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Permalink Eleri is 3! She is growing so fast. We had a family birthday party to celebrate her special day. A summer birthday makes it easy to celebrate at home.
The family favorite with a number 3.
Emersyn loved being the server for the party.
Gift opening is VERY important when you are three!
Aunt Nancy made a dress for Emersyn’s American Doll, Niki. She made a mathcing dress for a new baby doll for Eleri.
After dinner, it was cake time. By the time we were ready for cake, it was dark. Eleri was still all smiles blowing out her candles…with a little help from big sister.
She had to test my cake to make sure it was good!
The smile says it all.
Average Rating: 4.5 out of 5 based on 277 user reviews.
Permalink 
For Emersyn’s 7th birthday party, she wanted a fairy party in the garden. After a shop at YuYang Gardens, I had wings for each of the seven girls. Emersyn wanted me to be a fairy so I put on my fancy dress and some wings from the dress-up bin.
Eleri was more than thrilled to be a fairy at the party.
We played “Pin the wings on the Fairy”. Based on the wing pinning winner, the girls were able to choose their own wings. I had a variety of colors for the girls to choose for their wings.
The fairies with their new wings were all smiles.
 Jonvie, Kate, Emersyn, Samantha, Pria, Helen and Mimi
Pizza time for the fairies.
 Mimi, Emersyn & Kate
Cake and ice cream time!
One messy little fairy – but adorable!
The fairies made fairy masks. I found all kinds of beads to glue to the masks at YuYang Gardens. Jim cut the mask and attached the string.
Then, it was time to go out to the gardens for our treasure hunt. The girls each received a clue to take them to various spot in the gardens. We divided them into two teams and sent them in different directions. Once they found the clue, the girls would come back to “main base” where they must complete a task to receive the next clue and a prize.
The clue locations around the gardens were at these various landmarks:
 Dancing girls – make a dance and receive a butterfly
 Sand Trap – complete a word find to receive a necklace
 Water birds – make a song to receive a zoo clip
 Round Pavilion – toss rings to receive a head band
 Pool Hut – Charades to receive a dog keychain
 Pria, Kate, Emerysn & Mimi making a dance
Garden play time!
Emersyn first birthday party in Shanghai was filled with new friends and new fun.
Average Rating: 4.7 out of 5 based on 189 user reviews.
Permalink Spring Break and the family is ready for a beach holiday after a long Shanghai winter. We decided to go to Phuket, Thailand. The last time we visit the beaches of Phuket, Emersyn was three years old. The Szatkowski Family would be at Phuket, also. We decided to try the JW Marriott Resort as we have heard great things about this resort.
This resort did not disappoint this crew. From the entrance of lobby to the rooms, we were greeted to a first class resort.
The best part of this resort was the pool with the slide. The children’s pool has a slide which lands in the shallow part of the water. There are umbrellas all around the pool for parents to have a close watch with sun protection.
Jim and I stop in duty free in Bangkok to purchase alcohol as we know from prior trips that any kind of alcohol drinks will be expensive. We thought tequila would be the best choice to find “something” to mix with it. The resort has a deli/grocery store. We were able to find a lemon drink to make “poorman margaritas”, as Jimmer called them.
It didn’t take Eleri long before she wanted to go alone.
The tubes made the slide faster and more fun around the pool.
About three times a day, the staff hands out ice lollies for the children. It is a nice, cool treat for them.
The beach is a fun place to play in the sand. However, the waves are too strong for the children to go in alone. They stayed close to the edge.
We took a day off resort to enjoy the John Gray tour.
We signed up for the ‘Hong by Starlight’ tour. A hong is a sea cave (sea caves formed by the tidal motion eroding the limestone)
The trip will be in the Phang Nga Bay’s hongs in a kayak paddled by a guide. The boat departs in the early afternoon. Once we were on the boat, we enjoyed a good Thai lunch of soup, noodles, spring rolls, Thai chicken, salad and fruit. It is about 45 minutes to the Phang Nga Bay.
 Jack, Sam & Emmy
Once we arrive at Phang Nga Bay’s hongs we loaded into the kayaks. Getting into the hongs, the guides paddle through a dark cavern while guests handle flashlight duties. Both girls enjoyed this job, especially Eleri. Depending on the tide, the space between the water and ceiling can be cosy. We would lie flat in the kayak to pass through the cave.
We visit three different caves. Two were named Diamond Cave and Bat Cave – the names are telling in themselves. The Diamond cave was beautiful with sparkles all over the ceiling. The Bat Cave was very smelly with small bats sleeping at the very top.
A hong is a chamber in a karst island’s interior, cave-like but roofless, round in shape, with high vertical walls. The dense vegetation paints every surface green. Trees sprout from the cliffs to create a beautiful, peaceful chamber.
 Jimmer, Jack, Sam & Betty
Waiting for sunset, Emersyn, Sam, Jimmer and Jim had fun jumping and swimming off the back of the boat.
After the swimming fun, it was time to make floating Kratongs. Loy Krathong is a beautiful Thai festival. Small floating decorations are set adrift en masse as a sign of new beginnings and for good luck. Our kayak guide shows Emersyn how to make the krathong, explaining each element as it is pinned to the banana stalk base: banana leaves for decoration, marigolds for prosperity, one incense stick each for Buddha, monks, and candles for health and happiness.
At sunset, we set out in the kayaks into a hong chamber. Because of the tide, we must lie very flat to get through the cave. Once in the chamber, we light the candles to set them floating. The cave also has glow plankinton. When you run your hands through the water, the water glows from the plankinton. After the floating kratongs, it is time to get back to the boat for our journey home. It was after 10pm when we arrived back to the hotel with two very tired girls.
After a long adventure day, the girls enjoyed more beach fun.
We enjoyed a dinner and Sunset at Ginja Restaurant at the resort. This is our favorite Thai food.
Sunset fire lighting ceremony is held in the Reflection Pond
It was a fun beach holiday shared with good friends, the Szartkowski family.
Average Rating: 4.4 out of 5 based on 273 user reviews.
Permalink At Concordia this week, it has been book week. The librarian, Kim Gertz, has organized a fun week for the students. The last day of book week is a book character parade. Mimi and Emmy decided to go as a theme to Angelina Ballerina. Mimi will be Angelina and Emmy will be her best friend, Alice. Alice always wears green while Angelina wears pink. This is an easy costume since Emmy has her tap dancing uniform from DMR in Hong Kong which happens to be green.
We had fun getting our little mouse ready for school for the book character parade.
The parade was held outside the ES building which is a parking lot the buses use to pick up the students. The parking lot is between the ES building (a temporary building) and the middle school.
The terrific trio, Mimi, Emmy and Kate, waiting for their turn to parade around the circle. Kate is the character D.W. from the Arthur books.
Mimi, Emmy and Kate with their teacher, Ms Poppell. Ms Poppell is Snow White.
A few of the “dwarf” teachers enjoying the parade.
Angelina Mimi and Alice Emmy together.
Ms Poppell/Snow White lead her 1st grade class around the parade circle. They were so cute!
After all the ES classes had paraded around the circle, we went into the MS building commons. Ms Gertz had a stage set up for more entertainment. The teachers put on a skit for the children. It was very well done. If I had known about the extra entertainment, I would have brought a video camera.
Book week was a fun week for Emersyn. It is exciting to see the school make learning such an event!
Average Rating: 4.5 out of 5 based on 260 user reviews.
Permalink Aunt Terri is in town for a two week visit and we decided to embark on our first “road trip” out of Shanghai. We drove to Wuzhen, one of the preserved river towns in Zhejiang province, south of Shanghai.Â
Our driver, Mr. Nie, told us it would be an hour and a half drive…we finally arrived two and a half hours later. Good thing Brenda had backed enough snacks and entertainment for the kids to survive a 14 hour plane ride.
There are two sections of Wuzhen, the old – where people are still living in the houses, and the new – a bit of a re-creation with a hotel and restaurants.
Upon arrival, we started with a visit to the old section. The crowds were bustling – it was impossible to count the number of tour group flags with loads of mostly Chinese tour groups following closely behind.
We immediately jumped into one of the small boats that tour up and down the canals. Venice of the east? – Not quite. As we started our water journey, we felt like we we were movie stars. People along the canal banks were taking our photos – I never felt so handsome.
As we disembarked from the boat, my bubble was burst – it wasn’t me, it was the girls thay all wanted pictures of. The paparazzi were going wild. We struggled to make our way down the crowded lanes – blinded by the flashes of cameras. Had we charged 10 RMB per photo taken, we could have paid for the girls college education.
Emmy and Eleri were good sports about it. They were very agreeable to take a picture with someone if they asked. At times, Eleri found it to be a game of hide and seek as people tried to take her picture. The only problem for us is that the girls were “pictured out” and would not stay still for any of our photos.
 Mr. Nie, our driver, with the girls
The girls enjoyed the honey/sugar coated strawberries. The food was a winner for their first try at this treat.
Lunch was a bit of an experience. With all the crowds and tour groups, finding a restaurant with an open seat was a challenge. But, Mr. Nie came to the rescue. Our driver has joined us for the day, and with his driven persistance, we had a nice quite private room in a restaurant. He also did all the ordering as the menu was strictly Chinese. We had a nice lunch of mifan (steamed rice), zhurou (pork), niurou (beef), shucai (vegetables), jiaozi (dumplings) and zhuzi (bamboo).  Everyone ate well – and to our surprise, Aunt Terri’s favorite was the bamboo.
After lunch and a bit of shopping, we headed to the new section of Wuzhen. What a difference! No crowds, everything better kept up – in a way it was like being in Disneyland – where everything was is just the right place. They have done a fabulous job with the re-creation, but it lacks the life, the pulse of vitality of the original as local people do not live there – it is strictly a tourist spot.
The girls had a go at the old ways of doing chores.
Sisters!
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Average Rating: 4.6 out of 5 based on 252 user reviews.
Permalink Emersyn joined girl scouts for the first time at Concordia. The Concordia Girl Scout program is very popular. Emmy enjoys the meetings that are held every other Wednesday from 3:20pm to 5:00pm at the school. The highlight of being a girl scout is the Daddy Daughter Dance. This year the theme was a 50’s dance.
Now, the fun begins with describing the poodle skirt to the Chinese tailors at the fabric market. The fabric market is where you get anything and everything made. You take in any picture or article of clothing to have it copied. The tailors take your measurements and make it to fit. The only problem is they measure exactly to your body with no wiggle room. Over time, I have learned to ask for bigger, “daâ€. I went with Kathleen, Mimi’s Mom, in search of the perfect fabric. Well, it is China, so we would look for the fabric that would be most similar with the right look – velour material was it. The real challenge of the skirt was the poodle patch. There was no time to get one from the States. However, Emmy and I were going to Hong Kong before the dance with hopes to find one there. And, I did. I found a pair of pants with the perfect poodle embroidered on the bottom of the leg. I purchased a pair of pants for us and one for Mimi. We cut the poodle off the leg. I had the pants hemmed into crop pants. I also had a skirt made for Elle. However, Elle’s was a butterfly 50’s skirt. Butterfly patches could be found to put on the dress.
Emmy enjoyed getting all dressed up for the dance.
 Twirl factor!
Emmy was all dressed for a night out and Elle was all dressed to go to bed.
Jim also enjoyed the dance. He said the girls had fun running around, dancing and being silly. The dads enjoyed the beer that was served – (Something that never would happen in the USA)!
 Mimi, Kate & Emersyn at the dance
Average Rating: 4.5 out of 5 based on 185 user reviews.
Permalink This is our first Chinese New Year (CNY) in China. Once you live in China, you begin to learn your Chinese animal calendar. The pig is everywhere. A big pig in front of the grocery store, a pig at our entrance, pigs at every corner. It reminds me of the children’s book, “Pigs a plenty, pigs galore”. That would describe Shanghai as we begin the New Year.
Chinese New Year Celebration began at Emmy’s school, Concordia. I took Elle with me to watch the performance.
 Mimi, Elle & Emmy
We decided to stay in Shanghai over the break. Emmy and Jim have the week off from school/work. It was interesting to hear all the fireworks ALL the time. The fireworks are set off to bring good luck and send away bad spirits. There are certain nights that are more important and require more fireworks. We watch the fireworks over the pearl tower from our kitchen window.
We had a fun Chinese New Year week. Most people leave for a week in the sun. However, this year, it seems most of our friends stayed. We were just playing at Yanlord instead of a beach. On Sunday, we went to the Westin brunch. This a big brunch with entertainment and free flowing drinks. We started at 11:00am and left at 4:00pm. There is a kid’s room with an ayi for the kids to play. Judith and I have the youngest children, both at the age of 2 ½. We needed to check on our little ones or see them walking back to the table to find us, therefore, we had requested a table close to the room. Upon leaving, the boys of the group decided to go for more beer. The ladies left with the children. We moved the ladies party back to our home. Judith, Betty and I sat in the kitchen talking, laughing and drinking. The children, all 6 of them, ran free in the house. When the boys came home, the house was destroyed. We went to bed as the mess would be there in the morning. A fun day spent with friends.
 Elle eating ice cream at brunch
 Jack & Elle in the Secrit Club house – destroyed
We enjoyed another dragon performance at Xintiandi along with dumplings and noodles at our favorite place.
We had beautiful weather for some family time in our gardens at Yanlord. The girls enjoyed riding their bikes around the pathways of Yanlord.
Our first Chinese New Year in China was a fun week spent with friends and family in Shanghai.
Average Rating: 5 out of 5 based on 263 user reviews.
Permalink Emersyn’s best buddy, Angus, in Hong Kong is moving back to Australia. I decided Emmy and I would go to Hong Kong for a long weekend to say good-bye to our friends. We meet Vanessa and Angus the first week of school at the Sunshine House. Emmy and Angus have been friends since that first week. They were in the same class at the Sunshine House, DMK and Bauhinia.
 Emmy & Angus
 Emmy, Angus & Jemima
This is one of my favorite photos taken in September 2003 of Angus, Emmy and Jemima, Angus’s little sister.
Vanessa and Leah live next door to each other. The kids cross over the fence in the back yard. Emersyn had a blast playing with her old buddies.
 Emmy, Angus & Csoban
It was Kaitlyn’s birthday party this weekend. Emmy was able to join the fun to celebrate Kaityln’s birthday at the Disneyland Hotel for lunch.
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 Kaitlyn, Emmy & Grace
Emersyn and I had a fabulous weekend hanging with our dear friends. We enjoyed hanging in the Plaza just like old times.
Average Rating: 4.8 out of 5 based on 256 user reviews.
Permalink One last outing for the family before the Lyon Four get on a plane back to Shanghai. We took the girls to Moscone Center in San Francisco. The girls love to ride the carousal.
After lunch, we went ice skating. Emersyn was having fun showing us what she has learned at lessons. The rink had skates small enough for Eleri. She had fun being on the ice. It took two adults for her “skate”. Grandma & Grandpa enjoyed watching the girls on the ice.
Average Rating: 4.4 out of 5 based on 222 user reviews.
Permalink After the New Year Holiday, we went to Tahoe for a little fun in the snow. Grandma, Grandpa and Terri joined us for our Tahoe Adventure. As soon as we arrived, the girls jumped out of the car to play in the snow.
The girls wanted to go sledding. Jim got the snowshoes out of the garage to make the sled run while we unpacked the car. The day light would be gone soon.
The advantages of being small is a ride UP hill.
Elle on the ski slopes…she is cute, but it isn’t very fun to watch your sister have all the fun. Besides trying to eat with those gloves on slowed her down! She spent the morning on the slopes with the family. Grandma and Grandpa took her home for a nap.
We ski Homewood Resort for various reasons – it is a smaller resort – it is cheaper – it is family friendly – it is close to the house – it has a great view of the Lake.
This is Emersyn’s second time on the slopes. She skied for the first time at age four, but we missed aged five due to bad weather.
She spent the morning on the bunny hill with Jim getting used to the skiing again.
She mastered the pole lift in to time. It does take a little talent as you have to stand and not sit down on it.
By late morning, she was ready to attack the “real” slopes.
Jim, Terri and I enjoyed an afternoon on the slopes of Homewood.
 Emmy, Jim & Terri
 Emmy, Jim & Brenda
 Emmy with the beautiful lake view
It was a beautiful day – just my kind of skiing. We had lunch outside on the deck.
 Oreos
Average Rating: 4.9 out of 5 based on 232 user reviews.
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