License to Drive (in China)

Yes, today we got our Chinese drivers license. I wish I had more pictures but prepping the papers took more work than expected (thanks to our neighborhood police station and their supreme typing skills) so my head was elsewhere and I left my camera behind.

We hired a "translator" who ended up spending alot of time with us over the weekend. Prior to meeting us, she completed some other documents we needed, including translating our names into Chinese. I am now officially and legally (in China) 金伯莉（jin bo li) and Andrew is known as 安德鲁（an de lu). 

Our experience actually getting the license though was great. Of course the "DMV" workers were a little grumpy - just like home - but the efficiency of the process was impressive.

SImilar to when we got our medical screenings when arriving here, we went station to station to complete each step. You would think in such a big city(8 million people+) the wait would be harrowing but I have to say, I would chose this over any DMV experience I have ever had back home, and that includes GA, VA, & MD.

Happy Thanksgiving from Nanjing China

Today we watched Andrew’s class put on a play about Thanksgiving in America – Avery had a role and it was her first performance ever. She had the only solo line (“Land-ho”) and pulled it off without a hitch!

To warm-up the crowd, Colten’s class did a rendition of wheels on the bus – Colten loves that song but was more interested in watching his classmates perform and pulling his pants legs up than rolling the wheels 'round – all in all, very funny and cute!

The play was great, and it was also written by Andrew. Everyone seemed to have fun and the other parents were very impressed. Afterwards, the class sang a chinese song about being thankful - so cute! It had somewhat of a Napoleon Dynamite feel to it - hahaha.

Happy Halloween from Nanjing China

Since we can’t just buy a costume at Wal-Mart… 

Today, I painted Avery’s face like a kitty and made her a tail with one of my scarves.  

Drake happened to have a skeleton shirt so, we went with it an painted his face to match. Colten had his lion costume from last year which is suppose to fit a two year old but, the pants only came to his knees and he didn’t want to keep the head piece on so, he was just Colten with a furry short-pant suit on.


The school hosted a Halloween party and along with treats and costume contest, they did the monster mash and other silly dances...

Thanks to Andrew; Lots of fun for everyone!

Double Happiness

Last night we attended the wedding ceremony of our newest friend here in Chine, Luan (Chinese) and Bjorn (Swedish). They are already married, in Sweden but now needed to be married in China as well – more for “face” reasons or as Luan put it "my parents want to make sure everyone knows I am married"… as she is pregnant. It was a great party. The food, spirits and festivities were hun hao.

Bjorn serenaded Luan with a popular Swedish tune and then his rendition of its now or never, which I thought was an inappropriate but hilarious choice considering the occasion. After the ceremony and dinner there was karaoke by several drunken Chinese men, a tai chi dance by Luan’s mother (it’s her new hobby), all of the kids were able to take the mic and sing – yes of course Drake and Avery sang about three times, Colten danced. I told them to sing the ABC’s once – they did and all of the Chinese people loved it. They all received stuffed animals as prizes and at the end Luan gave all of the children in attendance 100RMB each (about $16), she says its tradition. 

There was also this weird period of time during dinner when the “dj” played careless whisper by Wham! On loop for at least an hour - - let me repeat, ONLY that song for an hour… also hilarious!

One fish, two fish, my fish, free fish

Today Andrew, Avery & Drake were invited by, our good friend, Wong to go fishing. Bright and early this morning Wong rang our buzzer and off they all went. He was so thoughtful when planning this outing, days before he bought and prepared the rods for the kids.

The day started off slow, with a long train ride to the end of the metro line, near Nanjing University. Andrew was pretty surprised to walk out of the subway only to cross the street and begin fishing in a pond or as he described it, a really big ditch. This body of water was pretty much in the middle of the city and we still aren’t sure where the shui was feeding from but it was apparent that any catch of the day was not for eating… at least by us.

To sum up the day, Andrew and Wong caught sardine sized fish while Drake had all four of the biggest catches of the day and half an hour into fishing Avery decided she would just be the bait girl, and hooked the worms for the guys.

 

Back at the apartment, the Ayi had just arrived for work when the kids came home with a bucket of five or six fish. Wong told Drake he had to bring the fish home to show me how well he did. I was very proud! Now, what do we do with these fish, in a bucket sitting in the kitchen floor? Give them to Ayi! (my idea) so, I showed her and she got really excited and wasted no time grabbing the cleaver and cutting of heads.. about three fish into prep the kids walked into the kitchen. After a moment of awe at her process, it began to sink in that she was killing the fish and going to eat them. First, they began to stand in front of the bucket and yell “NO, you can’t have anymore!” after, I asked “what are we going to do with these fish!? She is excited and she is going to eat them, that’s great – you provided her with dinner, you should be proud.” The tears began to flow. After a short debate with Andrew, we told the kids that if they could get the fish to our community pond without anyone seeing them, they could release the fish there. They perked up and the mission began.

They made it to the pond and the release went well. Drake attributed sneaking the fish passé dpeople to Avery’s cuteness in distracting them. The Ayi didn’t quite know what was going on or why they took the fish from her but it didn’t matter – she got 4 out of 5 and all was happy in the end!

Another Day of Firsts - Downtown ATL and centennial Park

Well, we had intended on a trip to the GA Aquarium today however, by 11am the wait time in line to go in was about 2. 5hours so, we readjusted our plans while enjoying a Coke (in a glass bottle) and a few strawberry minute maid ice treats.

Colten had free run of the park between the aquarium and Coca Cola Museum.

 We decided to take advantage of the nearest playground where Colten climbed up steps for the first time and used a slide for the first time - weeee! 

We also took a family photo op:

and Drake just hung around...

Afterwards we walked to Centennial Park just in time to see the fountain musicals and the joined in the fun!

 

Southern Summer Fun!

Bird Caged ! - Preseason at the GA Dome

Today was for us, a day of firsts:

- Our first trip as a family to Atlanta.

- Our first time watching a game in a dome.

- Our first Falcons game.

- Colten's first professional football game. 

- Our first time sitting in a section that actually won a prize during the game we were watching.

        (We won Georgia Lottery Falcons scratch off tickets... which REALLY paid off for us!)

Avery had her favorite thing while at the game...                                

cotton candy:                                                                                                                         

Drake enjoyed the seats!

It has been several years since he has seen a Pro Game

I thought it weird to watch the game in the Dome, I kept waiting for the wind to blow or something but it never did of course.



Crystal River Pictures, cont'd

Crystal River Pictures

Crystal River with the Fam

Jason & Kerri invited us on a family weekend getaway - it was a great time! 6 adults and 9 children.. yes, NINE! 1-10yr old: Christian, 2-7yr olds: Alyssa & Drake, 3 5yr olds: Brooke, Avery & Emily, 1-3yr old: Benjamin, 1-18mth old: Madison, 1-9mth old: Colten (and one on the way: Ashley)

Our trip started off with a boat ride, Captained by Jason. We went to the 3 Sisters Spring, looking to swim with a manatee or two - No such luck but it was very pretty there. Unfortunately, we have no pictures of that because we balked on getting an underwater camera and we had to swim to the springs. The water was SO cold. Each kid had an intertube and we all held hands to form somewhat of a floating train so we could all stay together, it worked more often than not but it surely was a sight to see.

Day 2 was some of the same. Jason Captained a bigger boat and attempted to take Andrew and I scuba diving. The kids swam all day, using the boat as a diving board. The water at the first dive site was a bit murky so we went back to 3 sisters springs and played around there. the water was crystal clear.

We docked the boat and had a nice lunch, then it was back to the hotel to relax and play games. The restaurant/bar was right next to our room and draft beer was only $1 so, you can imagine Andrew and I couldn't pass up a good deal!

All in all it was a great trip and to have so many children it went so smoothly, we couldn't have asked for a better time.

Day2 Alpine GA: Mayday! Mayday!

After a WONDERFUL 1.5 hour massage/facial, a relaxing cup of hot tea while gazing at the beautiful mountain morning view and half an hour later- Andrew and the kids arrived to pick me up. Next stop: The Hospital!  On the way there, I learned of the mischief Andrew and the kids got into (which is why they were late) - apparently they took a helicopter ride and had to make an emergency landing in the middle of a State Park due to lightning. It eventually past and they got a 2 for 1 on their tickets + the t-shirts to prove it.

Afterwards, they got a free ride in a monster truck 

Our first night in the Alpine Mountains of Georgia...

S'mores!!!

The original plan had us outside at the firepit roasting marshmallows til the early morn, unfortunately Mother Nature had other plans. As soon as we reached the cabin it was like the bottom dropped out and it rained and rained. So naturally we improvised and turned to the fireplace in the great room - hey! a hot marshmallow is a hot marshmallow and it melts chocolate just the same.

The kids were happy and so was Mommy and Daddy once they were asleep. With a hot tub off of our room with a wooded view we enjoyed some wine and had some great laughs!

A day worth blogging about...

Today started bright and early - Avery had a game at 10am. It was already hot and humid but it was a nice morning anyway. Drake went with his Grannie to eat breakfast so, it was just me & Colten to cheer on Avery since Andrew was on the field too. After we had a bite of lunch, Andrew practice kicking in the front yard and Avery put on a dance outfit and headed out to cheer him on (and catch butterflies in the process; her new found passion). Once Drake came home it was time to head back to the ball park for his 2 pm game - and what a game it turned out to be!

  

So far this season the Cubs have had a tough time pulling off a win but today it happened and it was a great game... the energy in the bleachers was great too. Drake scored what was the tieing run in the 4th ining and in the 6th had an important 2RBI single. Ending score 16 -15. The boys were so proud and happy, it was a great ending to our day at the ballpark. Afterwards, Drake & Avery went home with their Grannie and Andrew, Colten & I went to grab a bite to eat and check out a potential location for the new Fun Fare.

Later that afternoon, Drake was invited to sleepover at a friends house so we headed home to pack his bag. This was his first time sleeping over at a friends house - he was very excited! With overnight bag together and DS case in tow we headed to Elijah's for the night.

With Drake away for the night Avery took full advantage of time with her Daddy so she spent the evening,til dusk, in the yard looking for a pet lizard - still in her black and silver dance outfit and heels. I WISH I had a picture of that! 

Unfortunately, she still has no lizard but we did see our first (2) snake(s) of the season. I guess it's good that they were Kingsnakes... that lessens the risks of coming across a cottonmouth but, nonetheless, I am not thrilled about country living in that aspect.