Xian Trip

Land Family Art Day

One of the great things about living in Shanghai is that they have this street with store after store of cheap art supplies. So we can experiment with all kinds of art creations with little money. Yesterday, Ava and I went into one of the shops and she picked out all the canvases and today we did family painting day. Mark only got a drawing done because he was working while we painted. Ava started out making a picture of Poppy (my dad) and then decided to make it a girl and then she said it was a chinese girl. Ella made a butterfly garden. And I tried my hand at pulling together some pictures I liked into one painting. Hope you enjoy the pictures.

Random Photos

Well, we are officially settled in. We've got our daily routines and they aren't much different than in the US. We had a busy time for a while. Ella did a double whammy ER visit one week. First we went because she had some breathing difficulty and we thought she was going to have to be admitted but then they gave her a round of breathing treatments and she cleared up and not 2 days later she fell off a chair and broke her arm. Then Daisy, our dog, got an imbiblical hernia and had to go into surgery and stay at the vet's for 5 days. But we are all better now and like I said, life is as normal as it can be for us.

Ella's 2nd day of school.

Would you believe me if I said I chose the 2nd day to take picture of Ella starting school because she is the 2nd child? Please believe it because I feel like a heel for not taking a camera on the first day. She is loving school. We had a set back because she got sick this week and had to miss a day but overall she is excited to go everyday. And she gets to do big kid things like eat in a cafeteria and go to the library and check out books like Ava.