Tai Po Cycling

Today we went cycling in Tai Po with friends. It was FABULOUS.




















The lovely Charlotte and Elissa...













Colin and Audrey - Ready, Steady, Go!















Too much fun! And we haven't left the parking lot yet...














You have to get up the hill first (feel the burn!) ... but after that, it's lovely!















The view ...














Zoom, zoom!












































Such a great excursion! After cycling across the dam, we enjoyed a splendid picnic - complete with hot pasta and soup. YUM!

This has to be one of the best family excursions in/around Hong Kong - but definitely not something you'd want to do in the blazing sun.

School

Chase is now reading and writing with relative ease. She does get stumped on words of course, but she powers through in most cases and seems to retain the correction days/weeks later.

I had my second parent/teacher conference yesterday and the only thing she isn't "exceeding expectations" on is throwing a ball. Because she throws it up, instead of forward. Her teacher told me she thinks she will be bored in Primary 1, which she begins in the fall. She also told me she could probably test into Primary 2, but that the down side of being youngest in the class may not be worth it - and I agree. From what I've seen with Madoc (born Dec, so youngest in class), I would say it's definitely worth arranging things so that your child is as strong a player as possible in his/her class.

I am so proud of her - she's accomplished so much. Her attitude toward learning is sunny, bright and she is highly motivated. And now she's off to the big school. And so I arranged a meeting with the guy in charge to talk about the syllabus and mandarin. Turns out she can already do what most kids achieve by the end of P1 and will probably be way ahead by September. Mandarin is worrisome because it is only 20 min a day and very basic, but I may have come up with a solution that doesn't rock the boat too much.

All in all I think her education will be decent, but I will have to come up with ways to supplement it outside of school (shocker).

Seat belt

Madoc's sense of humor keeps me rolling. This morning (I was on the toilet), she pulled out a long line(?) of toilet paper and gently set it across my lap. Then she took a step back, looked at me, smiled and said "seat belt."

Trip To US - Portland

Following are the photos from our trip to Portland. We are so grateful to our friends and family for making such a wonderful trip. I'm sorry I didn't get pictures of everyone we saw!!! Next time....

This one was taken after dinner at a good friend's house - Whit and Tara, I spared us all by not posting the pics Hubs took of the three of us. Apologies to Matt again for throwing food at him. I promise to behave myself next time.



























My dear, dear friend, Heidi who drove down from Seattle (I love you, miss you!)...













Her dad, Dave ....













Her mom, Allen, who was a strong roll-model for me while I was growing up...














Allen must have read six books to Chase... Chase wanted at least 60 more...














And then to Freya's house... She had such a great backyard, which included a little house...














A secret trail...




















Logs to jump across...














I met Freya (below) and Sarah when I was four! Now Freya has two gorgeous daughters and Sarah has two little boys and a beautiful little girl (although I somehow did not get a picture of them all together!)




















Later... a walk with Auntie Lockett...


























Time with Nana...







































































I love this picture of Chase...




















And I love this picture of Mads...














Had a super fabulous time with Grandpa Mark at OMSI...



























Chase took some pics of us back at Courtney and Lockett's place...








































And a great pic of our little nephew, Ajax! Cute stuff! We miss you!














And then the hard part.... we had to say goodbye... to Grandpa Mark...




















To Nana Cris...








































Hmmm, any similarity?














To Uncle Courtney...




















To Auntie Lockett...




















And then we boarded the plane, and tried our best to "get comfortable" for our 17 hour trip home...

Chase Wins Chickeeduck Fashion Show

Chase was invited by a friend to join in a Chickeeduck fashion show at SOGO. She actually WON the competition.

Super HUGE thanks to Claire, our gorgeous friend (she is wearing orange in photos below), for arranging this opportunity for Chase. And big thanks to our friends - Irene, Joe, Audrey and Scarlett - for coming along to cheer for Chase.

Here are the pictures from the show!

Chickeeduck

Survival

Me: "I'm not sure what I would do if I came face-to-face with a wild boar. I mean, is there something you are supposed to do to survive? Like when you are attacked by a shark and you poke him in the eyes to get away."

Hubs: "You're supposed to punch a shark in the nose."

Last Day In Portland

Last day in Portland has been filled with sunshine and rain showers; just the way I like it. Loads of updates and photos to come, but first we have to get back on a plane and go to the other side of the world. The last three weeks have flown by. In many ways it feels like we only just left Hong Kong; in other ways it feels like we've been living out of duffel bags forever.

Oh The DRAMA

So Chase has been, well, UBER dramatic about, well, EVERYTHING lately. I thought it might have just been the whole "turning 5 thing," but no, it seems to be a lingering affliction.

Possibly the most trying times are in the morning, when I ask (okay, beg!) her put her clothes on (all by herself). And while her 2-year-old sister dresses herself, my gorgeous, smart, talented 5-year-old, rolls around on the floor, having forgotten how to, well, do anything except roll around on the floor.

So a couple mornings ago, I threw in the towel (after 45 mins of asking her to please please get dressed - oh, what do you mean nothing is 'fancy' enough?"). Mads and I had been dressed and ready to go for 30 minutes and I told Chase "come downstairs when you are ready to go." And then she screamed. And screamed some more. And I made breakfast.

Twenty minutes later, Chase appeared in the kitchen "nak-ey." And rather then make a big deal about the fact she still didn't have any clothes on (now almost an hour and half since I asked her the first time), I asked her if she wanted any maple syrup with her pancakes.

It must have been the fact I didn't say anything about her "clothing selection" but she hushed right up and ate her pancakes. After breakfast, she complained she was cold, so I said, "go put on a jacket. I am not surprised because you didn't pick very warm clothes to wear," and that set her off again.

But I have to say, it was totally worth it to pretend like there was absolutely nothing wrong with the fact she chose to wear nothing.

Chase, I love you so much, but all this drama is starting to hurt my head!

Five Things I Learned From My Helper

I never took Home-Ec (I don't know how to spell it). I never learned how to iron, or clean. I have actually ironed wrinkles into my clothes, which, by the way, used to be in two piles - 1) dirty, 2) clean. My saving grace is I can cook. So I've pretty much been wingin' it since I became a stay-at-home mum.

I can't tell you how relieved I was when we hired Jojo Poppins. She is a domestic goddess. I have not actually done a load of wash in a year. I have relied on her for housekeeping and cooking so that I can play with the girls without being interrupted. But I have been watching and learning from her. So now she is away for 2-weeks. And I have to do everything. So what have I learned in the past year?

1) Laundry - Monday and Thursday. Strip and make the beds, collect dirty clothes, wash everything. Do ironing that evening.

2) Cooking - Cook in advance and cook things that can be frozen and reheated for mains and rely on fresh fruit and veg for sides.

3) Keep it clean - So the biggest motivator here is that if there is the littlest bit of food brings ants. So everything has to be clean. Really clean. Like being on hands and knees wiping down the kitchen floor clean.

4) Don't stop moving - There is never any time to stop moving. Ever.

5) A place for everything - It is so much easier to find something if you know where you put it. I never used to be good at putting things away. I always knew the general vicinity where things were, but I never really knew "exactly" where things were. Jojo Poppins always knows exactly where everything is.