Cookie Swap and Birthday Party

Today we had a cookie swap.  24 girls were in Ileana's apartment all afternoon.  There were so many different kinds of cookies and all looked delicious.  Heather was also collecting cookie donations for the Tianjin Craft Fair Bake Sale which will be held tomorrow.  I made Oatmeal Cookies to donate but I did not take cookies for the swap because I did not want a bunch of cookies in the apartment.  I would be the one to end up eating them all. 



Most of the spread.

The rest of the spread.

The girls filling their plates.

Liz, Heather, Carrie, and I all worked together to bag and box up the cookies in packages so they would be ready to sell.  With the 4 of us it didn't take very long.  Heather was very appreciative with how many cookies were donated.

Instead of taking cookies I took Hot Chocolate, Marshmallows, Candy Canes, and Baileys (for those that wanted some).  It was such a hit last year when Sharla and I took it that I decided I would do it again.  It was much easier than baking.  Of course all the girls were excited and drank it. 

LeAnn, Carrie, and Jenni.

Ileana, Megan, Diane, Marina with Maya, and LeAnn.

Annie, Andrea, Rachel, and Me.

Trine, Stine, and Mette.

Nadia, Heather, Luz, and Becky.

The whole gang.

At 2:45 I picked Michelle up and we ran to get the kids.  I also had to bring the Carrasco kids so we had a full van.  After finally getting everyone (Marcela took forever coming out of class) we jumped in the van.  Dropped Michelle and the girls off and then Mr. Xue dropped us off.  He had to head to the Tianjin Airport to get Todd by 4:20. 

Once home I baked a Devil's Food Cake for Cameron's Double Digit Birthday Party.  How do I have a 10 year old?  At 3:30 him and Tobias went outside to wait for everyone else to come. By 4:30 everyone but Alfredo had arrived.  Alfredo came up a short time later.  Ryley, Tobias, Manuel, Alfredo, and Brad were all spending the night.  Cameron made sure to tell us it was a sleep over not a slumber party.  Girls have slumber parties.  Good to know.

They started off with moving chairs, using blankets, and making shields for a NERF war.  They had darts flying all over.  They were having a blast.  They moved on to Wii next.  Some were playing Wii and others were playing with DS's.  They did a great job of trading off.

Ryley and Cameron taped themselves together.

NERF gun war.

All the boys...Cameron, Ryley, Manuel, Tobias, Alfredo, and Brad.

Papa John's delivered 5 large pizza's and it was dinner time.  Marcela, Ainsley, Alejandro, and Ileana came up to eat too.  All 6 of the kids had such great manners.  They all were sitting so nicely and using please and thank you.  I was very impressed with all of them (not really surprised though because they are all great kids).  We had 1 pizza left over so they ate a lot. 

The whole gang eating pizza.

Alfredo, Tobias, and Manuel.

Ryley, Brad, and Cameron.

Ainsley, Marcela, and Alejandro.

Back to playing and the girls went back down to Ileana's.  They all came back up. along with Fredy, 40 minutes later to eat cake and ice cream.   Everyone sang in English. Then all the Mexicans sang in Spanish.  Then everyone sang in Chinese.  It is so fun to hear all the different songs. 

Playing a game.

Cameron was happy with his present of money from Manuel.

More money from Alfredo made Cameron very happy.

All our Mexican friends singing to Cameron.

Cameron blew out the candles one at a time.

Everyone loved the cake and ice cream.

One happy boy.

The girls were so glad they could come up.

Carrasco's stayed to chat for awhile but then took the 3 younger kids back downstairs.  The boys went in Cameron's room and shut the door.  They had the lights off and were using flash lights to have some kind of war.  I'm not sure what all went on.  I was at the door a couple times because they were loud but it was all laughter and Ohh's and Ahh's.  I was just making sure no one was being hurt.  They were having a blast.  After 40 minutes I opened the door and told them they needed to clean up because we were moving on to something else.  Cameron's room was a mess but they cleaned it all up. 

Back around the table to make Ginger Bread Houses.  Boy did they smell good.  I bought kits from IKEA for each of the boys.  I gave them frosting and told them to build.  They did a great job and chatted the whole time.  Todd was the supervisor and helped the boys.  Once they had the houses built we had them go play again so the frosting would dry a little bit.  After 30 minutes they were back to decorate. I had all kinds of candy. 2 of the boys couldn't stop eating it even though I kept telling them to stop. Ryley was just about done when all of a sudden his whole house fell apart. Alfredo had his roof fall off. They put too much of the heavy candy on the roof and it just couldn't hold up.

Making Ginger bread houses.

Todd was a great supervisor and helper.

Such concentration.

Poor Ryley...the whole thing collapsed.

All 6 houses.  1 missing half a roof (Ryley) and 1 fell apart (Alfredo).

This was Cameron's.  Cute snowman and tree.

 

All in all I think they had a lot of fun building them.  They all turned out really good...even the ones that looked like a tornado hit them.  When Manuel was done he said "Wow, this has been a really good party."  Awww, that was nice.  I'm glad they had fun.

We moved the coffee table and the recliner in the living room to make room for air mattresses.  The kids all settled in to watch Cars 2.  They ate popcorn while watching it.  Everyone once in awhile you would hear them messing around but then they would settle down again.  They did that a few different times during the movie.

All the boys found their spot to sleep.

Watching Cars 2 and eating popcorn.

**Manuel and Alfredo gave Cameron his birthday presents.  They both gave him money which he was so excited about.  He wants to buy a Kindle Fire when he gets home and he is getting so close to having enough money.  Brad's mom said she ordered Cameron's present and it was suppose to arrive already but hadn't.  Carrie told me at the cookie swap that they got Cameron a NERF gun in Beijing and they were all excited because they had never seen this one before.  Unfortunately, when the boys came up to play on Tuesday Cameron showed them the NERF gun he got in Hong Kong and it was the exact one Ryley and Tobias got him.  They went home and told Carrie and she couldn't believe it.  She ordered something new for him but it hadn't arrived yet either.  I told her I was sorry.  What are the chances?  Too funny. 

Seriously?

We left for school this morning and when we walked out the door to the apartment building what did I see on the ground?  The coil from Cameron's shower.  Obviously, the guy that came to fix it took the coil, walked out the door, and just dropped it on the ground.  Why on Earth did he not put it in the garbage can?

Who would just throw this on the ground?

Cameron Update

Well since leaving Hong Kong, Cameron has had zero problems swallowing.  Maybe it was just a weird episode or maybe his tonsils were swollen without having a sore throat.  Who knows?  The good news is it has not happened again. 

Extra Pictures of Hong Kong

Some photographs Todd took that weren't put in the blog.

From our room looking over to Kowloon Island.

A very colorful boat.

Little Underpants to go along with Big Underpants in Beijing.

Star Ferry next to a cruise ship.

This guy worked on the ferry.  He was in charge of
putting the plank up and down.

A cloud cut through the building.

Cameron looks so little next next to this big Buddha.

I wonder what happens at this place.

We thought about trying this but changed our minds.  Gross!

Strange

I picked Cameron up from school today and one of his 5th grade friends, Florian, was walking down the steps.  I said hi to him and he stopped to talk.  I said "How are you?"  He said "well, my butt bone hurts."  I said "Excuse me?"  He said "My butt bone hurts because I had to sit on a very hard bench for two hours during the boring winter show practice.  And my knee bone is up."  I'm sure I had the strangest look on my face.  I said "Ok, well I hope your butt stops hurting" as he was walking away.  Cameron and I just started laughing.  What an odd conversation. 

I finally got the blog all caught up.  I also made some oatmeal cookies.  They smelled and tasted so good.  We are having a cookie exchange tomorrow but I am didn't make cookies for that.  I only made them to donate for the bake sale at TIS in Tianjin for Heather.  I am taking hot chocolate instead of cookies. 

Warner Workers

Last night in the shower Cameron was kicking a bar of soap around.  It obviously got slippery and he almost fell.  In the process, he grabbed the shower cord (it's the kind where the coil goes into the faucet then up to a hand held shower head) as he was slipping and it broke off from the shower head.  Water sprayed out.   He yelled for me and when I went in there he showed me what happened.

I sent a message to Serena saying it needed to be replaced immediately.  She said workers would be at my apartment at 9:30 today.  Two guys came at 9:45.  They walked in and I showed them what the problem was.  The one guy immediately said "Oh.  Oh.  No."  He then asked if I had a phone.  I grabbed it and called Serena.  The man chatted with her for awhile and the I got on the phone.  She said they can't fix it.  Duh, that is why I said it needed to be replaced.  She said another guy would be over with a new one sometime.  The two guys did tighten the holder of the shower head so it didn't spin.  That was nice of them.

Before the two guys left the one bent down and touched my floor in the dining room.  He then said "brrrr".  He told me it was too cold in my apartment.  I'm pretty sure they must think I am crazy because I had on capri sweatpants and no socks.  I told them it wasn't cold.  They had on their winter coats and long underwear.  I had to laugh.

At 6:00 the man brought the coil and fixed it in 5 minutes.  Good thing I sat home all day waiting for him.  Oh well, I got the blog all caught up and watched two movies.

76 Weeks

Today marked our 76th Week since our feet landed on China soil.  We have had so many laughs and experiences and I wouldn't change anything. 

Thai Massage

At 12:30 I ran to cold food warehouse. Cameron needed cereal. I also bought hot chocolate for the cookie swap on Friday. Stopped at Nick's Mart to see if they had marshmallows and candy canes. No marshmallows but they had chocolate/mint candy canes. Kind of sounded disgusting but since we use them as stirrers for the hot chocolate they will work. Decided to stop at Times and they had regular candy canes for cheaper than Nick's. Shoot! Bought them too.

At 1:45 I went with Ileana to the Thai Massage place. I have never been but a lot of my friends have and they love it so I thought I would try it. They put us in a room and we had to change in to scrub type clothes. Two bigger girls came in and started. They rubbed, pushed, used there legs and feet to move you and push in ways I didn't even know I could bend. It didn't feel bad though. She told me to roll over on my stomach and she started rubbing and pushing on my back.. Up around my neck made me get the chills and I started laughing. I couldn't help it. The more I laughed the more she rubbed that spot.

Next thing I knew she was standing on me. There was a bar hanging from the ceiling for her to hold onto. She walked up and down my legs which wasn't too bad. But then she was standing on my back and I literally thought she was going to squish me. Picture a lady a little smaller than Todd and that was my girl. I could not wait for this part to be over. I can honestly say it was unpleasant. My back completely cracked but surprisingly not in half.

The last things she did was sat me up, clasped my hands behind my head, and then twisted me side to side. She then put her knees in my back and laid back, completely lifting me off the bed. Of course I started laughing. I was never so happy to have a session be over.

The girls walked out and I told Ileana it was good but asked why they didn't walk on her. She said "come on, look at me, I'm little" and then laughed. I said "I might be bigger than you but that doesn't mean I want someone like Todd walking on me". More laughing.

When it was all said and done I felt good. It was just a little too painful for me. I do not think I will be going back for another Thai massage anytime soon.

In Cameron's back pack last Wednesday there was a note saying he needed to take a pair of jeans and a plaid shirt on Monday to keep at school for the winter show. Thank goodness we bought that pair of jeans and he had a plaid shirt in his closet. Cameron came home from school today and said during math class they had to go into the auditorium and put their outfits on. Then the teacher told each student if their outfit was ok or not. Seriously? I think that is so weird. Then they had to change back to their uniforms and go back to class. Very odd.

Back to Beijing

Up and to breakfast. Cameron asked for hot chocolate.  When the guy was grabbing the container of Cadberry Chocolate mix he dropped the whole thing on the floor and on his shoe.  It made quite a mess.  The guy had to vacuum it all up before he made Cameron's coco.  When he brought it Cameron was bummed because it didn't have marshmallows like it did the night before.  He said it was still good though.

Back to the room and got everything packed and ready to go. We decided we were going to go ride the longest escalators...Plan A. We stopped at the desk to make sure we could do what we planned. Thank goodness we did because the guy told us they were not running until 10:20. It was 8:50. Shoot. Plan B. We walked over to the book store to buy Cameron another book so he had something to read on the plane. It didn't open until 10:30. Plan C. We took the ferry over to Kowloon again to see if the mall had a book store. By the time we waited for the ferry and then rode it over we got to Kowloon at 9:35.

We walked to the mall and found a directory. There were two book stores. We walked to the one by Toys R Us and found out it opened at 10:00. We sat down and waited for 15 minutes. At 10:00 there was no one in sight to even get the door unlocked let alone be ready to open. We walked to the other book store. Cameron found one book he wanted but he kind of wanted a different one that they didn't have. Ugh!

We hurried to the ferry and got there just as it was coming in. Bought our tokens and boarded. Back to Hong Kong Island. We got to the book store at 10:20. It opened right at 10:30. Cameron grabbed the book he wanted (the same one he could have bought at the other store) and I grabbed a Hong Kong ornament. We were in and out in 2 minutes.

Back to the room, hit the bathroom, grabbed our stuff, and went down to get the car to the airport. The ride seemed fast thank goodness because our driver was on the gas, off the gas, on the gas, off the gas. Oh it was making me sick. I was so happy when we got to the airport.

Reading his new book in the car on the way to the airport.

We got our tickets. Found the lounge. Only Todd and Cameron could go in. Poor me. Cameron helped Todd carry in all the bags and then him and I walked around.  We looked in a few shops. There is a ton of shopping in the Hong Kong airport but it is pretty expensive. We grabbed some Ben and Jerry's ice cream and searched the web for a Lego alarm clock he likes. We saw it in Korea but it was too expensive and of course now we can't find it anywhere.

Back to meet up with Todd and we went to our gate to wait to board. On the plane and pretty good seats. We were in the bulk head so at least we could straighten our legs. The two guys next to me quizzed each other about each other the entire way. I wanted to tell them to zip it but I didn't. Seemed like a pretty quick flight which is always good.

Back in Beijing we went through passport control and had to board the tram to go to the different terminal. It was already packed when we squeezed on. 3 more people pushed in and then a huge guy with a huge backpack shoved his way in between me and Todd. His back pack pushed me backwards onto another lady. I almost fell over her luggage. Luckily some people behind us moved to make a little more room so we could all fit. I apologized to the lady even though she knew it wasn't my fault.

We grabbed McDonald's for dinner, hit the bathroom, and went and found Mr. Xue. We had to drop Todd off at the hotel because he had to leave for work in the morning. We continued our way back to TEDA. 

Back at home we showered and headed to bed.  Another great trip.

Lantau Island

Up and to breakfast at 8:00. Cameron had a hard time swallowing again. I'm definitely going to have to have this checked out when we get home. Maybe sooner if it gets worse. It seems to be only when he thinks about it though.  We then jumped in a cab and went to Lantau Island. Todd called the cab driver Emphysema Joe.  He had a weird cough.  As we were driving the cabbie started talking (which we couldn't understand) and pointing at Todd's camera.  He wanted him to take pictures. 

Cool bridge.

Sad when there has to be a no spitting sign.  Luckily, we didn't
see much spitting in Hong Kong.

Lantau Island is twice the size of Hong Kong Island and is one of the best-loved outlying islands. We rode the Ngong Ping cable car to the top. Todd paid extra to have a glass bottom car. It was so foggy that we couldn't see anything part of the time so that was pretty funny. But at least it meant no one could ride with us either way since it also meant private car. The 5.7 km ride took about 20 minutes. We got a good view of the airport. We learned on our tour that the airport grounds represents 1% of Hong Kong. So 100 airports make up Hong Kong. It didn't mean much when Ronald told us but once I could see all of the airport then I could visualize how big Hong Kong was. Kind of cool.

Cameron's foot and my foot with a view of below.

At this point there wasn't much to see but fog.

Looking down below again.

At the top there was a bunch of shops. At first we couldn't even see the Big Buddha and it was chilly and drizzly. We wandered in and out of the shops and made our way to the Big Buddha. We saw a sign that said "no dogs allowed". The funny part of this was there was at least 12 wild dogs roaming around. Todd wanted to try and teach the dogs how to read. They all looked like they were fed but some of their coats looked terrible. Poor dogs.

At the top.

Big Buddha, where are you?

Strange kitty.

The general representing the rooster...Todd and I's
zodiac sign.

The general representing the horse...Cameron's
zodiac sign.

The general representing the dragon...Reece and
Owen's zodiac sign.

The weather had gotten much better. At least we could see Buddha and it had gotten warmer.  There were 250 steps we had to climb to get to the top of Big Buddha. No problem for the Wallace Family. At the top we walked all the way around it and around the inside. We were deciding if we wanted to pay extra to go the extra 23 steps to the top when a lady walked by us, shook her head no, and said it wasn't worth it. Thank you lady. That was nice of her. Saved us some money too.

That is a big Buddha.

Cameron found the Buddha.

Here we go up 250 steps.

Hello Buddha.

I don't think that is the bathroom Cameron. 

About to head back down.

That is a big high five.

Back down the 250 steps. Back on the cable car. Still foggy in spots. And in some spots it was so windy the noise was crazy inside the car and a little chilly. Back at the bottom the line now was HUGE. Todd said if we would have shown up now he would have never waited in the line. Thank goodness we do things early.

Back on the cable car. 

One foot, two foot, three foot, four...

Enjoying a snack.

One of the towers.

Lounging watching the ground go by.

We walked over to the Outlet Mall. We found a map and there were no stores we needed to go to. Again, thank goodness I'm not a shopper. We grabbed some Subway for lunch and ate it in the mall. We then caught a cab to Kowloon.

There we had the cabbie drop us off at Temple Street. It is best known for its night street food but we knew we weren't going to get there at night. We walked up and down the streets. Very Chinese type streets and shopping. I got a coat for $40 Hong Kong dollars...about $6. Love it. I like wandering around streets like these. So much to see and take in.

One of the awesome streets.

Todd wanted street food. We stopped at Aberdeens Fish balls Restaurant. Almost the same name as where we had lunch yesterday but it was nothing like it. We sat at a little table on the side walk. Todd went in the tiny restaurant and ordered Fish balls. When it came it was in a soup. Not quite what he wanted but him and Cameron still ate it and thought it was good. Lots of people walked by and stared at us and the food.

Todd saw this sign and new he had to eat there.

Todd ordering fish balls.

Eating on the sidewalk...cool.

Todd's so happy with his choice.

We continued walking around. Lots more shops and stalls with almost anything you can imagine. We came upon another restaurant on a corner.  It had all kinds of food. Todd ordered hot dogs wrapped in bacon, lobster balls, and jowdza. We walked through more markets waiting for the food to cool. We stopped and ate. Todd said everything was pretty good. I only had the hot dogs and they were good. Cameron had hot dogs and lobster balls. He said they were good. A little bit of a hard time swallowing but at least he ate.

Some of the food at the corner restaurant.

We continued walking until we got to the mall down by the harbor. We hit the Harley Store first. Lots of Harley stuff. We thought about getting my Dad a bathrobe. Go ahead and try to picture that without laughing. Next stop was Toys R Us. We wandered around there quite awhile. It was nice to see a touch of home. Cameron ended up with a Nerf gun. He can't seem to get enough of these. He was very happy. Todd bought a 3d puzzle of Hong Kong and I bought some games in cans. They were cool.

Back to the ferry to take it back to Hong Kong Island. To the room and relaxed for a little bit. We went to the lounge for snacks and drinks. Cameron had the best hot chocolate ever. He read his new Diary of a Wimpy Kid book. At 6:30 we ran back to the room and then went to dinner. We hit The Hop House again (we ate lunch there yesterday). Ordered food to share and Cameron read while waiting for the food. He just can't put the book down. We saw him smiling while reading a few times. He said it was funny.

Cameron's snack plate.  He was waiting for hot chocolate.

He even read in the elevator.

After dinner we rushed back to the room so we could watch the spectacular light show again. This time we were seeing it from the Hong Kong side. At 8:15 we all had the same review...not spectacular.

Cameron showered and continued reading. He finished the book. He was pretty happy and really enjoyed the book. I worked on writing down what we did for the blog because otherwise I would forget. Off to bed. Fun day in Hong Kong.

Behind the couch reading again.