A Little Longer

I wish I was a fly, just for a little longer.

To sit on the wall of the school, and watch our girls.

I couldn't be there just like you, but following are a few short video clips of their experience of the first day of school. Enjoy!

When the bus pulled up I saw the girls in the window waving with big smiles. They had trouble getting their seat belts off because they were so excited and Jill started to cry, Carly even had a worried look on her face. All was well when they had their belts off and could come to me.

So many stories to tell. Jill was taken by the bus monitor directly to her class when arriving to school. She said she played with puzzles, read books, painted and counted. Her favourite part was lunch.

Carly got off the bus before her sister's and started walking to the school. She said she started to cry a little because she didn't know where to go and couldn't find Alexis. Then, "the lady Mommy always talks to at the school", I'm guessing the head of admissions, took her to the theatre where everybody was meeting. Carly made a new friend but doesn't remember her name. Carly brought something in for show and tell and at home told us, "no one laughed at me, that means my class doesn't have any bullies". 

Alexis also was a little scared entering the school court yard. She said, "there was like two tears, maybe three". After finding her way to the theatre all was well. A great day meeting new friends and getting settled into class.

At the end of the day Jill is brought directly to the bus. Jill was scared and cried a little, not seeing her sisters. Alexis and Carly are brought to a classroom designated to bus 35 and then brought to the bus. Needless to say Jill was very happy to see her sisters get on the bus before it left. Tomorrow is another day, hopefully a little smoother and with no tears.

Oh To Be A Fly

I wish I was a fly, just for a short time.

To sit on the window of the bus, and watch our girls.

Today is the first day of school. Our girls got on the bus today without even looking back, except for Alexis. I had to get on the bus to say good bye. Jill gave me such a big hug. Alexis is such a big girl taking care of her little sister. Carly sat at the window and a secondary student sat beside her. As you can see by the pictures and video, they were super excited about going on a bus to school.

Fashion Fairytale Part 3

There is much more to this week than a Fashion Fairytale:

First of all, we ended up with an ant problem in the kitchen. I guess the ant traps under the fridge were old and not working anymore. The girls made the most of it and had fun, just watch the video and see.

Second, we went to school again, this time to meet the teachers. This is Jill's teacher (Ms Sweales) and classroom. I forgot to take pictures of Carly's (Ms Wakelin) & Alexis' (Mr. Long) teacher's, sorry. All three teachers are new to the school and China, so they have something in common with the girls. Everyone is very excited to start school tomorrow.

Our Fashion Fairytale is coming to a close, but only for the time being. The girls went on Saturday to get the final product.

They went from this...

...TO THIS

And from this...

...TO THIS

DAY OUT WITH DADDY by: Alexis & Carly

On Saturday afternoon we went to People's Square. Walking around we passed a couple of people with real swords doing Tai Chi. Look carefully behind us in the picture. I thought I was in Tortuga! Nope, I'm still in China.

In People's Square there is a roller coaster park. There was bumper cars, but they were not open. So we chose the Dragon Roller Coaster. It was really fast and fun. Going down a hill you could feel the wind blowing your hair.

After the roller coaster park we went to the Museum of Contemporary Art. They were celebrating the 25th Anniversary of Disney Pixar. While we were at the museum, we went into a movie theatre and watched a short film about all of the Disney Pixar movies. When the fish with the light and big teeth from Nemo came up Alexis jumped onto Daddy's lap. They even had a really big eyeball that the cartoonists use to draw eyes.

We took the Metro home, it was awesome! I got to stand up or sit down. I wouldn't hold on to the pole. It was clean inside. 

Fashion Fairytale Part 2

This week we went to the school to buy the girls uniforms. Jill wanted to wear hers home. There was seven ladies waiting on them, helping them try them on. When I brought the camera out two of them disappeared into the back room. Jill ended up throwing a huge temper tantrum and I had to carry her out with only underwear on. We went into the stairwell and put Jill in the corner with her clothes and waited for her to get dressed. She had to "do it herself". Then went to the cafeteria to buy their lunch cards. Jill then threw another tantrum because she wanted to eat in the cafeteria "right now!" I can't wait for school to start, but I know I will miss them, gone all day, five days a week.

Saturday we went to Marks & Spencer for shoes and socks. We had the taxi take us to People’s Square, and we walked the rest of the way. It was hot, sunny and pretty far away, but the girls were troopers and it was a great treat to get into the air conditioned store.

Then we started walking back towards People's Square, found a McDonald's so had lunch.

Grabbed a taxi to go to the girl's fitting. There is still a lot of work to do, but next week they will be finished.

One week from tomorrow the girls start school. This week our sea container is scheduled to arrive. We are so excited to see what we packed. It has been a long time since I watched it all get put into boxes, almost three months.

Sunday we met a new family who recently relocated here from Europe. They are a wonderful, welcomed addition to our family here. With two children, 11 and 8 years old. Our girls were very excited to meet them, but you would have never noticed. Alexis acted so shy because she knew the children could mainly speak German. We are looking into switching Alexis' extra language course from Mandarin to German.

Until next week... 

Alexis & Carly in a Fashion Fairytale Part 1

Being at the fabric market was the most magical thing of my life! There was fabric everywhere. We brought drawings we made of dresses and brought them to a tailor. First we picked out the fabric. Then we were measured. It kind of tickled. They asked some questions about how we want our dresses made. Like where we want the zipper, and how long we want the dress. Our new friends were with us so we could communicate with the tailors. Our dresses will be ready in one week. I am so excited, my dress will be awesome!

After the fabric market we went to McDonald's for lunch. We had a little adventure on the way. We saw some statues that were amazing! When we got there me, Carly and Eve went to find a seat. The boys took a long time getting our food. While we waited we talked about Sponge Bob.

Stay tuned for Part 2 of our Fashion Fairytale.

signed Alexis

Finding Sal

Finding Sal

Well I was getting dressed after a lovely shower, then all of a sudden I see this black thing crawling around my closet. “AHHHHHHH spider!” I ran around the room and out the door. I grabbed Mommy to find it, but it was no where to be found. Then Mommy pulled out all the drawers and there it was. Mommy said its not a spider, its a salamander. Mommy told me to get out. You all know what happened next. The same thing that happened to the last one. It’s disgusting, I’m not going to explain it.

signed Alexis

I’m going to be able to make salamander stew at this rate. Anybody got any recipes?

Best recipe wins the Grand Prize: 2 week stay in our China home, food included!

Remember T. I. C.

Remember This Is China

The first week we were here, a salamander got in the house when we came home one night. It was the same colour as the floor, we couldn't find it anywhere... Guess we have our first pet. T. I. C.

Our toilets were not working the greatest, they kept clogging... One month after moving in, some one tells me this, "you're not supposed to flush the toilet paper."  T. I. C.

Chris used my brand new butcher knife for the first time two weeks ago... (close your eyes Stef) To chop up the salamander that got in the house the first week. T. I. C.

No need to recycle here... The garbage lady will sort thru it for you and take returnables for the refund. T. I. C.

Chris bought ice cream he thought was Honey flavoured and another Mint... Turned out to be Purple Sweet Potato flavoured and the other Green Tea flavoured. T. I. C.

Warnings of a typhoon this week, gave us a little scare. It ended up going north east and we mostly got a lot of rain and heavy wind. It was a beautiful sunny day Saturday. Blue sky and dry air compared to normal, so Chris and Jill decided to venture out for a walk. The winds picked up and blew clouds over them faster than they could turn around and come home. They were soaked in a few seconds. After being wet already they stayed out and enjoyed the warm rain like a shower.

Our landlord came for a visit to make sure everything was good. They (landlord and his wife) are very friendly and accommodating. We found out that we have an orange tree in our backyard, which we can harvest in October. They asked if we like peaches, and gave us a box of fresh picked, sweet, ripe peaches from their tree. The wife was impressed on how clean the house was. They were surprised when I told them I was the "Ayi" and do the cleaning myself.


It was a lonely Sunday for the rest of the day. Normally we would be at a friend's or family's house. So instead we went out for supper to a restaurant about a 10 minute walk from our house.  We had curry wurst, schnitzel and fish & chips. Oh so yummy.