TidBits: A Friend's Party, Soccer Game, and Other Happenings

 The three olders and I walked to a friend's birthday party and stopped for a pic in the truck.

Our yard (and sometimes house) is often filled with kids swinging, playing, etc. A group of 6th grade girls started coming around a few months ago and we see them many times a week. They go fishing with our kiddos and often just swing away, always asking if our kids can play.

Finally, it was one girl's birthday and she asked us a whole week prior if we would come (which rarely happens here). She reminded us every day. I figured it would be a good idea to see/meet her parents and see what her home life was like. This was the last thing I felt like doing on a school night, but I was committed.

She lives a few blocks away and we all walked together.
Many other kids started to gather (it was 7:30 p.m.), and I made my rounds with the adults, fielding the same twenty questions. "America. Yes, four kids. No, I don't work outside the home. My husband works at yadayada,  Yes,  America is nice place to live, so is here." The questions tend to get deeper when parenting issues come up.

One lady asked where all of our kids slept. She was astounded when I told her and promptly called her grandson over and told him the breaking news: kids can sleep separate from their parents.

I actually started to enjoy myself sitting around and shooting the bull with these ladies and drinking green tea.

The kids played games, and our kids meshed right in with this crowd, not holding back at all.
Sophia is usually a take charge kind of gal, but even Bella volunteered to be 'it' one round, and Tobin joined in the fray. That our kids can do this (with language) and are not timid (with culture) wowed me once again, though it shouldn't. This is what they are used to. But I praised them all the same on the way home.

Here she is YangYiXia turning 13.

And at the end of the same week we went to our friend Caleb's soccer game at the Minority Elementary School in town. Driving there brought me back almost 15 years when I stayed with two other single gals nearby during my first trip here.

 Our school won the game! Yeah, way to go #4 Elementary School!

 I took G with me one day to pick up Sophia and Bella, she promptly sat down as if she belonged there!

Bella is doing great in school, and likes it most days, but does complain about 'all the writing'. She also gets scared of some things they learn in "pin de class" which is like a life skills class. They talk about earthquakes, bad guys, brushing your teeth, and the latest thing that kept her up at night was their talk on rabies.  Her teacher described this as : "the scariest thing in this whole book". We had to bring down the drama of it all while highlighting some certain facts (David has his own quite compelling rabies story, that we opted not to share at that time). Mostly on these nights we bring God's word to bear on all our fears and teach our kids to pray.

And that is the recent round-up.

Our countdown to Thailand and America is on...things are getting real, as we are SO busy.
Blogging tends to be therapeutic for me, so if I find the time I may write a three-part series:
Coming to America: The excitement
Coming to America: The stressors (my to-do list)
Coming to America: The fears

A Trip to THE Farm

 We finally made a road trip across our province to visit our friends who own a dairy farm.
We knew the highway only lasted 2 of the 8 hours, but we were willing.
And right off the highway, the road was under construction. BUM-PY for a few kilometers.
This was when I wedged the ipad between our front seats and turned on Swiss Family Robinson.
The kids did great and we had SO much fun hanging out with one of our fave families.

They showed us around their farm, set in some small mountains, surrounded by bigger ones.

 It was beautiful.

We topped off the first night playing sardines, our kids' first time!

 The first day we went to a small water park and had a blast.
We stayed up way too late talking, and our kids seem to rise with the roosters...

 On day two we played, Tobin and Bella milked cows, and we played in the stream on the other side of the mountain from their house:

 Their milk is delicious. David says it is like drinking ice cream.
Uncle M explained the process to our kiddos and to some customers that had stopped by.

Their tree house was pretty amazing.

And seriously, these folks are just plain fun. We did talk serious, and pick their brains about everything. M serenaded with some hilarious made-up tunes.

And basically we just cut-up. It is what we do best.

On our last night there we did a C/M family tradition: double date night. The older girls helped put Gabrielle down and then they watched a movie while we went out to dinner. One of their staff/helpers was there for a little while and she lives just down the hill, so we were not worried.

The whole weekend was a precious time of connecting. And though it serves us adults well, it is really special for our kids to connect with other kids like them every once in awhile. Tobin adores the M boys and got to sleep in their bunk. Sophia and Bella learned to sew doll clothes and pillows and learned a ton from the M girls. And everyone loved the picturesque atmosphere and the ability to get non stop dirty and sweaty while enjoying sweet friendships.

Here is Gabrielle with her new friend.

 The drive back started on the windy roads so it was a bit rougher.
We stopped for a minute to let Tobin gather his stomach and we did some seat swapping.
Then it was all good.

This trip was short but sweet and is what we hope to be many more road adventures as our kids get older. This was the farthest in our province we had gone by car!
We are so thankful for these friends and the opportunity to  see them.

Another Reason We Live in a Fabulous Place

 A 'Make-your-own-pizza' restaurant!

This Malay Man moved here awhile ago and opened a restaurant.
It used to be right near our house but he moved and we lost touch.

Then a local friend started raving about his pizza...so we found his new place.
He has a 'brick oven' to cook it fast.
The first time we went he was out, so he texted the next week and told us to come let our kids make their own! And they did. He even gave G some dough for fun.

 The sauce had its own little kick, not your standard Italian flavor, but it was good!

 He even let them take it to and from the oven.
Our girls were delighted!

 And Tobin too, got in on the action and made us a chocolate pizza!

 He had so much fun!

Our kids' favorite thing about this restaurant is actually not the pizza or the amazing peppery french fries. Nope they talk most about the owner's two dogs that wander through and play with them. Cute and friendly, the dogs loved the attention the Coker crew offered.

Mommy Goes Away---A-gain!

I know, I know, I just left last month for a women's retreat. 

This month afforded me the chance to go to a first ever Home School conference within the country. 

A friend of mine planned the entire thing and did a bang-up job! 

Almost 70 ladies participated from all over and with varied backgrounds.

Actually the wonderful folks of Westside in Btown helped my teammate and me get to attend and soak up teaching from a lady who is quite well-known in home school circles in the States. 

She waived her speaking fees to come and continued to remind us to seek truth, beauty, and goodness in all of our homeschooling endeavors (following Charlotte Mason, of course). 

I loved the diversity of experiences and people represented. One mom was the husband of a chemical engineer at Proctor and Gamble in Beijing, another was a Russian lady navigating the nuances of national school just like me. 

K and I stayed with some friends, a couple we had not met until we showed up at their apartment. Other friends had arranged it and assured us we were in good hands, and we were. The S fam was incredible, married 34 years, overseas for almost that long and with some tales to tell, they were such an encouragement to us (and even convinced us to do a triathlon). They both, at 60+ years old, had completed a half triathlon in their city. I was inspired.

On the flight into the conference I read an entire book! 

We were delighted by this sight:

(on the way back I bought cookies for the Coker crew)

We ate at a BBQ place, crazy! It was pretty good.

And on the way back in the airport I did something I haven't done in an airport in 9 years:

I put my feet up and drank a cup of coffee.

I may post more about some things I learned, but for now, a HUGE thank you to DAVID who encouraged me to go is excellent at holding down the fort!

Mother's Day Weekend, River Play and Boat rides

For Mother's day we took a trip to the River again, this time taking Sophia's best friend, YY. Because the rainy season had not yet arrived, the river was disgusting. Lots of trash, unclear water, etc. But because we had packed our snacks and promised a walloping good time, David and I cringed as we let our kids pursue their interests in river play and rock climbing. 

Tobin soaked up to his neck: 'look mommy I am taking a bath', (you need a bath now, son, I thought). 

There used to be a little 'rule' or guideline for health reasons: 'don't swim in still water in China', I kept looking at the water's meager flow and told myself it was moving, moving, moving!

We did end up having a great time, got home, scrubbed well, dressed up and went to our new foreign-owned guest house for dinner. This was a treat because it is a bit pricey, but it has an amazing atmosphere, and we are friends with the owners!

The next afternoon, the celebration of mom continued with a boat ride at our new amusement park. The kids have been wanting to do this for forever. We chose to rent an electric boat instead of a paddle-one, and it did not disappoint. 

The life-vests were 'one size fits all' but certainly not 'one size saves all'. 

In fact I am quite sure this was more life endangering than life-saving.

 We had a blast.

 Tobin the thinker realized that our boat was battery driven, like my electric motorbike, and at first when he thought it was slowing he got a bit scared. "Let's go back, so it doesn't die in the middle of the lake."

 The best part was letting each child drive (steer) the boat. The three olders did it solo, and loved it.
We even tried to teach Sophia the technique for reverse on a boat and steering, she did get the hang of it a bit, not before I got a little dizzy.

We spent about thirty minutes on the water and enjoyed every second.
It was a memorable Mother's Day!

Happy Hat Fun

April Round Up: Life, Sickness, School, Potty Training

 Finally a Saturday where Mommy had no agenda or planning or home project (I did have lots but opted OUT). David had to work all day, so I promised kiddos, crafts and play!

Sophia was sick with fever 3 days last week. She got better and then succumbed again on Friday all through this weekend, upwards of 102. Many kids in her class are sick as well.

Since 'Fine Arts' and many other projects fell by the wayside many weeks ago, this was a great free- for-all craft day. I even let G get into things, window markers and the like.

 We have four more weeks of CC and history.
We will keep on keepin' on in Math and Language Arts, finishing books and levels, taking short breaks and then starting again. The others will wait until fall!

Chinese school continues to be a topsy turvey ride for us, but the girls like it most of the time and are doing really well. The homework continues to be a beast, how else do the Chinese learn to write their language? Lots of lots of drill and practice!

Gabrielle has proven to be quite the big girl with potty training and a real 'big girl' trundle bed.
This is her first night in the trundle, which could be disastrous since it puts her a bit closer to Tobin. And these two.

They can get into some trouble. Often Tobin nods off to sleep and G is still talking away.
We actually rolled the trundle down to the other side of the room so they are not this close, but still a lot closer than before.

She did great with potty training #1. She really got it fast. The #2 was a bit troublesome for some days, I won't go into details. But I remember being in the bathroom with her for the 20th time in 30 minutes and thinking: 'This is why the Bible says to have children in your youth....I am way too old for this'.  The past four days have been superb so maybe she has really gotten it, we may have promised her a car or the like...whatever it took.

We do put a pull-up on her at nap and night, but so far, in two weeks she has been wet one time and has even called us at 9 p.m. to go potty. Way to go, girl!!!

Some quotes:

Tobin: "a long, long time ago, when I was three...."

Gabrielle: "Bella, what did you do at school today?" (how proper for a 2 yo)

Gabrielle: "MEANIEPANTS!" to whoever is making her mad at the time.