August Activities

Another month gone and I’m still about that much behind! 

Right after we returned from the States, Jade was asked to do a model shoot.  It was her first in HK and probably the most fun one she has ever done.  She was modeling kid swimming pools with two other girls about her age.  It just seemed like a really fun play date.  Even Ridge was able to play in one of the car pools!  Jade did great and they asked her back again, but unfortunately we had other plans that day. 

  

I have felt a little bit of an obligation to make sure the kids still have lots of fun activities so Jade doesn’t hate her life in HK after having so many great things to do in Utah.  She has made several comments about wanting to live in Utah, that Hong Kong is ugly and Utah is beautiful, she wants to see her Grandmas everyday, she wants to live in a house so she doesn’t have to ride in an elevator, etc.  One Sunday we were riding the bus home from church.  We rode passed the harbor and Jade exclaimed, “Beautiful!”  Then she thought for a minute and said, “Okay Hong Kong is a little bit beautiful, but I still want to live in Utah.”  Now that over a month has gone by, the comments have diminished a bit. 

We’ve swam in the pool in our building a couple times.  The kids are both loving the water and their new floating gear (thanks for the tips, Erin)!

Jade gave her first talk in primary.  Apparently Cody snuck a picture.  I didn’t know it until I was going through the August pictures for this post. 

Jade’s passport expires when she turns five in April, but some countries won’t accept it if it is within six months of its expiration date.  We have a couple trips coming up and didn’t want any trouble, so we needed to get her a new one.  All was good until I got the photos back and she had some new ears.  I had to take them back and inform the shop that US passport photos do not require ears to show like they thought.  What I didn’t tell them is the requirements specifically state NO PHOTO EDITING!  I swear.  Only in Asia.  Gave us a good laugh anyway. 

 

Jade created a cookie stand to make a little money.  She was selling lemon, tomato, parsnip, and mushroom flavored cookies—a dollar a piece.  She would even add frosting and sprinkles!  And actually, those flavors don’t seem that strange for HK.  Just the other day I saw an ad for walnut and beef jerky moon cakes.  Jade’s stuffed animals had to line up to buy the cookies, and then she made me get in the very back of the long line to get mine!  Apparently no special privileges for mom. 

Our friends, the Tai’s, hosted a swim party at their apartment pool.  The kids were in heaven, of course.  The Tai kids are so cute with baby Ridge.  They love him and give him lots of attention!  They all wanted to hang on his raft and take him around the pool. Ridge was pretty entertained by all the action around him.    

The week of our 8th wedding anniversary we all caught some sort of 24-hour flu virus, one day after another.  Ridge had it first on Wednesday morning (the below left pic is my sad baby wanting to lay around instead of playing), Jade Wednesday to Thursday, me Thursday to Friday, and Cody Friday to Saturday.  Saturday happened to be our anniversary and Cody was sick in bed all day.  I’m not going to lie, I was devastated!!  I had finally gotten to the point of being comfortable and ready to leave Ridge with a babysitter and we had an afternoon/evening planned out starting at 3 p.m.  You can also imagine how ready I was to get out of the house alone with my husband after being home with sick kids all week!  But it was not to be.   I couldn’t help but break down into tears as I was home doing chores with a pair of grumpy children at my feet while Cody tried to recover.  Not really the anniversary I was anticipating.  We planned something else for the next weekend and had a lovely dinner at Top Deck on the roof of the internationally renowned tourist attraction, the Jumbo Floating Restaurant.  The food was amazing, the company even better. 

 

 

During the last week in August--just before school started--we met up with a few friends at the Hong Kong Science Museum.  For some reason I was thinking it would be a typical museum with a small kids area, but the whole thing was interactive and geared toward children!  The kids loved it.  Even Ridge had a blast crawling and climbing around in the giant building blocks!