Mason turns 5!

Mason is 5 and celebrating in Shanghai.  It is cool that he is discovering the city I where I was born.  I was a little younger than 5 when I left Shanghai in 1979. 

Fun activities with Audrey

I've kept Audrey and I busy this weekend. After picking her up from school on Friday, we went to a carnival setup a few miles North from us. To my surprise, there were a lot more kiddie rides than expected. Some, I had to go with her and pay for my ride as well. All in all, we spent $40 and I was ready to puke from the round and round kiddie rides. But Audrey had fun and at least it wasn't too crowded. I have to say that the folks running the rides look like the most miserable bunch - not really the Disney friendly and clean type.

On Saturday, after her gymnastics class, we went to visit aunt Heather and aunt Jamie. It was a very hot day (100 degrees), so we spent all our time indoors. Aunt Heater has a kiln and pottery painting setup in her basement. Audrey and I enjoyed painting some pottery, which I told Heather she is welcome to wash after we left. :-)

I've been promising Audrey that I'd take her to the zoo. But the weather has been so hot. Sunday was supposed to be cooler, although the high ended up higher than Saturday (101). The only way a zoo visit was possible was to go first thing in the morning. We arrived just before 9 when the zoo opened and left just before 11. It wasn't a bad visit since it was empty and it didn't feel hot until we were about to leave. As members it doesn't cost us anything and we don't feel we need to see everything every visit. We did want to see the new elephant Asian area that has been in the works for the past 2 years. It was nice, but not as grand as the expectations all the publicity has set. The heat may have also played a factor, since that is the last area we saw.

We have been talking to Bill and Mason daily through FaceTime. Bill is now setup with a 3G mobile hotspot, and he can connect from pretty much anywhere (even in their moving vehicle) The quality is better than Skype. It is awesome!

I will let Bill blog and post pictures from his trip (if he is able to from China). He has access to FB through a special VPN or through his home computer in the US. I've had to rely news highlights, since he has not access to CNN. Welcome to the People's Republic! But so far they have had a great trip, including visits to the Shanghai zoo to see the pandas, go on not so safe kiddie rides, Nanjing road, the circus (where Bill was selected to join the show being the only white guy in the audience).

Boys in China

Mason and Bill left for China on Wednesday morning. They got there safely after the 17-hour journey from Denver and are well. Mason slept half of the flight from LA to Shanghai and was a great traveler, but Bill couldn't sleep well with Mason sleeping half on his lap.  Bill says that once they got there, Mason said "That was a long, long, loooooooong ride".  

We been talking via Skype daily, even did some texting (Bill got a local SIM card for an unlocked iPhone).  Love the new technology that keep us all connected.

Audrey seems fine being just the two of us, although the drop off at the airport was hard. She wanted to go with Daddy inside of the airport versus the curbside drop off.  But after that, she was fine. She would say to me "Daddy and Mason are in China, do we need to eat by ourselves."  We have little activities around town planned (zoo, shopping, maybe visiting some friends)

I sure miss Mason and Bill already. I've been away many times for work and Bill has been away too, but the knowledge of the distance between us makes me miss them more. I'm excited for the experiences Mason will have, but also anxious that he will be OK.

For now, I am cherishing my alone time with my little girl.  I am sure the 2 weeks will fly by.

Father's Day

Bill spent the morning building one of the LEGO sets Mason got for his birthday (with Bill having as much fun or more than Mason). For lunch we went to Fogo de Chao (our favorite Brazilian BBQ). Although it is expensive, kids 5 and under eat free, so it is perfect for us. It was a great time.

Mason's Birthday Party

Since Mason will be in China on his 5th birthday, we had a party for him this weekend.  We had the party at a gymnastic place where 2 other kids in his class had already had their birthdays.  They bring in huge inflatables and host birthday parties on the weekends.  The best thing is that they take care everything, from invitations, decorations, pizza to goody bags.  All we had to bring was the cake.  It made it very relaxing, since we are preparing for Bill and Mason's trip (they leave Wednesday morning).

From L to R - Kyle, Emerson, Carly, Chloe, Mason, Elizabeth, Maddie, Gavyn, Josie, Jackson, and Audrey.

Garage sale

We had a neighborhood garage sale this Friday and Saturday. We've never had one before, but sure had a lot of junk we hoped it could become someone else's treasure.

I got organized, catalog all the items on a spreadsheet and researched their value new on Amazon. Bill got us a square credit card reader for the iphone, so we could accept credit cards. We got all the items ready on Thursday and on Friday, I worked from the garage.

I didn't expect the old lawnmower that we haven't turned on in 3 years to be the first item to sell. The baby stuff (what I have left after giving most of it away) didn't sell as well as I had expected.

Our neighbors (Dave and Laurie) brought some of their stuff to sell. Next year they will man the garage sale for us.

Overall, it was a lot of work, but worth it. Staying inside the cool garage was a good choice since the temp outside reached 95 degrees! I love getting rid of our old stuff, and making $285 is fantastic! ($60 of that via CC) Some left over items are going to the donation box, and others back to the basement.

Part 2 of Trip to GA

For the second half of our trip, we went to see Yaya and Mimi in Gainesville.  We played on the lake, pool, and the golfcart is always a hit with the kids.  We also got a sitter and had a lovely dinner at the country club.



Yaya is finally retiring (his second attempt, since he retired a few years ago, but then decided to go back to work again).  Many folks in the Harbour Pointe community are patients of his, so they wanted to throw him a retirement party.  He was clueless up to the point we took a wrong turn (we told him we were going to the playground, but turned right to the gazebo).  He was surprised.

Sandra had a great saying about retirement "twice the husband, half the money!"

Sandra and Brantley leave for China next week and will meet up with Bill and Mason and my parents in Shanghai!  My parents just left for China to get things ready on Wednesday morning.  They got upgraded to Business class on their United flight from LA to Shanghai - so lucky!  My Dad's comment on the only negative part of being upgraded - "You Mom gets nervous on take off and landing, but in Business class she couldn't reach my arm to grab on!"

Our trip to Atlanta

We planned our trip to Atlanta early this year over Memorial weekend because of Bill and Mason's trip to China in June and because Mason is starting Kindergarden in August.  We spent the first 5 days in Atlanta with Nai Nai (Helen) and GrandPa Jack.  It was a great and relaxing time.  The kids are not high maintenance any more: walking/talking, potty trained, no special dietary needs, their schedules are very flexible and adjustable to ours.  In fact, after arriving in Atlanta, we saw less of the kids than Nai Nai and GrandPa Jack.  They took them to a puppet Peter Pan show, bought a tadpole for the pond, and watched the kids as we spent time with our friends.  It was wonderful and relaxing!

My cousin Diana and her husband John came to Atlanta as well.  It was great to spend time with them and have them know the kids better.  Unfortunately Diana got a cold during the trip and had to cancel some of the activities planned, like the Braves game.

We went to the Georgia Aquarium (I will never get sick of that place).  Legoland was much less exciting than expected, and much less fun that the LEGO Kid Fest we went to a few weeks ago.

OUR FOOD ADVENTURES...
We got to enjoy some great food in Atlanta.  Joined by Shawn (Bill's sister) & Lena, Maress & Matt, Diana and John, we had a wonderful 5 course dinner at Woodfire Grill from Chef Kevin Gillespie.  It was a fantastic evening in a private dinning room.  My cheek muscles were sore from all the laughing that evening.  All 8 of us arrived at the restaurant after drinks at Helen & Jack's all in our rental car (a Ford Flex with 3 rows of seats).  I am sure we looked like a clown car. 

On Sunday, we had lunch at Flip Burger from top chef Richard Blais and joined Lena for her last salad before her 4-week trip to India on a program with the Dali Lama - read about on Lena's blog. 

We got to experience the gourmet food trucks down the street from H&J's.  Although cities like LA, SF, NY have had the gourmet food trucks for a while, it is relatively new for Atlanta because of licensing and parking restrictions.  The site of an old hotel that got torn down on Howell Mill and I-75 got converted into a gourmet food truck stop.  Bill and I went there Saturday and it was great, with lots of selection.  The remaining days didn't have as many trucks.  One of the trucks Saturday (Hankook Taqueria) also had a restaurant down the street where we went to for lunch.

We also got a sitter on Tuesday night and celebrated Mary and Helen's birthdays at 4th and Swift.  It was a great evening.

In addition, Jack always prepares great food for us and grilled a fantastic spread in his Big Green Egg.  To counter all the food we ate, Bill and I went to the local Workout Anytime gym and ran on the beautiful Beltline trail by Bobby Jones golf course.  Thankfully, it wasn't too hot that morning.

We can't wait to go back and try other restaurants we didn't get to go to this time.

M&M's

Audrey loves M&M's, geez I wonder who she got that from. We used it as bribery when she was getting potty trained. One for pee and two for poop :-). Every once in a while, she will still ask for M&Ms after going to the bathroom. And we try to explain to her that she doesn't get M&Ms since she is a big girl and potty trained for a long time now. She is very clever and asks Gong Gong when he comes over. Grandparents fall for the candy trap easier than the parents. She asked Gong Gong the other day for one M&M, Gong Gong said OK, but you have to give me a kiss first. She leans over and smacks three kisses on his cheek and says "I want 3 M&M's".