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Originally uploaded by beckyleesu.

After a recent early release day at school, I took the kids and their best buddies to Wu Kai Sha, a little beach and bay just behind the hustle and bustle of Ma On Shan. We enjoyed strolling on the beach and looking at the little crabs and frozen treats afterward before heading back to civilization for dinner. Check out the photos online.

Chong Hing camp site (click for photos)

A group of us went camping over the weekend, some neophytes, some with previous outings... We set up our camp and had BBQ for dinner. The next morning we had to take down the tents by 8am - no sleeping in! Some went kayaking, climbed trees, played soccer, basketball and/or badminton and the older kids and adults tried archery. Went on a short hike/walk to a restored village house and headed to Sai Kung after where we ended our expedition with pizza!



Camping photos on a Shutterfly Share site

Walkathon was a success - the kids had a great time using their orienteering skills trying to find 'stamping stations' or 'countries' to get a stamp on their passport. The Fall Fair was chaotic as usual but also enjoyable with games, food and shopping for all. The end of the first term is tomorrow and the kids get their report cards. I'm a bit anxious about Alex's since he seems to be struggling a bit. Parent-teacher conferences next week. A couple Disney photos - they are celebrating their first anniversary. Also, some photos from Taipei dinner with relatives and from trampoline class. Each is trying to make the other 'pop' out of their cross-legged position. The game is called popcorn and great for quads and glutes as well as abs since they have to jump and push down to make the other pop up.

Sorry, time gets away from me - a quick update, photos later since I've heard you haven't always received them through the group email but have to click on the Blogger site instead.

Kids have school routine down pat. Received mid-term progress reports. Alex decided to join the trampoline class as well.

Trying to raise money for the new school building - the latest event is the Fall Fair and Walkathon on Oct 21. If you would like to sponsor the kids, please let me know soon. I'll pay first and collect later. Thanks for your support!

More info: The school has been in rented buildings and split into two campuses, Elementary and Secondary. The government awarded some land and a grant to build a basic school building, but we would like to have nicer than 'basic' facilities so are raising funds. Included in the upgrade is a second gymnasium (so we'll have one for Elementary and one for Secondary), performing arts hall and practice rooms (for the community to use as well), chapel, swimming pool and central air conditioning.

Went to Disneyland again to use our free second visit promo. Lots of people on the Sunday we went, so we had to wait in lines. Enjoyed the new ride - Autopia. Didn't stay in the park so long this time.

Went to Taipei for a couple of nights on a 3D/2N package when the kids had a couple extra days off school. Saw some relatives and ate lots of yummy food. Even though breakfast was included in our package, we still went out to eat breakfast on the streets. Favorites include glutinous rice rolls with shredded dried pork, pickled vegetables and 'yo-tiao' (like a crunchy doughnut) inside and egg with onion pancake... Lunch was beef stew noodles at Paul's two favorite places... Afternoon snacks included egg-shaped cakes, a type of gelatin with lemon syrup called 'ai-yu' and more noodles. For dinner we had all you can eat hotpot one night and the second dinner at another favorite place - dumplings, fried rice, clam soup, fried pork chop, beef with spring onion... We also hit the bookstore, local park/playground and walked around window shopping... Brought some snacks home - cookies, dried pork jerky, apple soda. Looking forward to another trip!

That's all for now.

Yesterday was the evening before Mid-Autumn Festival and after a lovely evening gazing at the moon, eating BBQ - just carousing with friends and their families, we headed home for the night... Sometime in the middle of the night after nature's call, I went to wash my hands and - huh? NO water... Hmmm, usually the management company puts up notices about water supply interruption but since it was the middle of the night I just used a wet wipe and went back to bed. Life with kids - always have wet wipes around for multitude of uses.

OK, morning now and after going to the kitchen to make coffee, alas, still no water; I gazed out the window and saw hubbub below - people with containers of all sorts. This was definitely not a temporary problem.














I brought an empty 18 liter water dispenser bottle down to the line and found out a water truck would arrive shortly so I went home. Indeed, after a while, we heard a ruckus and rumble as the truck pulled up to the curb. I grabbed my digital camera to document the details. There were a couple of newspaper and TV news people with cameras around. Too bad I don't speak Cantonese - I could have had a moment of fame!

It was all fairly efficient and I went to collect my water with the luggage cart I brought along. I thought of those poor countries where people have to do this every day and also of times of drought during my childhood in Northern California where we also had to collect water...





Ah, 18 liters of water - I washed my hair and rinsed - but ooh - chilly! Still plenty left to cook noodles for breakfast and wash the dishes. Will wait on the clothes. Saturday morning excitement...

Three weeks of school finished already! The kids seem to be settling into the routine of their six day cycle of classes. They have normal homeroom subjects - math, science, social studies, language and bible as well as their 'specials' - Mandarin, music, art, library, computer and P.E. They both have lots more homework this year and so far so good... Their after-school activities are starting - both in gymnastics, Maggie also in Mandarin, tap, trampoline and clay art class. She also has to practice clarinet daily for her school band class.

Maggie finally cut her hair, only 4 inches though, not enough for a http://www.locksoflove.org/ donation. They need a minimum of 10 inches. I've donated twice and Maggie once.

Alex's birthday was at the local bowling alley. We had four lanes with bumpers so no gutter balls thrown! Also had a cake for him at school during snack time.

I've been keeping busy volunteering at school and working on Parent Association stuff and I've started Pilates on the reformer with a friend twice a week.

Dinner with a friend from Hawaii at a local Thai restaurant, hence the photos with the elephants, Paul's parents came by for a couple of nights enroute to and from other places...

Where should I begin? It's been a few weeks since the last post... Vacation is over and school started today. The kids were excited to be back and happy to see friends. We made it back to Hong Kong just as a typhoon (signal 8) was leaving the area so were delayed about 5 hours at our transit airport in Taipei. After a couple of early mornings (up at 5am) we were back to normal and met up with friends for an afternoon of play and swimming, a day at our local amusement/theme park - Ocean Park and another afternoon at Deepwater Bay Beach. We watched a hazy sunset at the beach and had pizza delivered (to the beach!) for a picnic on the sand. The kids swam until dark and Maggie and friends made it to a floating pontoon about 100m off shore 4 times and back! Probably the longest distance she has ever swam. Can't really count the distance in the backyard pool since the kids don't swim laps, just spend all day in and out of the water.


Back to vacation - after leaving Northern California we headed East to Utah for a family reunion on my mother's side. Grandma Fong (Poa Poa to me) is 92 and still doing well. She has four children, 9 grandchildren and 6 great grandchildren. She has a little garden of vegies and walks around a bit with her walker. There were about 20 people there from the four generations, staying anywhere from 4 days to a week, and we had lots of fun going out to eat, having BBQ, bowling, alpine slide and golfing.
















During our last week in L.A. before heading back we hit the beach at Point Dume, near Malibu and after, filled our tummies with seafood. The kids spent a few more afternoons in the pool and played with cousins Catie and Anthony as well as the usual eating food a plenty!

We've been enjoying our summer holiday so far! First we went to Los Angeles for a couple of weeks and spent lots of time with cousin Catie, Grandma and Grandpa and other aunties and uncles.

We had a big BBQ July 4th for Uncle James's birthday with a delicious Baskin Robbins ice cream cake to celebrate. Then we walked up the hill to watch the fireworks instead of drive and walk to the actual site since we just saw fireworks at Disneyland the night before.

Yes, that's right, we went to Disneyland in L.A. and got to ride the classic rides that HK doesn't have. It's a Small World, Pirates of the Caribbean and Autotopia... and Alex rode his first rollercoasters: Matterhorn and Big Thunder Mountain.

After L.A. we flew up to the San Francisco Bay area to visit Aunt Melodie and other cousins. Like last summer, we went camping at Costanoa in San Mateo County, south of SF. It's a beautiful area with the walk from the campground going through trees, bluffs, sand dunes and beach. We didn't have to bring any gear since we stayed in tent cabins with beds and linens, and there is a restaurant on site. The only inconvenience was having to go to the 'comfort station' a short walk away to wash up. We even got to use the hot tub as the moon was rising. Aunt Rosa joined us, but had her own cabin while we were there and the kids were excited to show her around. The kids rented bikes one morning after the included breakfast and Alex is now able to ride on two wheels! (He nearly had it before we left HK, but we only practiced one afternoon before it got hot there.)








We drove to Northern CA next to visit the other set of Grandparents for a week. Boy was it hot! To beat the heat we stayed indoors most of the day. One day we went to a local park that has a water fountain in the shape of a volcano that erupts every few minutes as well as a couple of cannons that you can shoot water out of. Another day, we went to Whiskeytown Lake and rented a patio boat and kayak. It's another beautiful area and I have fond memories of time spent there when I was growing up.

The night before we left for the summer, we got together for one last dinner with the boys. When gymnastics was in session we would go out to eat every week after class. There was usually about a dozen people - gang of 5 or 6 boys, parent(s), siblings...
But this last supper was just 4 boys and one sib, Maggie, so it was a bit less rowdy!