The end of the school year is always so busy!

Alex played trombone and sang in his choir as part of the Elementary Spring Concert.

The following day he finished the academic year of HK Youth Football training with a few matches between other teams from different districts in HK.

The next week he went to a Grade 4 and 5 school camp with a high schooler as his cabin counselor. I stopped by briefly on the first day and enjoyed the smores BBQ, too!



Grade 5 had their graduation lunch and invited all their teachers through the years...

Mrs. Hunter – Alex’s wonderful 5th grade teacher


With Montana and Kaito at the entrance


Ryan, Hugh and Alex - good buddies since pre-school!





Maggie has also been busy – playing clarinet in her school band and singing in her school choir; going to Vietnam for Week Without Walls - a 4 day trek and an overnight on Halong Bay. Since she's been camera shy - I had to troll around online to find photos...

I know this goes against the JVN Rules of Blog-Writing but that's okay since I'm writing for those who ARE interested in our life anyway.

For our last day of Easter break we spent a beautiful afternoon in South Lantau. We first enjoyed lunch at The Stoep, Lower Cheung Sha Beach chowing on fish and chips, chili con carne with rice, marinated eggplant salad, garlic bread and a tender spring chicken.

After lunch we climbed over a small headland of rough boulders; Alex made it barefoot, while Maggie and I were in sandals. Paul was reminded of fishing off similar boulders with his grandmother when he was young(er).

From Cheung Sha Beach

We walked Upper Cheung Sha Beach from east to west - the longest beach in HK at around two kilometers. It reminded us of Zuma Beach in L.A. Along the way we checked out a blowfish that had washed ashore and a young cow that wandered down toward the water. There were a few people out, but not even close to the numbers that were at the cable car to the big buddha (haven't been yet) and outlet mall at Tung Chung where we left our car. At the western end we went in the water at the gazetted* swimming area for a refreshing dip, then showered off before catching a bus back to civilization.

* gazetted - another of the strange words, like shroff**, you just get used to after living overseas... Gazetted beaches usually have bathroom, changing room, showers, life guards, shark net enclosed swimming areas, and water quality checks.

** shroff - the cashier's office where you pay for (hourly) parking your car in the "carpark" :)

Maggie took drawing and painting this year and three pieces she submitted were displayed as part of the end of the year HS Art Exhibition - well done!

Maggie’s birthday started with a service trip organized by the school collecting coins for charity.

After that, and lunch, Maggie and friends came back home to make cookies and play wii.

From Maggie's birthday 2011

Later, we went to have appetizers of bubble tea and cold noodles.

From Maggie's birthday 2011

Then sat down for a yummy dinner at a place serving Italian and Japanese food - two favorite cuisines.

From Maggie's birthday 2011

Finally, we had cake in the park with everyone running off energy and excess calories playing tag and climbing the rocks... Whew – a long, but enjoyable day for Maggie!

From Maggie's birthday 2011

Alex has become a better soccer player this year after becoming involved with the HK Youth Football program and enjoys pick-up games with his friends and even secondary-schoolers from local schools when they all go to the public pitch on a Friday eve. Here are some photos from a recent tourney with teams from all over the territory. Shatin Team A took home the trophy - well done guys!

Alex got honorable mention for his science project this year! According to his teacher there was some stiff competition - congratulations!

From Taipei - Spring Break 2011

Maggie and Alex meet Hana

From Taipei - Spring Break 2011

Some spring blossoms in the city

From Taipei - Spring Break 2011

Some Taiwanese specialties - lu rou fan, rou gung, won ton soup, two kinds of noodles, shark, braised tofu - we also managed to eat at two favorite beef stew noodle places (see post by clicking here for past eats)

From Taipei - Spring Break 2011

Our king size bed at Aquabella – Beitou Hotsprings Area. The kids had futons around the corner near the bathroom

From Taipei - Spring Break 2011

with a tub big enough for all of us! The "white sulfur" hotspring water piped in was over 40C! Had to cool it with some cold tap water...

From Taipei - Spring Break 2011

More Taiwanese specialties!

From Taipei - Spring Break 2011

Click a photo to see more photos from our trip - all link to albums on Picasaweb

Ocean Park has been undergoing a lot of renovations and I think soon there will be a hotel on site making it a vacation destination instead of just another site to see. We haven't been there in quite some time so decided to go during spring break. We checked out the new aquarium, giant pandas and red pandas among others, saw the dolphin show and rode some rides, too! Maggie and friends were there, but avoided us all day - teenagers, sheesh!