Halloween

Nicole was a wii remote control for Halloween this year. I made the costume out of cardboard box, white paper and tape. Trejan was Woody from Toy story and his costume was put together with help from friends and some small purchases. Damon didn't dress up, but I went to a party as a "crazy Swedish football fan" with some help from Susanne, my creative friend from Sweden. Halloween here in this community is celebrated more than I have ever seen in the states. Some of the kids and adults have custom costumes made, they are amazing! Our neighborhood hosted a big party, and people who came from outside our parked their cars for "Trunk or treat". Some very generous people even handed out imported American candy, most people rarely buy it because it is ridiculously expensive or impossible to buy here. Obviously, that was a HUGE hit!

Happy Birthday Nicole and Trejan!

Trejan turned eight this year and there is little left of the shy and timid little boy who moved to China in kindergarten. He has even become a leader in some ways, and he is very confident and outgoing. There are days when up to eight boys are playing at our house because so many kids come ask if Trejan wants to play. He is thriving at school and full of life. For his birthday he had friends over to our house for a "webkinz" birthday party. The boys threw stuffed animals all over the place, had a scavenger hunt and ate pizza in the webkinz "club house". This was under the ping pong table (we bought one since we live in China we thought we should get good at ping pong).
Nicole's 10th birthday party was celebrated at a hunting club, where we played laser tag. So much for the anti gun mom....we played kids vs. adults and had a blast. We were all exhausted when the 2 1/2 hours of running around outside and climbing up hills was finished. Nicole is doing great in school, has fun babysitting, playing soccer, learning to play the guitar and emailing and chatting with her friends. Sometimes it seems that she is a teenager already. She is loving it here and even says she wants to stay in China for 5th grade!