November Randoms

I was preparing my Gospel Doctrine lesson while Ironman practiced his letters

 Kenney with a couple of his protests

In our Shenzhen apartment we had a row of floor tiles that were "heated".
The building water pipes ran underneath them so it gave that effect.
Cole would spend chilly mornings laid out on the tile like this. 

Riding to school

Irish bagpipers in the Shenzhen subway - that's pretty normal right?

We had lunch at Element Fresh with our friends one Saturday morning after sports practice.
This Chinese lady asked if she could take a picture with all the kids.
Her husband is next to me snapping photos.  I guess we are an eclectic bunch!

Black Friday

Black Friday used to mean my mom and sisters having a fun exhilarating day of shopping, finding treasures to delight loved ones, focusing on others and creating great memories. We loved coming home to explain to the men how much we saved by spending 😉. Today Stan is off to Vietnam to meet his buddies for a golf weekend and I get to accompany my boys on a school field trip to a cooking oil plant... Things have changed : ) shop on for me my sisters!

Thanksgiving

We had a fun Thanksgiving dinner tonight at the Hilton buffet with 35 friends. There was classic Thanksgiving food plus plenty of Asian choices, fresh seafood and desserts. The hotel even made an area for the kids to play. Love our Asia friends

One more thing before bed - some of you may recognize that hotel from last Christmas when Cole fell in the lobby infinity pool before dinner. They now have signs there warning. We did have an incident in our group- a helper who was chasing one of the kids slipped and broke her arm. Lesson- don't chase a 2yr old on marble floors in 3" heels 😕

Thanksgiving Craft

The neighborhood mom's got together to do a Thanksgiving craft for the kids. Victoria and I got the craft supplies and prepped while the other moms brought treats.  We ordered the supplies off of TaoBao - the amazon of China.  We didn't anticipate that the paint wouldn't dry on our styrofoam balls so she and I spent hours with the blow dryer trying to get things prepped.  In the end the craft was cute and the kids loved it.

Maryn, Jaclyn, Victoria, me and Sherley

School Field Trip - Cooking Oil Factory?!

I was excited to find out the boys would have their first ever school field trip. I remember how happy field trips made me as a child.  When I saw where it was to I had to fall out laughing - a cooking oil factory!  I envisioned kids walking precariously by hot vats of oil.  Well it turned out to be a nice little tour.  This company is of the major oil manufacturers in China and they a few other staple products as well. The kids loved riding the bus and checking things out.  After the tour the kids did some crafts, snacks and games in the cafeteria area.  They showed the kids a short film about their processes followed by a q&a for the kids to win prizes.  Unfortunately the film was in Mandarin so most kids and parents had no idea what was said!  As we sat through the painful follow up game that was just not working out a question came that Cole knew - "when is Thanksgiving?"  Cole answered, "next Thursday!"  The teacher said, "Not exactly -  the right answer is it's always November 27th".  We then explained to the Chinese teacher that Thanksgiving is the fourth Thursday and not always on November 27th - Cole was right.  "Oh", they said and gave Cole his prize - a plastic orange colander?! oh China... : )

On the bus

Around China

Border Crossing at Futian

This was the Ritz Carlton TV Guide

This is an elaborate chart from the police station explaining what ID photos were and were not acceptable.  Some things they would not allow included too much makeup, headwear, tilting your head smiling too much... 

I loved Monchichis as a child and thought they weren't made anymore.  Nope , they just moved to China

Squatty potty

I'm not lovin it

How cute is this guy in this crazy outfit.  Notice the split pant for peeing.
  Obviously he is from a progressive family as he has a diaper on. 

And that would be a monkey in the stairwell in Luohu