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One Saturday in May- nearly one month ago!- we decided we NEEDED to get out of the house and go SOMEWHERE.   Well, that Somewhere turned into the Tianjin Water Park.  You may remember we saw it briefly in February (along with the TV Tower).  At that time the lakes were completely iced over and…

Hi! Remember us?   We haven't forgotten about you!!!  And we certainly didn't mean to take such a long blogging break.  So much has happened in the few weeks since our last blog post: Ava riding a two-wheeled bicycle with no training wheels, a Mother's Day adventure to the Tianjin section of the Great Wall,…

Way to go!!!!! And now it's Annika's turn to be awarded a medal from her teacher at the Friday morning IST primary school assembly.  (Ava got one a few weeks back).  Annika was chosen to receive the medal because she's a Risk Taker and because of her participation in the Poetry Competition the previous week.…

 It's going to be a crazy, nutty, insane day: Our shipment arrives!!! And…naturally it arrives while Mark is away on a business trip! We've only been waiting what… four months for this delivery?????  (actual delivery happened on April 25, 2012) Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!  Emptying box after box after box after box sounds like great fun!!!!  Not.  Okay,…

One fantastic Monday several Mondays ago the Kindergarten classes from IST ventured to the Tianjin Aquarium.  I love it when the parents are welcome to join on class field trips!  It meant I also got to experience something new!   And the field trip went ….swimmingly! After a 45-minute bus ride….we're there!  And …apparently so…

April was Poetry Month at IST so one of the events for the month was a Poetry Recitation Competition for all students from Nursery through Grade 5.  Yes, even the little tikes got involved!!!!   Here's how it worked: each grade level had their own poem to memorize.  Naturally the nursery and preschool students had…

Spring Time Blossoms in China I've heard many expats living in China say that spring only lasts a few days.  I didn't believe them but now I do!!! It does seem like we hopped over spring and slammed straight into summer with a hard knock on the head.  We did have a few days to…

Darn! Darn!! Drat!! It's our last day in Thailand!  Very late tonight (when I say late I mean around midnight) we'll be dragging our tired feet back on the plane to head back to Beijing.   Can't we stay here instead???? P-L-E-A-S-E?????  (isn't that the Magic Word?) No???? Well, at least we can have one last…

Staying Cool in the Pool…. What do you say???  Sound like fun?????  Sometimes it's just nice to hang out at the pool.  Let's have a lazy day, okay??? We staked out our pool-side lounge chairs.  You'd better go claim your own.  They seem to go fast. See that palm frond (not actually sure what that…

Hi! Hope you got some sleep!!!!  Yesterday was pretty darn amusing, wasn't it???  Well, we got a phone call in the middle of the night….our snorkeling trip has been cancelled because of the Tsunami Watch last night.  *sigh* So…what do you think we should do with this lovely day???? I think we're going to chill…