9 Months old!

 Well Ben turned 9 months old on Thursday May 24, 2012.  I can't believe how fast the time has gone!  He says Dada, Mama & Baba.  He rolls everywhere and can scoot forward a little.  He walks everywhere in his walker and gets into whatever he can.  He has 6 teeth and one more coming really soon!  

 So serious today!

Just thought this was a cute face!

We can't wait to see Benny grow even more everyday, I still can't believe he is almost 1!  

Ben on the move!

Ben on the move! 

 We all need to invest in ankle protectors because he gets going so fast then runs into you!

The other down side is he rolls into the bathroom and kitchen and gets into whatever he can reach, he really likes trash cans.

SCIS End of Year Carnival!

 Yesterday was the SCIS End of Year Carnival.  They had a lot to do for the kids, bouncy horse races, tattoos, nail painting...

 Cotton candy

 A dunk tank (this was Mr. Ginter, Kenzie got him on the first try!)

 Kind of a rainy day!

 Leo & Kenzie watching Mr. Ginter get soaked!

and they had face painting!  

After the Carnival we went shopping and if we didn't already get attention when we went out it was crazy how much more we got with the girls looking like this!  Haha!

Field Trip

 The Pre-K Little Scientists went on a field trip today to The Shanghai Science & Technology Museum.  We had lots of fun exploring!  Our group was Kenzie, Ginevra and myself.  

 In the jungle!

 With Mr. Ginter by some dinosaur bones

 In the Rainbow Room!

 Giant Lite Bright!

Construction Zone!

We had lots of fun learning new things and playing!

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day everyone (a little late)!

Kenzie painted me a jewelry box, Hannah painted me a picture frame and all 3 got me flowers!  

We went out to dinner and had a great day together!  

I hope everyone else had a great day too!

Happy 5th Birthday Kenzie

 I can't believe Kenzie is 5 already!  The last 5 years have flown by so fast.  She is such a big girl!  She can write her name, sound out words and even read a little bit.  She is becoming quite the little artist too!  She loves to draw and color.  And really loves to sing and dance.  We can't wait to watch her grow even more this next year as she starts Kindergarten!

 Today at school we took cupcakes in to celebrate Kenzie's birthday.  Kenzie's class sang Happy Birthday to her in English, Mandarin, Italian & Dutch.  It was really fun to see!

 We got Kenzie a birthday Barbie and she also got a bike.

 We saw these sparkly roses when we went to the flower market and Kenzie of course loved them so Gary stopped to get her some today!

 Such a big girl!

Sisters!!

Happy Birthday to our big girl!  We love you very much!

Xi'an Day 5

 Our last day of vacation.  We climbed the Xi'an City Wall.

 Our tour guide in Xi'an was Summer.

 Hannah on the wall!

 We also visited The Great Mosque.

 Heading home!

Hannah enjoying some light reading while we waited to board our plane.  Even though most of us ended up sick after the vacation we had a great time and got to see a lot of cool things and learn more about some of China's past.  It was a great vacation!

Xi'an Day 4

 On Saturday we took a flight from Beijing to Xi'an, the next stop on our vacation.  In Xi'an they have the Terracotta Army.  They were built by Emperor Qin in about 200 BC to guard his tomb (he was the first Emperor of China).  They were underground, they were discovered by a farmer who was attempting to dig a well in 1974.  They were buried for 2200 years before being discovered.  They we in pieces and have been put back together.

 Each warrior has a different face, none of them are the same.

 There are about 6,000 warriors in this pit, that have been fixed.

 This is how they found them, in pieces.  They said each one took about a year to put back together.

These were the only warriors that were not broken, because they sat lower than the rest of them.

It was amazing to see!  Makes you wonder what else is buried out there!

Beijing Day 3

 On day 3 we went to the Hutong area of the city, it is the oldest part of the city.  This is Prince Gon mansion.

 Prince Gon Garden

 In the garden

 In the garden

 Here is a shrine to Prince Gon, all the red things are tiles that people put wishes on.

 After Prince Gon mansion we went on a rickshaw tour of the Hutong area.

 After the rickshaw tour we went to The Summer Palace

 One of the towers in the Summer Palace

 The Marble Boat in the Summer Palace

 After our day on the town we went for a walk to the night market, where they sell all kinds of weird food!  Here are squid.

 snakes

 the price list for some of the items

 Crickets & silk worms

scorpions.  It was interesting to see but the smell was so bad I couldn't get too close or I was going to lose it!