Chinese New Year School Performances

  Sorry for the red color - It's the best I could do!

I would be totally remiss if I did not devote at least 2 postings to the Chinese New Year. This first post will be entirely dedicated to Ally and Eve's school performances. I was so proud of my little chinese singing girls! Unfortunately Lee did not get to attend, so this is all my perspective. The girls were really insistant on Ing coming to the performance so Cooper, Ing and I packed all our camera gear into the car and headed out for the 45 minute ride to the girls' school. It's about 30 minutes on the highway, and then you can count on at least 10 more as you come through the little village that is just before the school. There are a few small manufacturing plants just before you get to the gates of the school, so in the unfortunate event that any trucks are leaving or arriving at the plants, you can spend a solid 30 minutes waiting at times. Unfortunately for us, we got caught in a jam of trucks just before arriving. I had to phone into the school to let them know that at least 20 other cars on their way to the school were caught. I was thankful to catch the Vice Principle just before she left her office for the play and they waited a few minutes for all of us to get through! We had to park in the very very back of the school lot and really huffed and puffed to make it in time, but we did! Yeah!

Eve and her good friend Pareesa

Each grade, K-5, had their own individual songs to perform, so lucky for you guys, I will only force the details of Ally and Eve's classes on you! Whew! Cooper, Ing and I ended up standing for the performance but that gave us a good shot for the camera. Anway, I will post some pictures because to tell you the truth, I didn't understand any of the songs! It's all chinese to me! :) All the children had to dress in Chinese attire. Eve was so happy to go buy a new dress! Ally's class sang the theme song from a popular cartoon here in China. The main characters are sheep. Ally was Mei Yang Yang, which is one of the main sheep. Eve's class sang "If You're Happy and You Know It", in Chinese of course! 

Cardmaking with Vanna

My good friend Vanna came over last week and we got out all my junk to make some cards. She made me take a picture of all my crafting supplies so that her husband would appreciate how (comparatively) little supplies she actually owns! So, here's the pictures to prove to Fabio that she's not quite as big of a maniac as I am!

Cooper helped us pick out papers and colors and he even got to use my simple die cut machine to make some fire engines, dump trucks and trains (all blue of course!). We had a lovely afternoon.
Somehow knowing you can't have something makes you totally obsess over it until you either get what you want or go crazy trying. The moving company lost all my crafting supplies in our move. I was desperate to have my stamping supplies so that I could make my Christmas cards. Of course, we didn't get my replacement items until January and I completely obsessed until then. Now that I have all my supplies... well I have been up twice to my craft room to make cards and use the supplies. I think it's human nature to always want more..... Anyway, enjoy our fun pictures!

Christmas Pictures

We had a great first Christmas in China. Santa Claus paid us a special house call Christmas Eve. We heard some HoHoHoing outside, with some jingle bells a jingling. Santa came in and read us a story and each kid got their own special one on one with the big guy. Of course Christmas Day was filled with all the fun new presents and toys. The kids made a huge mess and wonderful Ing helped us clean it all up. I made ham for dinner and we had two of Lee's coworkers over for dinner. I bought a ham from the import store, then when I started to prepare it, I realized it still had it's skin! I have never, ever purchased a ham with it's rump still attached! By the time I pulled the skin and fat off, I had half a really small ham to cook. Of course it was even smaller when I was done cooking it. A little embarrassing to have a tiny little ham on the table when guests arrive, but the homemade rolls filled in the gaps! But dinner turned out all right and we sat around with our two Greek buddies and played Jenga. The girls got it for Christmas. It was pretty fun playing Jenga with a bunch of engineers. Ally felt pretty successful because she was the only player that didn't make the Jenga tower fall.

Ally's Gymnastics

I think I have told most people about Ally's gym already, but I don't think I ever posted the pictures I took. Ally's gym is totally Chinese and there are only a few non Chinese there. It's certainly an experience! Her coach only speaks a few words of English, but he is really good. I think Ally's getting some great training. We found an American teammate about a month ago and Ally was totally excited to finally have a friend she could talk to at practice. There hasn't been practice for a few weeks because the coach has been in Beijing. I think Ally's going to be sore when practice starts again on Tuesday! Anywho, here's the pictures.

Scooters

So this is just a quick post to put a picture or two up of our scooters. We got electric scooters/mopeds back in September before we got the car. We still love using our scooters, when it is not cold or raining... which is everyday right now. So anyways, enough said. Obviously, the blue one is Lee's. Mine is purple with a basket, which pretty much guarantees that Lee won't be borrowing it!

Ally's Baptism

We had such a wonderful day yesterday. It was my birthday and Ally chose to be baptized on that day. We had the baptism at our good friend's house, Tracey and Greg Butters. Ally's birthday was actually in November and we had held out for a little thinking that maybe some grandparents could make it. Unfortunately it didn't pan out for out of town guests, and Ally was super anxious to be baptized, so we decided to just do it! I was hoping to wait another week so that all our friends would be back in town from Christmas holidays, but both Lee and Ally overruled me. Having it on my birthday made it very special for me.

The baptism was lovely. Although we were sad that some of our closer friends were not there, the day turned out to be wonderful. Ally was baptized in the dress that I was baptized in, which my mother made for me when I was 8. Both she and her father were just a little apprehensive about getting it right in a bathtub, but it only took one try to get it right! Ally is so pleased to be a new member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

The following day was Sunday... I should clarify - it was Fast Sunday. Ally was startled and really, truly pretty upset that she was now expected to participate in the monthly fast. We had quite a row about it, but with some help from mom and dad, she made it through and fasted. At dinner that evening I was touched to hear her say as she prayed over our dinner "Thank you for helping me learn how to fast."

We are so proud of our little girl! I do feel old watching my first child be baptized. We are making our way through the world of parenthood at an astonishing rate. Sometimes I think I will blink and they will all be grown.