Finishing up the Fall/Winter Semester

The kids finished up the fall/winter semesters of local school and homeschool, enjoyed the month of February off, and started back to the school routine at the beginning of March! Thankful for how well they enjoy their school and how much they are learning. Of course, as with any school environment, they are exposed to teachings and other kids’ attitudes that we choose to use as “teachable moments” rather than completely shelter them from. It takes a lot of patience and diligence, but being able to attend local school also has allowed them to become fluent in this language as well as have friends. Here are some pictures from their work they brought home. They have Chinese, math, handwork, agriculture, art, music, calligraphy, and sculpting classes. They also have science and history. One cool thing – Colt’s class was studying ancient civilizations and Hebrew history. They acted out the story of Jospeh being sold as a slave to Egypt in their end of the semester performance. Colt was Reuben. Pretty neat to see all they are learning (that I know nothing about – ha!)

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Caden turned 5!

Well it’s been a little busy here lately. . . and I’m super behind on posting the bazillion pictures I just moved from my phone to my computer. So, we will start with Caden’s 5th birthday back in January :)

Reflecting back over 5 years ago when I found out I was pregnant with this little fella. . . I cried. He wasn’t planned. David and I had just got back from Cozumel where we celebrated our fifth wedding anniversary and I was feeling sick. I thought I probably ate something that wasn’t clean and didn’t think too much of it until the sickness didn’t go away!

Caden Luke (his name means “Soldier of Light” and he often calls himself “Caden Luke Soldier of Light” – haha) is such a bright spot in our family. He is almost always happy and smiling. His temperament is like his Daddy – even keel and easy to get along with :) He loves to make people laugh and the sound of his laughter is contagious. He loves to help, often without being told. He loves to give and is so very generous. He also likes to climb anything and try to fix things (again, like his Daddy). He prefers Chinese food over Western. He is bilingual, just recently grasping the concept of America and China and the fact that he isn’t Chinese :) Instead of gifts we started doing special foods and places as a family. He picked a special breakfast, dinner, his cake, and (as you can see from the pics below) was given the “royal” treatment in his preschool class as well. Also, by his choice, we all went to see Rapunzel/Tangled (in Chinese) in the play – theatre – version. So thankful for this sweet boy!

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Metamorphisis

Colt brought a little green caterpillar home from school one day, made a habitat for it, and told me he wanted to watch it change into a butterfly. This kid loves science. I was skeptical, but encouraged him to go for it. He gave it some nice green leaves (which it ate holes through), then sure enough it formed a chrysalis. We tried to research and find out for what kind of butterfly (or moth) it would turn into and how long it would take to come out – we didn’t want to miss it! From our research we thought it would take around 2 weeks and be a White Cabbage Butterfly. Well, 2 weeks passed. . . then 3 weeks. . . then 4 weeks. . . and honestly, we stopped watching it. Then one day, Colt noticed there was a butterfly in his habitat! It was quite exciting for us all to say the least.
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Christmas Parties

It was fun to reminisce with the kids about last year at Christmas when we went back to the States and surprised everyone. Little Caden was only 3, but he remembers hiding in the box and jumping out to surprise Mamaw Betty :) It’s also hard to believe it’s already been a year! How time flies! Those will be forever fond memories for the kids I know.

This year Christmas didn’t really feel too much like Christmas really. The weather was warmer (it sure is freezing now though!) and Christmas isn’t really celebrated here. . . not to mention being away from family we love :) Plus, we seem to be passing around sicknesses which is exhausting. We still managed to celebrate and host 2 Christmas parties, then I was also able to do a Christmas lesson with my classes at the kids’ school. I didn’t get pictures of both parties – it’s hard to host and take pictures!! It was fun to sing Christmas songs, act of the Story, give gifts, decorate cookies, and be with friends though!

For D and I, Christmas isn’t about the gifts. . . it’s about The Gift. My biggest desire is to teach/pass that on to our kids – it’s giving not getting, because the Father gave His Son. We celebrate Him. So, when I’m missing family and it doesn’t feel like Christmas, I can always redirect my focus and be thankful for that Gift!

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The culture we have embraced. . .

Ducks on the bus (this lady is on her way home from the market).

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Early morning exercises in the park by the retired community.  By the way, the age for retirement here is 55 :)

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Carts and scooters with loads I can’t imagine.

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Sellers at the market bring the live ducks.  Take your pick!

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In the afternoon between 12-2pm most everyone will stop and find a place to rest for a while.  I’m not sure I could sleep on a scooter, but it seems to be working for him.

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The trash carts. . . piled high.

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A night on the town. . .

We had some friends visiting and decided to take them to city center one evening to eat dinner and walk around. Our city is really beautiful at night with all of the lights. We bought some interesting street food too :) The kids ate fried scorpion and liked it! They were disappointed they only got 1 – ha!

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Tongue or squid anyone?

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Tons of fried bug options. . .

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