Busy Girl!

Now that the summer weather has arrived it seems like Rilynn's school has been having activities a lot!! I feel like I'm there for something a couple times a week :)

First was activity day- They had different stations for the 3 classes of K4. A couple minutes spent at each one then onto the next. It was then finished with a game of tug of war between the parents. Not really sure who won as the rope broke! Ha

Her class has been preparing for a variety show for the past month. The kids came up with all the ideas, made their costumes and sets, and even made the tickets :) The show featured a magic show, drama skit, dancing, and singing. Rilynn was part of the dancing group.. It was fun to see the kids perform and how they were so proud of themselves.. Chad was even in town to take off of work to come watch!

Rilynn (aka curtain holder)

The dancing group

Then this week she had Sports Day. It was a huge event with the whole school. They had 4 different teams and a bunch of different events. They kept track of the scores to see which team won.

Hurdles

The next Olympic sport, Chicken Throwing :) There was a discus throw for the older kids..

Vortex Throw

Rilynn loves the body boards

Long Jump in Action

40m dash

The yellow team and their team chant

Then finally yesterday they had Global Day. It's the biggest parent run event of the year. It was supposed to be 5 hours, but we only lasted 1 1/2 hours. It was close to 90 degrees this whole weekend and we were soooo hot!! Rilynn's international school has students from 42 different countries and 30 of those had different booths here, representing their country. Our USA booth was about landing on the moon. Each booth also had to provide food found in their country. We of course served Mac & Cheese and chocolate chip cookies. It was the first time that I've baked cookies here so my contribution costed over $30 to make one batch of cookies!! However, they were so yummy :)

The USA booth- Moon Walk

We had to wear our colors, so it was perfect for the USA and for Minnesota :)

They had a large parade walking around the track with your flag.

I really can't complain as there would be no way that I would ever be able to attend this amount of activities if I were working.. So I am very thankful that my time here I am able to do it. And I know how much it means to her to look over and see I'm there watching :)

Great Labor Day weekend!

We had a great holiday family weekend last week!! It was nice to be all together for the 3 day weekend..

Brady has been begging us to play basketball in the gym since we moved here. We found out that you actually have to reserve and pay 50rmb ($7) to use it for an hour. So we finally got around to reserving the court and he had so much fun!! Chad and I were pretty rusty with our game of HORSE, but it was nice..

Our superstar!

After nap, we headed back to the clubhouse for a game of bowling. Rilynn started throwing the ball with one hand instead of just pushing it with both hands. Now that she has the form down, we need to work on the accuracy :)

The following day we ventured out to Xintiandi to watch our first movie in China. Rio in 3D was playing in English with Chinese subtitles so thought we'd give it a try! For the 4 of us it costed 400rmb (~$60). And I thought it was expensive in the US!! Pllus we had to give them another 400rmb as deposit for the glasses.. Thankfully, both kids did AWESOME during the movie!! They kept their big and heavy glasses on the whole time and didn't get up from their chairs! Plus, it was a pretty cute movie, especially since our family is all hooked on Angry Birds!

Concession Stand- Notice the 2nd item down.. Snickers, SQUID!, Dove, ... LOL.. China loves Kettle Corn (Sweet) popcorn here, but thankfully they actually had buttered popcorn.. However, DEFINTELY not like back home.. Cold and not too buttery :(

On Monday, we went to the clubhouse again  to do some swimming.. Since the start of their swimming lessons the kids have both turned into little fishies!! Rilynn has even learned to swim on her own here.. Every Tuesday she is in the pool before and after her lesson for 2 hours!!

We ended our weekend with taking the Ferry from Pudong across the river to Puxi. It's been on my list of things to do so it was nice to be able to do it together. We walked from the clubhouse to the station. Paid a whole 1rmb (~$.15) for all 4 of us and hopped on. It was standing room only along side of all of the scooters and bikes. It was definitely an experience and the kids thought it was cool :)

Crazy enough we ran into some friends on the ferry also for their first time. We were both heading to the same area in Puxi to grab some food. So we all grabbed a burger at a restaurant in the Cool Docks. It's a very nice area with a bunch of different bars and restaurants with outdoor seating. Chad and I will definitely be going back there for a date night!

After this past weekend we officially had the air conditioner switched over. It was up in the 80's. I am so thankful we will be coming home during the summer, as I do not do well in the heat! However, I really did enjoy missing the MN snow this winter :) 

Thankfully, our summer trip home is officially booked. We are leaving July 2 and the kids and I will be staying until the middle of August while Chad will be in the US for only the first 3 weeks. Can't wait to see everyone!!

Pizza and a Wedding..

We were invited to watch the Royal Wedding last night with some friends. We had 4 families there with all of their kids. We ordered pizza, had some chips and dip, and finished with brownies and rice krispie bars- The perfect wedding dinner!

The ladies watched the wedding (started at 6pm Friday night), the men chatted and enjoyed their beer, and all while the kids had fun playing with each other in the playroom. No major meltdowns or disasters.. Great family night out.

Although, personally, was a tad disappointed in the 2 second balcony peck. Half of us missed it! Otherwise Kate looked gorgeous in her gown.. Rilynn enjoyed seeing the Princess get married to her Prince :)

More wandering...

I didn't take this picture, but was taken at the Shanghai Auto Show that's going on here right now. I personally could never imagine doing this, but unfortunately it's an all too common sight to see here. At least this kid had a bottle, usually it's either in a garbage can or just squatting on the ground!!

I had an 1 1/2 hours to kill while I waited for Chad's jeans at the Fabric Market and had my camera with me so I decided to wander around a very local area. One thing about being here is really how safe I feel. I was more worried about getting lost as I started going down alleys rather than for my safety. However, the farther out I got I started seeing more stray cats and dogs and that freaked me out so I turned around.

So here's some of the sights I saw walking down the roads..

This is a price list for a hair salon, however not too sure of what some of the items were :) Plate Made or do I even want to know, Nursing?!?! LOL

I would guess chickens, but can't be too sure on that one!!

Definitely not paying for the spa atmosphere :)

I saw a lot of dogs on my walk. This one was leashed up to a bike.

Dog grooming station

Getting a shampoo

The kids here wear these split pants. Thankfully most of them here have a diaper on, but I have seen plenty of bare bottoms here too! While I was at the fabric market we heard a lady humming and looked over and she was holding a bare bottom baby (like 4 months old) over a trash can trying to get them to go to the bathroom!

I'm guessing the end is near for these chickens..

People love their PJ's here. You seen them all the time walking around in them. I think it's hilarious :)

Naptime

Not sure if this was homemade, but it looks like a baby lawn chair on wheels :)

I always love seeing how much people can haul on their bikes..

Shanghai really has a ton of parks here. Now that the weather is nice I would like to take Brady to a new one each week to check them out. We did Fuxing Park and this week was Tianshan Park by Hongqiao (near Chad's work). It was a very local park as in we were the only non local there :) But it doesn't bother Brady as he gets along and plays with anyone with a ball or will run around with him.. And I love people watching so it was great for both of us.

I saw lots of bottoms this day at the park!

This sign was posted at the entrance. Love these rules!! LOL

Brady playing with bubbles and the other kids

Custom clothing.. Cool huh?

So, I've been waiting  patiently to have some clothing custom made for me here. We had visited this fabric market on our 'look see' in August and it sounded so cool. Who wouldn't love to have their favorite pair of jeans copied or have an expensive outfit from a magazine copied to fit you perfectly..

My friend and I finally went to check it out together. She had already been there before and had some clothing made so she knew the ropes. This market is 3 floors filled with tailors and tons of different booths. They have samples of clothing hanging in/out of their booths and TONS of fabric inside. There was everything from jackets to prom dresses to jeans.

My friend had used some people up on the 2nd floor so we decided to try them out again and some new one's. We each had a pair of our husbands jeans to get copied, so that was our first stop. Easy process for that- hand over Chad's jeans and pick out a jean fabric from a large spool, made a deposit, and told to come back in a week. Onto the next booth- Saw a cute cotton button blouse, picked out fabric, got measured, made deposit, and left. Last stop- again found 2 shirts I liked hanging up, picked out the fabric, got measured, and left deposit.

Jeans- 150rmb (~$22)

Shirts- 120rmb/piece (~$18)

A week passed and I went back on Monday to pick up our clothes. I was so excited to see how they turned out!! Unfortunately, Chad's jeans weren't done yet and that I was supposed to come back in 1 1/2 hours. However, all of my shirts were ready and looked pretty nice. I probably should've tried them on, but it's not like they had dressing rooms in their booths! Thankfully though they all seemed to fit :) Finally I was able to get his jeans and they looked awful!!! And since I don't know any Chinese I wasn't about to get into it with them, so I just took them and left.

Chad also was a tad disappointed and now has a new jean rag to use :) Thankfully it wasn't that much money lost and that it was a new experience for us. Since there aren't a whole lot of options for American sizes here, I was hoping for a new wardrobe, but now know that won't be happening until I come home in July!

Our clothes..

Spring has sprung!

The weather lately has been gorgeous. It's been in the 60-70's and I think we may have hit 80 degrees yesterday. So of course another zoo trip was needed. We met up with a few friends and spent the day walking around the zoo.

Brady with his friend Aoife

Petting zoo with a some huge bellied pigs!

This picture looks bad, but I promise there was glass between the fence :)

Crazy story- See the yellow object on the ground? That is a deflated blow up toy tied to a rope held onto by a not so smart man. He kept throwing this in the lions den to get their attention. I can't say that I trust a Chinese zoo's safety regulations 100%, so when the lion saw the toy and started moving towards it, we booked it out of there! I was hoping we wouldn't be hearing about a lion escaping his cage later that day...

Another funny story- There were about 6 kids in our group and they were all lined up by a railing outside a monkey cage. All of a sudden the monkey spit a huge mouthful of what we were praying was water at the kids through the cage. I have never seen 6 kids run so fast!!! I wished I had gotten that on camera as I think we would've been rich from America's Funniest Video :) It was hilarious!!!