A Moment

Scott and I were having one of those days with the kids where we felt like we were managing things badly and no one was getting along... more like a zoo than a family. Then we had this sweet little moment happen. Ahh, there is hope! :-)

Park Day Pictures

These are the accompanying photos to my "Park Days" post. The rock jumping activity got the boys into enjoying the park. Both of these jumps are pretty spectacular, I think!
Gwen on the rocks where we ate our lunch... and where the shoes first fell in!

The crew (or is it Krew, as Caleb's shirt says?). Seth joins in the crowd watching a round of cards. It's not a Chinese park unless there's a group of men playing cards!

Diving In!

The kids had so much fun jumping, twisting, flipping and diving off the diving board at one of the hotel pools. The girls had never been off a diving board before, and it had been a very long time for Caleb and Seth. Trampoline experience served them well, though, and the boys were soon doing flips with ease. Both girls jumped off fearlessly their first time... somehow I remember long hesitations on my part as a child, when faced with the distance between the board and the water. I did just fine this time, though!

Isn't it funny how it looks like Madelyn is crawling over the water in this picture?!
Gwen's classic jumping posture... knees bent like this, same every time. She loved it! Our only sorrow with the fun of the diving board was that Uncle Justin wasn't with us to accelerate the rate at which the children would try increasingly dangerous tricks! Wink, wink.

Lovin' the Pool

We have enjoyed the outside pool in our complex so much on the hot summer days here. It's a fun pool because it's so wide and relatively shallow, and is graded out like a beach. It also has waves for 10 minutes or so every hour.

Girls head out together!
There is a sandy area with a big round baby pool. The sand has been a source of many cakes, deep holes, and even a sea turtle Mom created one late afternoon.
The little gazebo area looks like it would house a hot tub, but it's just part of the pool. The kids love to play Marco Polo in this area. You can't see too well in the picture, but there are sort of rounded bench type seats in the water around the gazebo. These are fun to jump off of!

Elusive Fountains

These very cool dancing fountains are in one of the little parks in our complex. We had noticed them a month or more ago, but had never seen them turned on. A couple of weeks ago we happened to be out in the park around dusk, and low and behold, the music was playing, the colored lights were on, and the fountains were jumping and dancing! The kids were thrilled, and jumped right in to play in the streams of water. We went back at the same time the next night, this time with bathing suits, and it was fun again... since then, however, it seems to be hit or miss. Some nights they're on, others not. We can't seem to figure out the schedule. I guess we'll just be surprised!

A Shrimp Lunch

The first picture in this series really should be of the wriggling tub of shrimp at the wet market where we bought these beauties, but I didn't have my camera along. The sidewalk vendor scooped out a handful of live shrimp and tossed into a plastic grocery bag. When we got them home twenty minutes later and dumped them in the sink, most of them were still alive. Caleb and Seth were thrilled... you would have thought they were catching crayfish in the creek rather than playing with shrimp in the sink.
Did you know live shrimp looked like this? I didn't!
Look at the long claw on this guy!
After playing with the shrimp, the next step was to cut the legs, noses and tails off the still alive shrimp with the kitchen scissors. The boys joined right in this activity, and I left the kitchen!

Next stop, frying pan! Caleb and Seth were amazed to see the shrimp turn pink as soon as they hit the hot oil in the pan. After a few minutes in the skillet under Mrs. Shu's expert hand, sauteed with soy sauce, fresh ginger, spring onions, salt, pepper, sugar and salt...
Wa-lah! Look at this yummy lunch! Seth, the shrimp lover, was very satisfied. I was slightly daunted by the fact that the little black eyes were still visible, but after I got into the swing of peeling away and breaking off inedible parts, I too found the shrimp very yummy.

Only Madelyn refused to try any. I guess having the creature that will soon become your meal held squirming and dripping in your face by your older brothers, with its claws, feelers and legs all over the place is enough to turn a girl off.

Wednesday

Today was a good day. It included devotions with the kids, reading together, boys and Madelyn playing ping pong at the club, playing at the pool, and dinner out together at a great, cheap Japanese place that we first ate at in February when we came. A full dinner can be purchased for 16 RMB, or about $2. After dinner we shopped a little, too, for groceries I forgot yesterday and browsing around a Nike outlet.

Besides all those things, a chunk of the afternoon included two extra children at our place. Mind you, we moved in one week ago today. And this afternoon, I had Brandon and Sammi here... a friend for the boys and a friend for the girls. I walked from the boys' room where a rousing game of Sponge Bob Monopoly was being played, to the kitchen island where the girls sat engrossed in making playdoh cookies, and just marveled at what God has done. How is it that already my children have friends here?

This morning we read from Acts 17 as part of our Bible time. In verse 26 it says this~ "He determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live." I am blown away by how clearly this was demonstrated at my house today. God is providing for my children... why shouldn't there be friends waiting here for us? God determined that this was where we should be living right now, and He had them all lined up!

Time in the Tulips

I took these pictures several weeks ago at the sunken garden near our house... I've posted tulip pictures from this same garden here before! The bright colors are simply amazing... even more so when you look at the tulips up close. We stopped at the garden right after Seth's violin lesson... so he decided to play in the garden and see if he'd get any tips. He didn't, but he did receive several compliments. :-)

Love that bright color!

Gymnas-tricks!

Taken a few weeks ago, in these pics Seth and Madelyn scheme a little indoor winter day fun!