Shanghai Ocean Aquarium

 We went to the Shanghai Ocean Aquarium on Thursday January 26, 2012.  We took a metro train to the aquarium.  The aqaurium is right next to the pearl tower in the heart of Shanghai.

 A lot of the Chinese families wanted their picture taken with the girls (Hannah was less than thrilled about this)

 Checking out the fish with daddy!

 See what I mean!  Here is another family.  We had a bunch more too!

 It was feeding time for some of the fish

 Freshwater sawfish

 They actually liked each other today!

 Burrr...it is cold!

 Cheese!

 In the shark tunnel

The pearl tower at night.  After we came out of the aquarium it was dinner time so we walked over to the Super Brand Mall to have dinner before taking the subway back home.  We had lots of fun seeing all the cool fish!

Yuyuan Gardens

 Today we took a taxi to Yuyuan Gardens.  They had little shops and a garden.  It is they only old Chinese buildings in Shanghai.  It was so busy.  We had to push our way through the crowd in order to get to the gardens.  We were like a moving tourist attraction, all the Chinese people would stop and check out the kids and take pictures of them.  I'm sure we would have gotten a lot more people checking them out if they didn't have hats on.  It was pretty crazy!

 2 grumpy kids!  Kenzie didn't want her picture taken!

This week they are celebrating the New Year so everything was decorated.

Kerry Parkside Mall

 Yesterday we took the Metro Subway to go to Kerry Parkside Mall.  It was our first time riding the subway.  The girls thought it was pretty cool.

 Hannah shrunk!

 So did Kenzie!

 Kenzie & Hannah posing for me!

 Kenzie, Hannah & Ben

Hannah wanted her picture taken with this panda bear!

5 Months old!

 Ben turned 5 months old yesterday.  He is growing so fast.  He started eating cereal and really likes it.  He is also really close to rolling over he gets his bottom half flipped over but has not figured out how to move his arm out of the way!  I'm sure it won't be long before he gets it.  He loves his toys and loves to watch his big sisters, he thinks they are pretty funny!

Xin nian kuai le! (Happy New Year)

Happy Year of the Dragon!!  Today is the Chinese New Year!  They really celebrate in style we have been seeing fireworks go off around the city for the past couple days, but nothing compared to last night at midnight!  It sounded like we were in a war zone, and the kids slept right through it!  People were lighting off fireworks in the street right by our apartment so they would go off right in our window (we've never been eye level to fireworks)!  The video was taken from our bedroom window!  You can kind of see in the distance all of the other fireworks going off, no matter what window you looked out last night you could see fireworks going off! (We have been told that the fireworks last for about 10 days)  It was crazy!  It was definitely something to see, but I think next year we will go somewhere for the New Year!
(I couldn't get my video to post I will try again tomorrow)

Our view!

 The view from our living room balcony!

The view from our kitchen balcony!

Ben's first taste of food

 We started Ben on cereal on January 15, 2012.  He wasn't too sure about it at first but I think he really liked it!

 Our highchair hasn't arrived yet so we had to feed him on the couch!

Mmmm...that was pretty good!

Our new home!

 Our new place!  Here is the view when you walk in the front door.

 Our kitchen

 The living room

 The dining room

 Master bath

 Master bedroom

 The girls room

and Ben's room!  We like our new apartment it is actually pretty roomy and has a lot of storage space.  Although I know a lot of that will be used up as soon as our other stuff arrives (hopefully by the end of January). 

Kenzie's first day at SCIS

 Kenzie started school at Shanghai Community International School (SCIS) on Monday January 9, 2012.  She has to waer a uniform to school and she goes 5 days a week from 8:30-3:00.  She rides a bus to school.

 There are 15 kids in Kenzie's class from all over the world. 

Kenzie's teacher is Mr. Ginter and the assistant teacher is Miss Yang (she teaches the kids Mandarin).   The kids are learning about Chinese New Year.  Kenzie was a little sad the first day of school but her teacher talked her through it, by the end of the week Kenzie was loving school again!