Early Halloween Festivities

Ella enjoyed painting her fingernails by herself for the first time – SParKliNg OrAngE!

Jared’s on his way to a great adventure as a Frog-shirted Pirate.

Ella was very excited to show off her Sleeping Beauty costume that we scored at Disneyland in Hong Kong.

Apparently some of the other students scored similar dresses, and one of them doesn’t look too pleased that she was a twin.  Also notice the lack of a bejeweled crown on said twin.  Maybe that’s why she didn’t go in our trick-or-treating group.

Here are some of my lovely co-workers.

Here’s one of my 10th graders who reminded me of the zombies at Disneyland.

Trick-or-treating was really an adventure in the high-rise apartment complexes.

Today for church, Ella and I decided to dress alike, and when we got home, we played some hand-clapping games until she collapsed from over-excitement.

Tomorrow will hopefully bring more enjoyable adventures as we share Halloween day with our branch and the kind strangers to whom we will be trick-or-treating.  Wishing safety for all!  ~

Tooth!



Ella lost her first tooth.  Yay!



All Hallows’ Eve prep

 

A wonder-filled trip to the happiest place on earth turns out a little scarier than our last visit.

Freely dispensed paper masks helped everybody get in the mood.

Then we died and our heads were on display.

Yummy festive Mickey hands made for a sadistic Halloween-style dinner.

Say g’nite to the zombies, children.

We finished up at Disneyland fairly late, as usual, but this time we didn’t have to make the 2-hour trek back to Shenzhen the same night.  We arranged a luxurious night’s stay at the Disneyland Resort Hotel.  Our children loved crashing in front of Disney short cartoons after their warm baths.

The next morning shared a gorgeous view from our insanely over-priced hotel, reminding us why we came.  Below is the Mickey Mouse Maze and our fantastic view of Discovery Bay in the South China Sea.

We had some fun with the other guests at breakfast.

Poolside.

 

Ella met up with Sleeping Beauty.

And picked her favorite Halloween costume.

All dressed up and ready to run.

Somewhere in the Maze: The Blur (go Smallville!)

I met some strangers off the pier and they let me try fishing the cheap way.  I managed to lose all the food and the hook for them, and they still didn’t toss me over!

We finished up, came home, and found the only type of pumpkin available: extra small.

Still cute.  Happy Halloween prep!

Disney Movie Marathon

We've been doing a super-marathon with the Disney movies.  Karl feels that our children should be exposed to all 50 animated feature-length films, so we're plugging along.  Tonight was The Three Caballeros with Donald Duck exploring South America.  I was very pleased with the entertainment and education blend.

Bundle of Joy

Today I was so happy to find a surprise waiting for me… well, actually, it wasn’t a complete surprise, because I was sort of expecting it, but the timing was great! 

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birthday

(Did you think I was going to say ‘baby’?)

My amazing parents sent me a package for my birthday, and it arrived today!  I give a warm/hot welcome to all the wonderfully anticipated impossible-to-find items, like Hydro-Cortisone cream and Cub-Scout supplies, as well as some choice extras.  Since my birthday comes right after Halloween, I’m accustomed to receiving leftover Trick-or-Treating candy from my siblings.  It was such a sweet gesture for my parents to let me reminisce by sending some Halloween candy with my birthday package!  Maybe it was for Halloween, but I want to think it was for my birthday.  Thanks Mom & Dad!

Chinese National Day

October 1st was National Day for China, commemorating the communist party’s rise to power, so we celebrated by leaving China and going to a temple session in Hong Kong. Disclaimer: This picture was not taken in October.

It’s been a crazy month & 1/2 getting settled again, and the routine has finally begun.  We’re enjoying the week-long holiday.  Today a couple of Chinese teacher friends ventured over for an Italian lunch and cake making party.

We distributed portions of said cakes to a couple other teachers for their birthdays this week.  Ella loved licking the frosting bowl, which was really too full to be given to a minor, and surprisingly she managed to keep most of it on herself.

Then we met up with Ella’s friend, Rachel, and her parents for some indoor swimming, which is quite perfect since the weather jumped recently from sweltering sauna to typhoon warnings.

We returned for some delivery McDonalds, and card games.

Tomorrow’s one of our last trips to HK Disneyland (our yearly passes expire next month), so we’ll go out with a bang.  We’ve booked a night at the Disneyland Hotel, and we’ll pay over $25 a plate for Some Enchanted Breakfast that the children had better appreciate.
Thursday, we’ll go to the Evergreen Resort for the 2nd time.  We went last month with Jared’s old classmate, Cinderella, and found it to be an Eden-like playground.

We’re bringing  most of the other foreign teachers and their children with us on Thursday, and we get to pick up some pottery our kids made while they were there last time.

Friday, our last day of semi-vacation -poor Karl has to teach a few classes to the 9th graders, who never get much of a vacation- will be spent making up for our temple trip by watching the Haslam’s 5 kids so they can have a turn.  I’ll write again if we survive.