Rainy Day excitement

We had a very rainy day today. The kids did make it into the pool in the late afternoon despite the rain but overall a day to explore the under cover activities Thomas played on the Wii and the younger kids spent a good 2 1/2 hours making paper lanterns and painting ceramic sculptures. The real excitement came when we came back to the room to get ready for dinner. Thomas asked if anyone else saw the mouse. I thought he was joking until I saw it run across the floor! We called housekeeping who sent up a pest control person immediately. Should I be concerned that there is a pest control person on site 24/7? Anyhow he searched around the room poking a fly swatter into small areas. I was sure we said mouse not fly.....He set two sticky traps. We happily headed out for dinner. Upon our return the kids immediately checked the traps and there he (she?) was! Just hanging our on the sticky trap paper. Sophie wanted to peel his little feet off and keep him as a pet. Noah also voted yes for mouse souvenir. Mom voted no and won. Another phone call to house keeeping brought Mr. Pest Control back. Off Mr. Pest Control went and hopefully that is the last four legged visitor we have.

Lantern Parade

Yesterday 12/26 the resort had a lantern parade where the kids got to carry a lantern throughout the resort looking for Santa. They had to sing Christmas carols to receive little gifts along the way. Sophie led the group at one point in "Rudolph" and they had fun seeing Santa in the sand under the palm trees! The lantern parade reminded us of the rectangular lanterns in Germany that the kids made and sang "Laterna" while walking through our neighborhood in Hofheim. These lanterns were stars (the star of Bethlehem) and the walk was considerably warmer. Fun!

Scuba diving Thomas

Thomas was very anxious to cash in on his Christmas gift from Amma and Bubba (grandparents) of a scuba diving lesson. He went today and loved it so much is already begging to go again before we leave. He took a one day intro to scuba course so he didn't get certified but could still go out for one ocean dive. He watched a safety video and learned hand signals and what to do if you run out of air (surface?!?). They then practiced for awhile in the pool before they went out for about a 30-45 minute dive in the ocean. He loved it and will most likely get to do it again (thank you grandparents!) Sophie and Noah are looking forward to going our on the boat to snorkel and perhaps a bannana boat ride. (Think large inflatable bannana shaped tube which we can all sit on while being pulled through the water at terrifying speeds! Merry Christmas!)

Kid's Lit Quiz

Another overdue post.....

Thomas was part of the Kid Literature Quiz Team this fall at school. The kids were put into groups of four kids to answer trivia questions all based on kid's literature. His team made it to the national competition (held in Shanghai). They competed against 17 other teams from inernational schools from all over Asia (mostly China). Thomas's team came in fifth! (Only the top team got to advance to the interantional finals held in Oxford England this summer! It was a great experience and he really enjoyed it! (Did I mention he was the only boy to compete from SAS?!?) The first photo shows him with his team (Thomas and three Asian girls!) and the other is with the Team leader.

Field trip to Lin Min

So this is one of the posts which is at least a month overdue. In November Noah's first grade class went to visit and bring goodies bags filled with school supplies and little toys to a first grade class at a local migrant school. The official population count of Shanghai is around 17 million people but if you factor in all the migrant workers it is much much higher 25 million by some counts. The migrant workers do not enjoy any benefits that "registered inhabitants" are afforded (housing, education etc). There are migrants schools that are little more than cement shells of buildings where the children of the workers get educated. The school receive no funding so want for a lot! There is a migrant school just down the street from the American school. SAS (Shanghai American School) has somewhat adopted them providing funds for a playground, windows and doors, desks and school supplies. Anyhow Noah's class had a unit on needs vs. wants as part of their social studies curriculum. They ended the unit with a visit to the school. They brought goodies bags filled with some things the kids might need and some things they might want. It was a very interested experience for me as a parent and a teacher. I think it is safe to say it made a bigger impression on me than it did Noah! SAS has 85 first graders divided into 5 classes. Lin Min School has 123 first graders divided into 2!!!! classes. A couple of things really stand out in my memory. First of all how many more boys than girls there were. About 3 to 1 -rough estimate. I know where we are and all but it is the first time I have really noticed it. Secondly as our kids passed out the bags the Lin Ming students sat quietly at their desks (two kids to a desk) and smiled but nobody opened the bags. A few took hold of it but not one child ripped into the bag. I am sure they were told not open them until we left. I am told corrporal punishment is still widely used. Wow! Very interested day. Noah was his usual bubbly self, smiling and trying to pass out as many bags as he could. He tried to sit down next to one little boy. Just another day at another school in his book!

Rock Wall or Diving Rock?

So the big question we have to answer every morning is do we start off with the diving rock or climbing the rock wall? The diving rock seems to win most days. I am including some photos of Sophie and Jon on the rock wall. The 145 pound Phillipino man holding the rope took one look at Jon and said "Maybe you can climb down too?" I think he was afraid of going for a ride if Jon rapelled (?) down. I am taking the photos. Maybe you can see me on the wall next time (or maybe not!)

The kids are working on perfecting their cannon balls. Noah has great form but for obvious reasons Thomas has the biggest splash! They tried a group cannon ball but it lost some of its form. Again I am holding the camera so no cannon balls for me!

We are truly enjoying a wonderful family vacation! Merry Christmas!!! (Santa did find our hotel room and managed to fill their stockings to the over-flowing point. I hope Santa was good to all of you!

Finally another post

WEll I am not sure if anybody is still checking our site since it has been soooo long since I have posted anything but my New Year's Resolution is to be better with this blog thing! I will start a little early! WE are currently on Cebu Island in the Phillippines for Christmas vacation. We decided to trade in snow and ice for sun and sand this year. (Although we were having neither snow nor ice in Shanghai!) Cebu is beautiful and the kids have spent the last two days in the pools. (There are somewhere around 7 or 8 to choose from!) I think we will be well water logged by vacations end. Here are a few photos and then I will try to catch up on some of our going ons since mid October! There have been a few.....