The kids had some time off school for parent/teacher conferences, Thanksgiving and an educators conference that was held at their school so we went camping - one night for Maggie and friends at Chong Hing Watersports Centre in Sai Kung Country Park and the second for Alex and friends at Po Leung Kuk Pak Tam Chung Camp. The following videos I did as a trial of One True Media, a site Alex's social studies teacher had him sign up for a project. Looks like I'll be puttering around on this site, too!

Update 2020 Adobe Flash slideshows no longer supported - click link for photos. PLK camp 2008 Chong Hing Watersports Centre camp 2008
 

From Su family

Paul's birthday dinner was at Cafe Deco. We drove up to Victoria Peak just in time to snap a couple of sunset photos before heading to the restaurant for some sharing of various delicious dishes including Kumamoto oysters, foie gras (with mango and avocado) handrolls, lobster bisque, Caesar salad, a pizza and a steak. Alex ordered fish and chips, and a king crab meat handroll as well as some of our food. The bread basket had naan bread baked in their tandoori oven, which I was tempted to order from, but didn't and subsequently bought a tandoori chicken leg from a vendor in Chung King Mansions later in the week. Tandoori reminds me of the Taiwanese street snack "hu jiao bing" which is a black peppery pork bun baked on the side of a similar oven that basically looks like a big oil drum with a fire in the middle. Speaking of Taiwan, maybe we'll go during Christmas break.



After dinner we went downstairs to Haagen Dazs, but we didn't buy a cake, just had cones - so no candles for Paul this year...

Maggie and Tiffany donate their hair to Locks of Love








After much nagging by me to get a haircut (and after cutting 5 inches off this summer), Maggie finally donated the minimum ten inches along with her friend, Tiffany. The girls had an early dismissal day from school and after lunch with their moms, headed off to the salon for a few hours.

Sorry about the lack of posts. We've moved to a new home, and now school, home and the office are within a one kilometer radius. Paul still needs to travel outside this area though. We've purchased a couple of bikes so Maggie can ride to school and so I can accompany Alex to school, too. It takes maybe 6 minutes to ride mostly along a bike trail and about ten to walk. Our apartment building is along the Shing Mun River. There's a nice bike path that hooks up with another one across the river that goes to Tai Po - we've gone there by bike a few times, most recently (click on photo to read post):



Zoom in on the map below to see building names. Our apartment is in the upper left corner - Garden Vista, our office is in a building called Corporation Park and school is unlabeled in the lower right on On Muk Street. Don't know when another satellite photo will be posted with the school name.


View Larger Map

The first day we got our bikes, Paul and Maggie rode home from the shop and later in the day, Paul and I went to get takeout from a nearby apartment complex called City One. We rode a nice little loop around the area past school and along a nullah (seen in the map) - kind of drainage from the hillsides into the main river before we went to City One. We even went and did a look around a gov't run "Adventure Bike Park" that is a paved trail with hills, bumps, single track, etc inside a park just for bikes. Maggie's PE class has gone during one of their bike outings and Alex has gone to another bike track with his buddy Jeremy in Kowloon City. In fact, I took Alex to this one today after school enroute to City One's McD for a snack after school. You can see the bike park if you hit the down arrow and zoom in on the map. It is along the water and is rectangular in shape with some circular hills and curvy paths.



Here are our new bikes - they're foldable bikes made by Dahon - a 6 speed model made for the China market, but fairly lightweight aluminum frame with Shimano components and a potentially useful rack and fenders that came in handy since we rode to school in a drizzle the other day.

We arrived back in HKG on Sunday 8/10 at 11pm and were up til 4am unpacking, etc. Needless to say, our sleeping schedule was erratic for a few days until we adjusted. School started Wed and just like that, both kids were back to the school routine... Alex has the same teacher Maggie did in 3rd grade, Mrs. Loo.



We moved our office near the kids' school and kept busy setting it up those first weeks of school. Now, I'm back to volunteering in the classroom and around the school as a rep for the parents association. Next up, exercising regularly, ha!

Celebrated Alex's 8th birthday with a cake in the classroom on the actual day

and had a get together with the boys at home over the weekend. The kids all played Wii and NDS games first while Paul and us moms chatted and nibbled. Later it was the adults turn to try out Wii Fit.








Had dim sum with the Siew family - Cadence is a cutie, but takes a bit to warm up...

From Back in HKG

Got a haircut and replaced the spectacles I've had for several years - whaddya think?


Thanks for reading - I'm sending this out via Yahoo groups this time to compare with the Google groups format. Sometimes the photos don't post. You can always have a look at the website to look a photos only:

http://picasaweb.google.com/beckyleesu

Summer 2008 wrap-up
The last of summer photos from Picasaweb



We drove back down the 5 from Marin County with stops in the city to drop things off at Christina's and to see Eddy one more time, Mountain View for milk tea with boba and pizza at Linda's zPizza, and Gilroy for gas and books for the rest of the trip. Haven't been that way (over 152) in a long time and it sure has been developed with a lot of stores and restaurants when in the past it was all farmland. Stopped at a couple of farm stands to check out their fruit, but nothing appealed. Made it home for dessert - Catie waiting for us...

The end of our trip consisted of stocking up at Costco, Target and the like and visiting Kathryn, my cousin Mike and his family, his brother Terry, who drove down to golf with their brother Martin and his wife, Eva, who flew out from NYC for the week. Also stayed with my college friend, Stefania the same weekend she was having a party for her big family so I got to see her mom, sisters, their kids, aunts and uncles. Everyone enjoyed swimming and BBQ. The kids had a nice time getting to know each other and Maggie especially liked Stef's dog Piccolo, a Papillon. So that made it her summer of dogs - there was

Chloe

From Summer 08 #2

Maxwell

From Summer 08 #2

Eddy

From Summer 08 #2

From Summer 08 #2

and Piccolo

From Summer 08 #4

I suppose someday we will have one, too.

We are wrapping up our time in Northern CA - went bowling with some new friends, the grandchildren of my parent's friends mentioned in the last post. Got a chance to upload more photos and a video of Alex trying step aerobics on the Wii Fit. Didn't go outside much due to the smoke from the fires - hard to believe over 2000 fires started by lightning during one storm on June 21 burned over a million acres! (fr CA Dept of Forestry and Fire Protection) Driving back to the Bay area for the weekend, then SoCal on Monday until we head back to HKG.

Click for more photos from Summer album 3!

Summer update #2 The kids with great-grandma "Bak-Bak" From a Pasadena park puppet performance - how's that for a tongue twister? After Utah, we enjoyed time in Northridge: swimming with cousins, playing Wii, a little shopping and a morning at a luxury spa for me! For Independence day we went to Wall-E and had a BBQ then went to the neighborhood display of fireworks in Porter Ranch a few miles from my in-laws house and were awed by the explosions just overhead while patriotic tunes were sung in the background. The next morning, we drove up to the Bay area to spend a week with friends and relatives and a couple days "glamping" at Costanoa. (Look it up.) I prefer to call it luxury camping and for your hotel pricing there is a wood-framed tent cabin with furniture including bed, heating pad, linens and towels. The only inconvenience is going to the "comfort station" for nature's call. While there, you can lounge in front of fireplace or hit the sauna. We went for a few hours of walking after breakfast in the restaurant (another luxury) alongside a grove of eucalyptyus trees, on the bluffs overlooking the Pacific, in the sand dunes, on the rocky tidepools (where my trusty Canon met it's demise) as well as a sandy beach. One of the last photos taken with the Canon - anemones Kids get to play CP side by side! Now we're in Redding hanging out with "Poa Poa" and "Gong Gong" for another week. The kids and their grandparents have been competing for the Top 10 on Wii Fit games. We met up with one of my high school friends in town visiting his parents and went for a swim in their pool. We also met one of my parent's NY friend's daughter and kids for dinner and may get together for a playdate next week. We had dinner at Grand Buffet in Redding. Summer is flying by and we'll be back in HKG right before school starts on the 13th.

We're back in California now after a short trip to Utah. We stayed at Snowbird for a couple days and at the Wyness' for a night. Enjoyed an evening picnic and performance in Pasadena. Just enjoying our time here. Click for some photos (link updated)! link to other photos I have at Picasa

Since we finished school Thursday, there's been a slew of people coming and going for playdates and sleeping over... Here's Gavin at our place for his first sleepover along with big bro, Ethan and Jeremy - so that was four in the room.



Here's Jeremy trying to sleep in the loft bed


Ethan and Alex reading a story


Bedheaded boys



Maggie had Tiffany over and she stayed at Sarah's, too. Others we saw or who visited were: San San, Priscilla, Minami, Hugh, Ryan, Henry, Arthur, Sam, Aidan, Conner, Colin, Timothy, Jonathan and Joanna. Did I miss anyone?

Have a great summer everyone!

Here are some recent photos since the last update(s). The kids finish school mid-June then we will be heading back to the States for summer. Plan to go to Utah for a couple days then SoCal and NorCal. Hope to see some of you then.


At a friend's birthday brunch



Our handprint tile on the wall at our NSB


Maggie's birthday "cake" - egg tarts



Maggie's birthday dinner with the girls and another "cake" - mango raspberry swirl cheesecake



Alex long jumps at Sports Day

We had a get together on Friday night enjoying a pot-luck dinner and games galore!

Here's the DDR video from the time San San had a sleepover...

Hamster videos

The first one is the mom and some of the babies and the second has the dad in the corner of his own cage, mom gnawing on the bars (trying to escape maybe?) and one of the more adventurous babies.

A slew of posts! That should fill everyone in on what's going on with us. Christmas, New Year's Eve and Chinese New Year were spent with friends and family with several get togethers and hot pot meals at our place and others. The kids in the photos have known each other since toddler playgroup days. The top photos from Alex's group and the bottom from Maggie's group - those girls will be 12 this year! We walked along the waterfront promenade from Deepwater Bay to Repulse Bay and back.