highlights from HK and other fun with Nana and Pappaw

After we celebrated Trinity's first birthday and let Nana and Pappaw get over jet lag, we set out to show them some of Hong Kong's highlights. I've decided it's a great thing to visit Hong Kong with a 2-to-1 adult/kid ratio, especially when preschoolers are involved. We took turns getting out altogether and separately in pairs. Kevin took his parents on two outings without the kids so they could linger a bit longer at the beautiful scenery. The first stop was to Victoria Peak because, well, it's one of Hong Kong's most popular places to go! It was an overcast day but the view is always beautiful regardless. On another day Kevin took his folks for a cable car ride, and I think they all enjoyed this much more than going to Victoria Peak. The cable car ends at the world's largest bronze sitting Buddha, or something like that. The Buddha isn't what was exciting, of course, but the view was apparently pretty amazing! (Seeing as how I'm not a fan of cable car rides, I gladly offered to stay with the kids and take them to the park. But after I heard how much fun the cable car ride was I decided next time I might just have to temporarily get over my fear of cable cars.)

Smiles on the cable car...obviously Nana and Pappaw do not share my deathly fear

you can see Buddha sitting on his booty in the background

One afternoon Kevin and Pappaw went on a man-outing, which included a movie and some ribs. I have no picture of that. Nor do I have a picture from the date Kevin and I went on in HK...probably because we were having so much fun talking, shopping, and feeding our faces while not being interrupted by little ones. (Thank you Nana and Pappaw for giving us this time together!) But I DO have a picture from High Tea at the Four Seasons Hotel. Yippee! It's supposed to be one of the top things to do in HK and I've always wanted to go, but for some reason my manly husband has never been interested in tea. Or scones. Or frilly little sandwiches. Nana and I had a great time. Look at the spread!

Of course we had to stop by Disneyland and say hi to Mickey and Minnie. Grace was thrilled to be back. And while riding the carousel we unexpectedly ran into some friends! It was fun to catch up, even if it was too brief. I love meetings like that!

Grace was too shy to visit with the princesses this time but was thrilled to see the characters again. Minnie is by far her favorite. (Grace was still sporting a black eye from a major run-in with her bedroom wall following an acrobatic move gone awry.)

We had to pull out the Minnie-ears for Minnie. Grace asked me later, "How do Mickey and Minnie eat? Their mouths are stuck open! And how do they sleep because they can't close their eyes?" And don't even try to convince Grace that Mickey and Minnie are not real. She will not have it that someone else is inside these costumes. Nope, "they're for real."

After our Hong Kong vacation, Nana and Pappaw came home with us and we got some good play time in with the girls.

And there was plenty of silliness going on...

Next door at the park we took our pictures with our respective zodiac signs. We realized that Grace and Pappaw were both born in the year of the dog!

Nana and Pappaw's birthday gift to Trinity was this amazing tunnel and attached tent. The girls have had so much fun playing in this the last few weeks! We'll have to put it up soon and bring it out for rainy days, but for now they are still enjoying the playtime.

Nana and Pappaw, thank you so much for coming and blessing us! We know it's no small thing to travel to Asia and you were both so gracious to come and spend time with us. We love you!

ONE!

Look who's one!! And guess who traveled across the ocean for her birthday? Trinity had a Hong Kong birthday this year since we had to leave the country again. (Yes, I know it feels like we've been to HK many times this year. 3 to be exact!) Nana and Pappaw flew in the night before Trinity's birthday. We had a fun little family party. Grace was more excited than anyone. That girl loves a good party. It was sweet to see her excited for her sister. Last year at my baby shower for Trinity the only time I got teary-eyed was opening this cute little "One" outfit from Rebekah M. (thank you, friend!) I think the tears came because I knew the first year would fly by quickly. And wouldn't you know it? It did. Trinity, how are you a year old already? Weren't we just in Lubbock at the hospital? I'm thankful for your first year of life. It's given me a chance to stop and savor baby-dom again. You have been such a sweet and wanted addition to our family. We all love you. You had a great, smiley, cuddly birthday. We ate at Amaroni's for lunch and you loved your strawberry birthday cake. Sister helped me make it. She also helped you open your gifts. Trinity, at one year:

• You are cruising furniture and standing on your own. We hope you take your first steps while Nana and Pappaw are here.
• You are completely on table food and eat almost anything we serve you. I guess it's only fitting since you have so many teeth! All four of your molars have partially cut through the gumline.
• You are a good sleeper but will stir if I even set foot in your room at night! I guess you sleep pretty light!
• You love to raise your hands if we say "Hallelujah" or "How big is Trinity?" and clap for us when we sing songs.
• You can say a few words like "Mama," "night-night," and "bye bye." Nana is really working on "Nana" right now and it seems like you've said it a few times :)
• You love to look at books and point to babies' eyes, give us high-fives and "head bonks."
• You love to cuddle (please don't stop this) and suck your thumb while rubbing your ear when you are tired.
• You have the cutest little kinky-curly patch of hair on the back of your head. Sometimes it makes a little mohawk. You will definitely be our curly-top. I apologize in advance for my lack of curly hair-do skills.
• You think your sister hung the moon and give her the biggest cackles of anyone

Happy Birthday, little one!

tunnels and walls and picnics, oh my!

Remember camp? I loved camp. Well, all except the campy, athletic-type stuff. Trust falls, big walls to scale, spider webs and the sort all made me break out into the sweats. I would generally do the minimum I had to do and wait it out until we could move on to other activities. (Don't even get me started on Sunday night volleyball...my head was a magnet for the balls!) So, as you might imagine my athletic prowess was pretty much limited to nertz-playing in the cabin. I'm not just real big on adventure in general (stop laughing, Kristen.) And I thought perhaps my eldest daughter would inherit this from me because she has generally seemed to be on the timid side when it comes to playing outdoors. I can't imagine, cough cough, who might be holding her back.

A few weeks ago, before all the Chinese New Year fun, we were having some crazy warm weather and headed next door to the park for a picnic. It was probably one of the funnest family outings we've had in a long time. We live next door to GORGEOUS Green Mountain park but have not gone very often, sad to say. It's a "pay-to-get-in" park. Most of the year it's hot and humid. The park is huge and takes quite a time commitment to go through...you get the idea. But this day in February was gorgeous and we had the time. In fact, we've had many family trips to Green Mountain park this month. Even bought the month pass...

We were surprised to see some new equipment. Campy, ropes course-type equipment. Let me just that one of the first things I saw was "the wall," and I immediately had flashbacks to camp. I think I started sweating just thinking about it!

But Grace SHOCKED us and starting climbing up this little tunnel.

and went all the way to the tippy top...

then climbed down the 15-foot ladder (with Daddy spotting, of course!)

and did a little victory dance. She was so excited! Much more tunnel climbing followed...

There are some smaller, not-so-scary things to do. This was about my speed. My big stud of a husband is the athlete of the family and scaled the huge wall (proof posted above!) in like 3 seconds. Seriously.

Smiles all afternoon...

We ended our day with a picnic, complete with expensive imported Diet Dr. Pepper from the import store. Hooray for the import store!

And I wonder what this one will think of tunnels and walls at age 3? (Ok, really I don't just yet. But how could I NOT post a picture of this cutie at the picnic?!!)

the snuggler

I will never, ever get tired of this...

more new year fun

Right before the big holiday my friend Liuliu and her son Qiaoqiao came over to play. It's been a long time since we've gotten together because Qiaoqiao is in preschool all day, every day. But since he was out for the new year break they came over and we had a great time. Every single time I see Liuliu she brings me at least 5 or 6 items, usually food, and often brings something for Grace. I can't keep up! (Part of the "guanxi" or relationship system here is give and take of gifts, etc.) Here are two food items she brought. Can you guess what they are?

Zongzi is very popular to eat at the new year time, especially in the south where we live. It's a pyramid-shaped conglomeration of glutinous rice with some kind of filling in the middle. It's wrapped up in a bamboo leaf. Looks pretty fun, eh?

Here it is cut open. This zongzi has egg and some sort of meat in the middle. I can see how people enjoy eating them but can't say I am a huge fan...

But I'll take a zongzi any day over this next item. It was translated on the package as a "new year cake"but that's really a stretch. It's made of glutinous rice and had a bit of sugar and oil but was so dense I had to push hard with this knife just to get it partially cut. As much as I tried, I couldn't cut through it completely! I pulled off a bit to taste and although I've never actually eaten plastic, I'm pretty sure it would come close to the taste of this cake. Slightly-sweetened plastic. I think maybe it's supposed to be the new year equivalent of our fruit cake, but without any fruit and much more dense! (Grace heard the word "cake" and thought maybe it would fit into her kid's bake ware she got from Nana and Pappaw for Christmas. Unfortunately, there was no way to make it fit.)

There was a lot of activity next door to our apartment complex for a few days. We got together with friends the other day and headed to the park, then afterward grabbed some "shao kao" (roast meat on a stick) at the bird and flower market.

shao kao roasting over the coals...

This sesame flat bread is my favorite

The shao kao was spicy and Grace said, "Mommy this milk helps my mouth not to burn so much." She can throw down some shao kao!

It's common to see signs such as these hung on front doors. It's the Chinese character for "blessing" and it's usually hung upside down, as if to say the blessings are being poured out into the household.

Grace is not a big fan of the loud fireworks so Daddy got her some sparklers the other day. She really loved these small ones so we got her some bigger ones later on!

Once they were lit she took off running. Yes, running with fire. We're nothing if not safe.

But at least we kept her from running at Trinity

And the big "silent" finale...sparkly but not loud, just like Grace likes it. I'm REALLY OK that Grace doesn't want to be around the big fireworks, especially after Kevin and some friends set fireworks off the other day and ran into some crazies who were being careless and shooting fireworks sideways and setting them off in the canisters.

Happy Chinese New Year!

It might be Valentine's Day in the west but today in the far east, it's also New Year's Day! I've mentioned it before but we've lived here more than 4 years and this is our first time to be here for the big Lunar New Year. Last night was louder and more exciting than I ever imagined!

Even as I write the fireworks are ringing outside. They will be a familiar sound for the next week or longer. But last night, New Year's Eve, took the cake. The firecrackers had been going on and off for the past few days. But yesterday late afternoon they started getting louder and more frequent. And all through the night it got louder and louder. Around 10:30 things really started ramping up and at midnight it was truly amazing. I've never heard such a sound. I think our apartment was vibrating! I have to say that once I got over the annoyance of my children not being able to sleep, it was pretty fun to watch. I took these pictures outside of Grace's bedroom window around 10:30 last night. They were setting these off inside our apartment complex. At midnight, there were so many fireworks that I couldn't get a good picture because the sky was completely filled with smoke! (I have to say it's a good thing the buildings here are made of concrete! I did see a kid start a grass fire yesterday afternoon but an older girl got it stomped out quickly enough.)

This picture was taken from our balcony. You can see the long line of firecrackers going off. Trinity has been able to sleep through most of the fireworks tonight (amazingly!), but when they set them off right outside our window last night there was no way to sleep through it! Fireworks could still be heard in the distance last night when we went to bed at 1:30.

And being the ignorant foreigner that I am, I thought there wouldn't be any fireworks set off early this morning. (You know, since everyone was out partying last night.) Wrong! I shot out of bed this morning at 7:30 when they started out our window. Amazingly, Kevin, Grace, and Trinity slept through it. Here was the smoke scene from our balcony this morning.

More Chinese New Year fun to come soon...