More Easter

We participated in three Easter egg hunts, but I have no pictures from two of them and no pictures of the boys from any of them.  In my defense, one of them was at the US Embassy and cameras were not allowed.  But, for the other two, my only defense is that with three kids there just isn't a hand leftover to hold the camera, and they were indoors anyway so the light was not great.  I do, however, want a picture of Claire in her Easter dress finding an Easter egg, so we may stage that later this week IF the sun comes out and IF the pollution index falls to a reasonable level.  In Beijing these days those are both very BIG "IFS."

 Some of our new friends in Beijing invited us over for a delicious, potluck Easter feast.  The food was truly scrumptious and included all our favorite Easter dishes.  Then we went outside and crushed confetti eggs.

 We have never had confetti eggs before, but the kids really enjoyed them so we may have to adopt a new tradition.

 These eggs were extra sturdy so there was quite a bit of head bonking before they were all finally cracked.

Kenny's Easter present.  So far we've only acquired the Easter ornaments, but I have a feeling that won't be the case for long.

Claire makes us all smile.

My favorite photo of the day.

Happy Easter!

No, this is not an April Fool's Day joke, this is an actual blog post, 

at long last from deep behind the Great Firewall of China.

With any luck this will be the first of many posts to come as I try to catch our hopefully still thriving small and mighty band of faithful readers 

up on our latest ramblings.  

We are now in China and have been for 2 whole months!  We are so very happy to be here and compared with our last overseas adventure, couldn't be more pleased with our quality of life in this new and completely foreign place.  Although, having grown up in Hawaii where Asian influences were everywhere, I have found that in many ways China, or at least Beijing, is not as foreign to me as I thought it would be.  Apart from the language, which is painfully non-existent for me, the combination of growing up around many things from this part of the world and our previous experience with living in the developing world has made this transition surprisingly easy.  But, there is lots of time to go into all of that.  

On to Easter.  We celebrated with all our usual traditions this year, despite the fact that one of us (ahem, guilty!) sent the Easter eggs by slow boat (they are still somewhere in the Pacific) instead of on the airplane.  However, after a valiant search I did find the only place in this entire country where plastic eggs can be bought and the problem was rectified.  The search was arduous indeed, 

particularly in light of the fact that all the eggs we've ever had have probably all been made right here in China.

I also forget the egg dye kits that I very deliberately bought on sale last Easter, but luckily Grandma stepped in and saved the day sending not just an egg dyeing kit, but loads of candy, Easter presents and some fun things to fill the Easter baskets that I did manage to remember.  Most importantly, the Easter clothes were packed in the suitcase so we all managed to look our best for Easter Sunday.

Ready to dye 

Claire helped too 

The fruit of their labors 

 Hunting for eggs

Enjoying the loot 

Happy Easter!

What a difference a year makes

Our beautiful Claire is 1 today, 

can you believe it?

 

January 9, 2012

January 9, 2013

Happy Birthday, baby girl.  

We love you to the moon and back.

Marathon Man

Kenny ran a marathon yesterday.  Yeah, I'm impressed too. It's not on my bucket list, but it's on his and now it's crossed off forever.   

 He is already talking about the possibility of running future marathons (Beijing has one in the spring and the fall), 

but I think he'll spend some time recovering before he actually signs up to run another one.

  He did pretty well for his first, and maybe only, time and we're all very proud of him!

Yea, marathon man!

Nancy Strikes Again

We had our family pictures taken in September by our favorite photographer and dear friend, Nancy.  Despite having to work with some very uncooperative and less than willing subjects, she worked her magic once again.  My goal is always 1 good family group and 1 decent shot of each of the kids.  Mission accomplished.  Thanks, Nancy!

All my pumpkins

One of the residual benefits of all of my children being born in the same month is that things like coats and costumes fit everyone at the perfect season.  Before Caleb's first Halloween I found a pumpkin costume on ebay for the bargain price of $5.  

We certainly have gotten our money's worth...

 Caleb, 2006

Isaac, 2008

Claire, 2012

Happy (belated) Halloween

For the sake of posterity, here are my little ones celebrating one of their most favorite holidays.

 Caleb as a samurai.

 Isaac as the white ninja.

Baby Claire, the cutest pumpkin on the block, 

at least we think so.