Pot-Luck Luck with Alex's Class

Pot luck day with Alex's class. He asked both Kirk and I to come. He asked me to make Cheese Quesadillas. He was so proud to show us around his classroom. His class's name is the Angel Bunnies.

Day at Century Park

A field trip to Century Park is always fun. This day, the kids didn't have school but the teachers did so Joe, Missy, and I and our ayi's took the kids and had a picnic and played a little football. Great fun.

Alex in school

I need to get back to blogging the way I originally meant it to be.....to share short stories about our adventures in China. Lately, it's just been catching up on posting pictures, which I'm not so good about.

But I have a good Alex story that needs to be documented.....

Keri Taverna is the teacher in the room next to Alex's and she has frequent interaction with him. She is my running partner (and a few other things) and she told me a story about him during one of our morning runs.

Alex was pushed by another student in class and this upset Alex. He got his feelings hurt. He was pushed by another boy because Alex was leaning over the boy to try and kiss a girl. Mrs Taverna talked to both boys and made them apologize to each other. Nice..... Keri wouldn't divulge names, she keeps school at school and home at home.

I asked Alex how his day was and if he got in any trouble. Of course, he told me. I told him that I heard he was trying to kiss a girl. He gave me his sweet little smile and said, "yesssss....". I asked him who the girl was and he told me it was Danah. Danah is a pretty little girl that was in his preschool class last year. Turns out he wants to marry her. But also Roshan (another boy in class) wants to marry her. But Alex thinks she is going to marry Lucas (another one of Alex's friends.

Really? 5 year olds?

But then I remembered Elizabeth's friend Ben Pigott and how he wanted to marry her. Must be a phase.

So now every morning, I give Alex a special kiss and tell him that he's not allowed to kiss girls "in school". :)

First Day of School

Back at school!

Roessler World Cup

Kirk bought all the kids World Cup soccer outfits and they had a match at a local soccer field. Not sure if we have any Pele, Messier, or Landon Donovans in our crowd.

Allie Roessler's Baptism

Kirk is a Godfather once again. Allie was baptized and she did really well in the ceremony.

Wisconsin Dells

After the wedding, we drove to the Wisconsin Dells and met up with Steve, Kim, Nate, Sarah and Natalie. We rented a big condo and had so much fun at the water parks. It was so good for us to all hang out! Hope we can do that one again.

Wisconsin - Mike & Jodi's Wedding

We finally visited the Wisconsin family after a long stretch. Kirk's cousin Mike got married.

The kids had so much fun dancing at the reception. Elizabeth had fun hanging out with Kirk's cousin Sara's daugther Maddie. So many of his cousins were at our wedding and they were about the same age as Elizabeth and Alex then, my how they've grown!

Ottawa, Canada (Sting Concert)

Kirk was finally coming into Michigan after a 7 week absence from the kids and me. He called me and told me that he would be coming in on Friday night, but would need to leave again for an overnight trip on Sunday. He sent me an email from his HR staff saying that he was invited to the CEO's vacation home in Canada for a business review and that spouses were invited. So we asked Kirk's mom to watch the kids and we flew to Ottawa.

When we arrived, I asked him if he knew where to go. He asked me to pull the info out of his backpack. I pulled out the envelope and saw that he pulled one off on me. He had gotten tickets for us to see Sting in Ottawa.

Since we missed him in Detroit, he bought the tickets and used miles for the flight and hotel, so it was a quick get away. Nice!

Ottawa is the capital of Canada and a really nice city, we enjoyed it. Thanks to Grammy and Aunt Chrystal and Uncle Kevin for watching the kids!

Cedar Point

Chrystal and I took the kids and met up with Nicole, Jake and her kids for a day of fun at Cedar Point. This was Elizabeth and ALex's first time there and they absolutely loved it. Alex's facial expression the first time he went on the frog drop was priceless....fear followed by the biggest smile ever, he loved it. I think they are adrenaline junkies!

Dufon Farm - Ludington Beach

I don't like summer because we are away from Kirk for so long and I have to work at night and have serious sleep deprivation, but I love summer for being able to play with our family and friends.

Our next stop of the summer was to the farm. It's a tradition to go the the 4th of July parade in Ludington. Once again, House of Flavors gave out small pints of ice cream to the crowd, the kids just love this parade.

Here is a list of our other activities:
Played on the farm with Olivia and Bumpa taking tractor rides
Played with Ali and Anna at Aunt Suzannes
Played with their cats
Played at the Fountain playground
Celebrated Gigi's birthday
Went to the library to do 4th of July crafts
Went to Ludington Beach
Went on a pontoon boat ride and watch fireworks on Gunn Lake
Watced Callie II catch chipmunks and mess with them before sending them to heaven
Elizabeth made a quilt
Played at the Marina playground
Visited with Deb Gunter in Traverse City
Visited Aunt Hotch's cows
Sunset swimming at Ludington Beach
Visited Sam and Janice's miniature horse farm

WOW! what a summer, it was so much fun, can't wait to do it again.

Harris 4th of July Party

After my work conference was done, I picked up the kids at the airport from Grammy and Aunt Gretchen who were flying on to London, then we picked up Olivia from Dale and drove to the Harris' for the weekend. They had their annual 4th of July party and it was a perfect weekend to spend on the lake. A lot of people came and there was a lot of catching up and kids playing together. Tons of activities like the bounce house, the bounce sprinkler slide, a mobile petting farm at a house down the road, and of course tubing. We had such a good time this weekend! It's been fun looking back at the pictures. Makes me realize how lucky we are to have good friends.

Cronley Visit to Shanghai

While the kids and I were gone, Cronley came through Shanghai and was able to keep Kirk company for a while. I think he just likes to visit us because he likes Xiao Zhu to do his laundry for him :).

Florida

Summer for the kids started in Florida. I flew them directly there and dropped them off for a little over a week while I had to attend a conference. They loved swimming with Max and Pop Pop. They did all sorts of fun stuff while recovering from jet lag. They even tried out their new bikes there.

Huangshan (Yellow Mountain)

This was another one of my very favorite weekends in Shanghai. Since Jeri was here, I wanted to go somewhere for a weekend with her that I wouldn't get a chance to go with my family. We chose Huangshan or Yellow Mountain (Huang=Yellow Shan=Mountain). Ronda Owen Uhl just moved to Shanghai from Korea so she also came. Another GMI reunion!

We flew from Shanghai to Huangshan on a Friday afternoon. When we arrived, we were met by our tour guide April. We drove to our hotel, dropped our stuff, and drove into the small town near the hotel. Here we walked along the small streets and did a little shopping. The town was cute and has not been overridden by tourist or fake bag sellers.

The next day, we drove to the base of the mountain. Here we could take a gondola to the top or climb. We opted to climb. We hiked about 6.5km that morning while April took our bags to the top via gondola car. We were advised to bring snacks and food since everything on the mountain is expensive. Everything comes up by men carrying it...food, laundry, you name it. What a sight to see.

We made it partially to the top where the gondola stops and met up with April to finish walking to the top. We saw some truly spectacular views. We also saw the locks that were on Amazing Race.

That night we stayed in a hotel at the top of the mountain. 4 star which in Chinese means 2 star to us Westerners. We at dinner (dismal chinese) and had a bottle of..yes...dismal wine and then like old ladies went to bed.

The reason we went to bed so early is that we planned to awake at 4am to see the 5:30am sunrise. You ask....why would you want to wake up so early? To beat the other 1000 tourists to the best spot. The weather was looking poor. We decided that if it was raining and cloudy, we would pass. Ronda was the guinea pig to get up at 4am to walk outside to see if it was okay. She came back and it looked positive so we woke up, bundled up in hotel provided parkas and started our trek up the mountain to get a good spot.

We had no idea where to go. It was pitch black and we had one small flashlight. We found one location where there was a big rock overlooking the canyon but there were already people there and they weren't so friendly. We kept walking and found a good spot. We sat down and spread out so that we could get some good photos. After all was said and done, we and at least 100 of our closest other Chinese tourist friends snapped some great photos. I think Jeri was going to knock one of them out at one point because she was inching into her space.

After this, we hit the breakfast buffet to fill up for our long hike down the canyon and then back up. This is China's version of the Grand Canyon, although with not so many safey precautions as there would be in the US. There were some points where my stomach dropped off as we were so close to the ledge and there were no railings. However, it was truly beautiful.

Our legs were very sore after that trek. We finished the trip with some shopping back in town and a tea ceremony and then flew back. Great weekend.

Jeri Visit to Shanghai - Visit to Expo

One of the first things we did when Jeri was here was to visit Expo. It was incredibly disappointing. The lines were long, the weather wasn't great, and we just didn't get the whole point of why Expo was supposed to be so great......Big waste of time, but still good to spend the whole day together!

GMI Reunion

Jeri Ward, Kath, John Cronley, and Ty McGinnis partying together at SWFC, great night! Shanghai.....just like college......

Field Day

Romanski's Going Away Party

Our dear friends Mike and Julie Romanski and their girls are moving to Sweden this summer (or actually have already moved since I'm writing this post in Nov :)). These pictures are from their going away party.

We started at the Rockett's house and presented a few gifts to them, one being a large photograph of Shanghai with all of us writing some notes on the back. After, we went to a local Teppanyaki restaurant. Then we vistited our favorite local bar, Carol's Cat Bar (now since closed) and finished with dancing at Malones.

We really miss them but have so many outstanding memories with them that are priceless!

Alex's 5th Birthday Party

Alex started talking about his 5th birthday in oh...must have been January. He was so excited about it. I think the plans changed a few times also.

I think he started talking about a Transformers party but then it quickly turned into a Super Mario Brothers party since he's become a Wii/DS addict.

All of his classmates have been having birthday parties where the whole class in invited. I asked him who he wanted to have come to his birthday party. His response...the whole class. Oh boy. I asked him if he wanted the party at the Lego place in Thumb plaza...you know....mess up someone's elses place. Nope, he wanted it at our house. Oh boy.

So who am I to disappoint a 5 year old? I can remember my 5th or 6th birthday. My mom had my class over in our basement. We sat at a big long table and I remember playing the drop the clothes pin in the jar. How fun was that?

Well, since I had to invite 15 kids plus his other buddies Joey, Matthew, and Gavyn, we decided it would be best to get a bounce house. I love those. Great entertainment and tires them out.

Now for the cake. Kirk and his brother have this unspoken competition on who can make the coolest cake. I'm pretty sure Kevin does the whole thing by himself. I stayed up well past 2am for 3 nights baking cakes and making frosting and fondant. Thank goodness Missy let me use her kitchenaid. So Kirk designed the cake layout and the night before the party we put it all together. And yes, we were up until 2 am.

The afternoon weather turned out okay, it rained just a bit but no big deal. All together, there were about 23 kids. Elizabeth's friends had to come also because they are all Super Mario freaks. Alex had a lot of fun.

Elizabeth's School Trip to the Shanghai Zoo

Elizabeth's class did a field trip to the Shanghai Zoo. I remember coming here when I first visited Shanghai 12 years ago. Not a spectacular zoo, the animals all look a little worse for the wear. We had fun watching a brown bear play in the water. The pandas were a little silly also.

Moganshan

I have to say that this trip was one of my favorite weekends in China. Julie and Denise organized a weekend road trip to Moganshan in the bamboo forest. It's about a 3.5 hour drive from Shanghai just past Hangzhou.

The Rocketts - Dave, Denise, Matthew, Adam and Renee; The Thompsons - Peter, Shirley, Ashley and Nicole; The Romanskis - Mike, Julie, Maddie and Allie along with us went. We rented House 23, and old English style cottage. It has 6 bedrooms and bathrooms to go along with it.

The kids all got along great as well as the adults. The big boys went mountain biking the first afternoon. Kirk fell off the bike (imagine that). We went hiking and exploring later in the day. The next day, more hiking and sitting around just lounging and talking.

There were tea plantations around and Mike, Julie, Shirley and I had lunch at one. Notice the chicken head. Julie also amazed me again with her shopping skills and managed to shop even when nothing was for sale. She convinced a tea farmer to sell her his basket.

Several bouts of laughter, several bottles of wine, lots of hiking, what a great time with great memories :)

Exploring Shanghai

The one thing the Romanskis are always good for is going exploring. We convinced Kirk (who is not such a fan) to go to this street in Puxi that we had heard about. It was a pedestrian street (kind of) with many old houses. Lots of photographic opportunities here and we saw a lot of other photographers.

Suzhou/Suzhou 1/2 Marathon

For some reason, I let Keri talk me into another 1/2 marathon. This one was in Suzhou around Jinshu Lake. Keri's friend Jen was in town and she and Julie came out to Suzhou with us to tour a little before and after the race.

Suzhou is a really pretty city. We had fun shopping the day before. The run...yeah, not so fun for me. Couldn't break 2 hours. In fact did it in 2:10. Effects of not training. Anyway, had good bonding with girls and many laughs.

Easter

Holidays are always hard when we are away from family. Luckily we have good friends here who are in the same boat. Our family had an egg hunt and after church, we went to Malone's for brunch with our friends. We are blessed.

Thompson Family Visit to China

Only 7 months later, I am posting blogs.......

Suzanne, Jake, Josh, and their exchange student Jacky (from Colombia) visited us in March during their spring break. During their visit, we went to Beijing and Xian and of course, toured Shanghai. Elizabeth and Alex made their 3rd trek to the Great Wall and of course loved it.

They arrived safe and sound and we got a chance that night to catch up. The next day we started touring. We started their visit with a trip to Din Tai Feng at the Super Brand Mall to try the famous Shanghai style dumpling - xiaolongbao. They are small dumplings with soup inside and are very good to eat.

The next day we went to the fake market for an initial walk through and to scope out potential purchase. After that, we visit YuYuan (Yu Garden). I always take people here, I love this place. Got some great pics of the kids here.

We flew to Beijing the next day. Our tour started with a Hutong Tour where we rode in rickshaws around an old Beijing neighborhood. We toured the Drum and Bell towers. After, we went back to the hotel for some rest before the next day.

The next day we toured Tiananmen Square and Forbidden City. We ate lunch at a hot pot restaurant and watch the waiter dance with noodles. After lunch we visited Summer Palace. I could be getting this all in the wrong order..... :)

We drove out the the Great Wall and it was truly amazing. I never tire of seeing this place. It is great. Our last Beijing stop was Temple of Heaven, another favorite spot of min.

After Beijing, we flew to Xian to see the Terra Cotta warriors. The weather wasn't so great, but the boys really enjoyed seeing the warriors.

Back to Shanghai. We visited the SWFC - Shanghai World Financial Center. Really tall building! We went to the top - the 100th floor. I think the boys and Jacky like this. We also went to the Shanghai Urban Planning Museum to see the model of the city.

Suzanne, Jacky, and I shopped at Taikang Lu and had Vietnamese food there. Our last stop during their visit was the Bund at night with about a milliion other people. They had to fly out the next day.

It was so good to have them here. Took so much homesickness away to have them around. Alex loved having Jake and Josh help him get to the next level in Super Mario and I loved having my sister and Jacky around to just hang out with. So thankful that they came! Love you guys.

Alex's New Bike

Romo's gave us their third wheel bike. This hitches on to the back of the adults bike and then they act in tandem. He loves it! We get a lot of looks everytime we use it. It helps us get around town a lot quicker.

Kirk's 40th Birthday

We had a party for Kirk to celebrate his 40th birthday. We had several friends join us for mexican food at Mi Tierra, pretty good food. After dinner, we headed to see Carol at the Cat Bar and did a little dancing. Can't find the picture now, but I had Romo and Roessler's freshman yearbook pictures as a game - guess who the 40yr old is. It was funny! Happy Birthday Kirk, you only get better with age!

Adventures with Grammy in Shanghai

Grammy made her annual trek to see us in Shanghai. We are always to grateful to have her come even though we know it's a tough trip to make.

This time she was a big help because I had to travel to India for work so she helped Kirk out during my absence.

These are some photos of their weekend without me. Kirk took Grammy to a water town - Qibao Ancient Town. I can't say much about this as I've never been here.

Looks like they also make a trip to the Barbie Store on HuaiHai Lu. Poor Alex, he's been here once and he's not a big fan. Although, I think he found some cars to admire. Elizabeth had fun looking around, but she is not a big barbie fan. In fact, I recall that she called me while I was in Jaipur crying because her Daddy wouldn't buy her the Barbie Skateboard :)

Thankful that Grammy visited us! Hope she makes the trek again, I have some new stops to show her.

Concordia Book Parade

I had to travel to India while Grammy was here so she helped me prepare the costumes for the kids book parade at Concordia. Alex was Squeak the Mouse from the book Scaredy Mouse. Kirk made the mask from a pattern I found online. So cute. Elizabeth was Junie B Jones. Her hair is Kirk's mullet. They trimmed it to make it look like Junie's hair. The mullet is no more.

Elizabeth's 7th Birthday Party

Hard to believe that the little peanut turned 7! Here are some pictures and video of her birthday party. She wanted to have an art party. We decided to make sock puppets and then have the girls decorate their own cakes.

Grammy was here and of course was a huge help. One day, we braved a serious downpour of rain and went to Puxi to the art street and bought lots of art supplies and goody bag items. Then we went to the hotel supply store and found small cake pans. I made a monster load of frosting and then we made tons of different colors for the girls to use to decorate.

She invited all the girls from her class and then her other best buddies. The only ones not here were Lucy and Allie and they were traveling and unable to attend.

It rained cats and dogs on the day of the party. The girls had fun making the socks and then put on the puppet show. They had more fun doing the cakes and used a lot of creativity.

Especially happy to be at the party was Alex!

Vietnam & Cambodia

For Chinese New Year, we went to Vietnam and Cambodia with our good friends Missy, Luke, Lucy, and Allie Stevens.

I started writing this blog while sitting in the hotel room in Saigon while Alex was under the weather.

Day 1 - Flight to Saigon

We flew from Pudong to Guangzhou and switched planes to fly to Saigon. We arrived into Saigon late. Here, we had to get our local visa. We had done the online registration so we thought that would help the process, but we still had to wait in a long, disorganized line when we got here. It took us about an hour and a half to get our visas and then we were able to leave.

We went to look for our transport to the hotel. When we walked out of the airport, it was just after midnight. It was Tet - Vietnamese Lunar New Year’s Eve. Fireworks were going off. Our driver had just arrived. We boarded a bus and drove into the city to get to the Sheraton.

We saw the largest amount of people on motorbikes that we’ve ever seen before. It reminded me of when I was in Shanghai in the 90’s and all the bicycles on the road. Makes me wonder if we’ll be living here in 10 years. So many people were on the street celebrating the new year. We passed the Notre Dame Cathedral. I’d like to go in and see it but not sure if I’ll get the chance. We drove down a street all lit up with lights and millions of people walking around.

We arrived to the hotel after a harrowing drive dodging motorbikes and pedestrians. One thing that sticks out in my head was watching families of four on a motorbike, usually two of the kids were sleeping. We got checked into the hotel and got to sleep pretty quickly because we knew we’d have a big day ahead.

Day 2

We woke up in the morning to the sound of drums of the Lion and Dragon dance. It was officially Tet. Elizabeth and I got up and went down to breakfast. While we were down there, we saw the Lions dancing and listened to the drum music. We met up with Luke, Missy, Lucy, and Allie. The girls went and watched some acrobats.

After breakfast, we walked around the area outside of our hotel. We walked to Nguyen Hue Blvd. This was turned into a pedestrian walk lined with amazing flowers. Again, so many people dressed in their best and taking lots of pictures. The weather was pretty hot already for the morning, the sun beating down.

I called Kirk and it turned out that Alex wasn’t feeling good and got sick during breakfast. He thought he was okay, so I walked back to the hotel to pick them up while the Steven’s took Elizabeth and found inexpensive manicures. I arrived back and Alex was laying down. He said he felt okay to get up and go, so Kirk, Alex, and I walked back to the flower street to find the others. Along the way, Alex didn’t look so good, so he and I went back to the hotel.

Once Kirk got back, we decided that Alex would need to stay in the hotel for the rest of the day, so we split up. Elizabeth and I joined the Steven’s for lunch and a tour of the city while Alex and Kirk rested.

We started out having lunch at the Lemongrass Café. There weren’t many restaurants open since it was Tet. We started with some shrimp chips and then ordered spring rolls as an appetizer. We ended up eating a mango beef salad, chicken in curry sauce, chicken pho while the kids had calamari, fried rice and rice vermicelli. Elizabeth didn’t eat much. Food was good but we had to run to catch our tour.

Missy arranged the tour through the hotel. We boarded a bus with 4 other families and started our city tour. Our first stop was to the Spring Flower Festival in Tao Dan Park. There were vendors here and many different kind of flowers, specifically a lot of orchids. We spent about 30 minutes going through this park, it was hot!

Our next stop was to a Taoist Temple. This temple was over 400 years old. It was very smoky from all of the incense burning. People were here worshiping their ancestors. We walked around a bit and bought the girls some incense to light. After this, we walked across the street to the next part of our tour.

Now we got on rick shaws to drive around the China town area. The rick shaws were bicycles with a seat up front for one person. Elizabeth sat on my lap. I took some video of this. It was a bit of a long ride in the hot blazing sun, but was really neat to be on the street with all the scooters. Didn’t see many cars, but the ones we saw were mostly Toyotas and VW’s .

After the rick shaw ride, we got back on the bus and stopped at a shopping area. Here they had overprices local artwork. Pretty much a rip off. $45 for a plastic coaster set. Good thing we are experienced Asia travelers who have some idea what things are worth. Then we went on to the next Temple. This was a Buddhist temple. Again, many people here praying as it was Tet and that is one of their traditions…to go say prayer at Temple. We had to remove our shoes and everything was quiet. This temple had monks and nuns praying here.

Our final stop was the highlight of the tour. We stopped at a local Vietnamese family’s house to see how they celebrate Tet. We weren’t sure what to expect. We walked into the house of many people and our tour guide explained that our host was Mr Mung. He was dressed in traditional Vietnamese clothes and hat. We sat down at round tables and were served tea by his two nieces.

Missy and I observed that these girls who looked to be the age of about 8 of 9 had breasts. We wondered if it was traditional to stuff your bra that early. Turns out these girls were small people and were 32 and 22. Later, Luke told us that their cousin said they were small people due to Agent Orange. Not sure if this is true or not. It turned out that they were fabulous singers and they sang a couple traditional songs for us accompanied by another relative who played the moon guitar. After they sang, two other singers got up and also sang.

Some observations about the house. Tile floor. Many antique objects (vases, furniture, grandfather clock, temple). Large flat screen TV with a Wii! So different, so alike.

Our tour guide told us we’d get back to the hotel by 6pm. At 6pm, the host told us that he would be serving us dinner. We moved to the temple as they lit incense to worship and then we went outside to the courtyard to have dinner. We did not expect this.

We were served traditional Vietnamese dishes and some were from an area in the middle of the country called Hua. We had steamed sticky rice, other different glutonous rice dishes, some pork and chicken, some steamed conch which was an expensive delicacy as well as some preserved vegetables (cabbage). During dinner, they brought out this large jug of wine. We were all to drink out of it as a way to bond. It didn’t taste very good! Mr Mung told us if we got drunk on that wine, we would be sick for three days.

Finally, Mr Mung and his family gave us hongbaos with two $2 bills in them. Our tour guide later told us that he had no idea that they would be so hospitable and that Mr Mung did over and above what the tour company compensated him for. We asked why he would do that. The tour guide said that Mr Mung was a weathly owner of a publishing company. His house was worth $5 million US. He wanted to share this tradition with others and felt that since he was wealthy, he wanted to do this in goodwill to give back to others.

We took pictures and said Chuc Man Nam Moi which is “Happy New Year” in Vietnamese (thanks to Thuy Marchal for giving me some quick SMS lessons!) and then got back on the bus to return to the hotel. Again, so many people out on the street. We had to exit the bus and walk about 5 min back to the hotel because the bus couldn’t get through. Great day.

Day 3
Alex is still a little under the weather so Kirk and Elizabeth are touring today. They are going to the tunnels. I’ll let Kirk talk about that.

Day 4
We loaded up in a van a drove about 3 hours to a beach in Phan Thiet. We stayed at the L'Anmian Resort. The resort itself was pretty new so the property was beautiful but the service only so/so. For the next two days we pretty much hung out at the beach and the pools. We had a pool at our villas so it was nice to come back in the afternoon and just hang out there. At night, we ate at open air restaurants and had some decent seafood. Missy and I discovered Vietnamese Coffee. This is really strong coffee with sweetened condensed milk. Sometimes we even added some Baileys. Okay, all the time we added Baileys. Really good stuff. We had excellent spring rolls pretty much everyday and loved most of the food, including the Pho.

Day something. I've now lost track. I guess fully relaxed by now. We have loaded back up into a van and drove back to Saigon to catch our flight to Siem Reap. We plan to try to see as many temples as the kids will stand.

We end up meeting up with Scott and Anne Richardson and their daughters Juliet and Lillie. Lillie is in Alex's class and she keeps him in line. She is a very adorable, smart, sweet girl who has been incredibly blessed by God. Everyone is happy to have more playmates.

The first day in Siem Reap, we to the Tuk Tuks to a few different temples. Can't remember the names now, only Angkor Wat. But the coolest one was the one with trees Ta Prohm. Alex wasn't a big fan at first but then he kind of got into the climbing. He really liked the Tuk Tuks.

Siem Reap has a lot of poverty. We took a boat tour out to a water village. Here was saw a lot of poverty and that was hard to take. However, sometimes I think if that's all they know, maybe it's not that bad for them.

The restaurants in Siem Riep were all really good and the tuk tuk took us everywhere. There is a night market that is nice. Missy, Ann and I went and had our feet eaten by fish. Not cool, didn't care for that at all.

Le Meridien was really nice hotel to stay at. Would definitely do this trip again.

Concordia Dragon Dance

Video from the Chinese New Year Celebration at the kids school.

Daddy Daughter Dance

Elizabeth and Kirk attended the Daddy Daughter Dance. This year's theme was a Hawaiian Luau. Elizabeth wore a pretty flowered sundress with a Lily clip in her hair. Kirk had a pink, floral vest underneath his nice black tuxedo. He had it made last minute. They looked lovely together though. Sounds like Elizabeth just ran around the dance floor all night chasing her friends, but they had fun.

Florida

After our Dufon Christmas, we flew to Florida for a little warm weather. Except there was no warm weather. It was Freezing!

The kids swam the first day we got there and that was the end of swimming! Can't believe it was so cold. We still had a lot of fun. One day we went to the Manatee Park to see the manatees. Although it was really cold and we didn't stay too long :).

We also got to catch up with family. We had dinner a couple times with Aunt Cathy and Uncle Tom Roessler and Aunt Gretchen Roessler. We played spoons one night which everyone except Aunt Kathy loved. She was a really funny sport about it though.

Another day, we had lunch with Aunt Chick, Uncle Jerry and Aunt Honey and Mary Ann. Wow, it was so good to see them. I wish we could have gotten together more, but our time was so short while we were in Florida.

The rest of our time was spent loading up on stuff. Someone has to keep Target and Costco in business since the rest of you Americans aren't spending money. Oh - how I miss those stores :).

We did have a chance to go to Naples and check out a sunset. Honestly, in our years going to Naples, this was one of the most beautiful sunsets we've ever seen. Wish we would've known more about how to use our new camera. We also hit the Cheesecake factory. I love that place and their fish tacos.

The weather never improved. Stayed cold the whole time so the kids didn't get their normal swim time in. It was okay, we still had fun.

Dufon Christmas

The pictures need to be updated to the Dufon Christmas.

We drove north on Christmas day so that we could see Bumpa on his birthday. Here we found snow! The kids had been wanting to play in snow ever since they arrived. There was plenty here to play in.

More to come when i see the pics to remind me

Roessler Christmas

Once again, we landed in Detroit and bombarded Aunt Chrystal and Uncle Kevin's house. There was no snow this year, so the kids spent quite a bit of time running around and terrorizing the house.

The photos start out with Christmas Eve mass. The kids were all dressed in their best and looked really cute. They were all good in church. After church, we came back home to have our "party". The party included snacks, drinks, and dinner. I'm not sure anyone made it to dessert.

The kids made cookies for Santa Claus and had fun watching Santa on the internet. They were very excited about him coming the next day and were trying to be on their best behavior.

No one was disappointed the next day when they came downstairs to see that Santa had come!

Polar Express Train Ride

Chrystal arranged for a ride on the Polar Express train ride. This was put on by the Clinton Township parks and recreation and they did an awesome job. We got cookies and hot cocoa when we boarded the train and saw our friends Frosty, Santa, and Rudolph.

Frosty read us the story of the Polar Express. Santa took time out of his busy schedule to come give the boys and girls bells. Rudolph came on and we all sang Christmas carols.

After the ride, we went to Kirk's favorite - Outback.

More posts coming....Kirk has to load the pictures :)

Shanghai Christmas Tree

Here is a picture of Elizabeth and Alex opening up presents from Xiao Ju in front of our "Charlie Brown" Christmas Tree. Each year it's getting prettier and prettier with all the decorations that the kids make to put on it. I LOVE this tree.

Concordia Christmas Parties

The kids also had Christmas parties. I was able to go and help at both. Lots of fun!

Concordia Christmas Programs

Elizabeth and Alex both had Christmas programs. Elizabeth played the kazoo in hers. Alex was not the most well behaved kid in his program - I'm sure all of you who know him are not surprised. Great memories here!

Farewell Party for Heather Pigott

Heather and Jim Pigott and their family - Emma, Ben, and Alex moved back to their home in Chicago area. Missy held a going away breakfast for Heather. They had been in Shanghai for three years and were ready to get back. They are a really nice family and will be sorely missed.

Stevens Christmas Party

Luke and Missy Stevens hosted a Christmas cocktail party to get us into the holiday spirit. We all had a lot of spirit and food!

Shanghai Visitors

I had a couple former co-workers in town. Rajesh Chawla is a friend of mine from Delhi who I worked with but has since left Delphi. We had some good Indian food for lunch.

I also met up with my friend Mike Lawrukovich, a guy I worked with when I first graduated from GMI. We went shopping in Tai Kang Lu and then took a tour of the Lupu Bridge area. We walked up on the bridge and viewed the Expo area. We finished with dinner in YuYuan area at Din Tai Fung and had great xiaolongbao.

Guilin & Yangshuo

Kirk had a work conference in Guilin the first weekend in December so the kids and I flew and met him for the weekend. Guilin is a city in the Guangxi province which is south and west of Shanghai.

We only spent one day in Guilin which is a city and then we took a car into Yangshou which is a town in the countryside. Wow, what a beautiful place. We stayed at the Yangshou Mountain Retreat which is kind of a bed and breakfast sitting along the Yalong River. You can see in the pictures and videos of the bamboo rafts floating by.

We took bicycles through the little countryside villages up to the Dragon bridge on Saturday. This was a lot of fun. At the bridge, we hopped on bamboo rafts and drifted back down the river. After two hours the kids got bored, so we pulled ashore and got back on our bikes back to the hotel.

At night, we went into the town of Yangshou and had dinner along the pedestrian shopping street. After dinner, we took a car over to this light show. The show was pretty neat but the kids were too tired to enjoy.

We had planned another day of biking and site seeing on Sunday but Elizabeth's earring back embedded itself into her ear and got infected so we caught an early flight back. This place is great for biking and rock climbing and we would like to come back to get away from the craziness of the city again.

Elizabeth & Alex Thanksgiving Lunch

The kids both had Thanksgiving celebrations at school.

Elizabeth Field Trip to Children's Palace

Many more posts coming.....
Elizabeth had a field trip to the Children's Palace in Shanghai. This is also called the Marble Mansion. History of this place is that it was built by a Sassoon (can't remember which one) who was a prominent Jewish business man in the 1900's. Please don't quote me on this at all....I need to take the Jewish walking tour of Shanghai. Anyway, this was his families house and now it is a an activity center for children in Shanghai. We were able to see an acrobat show and play on a great rope play structure. We had great weather for the day and the kids had fun.

Alex Brings Honey Home

Okay, caught up on the blog for a bit since we're in the US for Christmas now and don't have the censorship issues that we have in China.

Alex got to bring Honey the Honeybee home from his classroom. Here are some pictures of what Alex and Honey did together.

Santa Picture

Kids got to sit on Santa's lap at the Concordia Christmas bazaar. You can see Elizabeth holding Honey the Honeybee who was visiting us from Alex's classroom.

The kids liked seeing Santa. Elizabeth asked for a guitar and Alex asked for connectors. The one nice thing about living in Shanghai is that the kids aren't exposed to all the marketing of toys and such from advertising. They don't know to ask for much! I'm not complaining.

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Shanghai Bus Tour Party

During the last Concordia Auction, Jim Pigott and Kirk decided to bid for the bus. This was in response to last year's party that G2 Forsberg hosted. I'm not sure how legal their bid was, I think they wrote down their name after the bell rang and upset another Concordia parent, but they were determined to win it.

So they won the bus, and were supposed to plan the trip, but it fell into the hands of Heather and I to plan. We decided to make it an International Tour of Shanghai.

We started at Declan's Irishman's Pub. Then we boarded the bus to head to Puxi and landed at Jenny's Bar. During the bus ride, we enjoyed beverages from Inbev (Budweiser) courtesy of Matt Rohm who traveled from the US, okay not just for the tour but timing was good.

After Jenny's (and the pregnant cat that Ken Holloway made friends with), we headed over to dinner at Cantina Agave for some tacos and Margaritas. Kirk didn't put names on pictures again, so I'll have to come back and do that.

After margaritas, we were ready to dance! We went back over to Pudong and landed at the World Financial Center. Up to the Top of the house we went to watch Carlton Smith and his band. Didn't get picture of the dancing but got video of Kirk singing on stage with Carlton, not sure why it's not posted!

HSBC Golf Tournament

We decided to take the kids to their first golf tournament. The HSBC tour is very popular in Shanghai but expensive in Chinese standards so it's not too crowded. The tournament is in Sheshan which is about an hour drive from our house.

All the big names were here. Tiger, Phil, Ernie.... BTW - this was before the Tiger scandal broke.

The kids had fun walking around the course, but Alex decided that the area to play in was much more fun. He played on the golf carts for about an hour.

We weren't allowed to take photos on the course so we didn't get pics of the big guys. But we saw them up close and personal.

Alex even got a signed glove from Jason Dufner. We were just standing watching the players practice and Jason walked across from the pitching green to the putting green and handed it to him. Alex was in awe, it was really nice of him to give it to us.

It was a beautiful day to watch golf.

Elizabeth's Cherub Choir

One of Elizabeth's after school activites was the Cherub Choir led by Ms Amy Camp. This is their end of semester concert. There were some really good singers. I think Elizabeth was nervous!

Melbourne Cup Party

Molly Forsberg organized a group of us to go to the Melbourne Cup Luncheon. The Melbourne Cup is actually a National Australian holiday, all the Aussies get the day off work. So this would be simliar to the Kentucky Derby.

It was great fun to see all the ladies decked out in their best with spectacular hats. Free flow champagne ensured that we all relaxed and had fun. We were able to bet a little and our table all won some money or some prizes.

Kirk didn't label the pictures so here are the people in them:
Group photo, Heather Pigott and Audrey Nord, Kath and Missy Stevens, Missy and Heather, Lisa McLaughlin and Molly Forsberg, Lisa with a bird on her head, Kath and Lisa, Kath and Audrey.

Shanghai Duathalon

Romo talked us into doing a mini duathlon. This was a 4k run, a 17k bike ride, finished by a 4k run. In this picture is Joe Taverna, Keri Taverna, Mike Romanski, Kath, and Dave Rockett. Kirk ended up hurting his back so he was unable to do this with us.

It was a really windy day and so made for a tough bike ride. Joe came in first for the whole tbing and Keri came in first for the females. Our goals was to finish in 100 minutes and Romo and I brought up the rear in under 100! We had a lot of fun.

Halloween

This year, Elizabeth was Hannah Montana and Alex was a Transformer for Halloween. We went to Vizcaya trick or treating. The kids got a lot of candy. I think Elizabeth looks like a mini drag queen!

I bought pumpkins at Carrefour. They had big ones this year, they haven't in the past. You don't even want to know what I paid for them. It was hilarious walking through the store with a cart full of pumpkins. Xiao Zhu was with me and everyone kept asking her if we were really going to eat all of them. Chinese people eat pumpkins, they don't carve them, let them rot and throw them away. Kind of makes sense i guess :)

After trick or treating, we went to the Pigott's house for a party. Missy made some great finger cookies, see pic. There was a ton of Halloween food there. I think Missy's costume was the best.

School Pictures

Elizabeth 1st Grade
Alex Pre K4
Here are the kids school photos. They turned out nice.

Here is the Chinese thing about them.....they airbrushed Elizabeth's mole off of her nose! I didn't ask them to, it's part of Elizabeth. But my guess is that they are so focused on how people look on the outside, they thought they should take it off. I didn't have time to complain to the company so I guess I'm complaining here.

Concordia Volleyball Tournament

Concordia hosted a volleyball tournament. The PE teachers took the kids to watch the early games on Friday during PE class. The kids got to learn a little about volleyball but what they learned most is how hard the kids work and how to support team and school spirit.

We took them at night to watch the finals. Elizabeth was so excited, she made cheer signs and brought her pom poms. Alex even got into the school spirit. Alex lost interest after the first game, but Elizabeth and Kirk stuck it out.

Concordia Fall Carnival

The school doesn't really celebrate Halloween. Not sure, guess it's anti Christian? I won't rant about that.

Anyway, they put on a fall carnival again this year. Kids couldn't wear their costumes, but had a great time running around to all the games and the bounce houses.

You can see our apartment right from school. Kirk took the pic.

Singapore & Bintan Island

Singapore Pictures
Bintan Island Pictures


We took a vacation during the October holiday with the Taverna family - Joe, Keri, Emily, Joey, and Matthew. We started out in Singapore for a few days and toured the city and finished our vacation with a few days on the beach on Bintan Island, Indonesia.

Singapore is a really nice city/country. The first day we got there, we went to Little India. This is an area of town with lots of small shops, restaurants, and Hindu temples. The girls had lots of fun shopping and Emily and Elizabeth even got Henna tattoos on their hands. We loaded up on bangles and bindis. We didn't eat since we went in the morning directly after breakfast but the food smelled good.

The next day, we went to the zoo. Everyone says how great it is and they are not lying. Truly the best zoo we've ever visitied specifically because we were able to get so close to the animals. We only spent a half day here but could have easily spent a whole day here.

After the zoo, we did the Night Safari. This is next to the zoo and you can either walk through or take a train. We opted for the train. Here we saw animals in their natural habitat - specifically the nocturnals. Really cool because you couldn't see any fences and it gave the illusion that you were directly next to the animals.

Kath and Elizabeth got to see Peline and Crystal Tan one morning for breakfast. If you have followed our blog, you'll know that Elizabeth and Crystal were best friends at Concordia. They moved back home to Singapore this summer. It was great to see them.

We got to visit Kirk's favorite - Outback one night. We did some other shopping around Orchard Road area, pretty expensive stuff, so we didn't buy much. Kids also got to swim in the pool at the hotel.

Singapore is definitely a place to visit again.

After the city visit, we needed a break on the beach. We took a ferry over to Bintan Island and stayed at the Club Med for a few days. This was our first time at a Club Med and it was nice. It was all inclusive so all the kids loved going up and getting smoothies any time they wanted.

The kids had fun playing on the beach and jumping waves. There were only two pools but the kids kept busy all day in them.

We had a great time together!

After t

Alex Making Mooncakes

Wow, I think I'm caught up now. Gigi, this should keep you busy at 1:00 am when you can't sleep.

Alex's classroom had their Mid Autumn festival celebration and Ms Mellen taught them how to make moon cakes. They actually just made them with jelly and bread but the kids had fun making and eating them.

Swimming Pool at New Apartment

We had a few weekends after we moved to our new apartment where we could use the swimming pool. It is an outdoor pool and is not too bad. The kids had a lot of fun using it. Kirk took some picture of the buildings in the complex. I don't think the architecture is that nice, but the gardens surrounding the buildings are.

First Day of School

Here is the first day of school picture. The kids had a great summer day to start out. You can see we were still in our old place and had a great view of the city in this picture.

Roessler Family Picture & Video

Family pictures are always tough to get. The Dufon's got one this year, unfortunately without Kirk. The Roessler's got one but I'm not sure everyone was smiling as we were coming to the end of our trip.

Detroit Tigers Game

We got a chance to go watch the Tiger's this year. They played Seattle. The kids had a great time. Kevin's company sponsored a Detroit school corporation so our kids were able to run the bases. We were able to go down on the field and watch them run around the bases. That was AWESOME.

Thomas The Tank Engine

I'm not going to say much about this as it's out third year for going. We went to Huckleberry Railroad and rode Thomas the Tank Engine. The kids had a lot of fun.

Klein Golf Weekend

Kirk went to Crystal Mountain for his annual golf trip with his BFF Dave Klein. He doesn't see Dave much anymore since Dave left Dura so it was fun for Kirk to see everyone again.

Hanging out at the Swimming Pool

After the Harris', we went back to our apartment that we rented and swam in the pool with Ethan and Nolan. Here are some fun pictures of the kids.

Fun on Commerce Lake

Kirk went golfing for the weekend, so the kids and I went over to the Harris' house and played on the lake. Alex had fun swimming in the lake and even like tubing a little bit. Elizabeth is my daredevil. She and Ryan had fun tubing and she even started water skiing on the kid's board. I, on the other hand, am a complete loser and can not get up on one ski anymore. How sad is that!

Elizabeth Gets Her Ears Pierced

As my mom told me, I told Elizabeth that she could get her ears pierced when she could learn how to ride a two wheeler. She learned that last summer but was too chicken to get her ears pierced. She worked out her fears and did it this year. She looks so cute and has done a great job managing taking them in and out with no infections.

Chloe Rose Slivinski

Purple (Olivia's name for Nicole's baby) came on August 5. Her name is Chloe Rose Slivinski and she is beautiful. She's got chicken legs and is a little scrawny but is getting bigger every day. Olivia is a proud big sister and Elizabeth and Alex were having fun holding the baby.

Grammy's Friends & Grandchildren Get Together

Grammy and her friends organized a picnic at a splash park in Plymouth. All of Grammy's friends brought their grandkids and they all played together. Ethan, Nolan, Alex, and Elizabeth all had fun but I think Grammy had the most fun showing off her grandkids.

Chicago

It's always hard to see everyone when we come home to the US for the summer. Pelton organized a weekend when all of our friends could converge in one location. This summer was at Cronley's new house in Chicago area. The Chesna's, Wasik's, and Harris' all made it and stayed there. Chris and Sherry House made the drive across teh city for a cook out. Another of Kirk's fraternity brothers, Jim came as well. See the picture of the kids on the porch. They are all getting so big. They all played so well together. It was a lot of fun.

We spent one afternoon in the city. Elizabeth was able to take her American Girl doll, Emily to the American Girl doll store and get washed up and have her hair done. After we went to Cheesecake Factory. Wouldn't be a good trip to Michigan Ave without stopping there.

Florida

So as I said in the last post, the kids got left in Florida. Kirk met up with them there just a few days after I left. They had a ball swimming, going to the park, and going to splash parks. I think they slept good every night they were there.

Washington DC

I took the kids to see Grammy and PopPop in Florida. They like it when they can have the kids to themselves for a while. This was a nice break for me. I took the opportunity to fly up to Washington DC to see a couple friends.

Vineeta, Praveen, and their son Nehru Mooganur live in Virginia. I got to spend a couple days hanging out with them and Vineeta's parents, Mr and Mrs Dubey. They cooked some great Indian food for me! Vineeta and I were able to get out one night and go to the Mall to see the monuments lit up. It's been about 12 years since I've been there so I was again impressed. I didn't remember how small the city was. Maybe my perpective has changed since living in Shanghai. It was great to spend some time getting to know Nehru. He is such a sweet, smiley baby.

After a couple days, I met up with Jeri Ward. She just moved to DC the prior year. She lives in the heart of the city just down from all of the embassies. We were room mates in college so we had lots of catching up to do. We were able to do some good eating, shopping, and even got in a run. We laughed a lot over the couple days we had together and it was really nice.

Can't wait to take the kids back to show them our Capitol.

Dufon Farm

The kids had a great time hanging out on the farm. Tons of wide open space to run in, lots of cousins to play with, and rides on every vehicle imaginable. We even took a trip over to Aunt Hotch's to see her cows and Rusty's garden. Gigi's knee was starting to get better so she taught the kids how to make her yummy chocolate chip cookies.

Elizabeth at Tennis Camp

Elizabeth joined Anna at a tennis camp in Ludington. This was the first time she played tennis. The camp was one week long for a couple hours a day in the afternoons. She really enjoyed it and even got her picture in the Ludington Daily News.

Kirk Visits Beijing Olympic Green

Kirk had to go to Beijing for a meeting with Audi so he got a chance to take a tour of the Olympic Green area. This is the area where the Bird's Nest Stadium and Water Cube was located. He was able to take a tour of the Water Cube. It was nice to see all of the Olympic venues up close.

Dufon 4th of July Camping Weekend

My favorite....4th of July at the farm. The kids love it too. Alex especially loves sleeping in a tent. Elizabeth had a lot of fun hanging out with Anna and Alli and you can see that Alex and Olivia and Natalie became good pals around the kitchen table.