Kids Christmas Party

There are lots of young families at WAB so one of the teachers organised a kids Christmas party complete with a visit from Santa. It was a lovely morning, except when Sata arrived. You would think that by now my kids would not be afraid of Santa - guess again. Emily put on a brave face, but Claudia had to be bribed to even go near him. The photos give you a fair idea of her joy in this occasion.

At least the book was a winner!

Thanks Johnny B for taking the photos - one of amazing parent moves, I forgot the camera.

WAB Staff Christmas Party

Saturday night was our first WAB Christmas Party.  I really think the images speak for themselves.

It was a masquerade party - but everyone went to town.  Especially my husband who drew his inspiration from Movember and the Village People.

I think the highlight or the low light of the evening (depends who you are talking to)  would have to have been Paul's rendition of the YMCA .

Emily is 8!

The 7th December marked Emily's 8th birthday. I am really too young to have an 8 year old.

She wanted to have a skating party so Emily, Claudia and 10 of Emily's friends launched on the local ice skating rink for her party. They had an hour of skating and then pizza, lollies, chips and the all important Asian birthday cake - at least it looked pretty!

I have decided that both my girls need to have self esteem issues - they just shy away and hide from the camera!

The Silly Season

Well the silly season is upon us and it is all systems go for the countdown to Christmas.

In the last two weeks we have had performing art shows, Christmas parties, concerts, Emily's birthday (saved for its own post), engagement parties and Claudia's trip to the ice rink with her class.

Grade 1 are doing a unit of inquiry on water so they went on an excursion to the ice skating rink.  Whilst Miss C looked very cute all rugged up, they pictures show she wasn't so cute on the ice.

Then when it gets all to hard, get someone to push you on a chair.

Emily the Superstar

I had to chuckle this morning as I logged onto my computer and saw the weather prediction for today. It read ....... - 5 and Smoky. Yep that about sums it up!

Well the year is drawing to a close and I seriously need my Christmas Cards to arrive. I ordered them 4 weeks ago and they still have not come. Looks like another set of Christmas Cards arriving in January from the Ciempka's.

Last week was the 2nd Grade Performing Arts Night. They put on a concert and their art is displayed. Emily sang and danced and did a great job.

Smashing Good Time

The Dirt Market is a fascinating place and quickly becoming one of my favourite places in Beijing.  It is a cultural market where you can buy homewares, antiques, lamps, jewellery and lots of cultural revolution items.  It really isn't a place many foreigners know about. 

I went there a few weeks ago with some friends as an inservice into the art scene in Beijing.  We were having a lovely day when I found this beautiful little art deco vase.  Just as I was asking the stall holder how much I hear a smash and look down.  To my horror, I had knocked a very ugly vase onto the floor and it was in about 50 pieces.  The stall holder starts yelling at me in Chinese and all I want to do is run.  Obviously I had to pay for it, but here is the tricky part.  When you market shop in China everything starts at a ridiculous price and you need to bargain them down.  Well my dear friend the stall holder thinks he has won the lottery as he can name any price and I have to pay.  Well to cut a long story short, with the help of a friend who speaks fairly good Chinese and a visit to the mediation room I ended up paying about $22 for a piece of junk worth maybe $5.   

I did get a good story out of it and I made sure I kept the bits.

So Excited

I am very excited that this photo was chosen as the winner of a photography competition.

It wasn't anything huge to the world, but to me it was an ego boost.

I needed to shoot something red.

I suppose it is a bit unfair seeing the only colour used here is red.

Rocking Claudia

Claudia's class has been learning about friendship and at last weeks assembly they performed the "Friendship Rap." It was very cute and funny, especially the 'yo dude' hands.

How long has it been?

You can always tell when my days get hectic by the distance between blog posts.

Once again so much has happened, Annie came for a visit (which was so much fun), or shipment finally arrived (so now we live in box city) and we have all had the flu.

Annie arrived on October 17th and we packed a lot of Beijing and pampering into our 5 days. These shots are taken at the Great Wall.

My Little Lady

I use that term very loosely when it comes to Emily. The school counsellor sent me these pictures of Emily at a "new kids" lunch. I think she is fitting in okay, don't you?

Our Apartment

I finally got some shots of our apartment. Now we are living here till February and then we can move to our choice of location - which we will do. This apartment is lovely, but not super kid friendly.

I haven't bought any bed spreads or anything like that because we are moving. Oh and for the record the land lord bought the furniture - the couch is not my taste! Or anyones for that now that I think about it. Our shipment has also not arrived yet, so there is very little in this place that is ours - but I have been hassled too many times about not showing our apartment.

Lounge Room- no matter what I do I can't hide that couch!

Dining Room - with the laundry off the end - This choice perplexes me.
So does the Landlord's taste - floral chairs!!!!!!!

The spacious kitchen - not- but I did get an oven.

Our bedroom - It is much bigger than this shot shows.

Our Ensuite - I LOVE this bath.

Emily's Bedroom


Claudia's bedroom.


View from Emily's room.


View from the kitchen - if you look really closely you can see the Bird's Nest.


Two sleepy heads.