Thanksgiving 2010

I've slacked, I know, in updating the blog!
We had a good thanksgiving with a large group of American friends. Since there were so many of us, we decided to rent out a large room of a coffee shop instead of do it in someone's apartment where it'd be pretty cramped. It worked out quite well. You can see that there was room for the kids to spread out and play:

The week before some new friends moved to town and both of their boys are close in age to Mason. Here's Mason and Ezekial (they are just about a week apart in age). Mason loves his new friends so much!

Mason, Ezekial and Nehemiah in a group hug

Self portrait of me and Micah

A pretty good family picture - we're all looking and smiling!

It was a special time to be with friends and be thankful for all that our Father has done for us and the ways He's blessed us this year.

Bathtime

Sweet brothers in the bath :)

Fun at Soccer

Here are pictures from two different days at soccer. One was a beautiful day, one was quite foggy.
Mason enjoys going and just plays around the side...

You can tell Reister enjoys going too!

Game face







There is a free standing McDonalds on the way with a DRIVE THROUGH! (For those of you that don't live here or have never been here, that's a big deal) Most McDonalds are smack in the middle of lots of other building, maybe on the second floor above a super market or something. We feel like it's a little like being in the states to get to drive through and get breakfast on the way to soccer. Now, this is something we would never have been able to do in the Shining City!! We don't take it for granted, believe me!
Here's R & his buddy Jacob during a break

Momma has to intervene from time to time during the drills - making sure he waits till the right time to go!

Now, go for it!

Going for the kick...

Yeah!

Mason wanted some ball action, too!



These are from the foggy day. Sweet Mason

Line em up boys

Normally they just do drills but this day they had a little scrimmage. It was so cute they were just running around everywhere!

Soccer is held on the grounds of a really nice international school (think thousands of USD per semester). We only had to pay a little under $30 US to participate in 8 weeks of soccer! Pretty good deal! Below is one of the buildings, I think the gym... Interesting design, huh?

Here is a view of more of the campus. I should have take more pictures on the clear day!

That's Soccer!
Unfortunately today is Saturday and because Mason has been a little under the weather, I stayed home with him while Micah went with Reister to soccer. Hopefully next week we can all go together again!

SOCCER!

We are so blessed that our city has so many families from other countries (commonly termed "expats") living here that there is a international youth sports league. Twice a year they have a soccer program for kids 4 years old and up. This year Reister was old enough to participate and we were so excited for him! Here's a video of Reister during one of the drills.


I'll post a LOT of pictures in a separate post!

Local Preschool

In the past I've blogged about Reister's school, but I thought it might be time for an update. As a mom I am constantly thinking about my childrens education. Not just their elementary, middle & high school education but also and right now more so, their Chinese language acquisition. It is an important value for us that our boys learn to speak fluent Chinese. We want them to understand and feel a part of the culture they live in. We want them to take advantage of this amazing opportunity to become bi-lingual from a young age. So, because we've heard from others that an effective way to do that is to enroll your kids at a local preschool at about 2-3 years of age, we decided to start Reister when he was 2 years old. He started going 2-3 mornings a week when he was 2 and has worked up to going 5 half days a week. He started at his current school when he was 2 1/2 years old. He went for about 5 months and then changed to another one (where I taught English) for 3 months in 2009. Upon our return to East Asia in May of this year, I was not going to teach any more so we decided to send him back to this school. It is right across the street from our apartment complex. We normally take him by bike and it takes less than 4 minutes to get there. It is a Montessori style school so he is in a class with about fifty 4-6 year olds. They divide up into smaller groups by age to do certain activities. Here are some pictures so you can get a feel for what it's like.
This one is blurry but shows most of the classroom. Reister is walking in the middle. I had just brought him to school that afternoon. The shelves around the edge of the room all contain educational toy sets. Reister really enjoys them.

Another one of Reister. Don't mind his high-water pants :)

On the right side of his classroom are all the beds that the kids take their naps in. Reister doesn't nap there because he only goes half days (either from 8:30-12 or from 2:45 - 5:30pm). On this day he went in the afternoon and the kids had just gotten up and gone to the restrooms. The beds collapse back into the tallest one so they don't take up that much room normally.

Here is one of Reister's classmates, Ya Ya. She was his classmate last year when he was in the smaller class too. I believe she is 5 years old.

Each child has a cubby hole with their name. Here's Reister pointing at his - he's about to put his backpack in it. It has his Chinese name, Wang Yi Rong 王一荣 written under it. He can recognize his Chinese name by the characters!

We have some friends who live inside the apartment complex where the school is. I was up at their place recently and snapped a couple of pictures of Reister's class finishing up their outdoor exercises and lining up to go back inside. Reister is in the brown shirt at the end of the middle line.

Here is the whole school from a birds eye view.

Now you know all about Reister's school. What questions do you have?

New Blog Initiative

I have really slacked on my blog posting and I feel bad about that. I think (hope) that there are quite a few of you out there who would really appreciate more blog posts especially if I can give you more glimpses into our daily life here.
So in the near future I hope to do a week long highlight of something like "A Week in the Life of the Webbs" I'll try to summarize what we did each day, and give a couple pictures.
Then I'm going to try to post weekly with at least a little something.
I'd like to hear from you guys (especially those in the US) if you are curious about certain things, what you would like to have me post on.
I'll leave you with a picture of Mason that I don't think I've posted before...

My Friend's Loss

This picture was taken at Mason's birthday party in late June.

This week my friend called to tell me that her husband passed away in late August. From my understanding he had a severe case of viral Hepatitis and it progressed extremely quickly. Her daughter is 3 and has similar eye problems to Mason. Around the time of Mason's party we were able to help them obtain a pair of glasses (frames) like Masons from the company in Italy.
We were able to go to dinner with my friend, her daughter and mother this week. Her daughter really likes our family, so we want to make sure we are available to hang out with them often. Then my friend and I went out for coffee and talked for quite a while. The idea of the grieving/mourning process is not quite as common in this culture, but I was able to sensitively share that I was here for her to talk/process/grieve to. Some of her friends have already told her to essentially "get over it" and start a new life. (It hasn't even been 2 months since his death!) In some ways she's still in the shock stage. It just happened so quickly and she couldn't believe it was possible for him to get so sick so fast. She is 29 and he was 37. They had been married just under 5 years. Would you please join me in lifting up Danielle (I've chosen to give her an English name for your sake) and her daughter? She is having a very hard time sleeping. Please also ask that I could be a good friend and be able to share with her about the Ultimate Comforter.

Blast from the past

One of my friends has been doing blast from the past posts on her blog and I thought I'd do the same!
Here is Reister last fall when we were at my parents house. He's wearing my brother's old Davy Crockett costume!

Reister's 4th Birthday!!!

I've had this post halfway done for a couple days now so I might should hurry up and finish this post seeing as it's overdue anyway!

This was the morning of his birthday party day - opening a present from his Aunt Robin and family!


This was during his party trying to get the kids to play a game where they shot down little figurines with a bow & arrows. FYI: this game doesn't work too well with kids under 5. And Reister was in a bad mood so he didn't want to play (he can do it, but he's practiced a lot)

More of that game

More...

Just to show you some of the kids at the party. The boy in yellow is Reister's good friend Jacob - he is 4 1/2.

This was right after some 'correction' time with Daddy in the back room. You still have to be nice and share on your birthday :)

During the second game - everyone was given a wheel to color and then we attempted to play pin the wheel on the race car. Again, didn't go too well, but I think most kids actually managed to get their wheel on the car. At least Reister colored his, but he wouldn't try to stick it on the car b/c he didn't want to be blind-folded.

More coloring - Jacob and Isaac (not brothers)

Li Zhuo Long from Reister's local pre-school class. He could only stay for a short bit. His birthday was the day before Reister's party so we were sure to have a present ready for him when he came! He is the sweetest little boy. He's the one who grabbed Reister's hand the first day back at school in May.

Micah G - Reister's 5 y.o. buddy

Luke B - almost 5 - he enjoyed playing with the Woodys

Mason is becoming quite the ham for the camera!

Hot Wheels racetrack birthday cake (not an easy feat, let me tell you. I have had a lot of trouble getting my cakes out of my 9X13 pan.)

The cupcakes on the sides say "Happy Birthday" in chinese characters. Quite convenient that I only had to use 4 to say that and still had enough for Reister's name!

Reister was blowing his candles out way before we finished singing Happy Birthday

Ready to eat it!

Happy Birthday Boy

All the boys couldn't wait!



Momma cutting the cake

Momma making some comment about how I didn't think the cake would actually turn out

Present opening time

So fun!

Loving the police car that Luke gave him

Family picture

Our househelper who came for the party to help out and wish Reister a Happy 4th!