We Missed the Boat!!

So this past weekend was a holiday - "Duan Wu". Duan means 'beginning' and wu means 'horse' month. The holiday begins on the fifth month of the Chinese (moon) calendar and usually is in June. There isn't a definite reason as to why there is a holiday, but it goes something like this - There once was a poet named Chiu Yuan (and no he wasn't from Nantucket - dirty joke minded people). He was the number one advisor of the kingdom of Chu . But people were jealous of his position and said lots of bad things behind his back. The king wouldn't take his advice and in the end was killed by the enemy of a neighboring kingdom. The new king continued to enjoy the luxury of life and didn't like Chiu Yuan either. Later, Chiu Yuan was exiled. He wrote many patriotic poems after that and traveled. Long story short - he commits suicide by drowning himself in the river basically because he feels no one cares about life. The fishermen on the river threw Zong-zi (rice cakes) into the river so the fish wouldn't eat him. They later claim they saw a dragon skimming through the water and it held the poets coat in it's mouth.

So on this day it is considered good luck to eat Zong-zi. We were given many - lots and lots - of these by people - sadly the only one who will eat it is John. We ended up throwing like 15 of them away. I wonder if that would be considered bad luck? It is also considered good luck (why else do anything - right?) to try to stand an egg up straight. They actually hold competitions to see who can stand the most eggs upright. I tried to find the picture that was in the newspaper, but sadly I couldn't. It has something to do with the summer solstice - we will definitely take the kids next year (if we are still here) and do it. There's only a small window in which you can do it like a 2 -3 hour period around noon.

So after a couple days of actually trying to make it to the boat festival blah blah blah - we ended up going the last day and of course we missed any of the actual races. But we still had a pretty good time. Like I said before, we will plan it out next time. People come from all over the world to race and apparently it's very competitive.

The kids got to go on the bouncy bouncy things and they thought that was pretty fun.

Apparently John was jealous because he was doing "bouncy bouncy" on the ground while the kids did it on the bouncy thing (k - I clearly don't know what it's called). It made Jordan laugh so hard she was almost in tears.

Then we got to climb into a real Dragon Boat - complete with water and goo in the bottom of it -oh fun!!! See how excited Casey is - yeah, ya feel it rolling off her in waves huh?!

I'm melting!!!!!!!

How long are they going to make me stay here????

At least we got to see the boats in the water.....

Anyone for bar-b-qued squid???? I think the guy in the picture has ate a couple too many!! - oh wait that's right you can only see his stomach!!

My husband was thrilled that I took a picture of them in such a picturesque place.

Look Lisa - the future of port-o-potties!!!

Loves and Misses!!!!!!!!!!!!!! XOXOXOXOXOX

Mothers Day

For Mother's Day - The kids' school/after school school did a little thing for us moms.

We made.... something...everyone got to make their own and then they cooked it for us.

The kids also each got to arrange a basket of flowers for me. It was very sweet.

A small demonstration... of their Chinese ability - not their cooking...

Here's Ashton enjoying the fruits of their labor....

and of course I ate some too... like I wasn't going to, they made it for me...

I won't lie though, I was scared.... damn scared!!

This is Ashton's classmate Apple (yes, that's her name)...

After the party - we (the parents) exchanged phone numbers so they could go to the park together. The next day my son asked his father how you ask someone out on a date!!! When I asked him why he told me "in case he needed to in the future"!!!

She would put a 'leaf' in and take it out 2 or 3 times until it was just right...

I think he was just happy about being able to cut things up...

Need to get it just right....

Here are the finished products - they did a fabulous job!!!!


We filled up our pool this past weekend - it took forever!! Not only that, but it was damn cold. So I did what my mom and grandma use to do for us when we were little... I warmed up water and carried it from the kitchen and poured it into the pool. Then they would scramble and shove and push each other just to try to sit in that small spot of hot water.
Of course I laughed!

At least they're working together!
It doesn't matter how cold it is, a pool is always fun!
I can't tell you how many times I asked if they wanted to get out
and they told me (teeth chattering) -- no it's fine!

Look Ma, I got me a pool boy!!

Field Trip

This past week I went on a field trip with Casey's class. The funny part is that I went as a "Mom Helper"... yes laugh it up giggles. They assign each mom a job... mine - escorting the kids to the restroom should they need to go... moving up in the world - I know. So Casey and Jordan's class were the only ones that went this day, so there's about 21 kids in each class and at least 4 helpers or more. So onward we go.... Today we are going to three different places... if you're going to do it, I guess do it right huh!! So we get on the bus - each class gets their own bus. This had to be the nicest bus I have ever been on - ever!!! It was air conditioned - had nice seats that reclined - TV's , which of course they played cartoons for the kids while we were driving. It was fabulous.

- That's Casey's teacher up front.
So just a side story - See the lady sitting directly in front of us - well the back of her head anyway???? Yes this lady - (I'm trying to make it more personal for you)...
Anyway we were inbetween stops and there are two exits on the bus. The bus driver had pulled over - I guess to figure out where we were - next thing I know we start going again and this kid yells - "Wait! My mom got off the bus and didn't get back on!"... Needless to say confusion reigns for about five more minutes and 4 city blocks before the bus driver is able to pull over. Chaios for another 5 minutes while they try to reach this lady on her cell phone. A couple more minutes and she arrives - sweating and out of breath - she RAN the whole way... I was impressed, we were at least a mile away by that time... Okay maybe you had to be there, but I was laughing quite hard.

The following are pictures of the park we went to. Apparently this surrounded what was the Presidents home. (The founding President) - No that's not a picture of him!!

Master Oogway???

We must pay homage to Seth Brundle....It was really beautiful... I'm sure I would have enjoyed it more if I could have understood what they were telling us..

Here is a horrible picture of me and a wonderful one of Casey...

Can you believe how tall she is?

After the park we went to an Art Musuem... I couldn't take pictures...
So spend the next couple moments imaging French paintings...

Okay - onto the bakery.....

Next we went to a bakery where we ate lunch and got to make cookies.

All the kids had a great time.

Here are the cookies that our table made... well before they were cooked anyway.

While the cookies baked, we got to learn about Weddings. The kids' teachers got dressed up as brides and threw the bouquet to the kids... they thought it was great.

Afterwards we got to go back and eat our cookies and take some home.

Casey's class... she's on the bottom left..


xoxoxoxoxoxoxo