10 events of my day

1.Woke up 6:00 to go running.  I am loving the fall weather.

2. Went shopping with some ladies to "Painters Street" A cool street where you can get things framed, or painted for a decent price.

3.Left R babe with my friends Ayi (Nanny).  She watched him for 6 hours.  A little longer than anticipated, but a fun afternoon of exploring.  I loved the conversation R babe and I had about the things they did at  his friends house while I was gone.  Apparently they have a blue bike that is hard to ride, but the pink one was fun. He said he had a hard time getting his friend to share it with him.  Then they played with toys, and went to the park.  His friend fell  and cried but he didn't cry.  What a little cutie, and then he told me he loved me...What a sweet little man.  As we walked in the door I knew he was tired and needed a nap, but we didn't have much time until we had to pick up the kids.

4.Went and picked up some lunch after painters street and then taxied home because both our drivers, because of lack of good communication, where not around to pick is up. 

5. Went and picked up the kids from school today, on the way R babe fell asleep so I carried him in and out of 2 school.   He is getting SO heavy.

6.As we left school today there was a lady selling roasted chestnuts.  We have been wanting to try them for some time and finally did it.  They were interesting.

7. I Had J watch the kids while I ran to the store.  Really I have no car after 4:30 so I had to run, although I really just walked (fast), to the store.  I dragged home $75 dollars worth of groceries.  including 3 liters size bottles of pop, and 4 liters of milk, and 1 gallon of water.  I don't know why I do that to myself.  It was So heavy.  Apparently I was getting in all the heavy lifting today.

8. Came home to the rush and craziness of making dinner and trying to help the kids with homework.  I tried a new recipe, eggplant parmesan, but added some pasta to it.  It was a hit.  Which I was thrilled about because the last few meals I tried didn't turn out so good.  That is what you get when you experiment with new ingredients.

9. Got the kids into the bath, and cleaned up dinner.

10. Was happy to have R home around 7:30. When we read scriptures and put the kids to bed.

What a day!

Hangin' out with friends

 We love where we live!  

When we were looking for a place to live in Shanghai we wanted our kids to have friends, (that they could communicate with, that lived close by) and a safe place to run around where they wouldn't have to be supervised all the time.

 We found all of those things we wanted here.  Yes, a yard always makes me drool a bit, but her,e
there are  kids out playing and riding bikes almost everyday.  It is so nice.  M has met this little girl that he just loves playing with and she is just a few buildings down.  She is also in his class this year.

 Give R babe a bike and a brother or sister to play with, and happiness is his.

What a cute little guy!

Maritime Musuem field trip

My poor blog is so out of whack.  I thought I could line up my posts in order so when I published them they would stay in order.  I need to stay caught up on our current life, but also want to try and play catch up.  Hence the crazy reason for summer posts mixed among our current life posts.  That is just how it is going to be for now. 

So way back when...Mikey had a super fun field trip at a boat museum.  Boats that spanned all the different era's of time.  Such a cool place to visit.  It was so nice being with him.  It was pouring and  crazy windy, but we made it inside and had plenty of time to look around. 

 Checking out what the inside of a submarine looks like.

 Good thing we found this little play area.  Since the weather wasn't great we couldn't be walking around outside so we had some extra time inside.

 The kids played here for a while and loved all the kid friendly activities.

 2 of his best buddies Will and Max

Happy 3rd Birthday R Babe

 How is this little guy already celebrating his 3rd Birthday?

After a fun morning at the park and McDonald's for lunch, we spent the afternoon at Build-a-Bear. 

More than anything the older kids wanted to come here, but R babe had fun.  

His favorite was giving the Bear a bath.

 Kissing the heart for his new bear.

 That night we went to Grandma' s house to celebrate.  Lucky for us Melissa had made the cake so all that needed to be done was the decorating.  R babe and one of the favorite little girls cousins decorated it together.  I don't know where he got this idea for an angry birds cake, but he talked about it for weeks and he loved it.

Loving his new little toy.  

R babe is such a joy.  

Some things I love about him are:

I love that he still sucks his thumb.  Even better when we are out, especially riding in a taxi or something, he asks if he can suck his thumb.  We have made him a little germ conscious. I love how loud it gets when he has been woken up, but is still trying to get some sleep.  

I love that he loves his blanket nicknamed Beanow.  I think it got it's name when he was little and couldn't say blanket and it came out Beanow.  Sometimes we call it Bean for short.  He hates it when we wash it and he can see it swishing around and he can't get to it.  You know he cares when he sees you laying down and offers his blanket to you.

I love how much he loves to play with his brothers and sisters.  They take such good care of him.

I love how every afternoon we find a stack of books to read and then he falls off to sleep.

I love when he wakes up he is so happy and ready to play. 

I love to watch him ride his bike.

I love to watch eat ice cream.

I love it when he gets his hair combed he asks for a mo hawk.

I love that he never wants to wear a shirt to bed and when he wakes up I often find him wandering around in his little tiny undies.  

I love his trick of moving his one eyebrow.

I love to watch him kick a soccer ball

He brings such joy to every member in our family. 

 

Chinese Antique Market

 Today we decided to take a step out of our little bubble in Jinqiao and venture out. 

We ended up at an antique market.  Lots of ceramic, some old, but mostly new pieces.  

 There were a few stores that had  real antiques. 

Camera's, fans, sewing machine's type writer's, phonographs, toys,

old film reels. All very cool old stuff.

 

 Endless stacks and rows of stuff, that one might never use or need, but fun to look at.

   Although this might be fun for Halloween. 

We didn't buy much of anything, but had a great time walking around.

Afterwards we headed to the fake market to get some clothes made and then headed to our favorite dumpling place for dinner.