

Dance Recital Practice click above for pictures

Dance recital practice.......this was very painful for the Mommies!!!

For 4 Sundays, we had to take the girls to an all day recital practice where there were about 100 other girls ready to practice. The Chinese take their ballet very seriously!

They were very tired after practice and usually very cranky as they had to wait in between their performance practice for hours at a time.

We (the other moms and I) think that the other local girls are used to this. But we complained at the amount of time 4yr olds had to wait around to practice.

The girls who were in the recital from Elizabeth's ballet class were (see picture of girls standing by the wall) - Crystal Tan, Claire Wang, Elizabeth, Samantha Chow. Missing from these photos are Claire Yin and Shue En (not sure on spelling???)

Fun with Dottie

Fun with Dottie

Dottie is the Ladybug's classroom mascot. Each child in the Ladybug's preschool class got an opportunity to take Dottie home for a week or so and had to take pictures of where Dottie has been and what the child did with Dottie. The day Elizabeth brought Dottie home, she was literally jumping for joy!

There was a journal that came with Dottie. Dottie has been to the Great Wall in Beijing, to Thailand, and to Century Park as well as many other local places. Dottie can help make coffee, go to sleep with kids, and go to ballet classes.

Elizabeth took Dottie many places as you can see. Dottie watched the Goodyear Blimp from outside our apartment on our balcony. Dottie helped Elizabeth cook a grilled cheese sandwich and eat it. Dottie went to Church with Elizabeth. Dottie went to the Bund and overlooked the Pearl Tower, rode bikes, participated in Field Day, went to the little park, and hung out with Alex too.

Elizabeth was sad when Dottie had to go back to the classroom. However, at the end of the term, the teachers made "Dotties" and gave them to all the kids!

Spring Fun

Spring Fun 2007 click above for pictures

Yes, it has been a while since we've posted. We've had an eventful spring so far. Actually, they say that as of May 22, it is officially summer in Shanghai since the temperature has been so nice.

At the end of the May holiday, we went to Century Park for an International Music Festival. There were all sorts of different types of musicians and bands. The kids had a lot of fun dancing. We went with San, Sophia, Oia, Chloe, and Bella and Elvis, Kim, and Juna.

The next couple pictures were at Alex's friend, Chloe's birthday party. She turned 2 and had a princess party. Alex had fun playing with the tea set. The first princess is Oia and the next princess is Juna. The family picture is of the Eng Family - Sophia, San, Oia, Bella, and Chloe.

Alex made a crown at the party, see how great he looks as the handsome prince! He may be a prince, but he still wants to drive himself around. Olivia - look out, you will have no chance at riding your cozy couple while Alex is visiting you!

Mother's Day brought me a bike. I am now closer to being a native Chinese. The kids and I have had a lot of fun riding the bike to the Carrefour, Church, and School. We are very careful and always look out for the other guy!

The Goodyear Blimp was flying over the Park one day. We were able to snap a few pictures. It will be heading to Grand Blanc soon, I'm sure!

Finally, a picture of Alex, Pooh, and Daddy. Alex calls his milk - Nook A Nook. Not sure why????

New Haircuts

It was time for the curls to go. The weather is getting too warm for him to have the mop haircut. Alex got his first "buzz" haircut today. He did not like it very much as he screamed and wouldn't sit still the entire time. The haircut is not exactly even, but it will keep him cool. The Chinese lady that cut his hair mentioned several times to Kirk that next time he should bring Alex in while he is sleeping. We are not sure that is going to work.

Kirk took him to get an ice cream afterwards and he was in much better spirits. You will also see in the after picture that he has his pink wooee (fuzzy blanket). He had to hold this the entire hair cut.

Elizabeth also got a new summer haircut. She went to the hair salon with Kath. She is very excited about her new haircut.

Happy Birthday Grammy

Grammy,

We hope you have a wonderful Birthday!


Love,
Kirk, Kath, Elizabeth & Alex

We may have found the next Pele

I think this video speaks for itself. This guy is really good with the soccer ball. Okay, I am a little partial, but for a 2 year old, I thought it was good. This was the first time Kirk saw him play, when he video taped it. He agreed. By the way, I taught him!

Hong Kong

2007-05-01 Hong Kong click above for pictures

For the May Labour Day in China, we decided to visit Hong Kong. It is only a 2.5 hour flight from Shanghai and is in the same time zone so we went for a short 3 day stay. We stayed in Kowloon overlooking the Victoria Harbor. Wow! There are a lot of buildings here.

The transportation system in Hong Kong is top notch. We rode an immaculate subway from the airport into the city and caught a free shuttle bus to our hotel. It was very easy to use.

Right by our hotel was an Outback Steakhouse. Yes....we gorged on some really good US food. Blooming Onion, Steak, Potatoes, veggies, salad with good blue cheese dressing!!!! Of course, we did do the Australian beer, Fosters.

On Wednesday, we went to Hong Kong Disneyland. Everyone warned us that we might not like it because it is small and would be crowded during the holiday. We found the exact opposite. It was perfect for kids our age and there was no crowd. Perhaps it is overpriced for China, but we loved it. We had such a fun day. The kids got to ride all the rides they wanted to. They splashed around in a small water area, got soaked, but I had a spare set of clothes. It was a pretty hot day. Alex doesn't do well in hot weather! We watched the parade and then stayed for the fireworks.

Alex's favorite ride was the Buzz lightyear ride. Elizabeth's favorite was the Teacups. She got to talk to Belle and saw Ariel in the parade.

They both passed out on the way home.

On Thursday, we didn't have such a good experience. We went to Ocean Park which is similar to Sea World. Apparently it is not overpriced for China because that is where the crowds were. I'm very tolerant of crowds and a lot of people, and I couldn't handle it. We had to secure seats 1.5 hours before the dolphin show that lasted all of 20 minutes. We left right after that!

Then we took a taxi to Victoria Peak. It is a high spot with shopping and you can overlook all of Hong Kong. You can see some of the pictures that Elizabeth took. We took the Tram down, which started in use in the late 1800's. On the way, we met a nice lady teaching English in the Yanxi province near Mongolia. Her name was Jennifer and she was originally from Menominee Wisconsin. We all caught a cab to the Star Ferry and then took the ferry across from Central Hong Kong to Kowloon. Any Amazing Race fans out there??? They were just in Hong Kong and rode the Star Ferry.

We watched the laser light show that they have every night and then parted ways with Jennifer. We were all pretty tired after this. That's about the time I noticed that my work mobile phone was gone. It must have slipped out of my pocket during a taxi ride. Well, in Hong Kong, it must be finders keepers, because whoever found it, when we called it, shut the phone off. That made that day a bummer! We were able to catch 15 minutes in the top of the hotel outdoor pool and that really tired us out. So much so, that the kids and I passed out without dinner. Kirk went and had Mexican.

On Friday, we tried to swim again, but it was raining. So we packed up, left our luggage at the front desk, and headed out to shop. We wanted to find some shoes to fit me (although i really don't NEED any) and a new dress for Elizabeth, but ended up with a Wii for Kirk. If you don't know what this is....I didn't either.....and Kirk probably didn't.....until we heard about it from Cronley. Anyway, once Kirk's has his mind set on something, he has to follow through, so we searched up and down Nathan Road for the best deal. Since it was raining, the kids and I couldn't take it anymore and went to the bookstore by the hotel. We were able to pick up a few English books.

We flew back after getting the subway again and on the plane, Kirk realized that he left his Ipod in the hotel room charging. Now, we stayed at a 5 star Intercontinental Grand Stanford. Once again, finders keepers. Guess with kids, we need to keep our belongings to a minimum since we get so busy trying to keep them in line. By the way, I will NEVER stay at an Intercontinental again and am going to smear their name on Trip Advisor.

Overall, Hong Kong was nice. It was clean and easy to get around in. We may go back again, but I think we would stay right at Disney and just stay a couple days to hang out in their pool.

Not sure where our next adventure will take us. Perhaps Thailand, New Zealand, Australia, or Vietnam.

Welcome Nolan William Roessler

We would like to welcome Nolan to the world. Kirk's brother Kevin and his wife Chrystal had their second boy today. Ethan is proud to be a big brother. The whole family is doing well. We are looking forward to meeting him when we come back to Michigan this summer.

Lizzy & Alex + A Beautiful Shanghai Sunset

These are just photos from our everyday life. One night the sun set as a beautiful red ball. When they talk about the red sun in China, it is literally a red sun. It is amazing and my photo taking ability does not do it justice.

The pictures of Elizabeth and Alex are along a path along the river that runs through Century Park. Just off of Fangdian Lu, the path starts and it is quiet, peaceful and right now you can smell the jasmine flowers. In fact today, Alex and I saw a beautiful humingbird buzzing around a jasmine tree in the little park.

Elizabeth took some of these pictures. She loves to take pictures.

Chinese Idol

KTV click above for pictures

Okay, I think there is a bad video attached to this. I did not approve that this be added, but if I remove it, Kirk will be offended. And I was sober!

After the Autoshow, Kirk wanted to take his team out to express his appreciation for their hard work. Unfortunately, Cindy didn't feel good so she left early. Hudson, Cici, Dr. Wang, Dr. Wang's sister in law, and Kirk and I had dinner and then went to KTV to do a little Karioke. That is a big thing here. You get your own little room and sound machine. Hudson and Cici love to sing. Hudson is really good too! Much better than me.

Book Character Parade

2007-04-27 Book Character Parade click above for pictures

It was book week at school during the week before vacation. On Friday, they had to dress up as their favorite book character for a parade. The whole preschool and elementary school was there.

Elizabeth and I have been reading the Charlotte's Web chapter book so she decided to dress up as Fern. She wore a yellow dress just like Fern did in the movie for the fair. She brought her stuffed pig to be Wilbur and a big spider to be Charlotte. A lot of people first thought she was Little Miss Muffet, but then tney saw the pig and understood.

A lot of kids dressed up like princesses or spider man and bat man. I was really proud that she chose to be such a warm, loving character like Fern.

Alex's 2nd Birthday

2007-04-25 Alex's 2nd Birthday click above for pictures

We celebrated Alex's 2nd birthday a couple times. He got to open up gifts from us and other family on the morning of his birthday. We even had a couple web cams.

That night, Elizabeth got to pick where we went for dinner. Her choice - Hooters. It just happened to be the night of the Miss China Hooters 2007 contest. So Alex got to get his picture taken with some of the finalists. Of course, Elizabeth passed out at dinner and missed most of the party.

A couple days later, Alex's friends George and Lin came over for a playgroup party.

Then when we were all home that night, we celebrated again with his cake and singing Happy Birthday. He likes singing the happy birthday song now.

It's hard to believe he is two already! Time flies.

Work Visitors to Shanghai

2007-04-22 Work Visitors to Shanghai click above for pictures

Along with the autoshow came work visitors. Both Kirk and I hosted people from the States. We were able to meet up for a bit as a group one night.

The large group picture from left to right was: Rob Eckstein, Larry Denton, Cindy Zhou, Tim Glock, Hudson Yang, Sean McGuire, Dr. Wang, Kirk and I. In the next picture, it was Kirk, me and Matt Pohlman.

Kirk and Sean were so stressed out from the Autoshow, they had to get a foot massage.

On the weekend, I took Matt for a whirlwind tour of the popular tourist attractions in Shanghai. Then later that night, we met up with Clifford Kang and his wife Wendy Wu. We had dinner at a great Korean barbecue restaurant and finished the night at the piano bar in the Jin Mao tower.

AutoShanghai 2007

2007-04-20 AutoShanghai click above for pictures

The last few weeks have been kind of crazy. These pictures show the Auto Shanghai show. It was just as big and glamourous as the Detroit Auto show. The show was at the exhibition center just around the block behind our apartment.

Dura had a booth and Kirk was very busy involved with the preparation for the show. You can see the booth and some other pictures of cars that he saw.

You can also see how much traffic was in front of our apartment. It was awful, it took forever to get around that week. We were glad when it was over!

Guest Blog from Gigi and Bumpa

Would you believe that Bumpa and Gigi would fly to China? So many things to do and see.If we weren't sightseeing we were entertained by Alex and Elizabeth.

Alex loves to play with all his cars and trucks. Bumpa would ask him were the tractor and cars were and he would line them up ready to play.

Elizabeth likes doing puzzles and dolls. We went to Elizabeth's school and Gigi read them a book she composed about the farm. They enjoyed looking at Elizabeth and Alex pictures. The boys liked the picture of the homemade tractor plowing snow.Some have not seen that much snow. We went to Alex's school, the girls out numbered the boys. Before Easter went back to school for an Easter egg hunt and lunch with Elizabeth's class.

We went to the markets and could not beleve what goes on. A person can buy anything they want. They had their calculators out, ready to bargain. And don't touch it because they thought you were going to buy it. Marion said that was the biggest goodie barn he ever saw.

About the traffic and drivers. That is another story in itself. I think GiGi had a hole in the floor from braking so much. We managed to cross the streets without getting hit by the buses,cars,motorbikes and bikes. That was our first lesson.

Marion said the only safe place to be is on the 20th floor of their
apartment and watch all the traffic. What a view they have. A person would
not believe they lived in the city looking out the window. At night the
buildings are lit up and a couple of nights we watched some fireworks.

We went to an Chinese Acrobat Show and they had 8 motorcycles in a cage.
They went ever which way but loose, around and round, up and down. They sure
do know to entertain. If you ever get a chance to see one of their shows it
is a treat.

The gardens and the flower show were just beatiful. But I have to remind
myself they have many people working on those. So if I choose to do a couple
of new projects in my garden I'll be happy this year. The ideas are going to
be time saving for me, like less weeding. Of course, Marion doesn't know what
is in the planning for him to help out.


All in all we had a good time with the Roessler Family. Thank you again. Marion and Karen

Shanghai Botanical Garden & Expo Museum

Shanghai Botanical Garden & Expo Museum click above for pictures

We went to the Botanical Garden on Monday after Easter. When we first walked in, we thought it would only take 30 minutes to walk through the exhibition. Little did we know! This place is huge, a lot like Century Park. It had some amazing exhibits and we really enjoyed walking through. See some of the pictures I took of flowers that I thought were especially pretty.

That afternoon, we watched Elizabeth dance again with her friends. They have a recital coming up at the end of May or in June.

On Wednesday, I pulled Elizabeth out of school early and we went to People's Square to check out the Shanghai Urban Planning and Exhibition center. It was amazing. It has a model of the city of Shanghai! We saw our apartments, although they must have been planned to be on the opposite corner of Huamu Lu and Fangdian Lu.

We had such a great time with our visitors. Gigi will be doing a guest blog for me (hopefully) so that you can hear her perspective. I think they enjoyed themselves and they even got comfortable enough to take the Metro around by themselves!

We're thankful that they came and thankful that Kirk's Mom came in March. It will be busy for us until we come home in July, but it helped get us through!

Okay Pelton, that should've kept you busy for a while. Stop pestering me now! :)

Easter

Easter click above for pictures

We decorated Easter Eggs. Elizabeth had a lot of fun doing this with the Princess Easter Egg kit that Grammy had brought. You can see the beautiful eggs with GiGi and Elizabeth.

On Easter Sunday, we went to our church, Sacred Heart in Pudong. It was pretty crowded, but we got there early and got a good seat. We ended up seeing Elizabeth's friend Sophie and her family and they sat next to us. Alex went into the nursery and loved it.

After church, we went to Elizabeth's friend Oia's birthday party. I forgot to take my camera, but she had a blast.

Then we got to do the Easter Egg hunt. Alex just liked finding the eggs, shaking them, and opening them when the shaking sounded liked Jelly Beans. He thinks they are "nummy". We had so much fun and were so thankful to have family celebrate Easter with us as it wouldn't have been the same.

The last thing we did that day was take Alex to Farhana to get his hair cut. He was a little better this time. We really chopped it off and with it we chopped off all of his sweetness. He is a full blown terrible 2 year old!! We'll take more pictures of him but he really looks like a little boy now, not a baby, and he looks just like Kirk.

Najing Lu

Bumpa & GiGi Visit - Nanjing Lu click above for pictures

On Saturday before Easter, we went took the Metro (subway) to Xintiandi. This is an area of Shanghai in Puxi that was occupied by the Europeans and then once they were kicked out, it was the site for the first Communist party meeting. Now it is an upscale shopping and restaurant area. We ate at Latina which is a Brazillian steakhouse. The food was very good.

Then we walked to Nanjing Lu. This is a pedestrian street in Shanghai that has always (since the 1800's) been a shopping area. It is now lit up with many neon lights and is a site to see. We stopped at a Pearl market and Gigi was able to spend some money that had been burning a hole in her pocket.

Gigi and Bumpa found the Metro so easy to use, the next week, they mastered taking it on their own to many places.

Science Center & Crystal's B-Day Party

Trip to Science Center and Chrystal's B-Day Party click above for pictures

These are funny pictures, I'm just getting a look at them for the first time. So Kirk and Alex took Bumpa to the Science and Technology Museum and Gigi, Elizabeth and I went to her friend's, Crystal Tan, birthday party. Apparently Bumpa and Alex were a big hit with the local Chinese students! They all wanted their picture's taken with the Laowai (foreigner).

The party was a lot of fun and Crystal's parents, Dave and Peline, did a great job organizing it. It was at their apartment's clubhouse and their were 28 kids. On top of that, there were parents and Ayi's too! Elizabeth had fun and you can see the picture of her and her buddy, Jacob B. I think they have a crush on each other. Jacob is a very rambunctous but smart 4 year old. He draws pictures all the time for Elizabeth and she brings them home in her lunchbox.

Touring Downtown

Bumpa & Gigi Visit - Touring Downtown click above for pictures

The Monday after we returned from Beijing, we just did a little local sightseeing. Bumpa had read in the newspaper that Paul Allen (co-founder of Microsoft) had his yacht in town. Liu drove us down to check it out. Well as you can see in the pictures, it was pretty huge! It has a crew of 60 people, a helicopter, and a submarine!

Another day we went to the Oriental Pearl Tower and looked out at the sights. We saw the progress of the new financial tower vs the Jin Mao tower. We went to the Bund on the Pudong side and had dinner at Paulaner.

Finally we ended up at home with both kids on Gigi's lap for some stories.

Beijing

Bumpa & Gigi Visit - Beijing click above for pictures

On the Friday after they arrived, we made them get right back on a plane to Beijing. We spent the weekend touring China's capital. It really is an amazing city that is under a lot of change and construction getting ready for the 2008 Summer Olympics.

We took the Maglev to the airport and then arrived in Beijing on Friday night. We stayed at the Sheraton and in front of the hotel was the Beijing Hard Rock Cafe. We ate dinner there that night. It was very loud, but Elizabeth was so tired, she still was able to pass out at dinner.

We hired a private tour guide and driver. The tour guide's name was Rita and she lives in Beijing. She grew up in Harbin which is a northern China province. She did an excellent job showing us the city.

The first place we saw on Saturday morning was Tiannamen Square. It is the largest city center in the world. Here was saw the countdown clock to the Olympics, the place where Mao's tomb is (closed for refurbishment) and the picture of Mao on the entrance to the Forbidden City. You can see from the pictures that is was chilly and windy.

We couldn't believe how big the Forbidden City was. This was the place that the Chinese Emperors lived. It's easy to understand why the Boxer Rebellion happened since these people lived so large while there were so many peasants with nothing on the outside.

After the Forbidden City, we went to lunch at a traditional Chinese restaurant in the area where the Heaven's Temple is. After lunch we went up to the Heaven's Temple. Twice per year, the emperors would come here to pray to the gods for a good harvest.

On the way out of the Heaven's Temple we witnessed daily Chinese life. Singing, playing cards, dancing, kites....It wiped Alex out.

Before we returned to the hotel, we stopped at a silk factory and store. We saw the silkworm lifecycle and how they extract silk thread from their cocoons.

Our day ended with a swim in the pool and dinner at the hotel. Again, Elizabeth passed out at dinner!

The next day we went on a Hutong tour. Our guide's name was Seven. The Hutong houses were traditional Chinese houses with many rooms surrounding a central courtyard and many family members would live together. We rode in traditional bicycle drawn rickshaws throught the neighborhood. The alleys were no bigger than 2 bicycle widths since that is how most people traveled. At one time there were 6000 Hutong neighborhoods in Beijing. Now with modernization and construction there are only 2000. The one we went to is now protected by the government.

We had lunch in a family's home. Elizabeth ate with Rita, Seven, and the home's cook in the kitchen while we ate in the family room. The food was very good and there was a lot! Gigi even mastered using chopsticks to pick up peanuts.

On our way in the car to the Great Wall, we drove by the Olympic Stadium and the Swimming pool under construction.

It took us about an hour to get to the location where we were going to go up to the Great Wall. Once we arrived, we had to take a cable car up to the top of the wall. What an amazing place. It truly is a wonder how this could have been built and how massive it is. It was pretty windy on top of the wall and pretty steep in some cases. The view was outstanding. While we were on top, a snow squall came through! For some reason, Elizabeth had it in her head that we were going to walk the whole great wall and she was upset when we told her it was time to go. We had to explain how many days it would take to walk 6000 kilometers!

We weren't that impressed by the city life in Beijing, definitely not as cool as Shanghai, but the historical sites and landmarks were truly amazing! Definitely a great trip.

Bumpa & GiGi Arrive in Shanghai

Bumpa & Gigi Arrive in China - Century Park click above for pictures

We had our next batch of visits arrive on March 28th. Bumpa and Gigi made the trek from Fountain MI. They made it through the flight, that is the toughest part. I picked them up from the airport and then the next day we spent time exploring our neighborhood. Elizabeth didn't have school so we all went to Century Park. We rented one of the bikes and had a ball peddling around the park. Going up hills was tough and we got to laughing pretty hard when we barely made it up one of them!

There are also pictures of the kids going for bike rides and going to the little park.

Concordia Black Tie Dinner

Concordia Black Tie Dinner click above for pictures

We had a busy weekend on this weekend. On Saturday morning, Elizabeth and I went and met up with one of my friends from Delphi in the US, Dan Renick. They brought him back to the apartment to check out the view and to meet Alex. Dan was kind enough to bring some goodies for Elizabeth and Alex. A lot of chocolate and peanut butter candy! You can't buy Reese's in China and if you could, it still probably wouldn't taste the same.

In the afternoon, the kids were playing in the hall outside of our apartment. Elizabeth was playing with Disney princess book that Aunt Cole sent over. Thanks Aunt Cole!

Then on Saturday night, we had the Concordia Charity Auction. It was held at the Shangri-La. We sat at a table with Rob and Stacy Eckstein. It was a lot of fun and there were so many people we met. After the auction was done, we went upstairs to the Jade on 36 bar and danced. Since the auction was open bar (meaning bottomless wine glasses), I had a little too much fun! The lady in the blue dress dancing with me is Stacy.

The other picture with me is with two girls that were traveling with Dan. Julie and Connie ended up coming to meet up with us since Connie also had a friend that was at the auction.

Happy Birthday Daddy!

We celebrated Kirk's birthday with an ice cream birthday cake from Haagen Daaz that Elizabeth picked out. He turned the big 37! One of Kirk's colleagues from Dura in the States was in town, so Dave, Kirk and I went out to dinner at the Jin Mao tower. Good celebration.

Elizabeth at Ballet

Guest blog by Grammy

Elizabeth and Alex wanted to go home with Grammy's in her suitcase

This is my last day of a 19-day visit with Kirk, Kath, Lizzy and Alex. I am sad to leave China, but I have so many wonderful memories of my visit here. We were on the go everyday! I got to see Puxi, the Bund, Shanghai Museum, Shanghai Art Museum, Yuyuan Gardens, the French Concession, Xintiandi, Century Park, and Pearl and Jin Mao Towers. We took a day trip to Suzhou, where we saw ancient Chinese gardens, towers, and pagodas. Very beautiful! Kirk, Elizabeth and I spent an evening at the ERA, Chinese acrobatic performance at the Shanghai Centre Theatre, which I highly recommend. It was amazing!
I was here to help Elizabeth celebrate her 4th birthday. We had three celebrations: one at school with her classmates, where Kath and I spent the morning, did a shell-painting craft, and provided birthday treats for the children; next we had a small celebration at home that evening, sharing cupcakes with DeDe (Alex) who liked them very much; and lastly on Saturday, with a full-fledged Princess Tea Party for 12 dancing princesses, their moms and ayis (nannies). It was very special.
I also got to go to ballet class and spend a day helping in Elizabeth's class. This was very special! She is so happy here, and has many friends. I also took Alex to his Chinese preschool one afternoon, and enjoyed that a lot, although I didn't understand a word of it! You don't need to know the words to communicate with babies and teachers!
Kirk and Kath's apartment is very nice and spacious. The most impressive thing is the view. I don't think you could find a better one in Shanghai. I love the Pudong side of town. It is mostly modern and fairly easy to get around in. The Puxi side is the opposite. It is noisy, crazy busy, and a constant traffic jam. The Bund is a very interesting contrast to all of the modern skyscrapers that are going up, one after another. Construction is everywhere. I do not know where they will be able to put all of the cars we Americans would like to help them acquire from us. Right now busses, taxis, private autos, motor scooters and bicycles all fight for the same road space. Traffic signals seem optional. Underground in the Metro are many little shops selling the fake designer bags, watches, etc. It was fun learning to barter with Kirk!
We ate at some amazing restaurants. Most of the places in Green City, near their apartment, cater to Americans and other ex-pats, so the food was much like home. Others like the hotel buffets have a wonderful assortment of Chinese specialties.
Lastly, I cannot express enought thanks to Soujou and Mr. Liu for taking such good care of me while I was here. XieXie!
You all should consider a trip here. It is an amazing place, and the hospitality was incredible. Thanks Kirk and Kath!

Sunday Brunch & French Consession

After church this past Sunday, we went to brunch at the Novotel. The food was horrible but they had a play area for the kids!

Afterward, we took a walking tour around the French Concession. Again, in a couple weeks, flowers will be blooming and it will be pretty. We'll have to go back.

Kath searched and searched for shoes to wear to a black tie thing they have. Every salesperson laughed when she told them her size - 9.5 - 10US or 40-42 UK. Guess they don't sell those in China!! Good reason to shop this summer!

2007-03-18 Sunday Brunch & French Consession

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Trip to Hooters and Toy's R Us

They really do have good chicken at Hooters in Shanghai. The only place we can find good blue cheese dressing!

Elizabeth and Alex both love to dance, so of course they love this place.

Afterwards, we ventured to ToysRUs and Fireman Fred was in rare form with his hat and his stroller going to save the day!

Elizabeth isn't quite coordinated enough for roller blades. We'll stick with her bike.

Dinner at Hooters & Visit to Toys R Us

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Trip to Nanjing Lu, Era Circus and Misc.

http://www.era-shanghai.com/en/

2007-03-18 Grammy Visit

One night, Kirk and I took Grammy on our own while the kids stayed at home with Shou Ju. We went to Nanjing Lu and she was able to see the pedestrian street and do a little shopping. We also took the Metro. She really liked getting around the city on that.

Unfortunately it was raining, so we didn't have good views when we went to the top of the Royal Meridien for a drink.

Kirk and Elizabeth took Grammy to see the Chinese Acrobat show. They came back just in awe. They loved it and had so much fun.

Trip to Suzhou with Grammy

Grammy Visit - Trip to Suzhou

Kath doesn't work on Mondays and Kirk's Mondays are slow so we decided to take Elizabeth out of school and drive to Suzhou for the day. It's called the Venice of the East. It has a lot of canals throughout the city as well as gardens and temples. We went to the, can't remember the name now and too lazy to go find the book, gardens and in a couple weeks it will be full of flowers. We bought a Chinese calligraphy picture here with the words Home Sweet Home in Chinese characters.

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Grammy's Visit to Century Park

Grammy Visit - Century Park

On one of the two sunny days we had during Grammy's visit, we went over to Century Park. Elizabeth rode her bike the whole way. She did an awesome job. We got to show Grammy all of our favorite spots including the children's playground. We wish the weather would have been nicer so that we could've had a picnic, but we still had fun.

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Elizabeth's 4th Birthday Party (Princess Tea Party)

So this was the big birthday party. We all agreed it wasn't quite the same without Ally, Anna, Sarah, Katherine Wasik, Allison Bruett, and Rachel Harris here.

Elizabeth was sooooo excited to have her girlfriends come over to her house. She had Orla, Ciara, Oia, and Chloe from our neighborhood. From school, she had Sophie, Crystal, Samantha, Claire Y, Claire W, Leslie, and Lauren. She had a Princess Tea Party and all of her friends came dressed as their favorite princesses.

She had an Ariel doll cake. We didn't make this one because our "easy bake" oven isn't quite big enough!

Thank goodness we had Grammy here to help. She made tea sandwiches - PB&J, egg salad, ham and cheese, chicken salad, and cucumber and cream cheese. They ate them all!!! We also had Shou Ju make dumplings. Of course those went as well.

It was a fun party and Elizabeth got lots of nice gifts!

Elizabeth's Princess Birthday Tea Party

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Elizabeth's 4th Birthday

Elizabeth's Birthday

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One of the reasons Kirk's mom came when she did was to celebrate Elizabeth's birthday with us. Elizabeth had about 4 birthday parties when all was said and done.

On the day of her birthday, she opened gifts in the morning. Then Grammy and Mama took a craft and cupcakes to her school for a whole class celebration. She really wanted to have her whole class come to her house party, but there was just not enough room! So this was our compromise and it worked well. We took the shells we had collected from Langkawi and the kids painted them. Of course, she had cupcakes with pink sprinkles. All the kids had fun. You can see the pictures of her friends at school.

At night, she had her favorite - bow-tie pasta with parmesan. And Daddy brought home an ice cream cake from Haagen Daaz. It was heart shaped.

Grammy Here - Visit to YuYuan Garden

Grammy Visit - Yu Yuan Garden

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Grammy made the trip from Sunny Florida to Dismal Shanghai on March 1. The weather this last couple weeks has been cold and rainy. I think she had maybe 2 sunny days while she was here. She decided next time to come later in the spring season!

These pictures of her visit show us visiting the YuYuan Gardens and Bazaar during the Lantern Festival. They hang hundreds of red lanterns throughout the area and they are all lit up at night. It was very pretty.

More Langkawi Pictures

2007-02-24 Malaysia Trip

We made our first Asian excursion during the time we had off for the Chinese New Year. Without any knowledge of what to do, we chose to go to Langkawi, Malaysia based on a recommendation from a local travel agent.

It turned out to be a good recommendation. We took the Maglev on Sat Feb 17 to the Pudong Airport (see previous pictures). This train is about 1/2 mile from our house and it takes 8 minutes to get to the airport vs. a 45 minute car ride. Amazing!

The kids were great on the plane. It took about 5 hours to get to Kuala Lumpur (KL), then we had a layover, changed planes and arrived on the island of Langkawi around 6 pm. It was hot and humid when we got off the plane and we were excited about getting to the hotel to swim! We had a van pick us up and it took about 30 minutes to get to the Westin Resort.

The resort is in a very tropical location and has an open air lobby. The service when we arrived was good and we knew we would be taken care of. We got into our room and we saw that we had a beautiful view of the landscaped area of the hotel and waterfalls as well as partial view of the sea.

I actually don't think we made it to swim that first day because by the time we ate dinner, the kids were toast. They had a swim in the bathtub and then to sleep to get ready for the next day. Kirk and I were able to sit on our balcony and have a glass of wine while they were sleeping so we did get some alone time!

We got a start the next morning by letting Daddy sleep in while we went and had breakfast at this awesome buffet! Then we went swimming. This was pretty much our standard routine (Daddy joined breakfast occasionally) for the next 6 days.

Those kids had so much fun swimming. There were 4 pools and here is what Elizabeth named them...1.) The Fountain pool (1 ft deep childrens pool with a small fountain in the center), 2.) The Rock pool (see pictures) 3.) The Big pool (self explanatory) and 4.) The Small pool (on the other side of the big pool). We pretty much worked our way around all of the pools everyday.

Alex's favorite was the fountain pool. He could swim around on his own in this pool. He could crawl on his hands while kicking his feet. Good start to swimming.

This was also the pool where Elizabeth learned to swim. She didn't have to wear her water wings in this pool and she was doing the same crawling thing as Alex. Except one time, she decided to swim with her face underwater and that was it....she was an official swimmer.

I'm tired, I'll edit the post and write more tomorrow!