Maggie and her new toy!

Another weekend... Saturday morning we went to put our handprints in a clay tile that will be used on one of the outside walls of our new school building. There was a buzz of excitement as people were trying to figure out the best way to put their handprints on the tiles. This has been a pretty good fundraiser for our new school with over two million HKD raised, but we're still trying to raise another 80 million to cover the bank loan and then we'll be able to move into the school debt free! The total cost of the new school is around 300 million. Elementary will move first, actually in less than a month - that's the left wing. The two gyms, chapel, play area and cafeteria are in the middle with the right wing being Secondary. There will also be some apartments on the top floor for some of the teachers. Maggie won't move until December and she'll start the new year in a new building.





After that, Maggie went to tap class, then Ocean Park with some of her friends while Paul went to the office and then Alex and I met him for lunch, grocery shopping and back home where we had our first hotpot dinner of the season, even though it's not quite cold enough out - we had the air con on...

Sunday morning we got to Skype with cousin Catie - ah, the wonders of technology.

Happy 7th birthday Alex! Had some friends over for a little party at the end of August - so I'm a month late with this post, sorry! The kids had fun just hanging out together, playing DS, watching the TV, etc.

Hey, I found out there's a moniker for that convenient-style of camping, i.e. no need to lug your tent and sleeping bags, that I've done with the kids San Mateo County, CA at Costanoa. It's called "glamping" as in "glamorous camping." Just run a search and you'll find plenty of results. We didn't get to go this summer, but there's a post from July here on this very blog. This photo is from our first trip there - look how little Alex was!



Here's a link to a story - but I don't think we'll be taking $10k a week trips any time soon?!?!

Another way to jump in the pool. Couldn't get Maggie's video to upload, so there's photos, but here's a video of Alex.

Sorry for the late update on summer...

Click this sentence for photos from our 5-day bus tour around Taiwan.

Day 1: Leave Taipei for a drive around most of Sun Moon Lake, stopping at scenic spots, an aboriginal village where we had lemon ai-yu (a jelly extracted from a fig) and temples along the way and arriving for dinner at Ali Mountain, a cool 14 degrees (from close to 30), for the night.

Day 2: Rise at 4am to take a train up to watch the sunrise. I thought it would be pleasant like Haleakala (Maui) a couple years ago on the last family vacation but nope, there was a guy with a megaphone yakking away and vendors selling warm food and drinks and lots of people jockeying for a good photos. After that we rode the train back down to hotel area and walk through an old growth forest after breakfast. Lots of neat tree trunks amidst some newer trees. Back on the bus toward Kenting where we stopped at a nice aquarium with water fountains to jump in (if we were only prepared) before checking into our hotel around the corner from the beach, right on the main drag where we went for dinner and dessert (more ai-yu and ice cream) and browsing all the stands selling stuff.

Day 3: Darn, no time to go to the beach in the morning... it was back on the bus again! We stopped at a park enclosing the lighthouse at the southern tip of Taiwan and walked up and around the grounds stopping for refreshments before walking back down – the sun was fierce! Then it was up and over windy mountain roads to the Pacific Coast and ocean views all the way up to Tai Dong where we stopped at a historical museum before the hotel. This place was great because of the hotsprings where we went after dinner – they had a theraputic pool with areas of jets at different heights to target sore muscles and a regular pool with three areas of varying temperatures. We slept well that night!

Day 4: On the way to Hualien, we stopped at a dairy farm and had ice cream, walked around the grounds, Catie rode a horse, Maggie and Alex jumped into a hamster ball nearly taking out Paul who was snapping photos. We also stopped at an old sugar factory for more ice cream and a quick bite. We stayed in a city hotel that night and walked around the area looking for dinner. After, Helen and James went off to watch Transformers since it was released earlier than in the states.

Day 5: Drove to Taroko Gorge and drove as far as we were allowed before turning back. Walked a few kilometers through caves carved by the river. Neat! Then it was our last long drive back to Taipei. Went out to dinner and drinks and local night market for yet another ai-yu.

The next day we decided we didn’t get enough of Taiwan’s snacks to eat so we took a quick train trip to Keelung Temple Market. We also had beef stew noodles a couple more times before it was off to the states for the rest of our summer vacation.

Summer has passed and the kids have survived their first week of school. We enjoyed our vacation in Taiwan (9 days), Toronto (5 days) and California the rest of the time.

I just put up the Canada photos so here's a link.

Toronto summer 2007

One day we went to downtown Toronto to walk around and saw the lake (Ontario). Another day we drove down to Niagra Falls and stopped at wineries and fruit stands and had a picnic at a park with a merry-go-round for the kids enroute. We just hung out together and enjoyed the company. I heard the rest of the gang had much more exciting adventures in Montreal so maybe next time I will head north.





It was great to see everyone in, of all places, North America, when SE Asia is much closer and it was also wonderful to have our mom's night out thanks to Sandy's bro-in-law. The kids got along fairly well and everyone has grown up so much!



Will post more on vacation later.

Maggie graduated from Elementary School but they didn't have much of a ceremony. It was the last day of school - the 5th graders sang for us and reminisced about life as an elementary student. There were lots of award certificates handed out as well as diplomas. They called the kids names so fast during graduation it was hard to get a photo!


Alex in the crowd. When we move to our new school, we will have a proper auditorium - a performing arts centre actually. No more sitting on the floor!

The big event was the end of the year concert when all the 5th graders sang and played their band instruments for us as well as performances from the other ensemble groups at school. We were able to use another school's auditorium since our new school is not finished yet.

Maggie's class also had their own graduation dinner. They rented a hotel function area with a stage set up and had a buffet dinner. It was great entertainment for us as the kids performed skits, sang, etc for their families.