Weekend trip...

Last weekend we joined the Kids Club and 10 other families for an

overnight getaway. We took a bus for 2 hours to Huzhou. We stayed a very nice hotel, Leidisen. Even had a great balcony overlooking Taihu Lake.

Unloaded our suitcases and then headed out for a 20 minute boat ride on the lake. It was nice having different scenery, but this lake was sooo stinky and polluted! It was pretty sad to hear that it is the 2^nd biggest lake in China too.. It was still fun though J

 

 

Was hoping this was our boat, but....

Here was our's :) Not the beautiful Chinese one, but it floated!

 

Our hotel on the lake

Saw a few brides out by the lake. Check out her shoes :)

This was a pretty cool building that was under construction. Was told it even goes underwater.

Not quite sure what these statues represented, but they were all around this area when we were walking.

After our boat trip we headed back to the hotel for a BBQ dinner and some crafts for the kids. Definitely would say it wasn't the type of BBQ I was hoping for, but was able to enjoy the bread and gelato :) LOL

The next morning ate breakfast at the hotel and then hopped back on the bus for 45 minutes and went to Di Gang Fishing Village. While there we walked around, played on a playground and exercise equipment (ha ha), watched a demonstration of making tofu and rice cakes, went fishing, and had the most local food to date!

Everyone on this trip was so great and all 18 kids got along very well. Rilynn made a new friend from Finland, while Brady had his friend Brycen there too.

Making tofu

Fishing!

For 15rmb (~$2.25) we were able to rent ginormous poles and given some bait.

Some of our local feast. They seriously kept bringing out more and more!! I'm sure they brought out at least 25+ different dishes. Had to use chopsticks, but did manage to get full :) Not really quite sure what I ate, something fried and just told myself it was a chicken nugget!! HA.. The grossest part was seeing the photographer sitting at our table eating the fish head!!!

After our very local lunch we headed back on the bus for a 30 minute drive to Nanxun, a well preserved old water town. We walked through the city and toured the former private residences and gardens of Nanxun’s wealthiest families. One of the homes had almost 200 rooms in it, it was HUGE and very beautiful.

Yes, that would be a chicken getting washed off in the canal. Who needs a sink?!? Ha!

Definitely not a gondola in Venice :)

A beautiful garden. Last month they said all these had flowers on them. That would've been great to see!

Our family :)

Love signs here. It's fun trying to figure out what they are saying :)

We decided after this trip we need to do more of these overnight one's. There are so many cool local towns nearby that we're going to try and visit more!

Moon Cakes and Go Karting Racing?

Last Monday was a holiday, Mid-Autumn Festival. It's a tradition to give the gift of mooncakes. So I had to buy some to give to Mr. Hou and Susan, plus Susan had the day off. We did not participate in the mooncakes eating. The bean paste turned me off a bit :)

Here's everything you wanted to know about mooncakes!

Mooncake (月餅; yuè bĭng) is a Chinese bakery item traditionally eaten during the Mid-Autumn Festival. The festival is for lunar worship and moon watching; mooncakes are regarded as an indispensable delicacy on this occasion. Mooncakes are offered between friends or on family gatherings while celebrating the festival. The Mid-Autumn Festival is one of the four most important Chinese festivals.

Typical mooncakes are round or rectangular pastries, measuring about 10 cm in diameter and 4–5 cm thick. A thick filling usually made from lotus seed paste is surrounded by a relatively thin (2–3 mm) crust and may contain yolks from salted duck eggs. Mooncakes are usually eaten in small wedges accompanied by Chinese tea. Today, it is customary for businessmen and families to present them to their clients or relatives as presents, helping to fuel a demand for high-end mooncake styles. Mooncake energy content can vary with the filling and size; the average moon cake carries 800 to 1200 kcal, mainly from fats and sugar

Since it was a holiday and it was football opener, Chad was uat 4:30am to watch the Vikes on Slingbox LIVE! Crazy fan- I enjoyed sleeping in :)

All the guys were off of work for the holiday. They gathered up 15 guys and spent the day at the Shanghai International Circuit Kartworld. The track was 3/4 mile long and the cars went up to 74mph! All the ladies made sure they had good life insurance plans first and then we got together with the kids for a picnic :) Can't say Chad has the need for speed, but he had fun, and a little sore the next day! LOL

 Chad is the 3rd one back (white shirt)

The kids are off of school for some teacher day, but then we are heading out of town for the weekend. Going with a group of 10 families to visit a city in China called Nanxun. Should be fun!!

Well, it's been over 2 weeks since school started. Happy to report they are still loving it :) Rilynn has started getting homework already! Monday and Wednesday is English, which includes letter worksheets, reading a book, and spelling. Tuesday and Thursday is Math. She has violin 1 1/2 hours per week and 5 formal hours of Chinese. 2nd semester she will start her Chinese homework. Unfortunately, she'll be on her own with that!!!

Since the kids are in school now, all our fun outtings have to be on the weekend.. I had won a family pack to some sort of Kids Exhibit. They had a huge room of bouncy objects, along with rides/games, and some exhibitor booths. Went with our friends and we were the only Western people there. However, it was nice since it actually wasn't that busy and it was air conditioned!

Rilynn climbed the wall all by herself!

They definitely love their bouncy things here!!

Interesting booth, Disney English. All the other kids hopped in the car and drove around. However, for my kids they had to stop at each line and answer a question with a microphone in English. I think the workers were just excited to use their English! LOL

Chinese cops

Later that night we went with our same friends to a Back to School Buffet at Blue Frog (which is a great burger joint). They had a clown, magician, face painting, and a good buffet. The restaurant was in the World Financial Center (the very tall building we went to the top of before). When we walked out of the restaurant we looked up and this was our view. It was pretty cool!! The building on the left is the WFC and the other is the JinMao Tower.

Pearl Tower

Brady had to go through a settling in week so he had a day off when Rilynn went to school. Since it was our last mommy-Brady day I wanted to do something fun and new. The PIXAR exhibit is in town at the Art Center. It was pretty cool and plus Brady loved seeing all his favorite characters!

After the exhibit we went to check out the Hershey Store. I've heard about it, but had never been there. It was a nice change to walk into a store and see so many familiar choices of candy. However, since we have been really strict about no peanuts a lot of my old favorites were off limits :( Chad had to give up his Nutty Bars and I had to give up my Reeses PB cups (and they even had the world's largest one!!!)

We were invited to a shared birthday party at The Activity Box. A fun little indoor play area for the kids. I even made a rainbow birthday cake for the birthday girl. Getting ready to start a little baking business here!

Soccer and Gymnastics started last week. It's right after school on Wednesday. Since they are both at the same time I have to do my share of running between both activities to watch them!! Both seem to be loving them though :)

Last weekend we rented the basketball court for an hour and then went swimming. We also spent some time playing soccer and Chad tried to help Rilynn work on riding her bikes with no training wheels. It was a nice weekend and didn't even have to leave our compound!!

The kids have a short week next week, being off on Monday for a holiday and Friday for a teacher day. Hopefully it will be nice out so we can spend some time at the wave pool!!