We are moving back to America!

It is official. We are headed back to the states or should I say Humble, Texas. Although we will miss our new friends and the travel we got to do, we will not miss being so far away from our family. Here are 5things we will not miss about China:
1. the squaty pottys
2. the grey skies everyday
3. the crowds
4. the spitting and peeing on the streets
5. the smells

Here are 5 things we will miss about China:
1. the new friends around the world
2. the vacation/holidays in Thailand
3. the ayi's that helped keep our house clean
4. The chinese food made by Shou Gan
5. the crisp cold weather in the winter (most people don't miss this, but it was fun for us to wear our stocking caps. We cannot do this is Houston)

The kids are excited to go home and we are to. Much to blog about has we began our adventure home!!

Aubrey goes to Beijing with a friend

Since we are headed back to the states this summer, I wanted to make a shopping trip to Beijing before we leave to go back home. One of my sweet friends volunteered to go with me. We bought the tickets and went for a weekend. I of course had to take Maely since I was nursing her still. It was a whirlwind to say the least. I never did so much shopping in a 48 hour period. We got some nice things to take home to remind us of our memories. We went to the silk market the first night we got there and then woke up early that Saturday to head to the Dirt market. Then we went to an antique place which was hard to get to. We took a subway and then tried to get a taxi, but no one knew where it was so we ended calling the owner and she came and got us. It was quite an experience being in a city of 33 million and having a baby strapped to you with either one of us understanding Chinese!! I am sure I would have never done this 3 years ago! We ended the night back at our hotel with lots of fun treasures!!! Sunday we did some more shopping at the dirt market and then got a flight home at 5 pm. It was fun! Here is a picture of Maely with a very old Chinese man that took a liking to her!!

Art Work at QSI

This past quintile, Avery took mask making. She first drew a picture and she constructed out of paper mache. I thought she did a great job!! Here a picture. The school also has a new art teacher that does some creative things at the school. We now have 200 kids at our school so the teacher had all the kids make a big painting with all 200 handprints. Here they are!

Avery is Amelia Earhardt for International Week

After the yummy international food, some kids had some presentations. Avery 's class had to do a presentation about a person their home country. Avery picked Amelia Earhardt and she did a great job. She made a poster and wrote her own speech all by herself. We are so proud of her!! She did great. Here are some pictures of her presentation.

International Week at QSI

It is that time of year again when we celebrate International Week. This year we had so much fun with visiting Finland, Japan, Mexico, Peru, Chile, England, China, Canada, Sweden, Korea, France, Scotland, India, Spain, and America. The kids had such a good time traveling to all the countries and getting their passport stamped. America's theme was traveling to Ellis Island in New York and seeing the Statue of Liberty. After they traveled the countries, they participated in a Parade of the Nations. Then we all had food from around the world that we all made from our country. It was great! Here are some pictures. Please look at the web gallery to see all the pictures.

Rylan is Johnny Appleseed

For International Week, Rylan had an assignment in her class to write about a flag, a landmark, a food, and a story from her home country. Rylan wrote about the American and Texas flag. She wrote about the Alamo for the landmark. She then wrote about Johnny Appleseed and apple pie. Then she had to act it out the Johnny Appleseed story and Mom had to make some apple pie for the class. Rylan did well with some prompts and some lines her Grammy help put together. Mommy helped her with the lines. She did great!!

The girls go rollerskating

The girls were invited to one of our good friends Birthday Party and the theme was rollerskating party. The girls have never been in rollerskates so it was fun to watch. It was just me and all the girls. Maely and I even rollerskated around the rink. I quickly learned that the girls need to get there own skates so they can practice! I loved rollerskating when I was young. It was cool to do! I actually think the mom's from the 80's loved the rollerskating part more than their kids!

The girl's track meet

Every 3 months or so, the international schools have a sporting event where the schools compete. They have done swim meets, basketball games, and track meets. This time, it was a cross country meet. There are 5 international schools here that compete against each other. Our school is so big that they are only able to select 2 girls and 2 boys from each class. The P.E. coach had the kids run 2 km during P.E. and picked the kids that did the best or finished the race. Both the girls got selected. We were so proud! Especially Daddy since that is what he likes to do! Rylan was in the 6 and under category and Avery was in the 8 and under category. There were alot of participates. Alot of schools had more participates than 4 per class. Rylan came in 2nd place and Avery came in 5th place. We thought they did great especially with no real training and they ran the whole time. That is over a mile!! The day was really cold and rainy but we had a good time. Cohen clung to Rylan and for a little while I thought he would run with the group! Here are some pictures of the kids. I have videos but they are too hard to upload. Enjoy!!