We have fun at the School Fall Festival

It is that time of year when the festivities begin for Halloween. It started with the girls being allowed to go to school with a costume. Rylan decided to dress as a ballerina and Avery decided to just wear a Halloween shirt that lit up since she has P.E. The girls also had a half day of school because it was teacher/parent conference. Then in the evening we had the fall festival for Halloween at our school. The school had fun games, yummy treats, and a thriller performance by some of the children. It was a good time and the kids really enjoyed themselves. The plan was that the girls would dress as LSU cheerleaders, Cohen as a monkey, and Maely as a kitty cat. However, Cohen wanted nothing to do with the monkey suit so he wore his LSU shirt with the girls outfits. Maely still had her cat outfit. On Sunday, our M friends invited us over to do some trick or treating in their apartment compound. The girls actually went over to their house after church so we were to meet them at there house later with Cohen and Maely. When we got there, our friends had dressed the girls up in Auburn cheerleading outfits for a laugh! Rylan was dressed as a tiger with a cheerleading outfit over her. The girls looked cute, but before I could take a picture of them, Avery had put on her LSU cheerleading outfit. She was scared Dad was mad! It was all fun and we laughed about it!! Here are some pictures!!

Rylan says good bye to her best friend from Japan!

As some of you know, Rylan is the only American in her class and she is only 1 of 4 girls in her class as well. The first year we moved here, Rylan had a hard time adjusting, but the second year went well because a new girl had moved to our apartment complex and was in her class. She is from Japan and is the sweetest thing. Her name is Seri. Anyway, Rylan and her were two peas in a pod and even we went went back to the states this summer, Rylan really missed her. Seri came over almost everyday after school and Rylan went to her house alot as well. In October, Seri went back abruptly to Japan and Rylan did not get to say goodbye. There was hope they would move back, but unfortunately it did not workout, so we will have to try to keep in touch. Sadly this is the way of life overseas. You have to say goodbye more frequently than if you lived in the states. It is a hard lesson. Rylan often misses her friends in US and now she misses one in Japan. Her is a picture of them!!

We go to Hong Kong for October Holiday!

The girls in front of Bruce Lee Statue

The boat ride in the old fishing village

The Clover Clan with Pluto at Disneyland

All the kids with Sleeping Beauty

China has a national holiday in October where they get a week off so when that happens we leave Chengdu because Chris has the day off as well. We wanted to do something fun with our dear friends who are leaving in December. We had high hopes to go somewhere exotic, but it was too expensive. So insteady we flew to Hong Kong for 4 days. We took all modes of transportation again..boat, train, subway, taxi, and bus. We went to the Harbor and walked along China's walk of fame where we saw Jackie Chang's handprints and Bruce Lee's statue. We stayed into the evening to watch the laser show and there was nothing to see so we were a little disappointed. The children didn't mind it, they just played telephone and laughed all evening. The highlight was we found an amazing playground that the kids loved!! The next day we went to an old fishing village where we rode a boat out into the water and walked along the village where we found strange dried fish that were very expensive. We really had a good time. Lastly, we went to Disneyland!! Although it rained, we had a wonderful time. It is a small park, but we still felt the magic of disney! We never would have been able to make it in Disney or even Hong Kong with out the help of our friends, the Schillers. Sarah and Dawson are such great people and it made our stay so enjoyable. The children really like each other so much! We will miss them so much when they go home to Michigan! Here are some pictures and please look on our web gallary for more!!