Colten's Pre-school Holiday Concert / Huzhou China 2012

He's a mouse!

I heard it through the grapevine...

Last visit we made to Huzhou to search for apartments we were fortunate enough to meet a new friend so, on this trip - after we found the aparment we had been searching for all this time, he invited us to his best friends' vineyard.

Yes, our first trip to a vineyard, in China at that!  I was suprised to know that the northwestern countryside surrounding Huzhou is made up of lots of grapes! It was a fun day with lots of new friends that led to a great dinner with homemade grape wines and special grape cuisines.

Seems like our new city will be a delicious one!

See more photos here

Crook Family Photos 2012

Yes - we did it! And of course it took me six months from the original thought I had to get our yealy family pictures made but - its complete; until next year...

Since this was our first year in China I thought we would do a theme - Han Dynasty. At first, I was just going to buy a Qipao but that it was hard to find one to fit my bust, then I was going to have one made but it became too expensive - apparently since I am American and have three kids, I have alot of money considering "the Government pays to take care of my children". I am not sure where this thought comes from but a fairly large amount of people believe it.

Anyhoo, I finally decided to use scrounge the net looking for a deal. I found one on the chinese groupon site. This turned out to be great because during the actual picture shoot Colten did not cooperate like he told me he would each day leading up to picture day (I tried to prep him prior to).

The first pictures were taken inside and at first he was into it but when it was not his turn anymore things went down hill fast. He screamed and cried and kept tearing his clothes off - which made it more difficult after an hour of redressing a screaming child.

Next, we went outside for some "on location" shots - - by  this time it was high noon, and in Nanjing you might as well call that Hell. It gets so hot here. Imagine if you can two Americans walking through the streets in Chinese garb followed by two children, also dressed, and another one acting a fool and looking a mess. It would be an understatement to say we stood out in the crowd.

So we were melting, sweating, yealling, redressing Colten - it was crazy. The package only cost 248 RMB which equates to about $39.36 - this includes a 12" photo, 7" mouse pad, 4 wallets, an 8" photo book, and 18 photoshops - - we don't get those until next month.

If you look at our photobucket page you can see a slow progression through our photos of Colten's toll on the process but - - for $40, as long as one family picture is good - I'm good.