First Day of School!

By the end of August, the kids were ready to go back to school.  Charlotte loves learning.  She loves school and really misses her friends.  She couldn't wait to start Year 1.  She moves to the "big school" this year and was so excited.

Charlotte is so excited she gets to wear a dress this year!

Tommy doesn't get as excited about going to school.  He doesn't understand why he can't just stay home and play video games and legos all day.  This year, he was looking forward to starting school though because for the first time he has a male teacher.  He is interested to see "what that is like".

After sleeping in a little this summer, I had been worried about them getting up for school on time.  They are supposed to get up at 7, we are out the door at 8, school starts at 8:15.  The first day, they both came up to our room at exactly 7 AM, dressed and ready to go.  I shouldn't have worried.

We walked to school and said, "hi" to both their teachers.  Normally, the teachers are in their classrooms in the morning and the students stay on the playground until the bell rings.  Then, they go up to their classes on their own.  The first week, the teachers were all down on the playground so each class could line up and walk up together.  This made sure the students knew where to go and kept the parents out of the classroom.  They both had big smiles and went to their classes without even a hint of a tear (I wish I could say the same).

They were all smiles when we picked them up.  They both had good days.  Charlotte, especially, was exhausted.  They were ready for bed early.  Hopefully, it is the start to a great school year.

All smiles at the end of the day

End of summer

After we got back to Hong Kong, we had about a month before school started.  After our trip to Legoland, Tommy had a renewed interest in his legos.  He likes building things with his imagination, but gets frustrated when he builds things with directions because it takes him so long to find the right pieces.  We decided to take the time to sort his legos to make it easier.  We spent many hours this summer working on legos.

The weather was HOT, so we spent a lot of time inside or at the pool.  The kids had fun at the pool, especially at Splash Night.  They love swimming and have both improved greatly.  Charlotte still isn't to the point where she can swim on her own without an adult within arm's reach.  Hopefully, after swim lessons at school and more trips on the weekends, she will be swimming on her own soon.

Having fun at the pool

We also made a trip to Disneyland.  I was hoping the crowds would be light if we went during the week.  Unfortunately, there were a lot of tourists there from Asia, especially mainland China, visiting while the kids were out of school.  That should change when the new Disneyland in Shanghai opens next year.

We were excited to go to the new Frozen Village.  Well, actually, Charlotte was excited.  Tommy was not excited, but agreed to go.  We had to wait awhile, but luckily most of the wait was in the air-conditioning.  Then we sat in a small auditorium.  Two hosts came out, speaking Cantonese (with English subtitles on screens).  Then Anna came out, speaking English.  The basic premise of the show was Anna was throwing a surprise party for Elsa and had hired a choir, but they had been snowed in and couldn't make it.  She asked the audience to sing instead.  Then they played clips from the film with the words along the bottom for us to sing along with.  They also had actors dressed up like Elsa and Kristoff.  When the show was over, you went out into the village which had fake snow.  You could line up to sled down a small hill, but the line was very long and we wanted to ride other rides, so we decided to skip it.  The best part about the Frozen Village is it was nice and cold.  It felt good as it was really hot outside.

Waiting in line

With Sven on the fake snow

We also made trips to a few museums, including the Maritime Museum, which we hadn't been to before.  It overlooks the harbour so you can watch the real boats as you learn about boats.  The kids enjoyed it and we met Tom for lunch afterwards which made it even better.

I still haven't gotten used to other people trying to take pictures of my kids.  There was a fake freight  car with a video game inside where you had to try to load the cargo ship.  My kids were watching a Chinese boy playing the game.  The boy's mom started taking pictures of her child, so I had my kids move out of the way so they wouldn't ruin her picture.  I had them come out next to a display so I could get their picture in the meantime.  I was surprised when the mom stopped taking pictures of her kid and came over to get a picture of my kids posed in front of the display.  Then, when they went back to watch the video game, she tried to get Tommy and Charlotte to pose with their son.  We just said "no, thank you" and moved on.

Tommy and Charlotte trying to load the cargo ship

Posing for a picture

Overall, the last month of summer went relatively quickly and we coped with the heat much better than last summer.   We had a good time.  By the end of August, we were all ready for the kids to start school.

Tommy's front teeth

While we were visiting the States this summer, Tommy lost both of his front teeth.  His first tooth was loose when we left and just seemed to be hanging on.  Tom pulled it out with a quick tug shortly after we arrived in St. Louis.

Right one missing

His new front teeth were much bigger than his baby teeth, so his other front tooth was already loose.  We thought he was going to lose it in California, although Tommy was determined to keep it in.  He was concerned about the tooth fairy being able to find us on our vacation from our vacation.
He made it and ended up losing it just a few days before we returned to Hong Kong.  Luckily, the tooth fairy found him both times.

Left tooth gone, new right tooth coming in

His new teeth came in quickly, so he didn't have a big gap for long.  I think kids with no front teeth are so cute.

Charlotte's Birthday

I wanted to make sure we did something special for Charlotte's actual birthday even though we had already celebrated it in St. Louis.  I had thought about taking the kids to Disneyland, but the forecast was for very hot weather and didn't want us to be miserable.  Instead, I thought it would be fun to try a new place (new to us) I had been hearing about called Discoveryland.  Recently, a friend had gone and posted pictures and it looked like a lot of fun.  It is an huge indoor (air-conditioned!) play place with many different activities.  We left early in the morning, after Charlotte had breakfast in bed of course.  I believe it was her first year getting breakfast in bed on her birthday, which is a tradition in our family.  She was excited to finally be old enough (and didn't spill anything).  It took us over 2 hours to get to Discoveryland.  We took the shuttle bus, 3 trains, and a city bus.  

My big 5 year old

On the bus

We got there pretty soon after they opened and the place was still pretty empty.  They had rock climbing, huge slides, miniature golf, trampolines, a big obstacle course with tunnels and slides, plus more.  The kids had a great time!

Overall view in the morning

Obstacle course

Charlotte flew down the slides!

 The kids really had fun rock climbing.  They both did it several times.  I was proud of how brave they were.

 We discovered how much the kids (especially Tommy) love miniature golf in California.  They were excited to get to play here as well.  It was a pretty simple course.

Around 12:30, I had to convince the kids to leave so we could get some lunch.  We went to a nearby pizza place which sells HUGE slices of pizza.  It was delicious.

Charlotte with her pizza slice (they cut it in half for her to eat)

We went back after lunch and played for a few more hours.  I think they spent almost 6 hours there total.  It started to get much more crowded in the afternoon.  The original plan was to go with Tom to the country club for dinner, but we spent so long at Discoveryland, we weren't going to make it back anywhere close to dinnertime.  The kids were exhausted from playing, so we didn't want to keep them up too late.  Instead, we met Tom at the train station, rode home together, and decided to stop at McDonald's on the way home.  I am not a big fan of going to McDonald's, but the kids both love it and we knew it would be fast and they would consider it a treat.  We got home and Tom gave the kids showers while I quickly made icing and iced the cake I had baked the day before.  

Finally, time for cake, presents, books, and bed.

Charlotte at McDonalds

Ready to blow out her candles

Her new presents

Charlotte's birthday celebration

One of the highlights of our trip to the States was a birthday celebration for Charlotte.  Charlotte was going to turn 5 the week after we returned to Hong Kong, so we thought we would have an early  family celebration for her in St. Louis.  We decided to have it the night before we left, which was also a great way to get everyone together and say goodbye.

Almost 5!  Jan made a cupcake dress for her party.  

We always like to take family pictures at the kids' birthday parties to have a record and watch the family grow up over the years.

We also tried to get a picture of the cousins.  Katherine was not excited to get her picture taken.  We finally got one with her standing next to everyone.

The little cousins

 Emily was much more cooperative.

Big cousins

Tom's family

My family

My grandparents moved to St. Louis while we were living in Hong Kong.  My cousin, Marie, also has an internship in St. Louis this summer.  It was nice to have a few extra people to help celebrate.

Charlotte, Grandma Trudy and Marie

Cousin silliness

Charlotte received many nice presents.  She had a lot of help opening her gifts.  She also got some help playing with them.  

Jan made Anna and Elsa capes for dress up.  Lilia was happy to help Charlotte try them on.  

Everyone had to check out Charlotte's gifts

We had a great celebration.  Then, it was time to say goodbye.  We had a few tears from the kids who had such a great time and didn't want to leave.  After being gone for a year, they had forgotten what life was like in St. Louis and thought that if we moved back with would be like the last month of vacation we had just experienced.  Their memory of school, homework and chores in Hong Kong paled in comparison to the last month of going fun places, playing with their cousins, and being spoiled by their grandparents.  It was hard for all of us to leave, but we were also excited to get back to Hong Kong.  There are still many things left we want to do, and this could be our last year here.

Charlotte and Tommy at the STL airport

Legoland

We had a great time at Legoland.  We decided to spend 2 days there so we wouldn't be rushed and it would give us time to do the water park on day 2.  Also, the price of 2-day tickets was only slightly more than 1-day tickets.  We had a wonderful time.  The park was perfect for the kids' ages.  They were both tall enough to do everything, the only thing they couldn't do was one of the driving schools.  They had 2 different courses, one for ages 3 to 5 and one for ages 6 to 13.  They could only do the school for their respective age group.

The park opens 30 minutes before the rides open which gave us time to take some pictures and enjoy the scenery before we had to get in line.

Charlotte with the Lego Friends girls

Legoland does not have big roller coasters.  They have a few small coasters, but the park is mainly based on smaller rides.  They have several rides where you drive or ride things things.

They also have several attractions where there is something to do that doesn't require waiting in line, which is a great break for little kids.  They had a playground/obstacle course, miniature golf which the kids loved, and several places to build things out of legos.  We also enjoyed walking around Miniland, an area of the park with cities built out of millions of Legos.  They had replicas of New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Las Vegas, and New Orleans.  They also had a new Star Wars section that had just opened.

Tommy LOVED mini-golf (we played with a very loose set of rules)

Tommy and Charlotte in front of New York City

part of Star Wars Miniland

There was also a "Lego Movie Experience" exhibit.  They had brought the actual set from the basement scene at the end of The Lego Movie to Legoland.  It was neat to see it up close.

Along with the Star Wars miniland, they had also opened a new Heartlake City area, based on Lego Friends, this year.  Charlotte really enjoyed that area as she has just started getting interested in Lego Friends.

Riding the carousel in Heartlake City

One of the kids' favorite parts was driving school.  Charlotte, being almost 5, did the 3 to 5 age group.  The course was just a simple loop, but I was amazed at how many kids drove straight into the wall, creating a traffic jam.  The workers kept busy on that ride.  Charlotte did a great job with her driving.  At the end of the ride, the workers gave the kids a big clap and they got a "driver's license" as they exited.  Charlotte was very proud of her card, and couldn't wait to show it to Tommy.  Tommy took his turn next.  His course was much more complicated.  He was a great driver and even made sure to obey the traffic lights and signs.  He also received a "driver's license."  They both did the ride several times.

The second day we did a few rides in the morning, including Lego Technic one of the few roller coasters and Tommy's favorite ride, before heading to the water park.  The weather over the 2 days was in the high 70s, low 80s which was perfect amusement park weather, but maybe a little cool for the water park.  After getting changed, we got in one of the pools then decided to get in line for a water slide.  Unfortunately, we stood in line for about 20 minutes and most of the line was in the shade with a breeze, which was not a good combination when you were already wet.  Tommy informed me he didn't like California weather, he definitely preferred St. Louis weather.  I thought that was funny.  We did several slides, the wave pool, and had lunch.  Tom and I were planning on doing the slides again, but Tommy said he didn't want to and was cold.  He was actually shivering, so we decided to change plans.  Tommy and I got dressed and went back to the regular park to play while Tom and Charlotte stayed behind to play in the pools some more (she was having a great time).

Legoland was a great experience for Lego fans.  All the scenery on the rides is made out of Legos and is really well done.  Another thing I thought was brilliant was several of the rides with long lines had play areas for the kids.  On one of the rides, the line moved in a rectangle around a fenced in play area.  Therefore, the adults wait in line while the kids play.  You can see the kids the whole time and they are safe and entertained.  When you get to the other end of the line, they come out a different gate (manned by a worker) back in line with you.  Why don't all amusement parks do this?

some of the scenery from "Fairy Tale Brook"

Charlotte building with big Legos while we wait in line

Tommy showing off what he made

Overall, we had a great time!