Enoch's Birthday Party

Yesterday Enoch turned 3! I wanted to plan a party for him because I think Enoch is old enough to understand and remember. We wanted to keep the party small so that he doesn't feel overwhelmed. We only invited a few kids that Enoch has played with or in the same nursery and are about Enoch's age. Here are a few pics (Sorry if there are too many pics. Birthday parties always end up with tons of pics):

Some of the food

Getting ready for air bag popping (balloons are hard to pop so we used air bags instead)

Kind of like the pin the donkey tail game, only it's according to "Cat in the hat" book by Dr. Seuss

Scavenger Hunt in the backyard. 

Hand Printing.

Turned out kids loved to shoot Sam with water guns. The last one of Enoch waiting to shoot daddy outside of the door was the most funny! And he did get Daddy really good :) 

Enoch and his Dragon chocolate cake (He requested for chocolate cake). 

We ALMOST got a smile out of him!! 

And he wanted to eat the HEAD.

Awkward and cute Enoch before opening gifts :)

Playing "Candy Land" game after the party. He loved it! Thanks Sam for getting this game!

Michael felt left out all day. He was so sad in the evening. Poor non-birthday boy :(

Enoch seemed to enjoy his birthday time really well yesterday. He was really bossy towards Michael and us all day. He got away with a lot of things. He didn't want to go to bed until midnight. And that was after I told him if he wanted to go to church today, he needed to sleep. He also asked me to change his pajamas for him which he normally does himself. He was acting so hilarious :) Hope he felt special! We just love this boy! Happy 3rd birthday Enoch! 

Our trip to China Part Two

During the five weeks in China I didn't plan any sightseeing. It was my intention to spend the whole time with my family. I wanted my parents, grandparents to get to know the boys and the boys to know their grandparents, great grandparents. I want my boys to experience Chinese New Year traditions. And those will be the memories we keep in the years to come.

My parents love the boys. My mom tries really hard every day to make food that the boys will eat. Dumplings, stuffed buns, Wonton, stir fry, fried rice, noodles... She went all out. My parents also insisted to pay for our food the whole time we were there. Whenever the kids pointed or mentioned anything they wanted to eat, my parents would make sure we have them at home. My mom got the boys several outfits, shoes, many toys. They love to take the kids out for walks, or just playing around in the yard. It was so sweet to see Michael planting his sweet kisses on my dad's face and Enoch asking my mom to hold him when tired or cold. I know the boys love my parents too. They also loved to play with Uncle Pengpeng. Oh, and Michael is obsessed with Pengpeng's cute girl friend :) (Sam has also shared some pics earlier. )

The boys got to play with my cousins' kids, their second cousins. One girl XinXin is about two years older than Enoch. She plays really well with them. It was fun to see them chase each other around the house. The other boy TongJie is only three months older than Enoch. He had a hard time sharing his toys and was sad not being the center of the big family for once. But generally he is a good boy. That little motorcycle Enoch is riding in the pic bellow actually has an electric accelerator pedal. If you step on it, it will ride like a real motorcycle only slower. It's a crazy toy that I've never seen here. Not sure if it's safe for kids to ride but it was sure popular with all the boys. Both Enoch and Michael loved it. They kept asking to go play with TongJie just so that they could ride the little motorcycle. 

We got to visit a lot of relatives during Chinese New Year. Ate a lot of dumplings... There is this tradition that we put stuff inside the dumplings. Like money, candy, sticky cake and other stuff that are "meaningful". I had two chinese dates in my bowl of dumplings which means "Have kids early". Ha:) I guess I did have kids early and another one is on the way. Getting Red envelop money is fun too. Enoch probably knows more about chinese money than US dollars now.  We decided to put the kids' red envelop money aside to give to them when they are older. 

Our village has a dance/drum team playing around the town during the new years. They came to our house to play for us one day. It was fascinating. They normally charge about $50 Red Envelop money for playing. I took some video and sent to Sam and now it's on youtube :  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHAsMYnssfY&feature=share&list=UU7wJEeXldcY2Vd47p8ib2EQ

We also saw people playing Dragon on the street: 

Both kids loved playing this hammer game: 

Sadly the government canceled the city's firework show and lantern festival show this year. We were so so so sad!! But my parents bought some big fireworks so we had a little party in our yard. And Enoch got to play with fireworks too. He loved it so much! Michael was a little scared. 

"Driving" tractors were always fun for little kids:

Enoch loved this crafty activity, he asked to do it every time we went to the city. They basically put paint/die on a picture and then somehow transfer to a paper after the paint is dry. This time Enoch did a hello kitty with Michael's help. 

I have to post this pic again. Kids in my hometown all wear similar kind of clothes in winter. Somehow everybody there thinks that the kids are always cold and need to put a lot more clothes on. 

It was really hard to be a single parent in China. But all in all, I'm just glad that we got to do this trip. 

On a side note, my boys' chinese got so much better! Enoch can speak Chinese fluently now and Michael can repeat whatever we say and speak Chinese in sentences. Before the trip Michael was not saying much chinese at all. So that's a bonus! 

Our trip to China Part one: Flights

We got back from our five-week-long trip to China last Sat, jet lagged but safe and healthy. We were so blessed to have a free extra seat for Michael during the longest connecting flight to China and all three connecting flights back home. I cant tell how grateful I'm! That made our flying experience much less stressful! Way easier than I expected.

I did do a lot of homework to prepare for our flights. I'd like to write about it a little in case anybody else is seeking this kind of experience. 

1, I wrapped little gifts with foil and put them in two bags that marked my boys' names. They got to pick one whenever there is a need for a new distraction. That turned out to be really helpful. Most of the toys are little toy cars I got from dollar stores. 

2, Stickers. I got tons of stickers. Reusable and un-reusable. I gave them each a plain paper to stick stickers on. They loved it. That can keep them for a good half an hour at a time. 

3, I made two airplane tray covers, one with ocean theme, the other car/airplane theme. You can find different themes on pinterest (like this one http://pinterest.com/pin/83527768058366307/). Mine were really roughly made but did the job. Michael loved pulling fish, shark, boats or airplane out of the pocket. Enoch was not so impressed...

4, Crayons, markers with printed coloring pages or books. I printed airplanes, cars, trains for the kids to color. I put crayons in a baking powder container. Michael loved getting crayons in and out of the container. I used dark tape to tape the edges so it wouldn't hurt their fingers. But I did lose some crayons and had to craw on the floor to pick them up a few times. Dislike! 

5, I also cut out yarns and was thinking of making necklace with cheerios but I forgot to bring cheerios, so oh well. 

6, I bought those jello stickers that you can stick on the window. I didn't need to use them during flights. But both my boys had fun playing with that at my parents house when playing outside wasn't an option. They can be reused. 

Those are the main things I got for the flight. I didn't need to use the Ipad the whole trip to China since it was at night most of the time and they were sleeping for a long time. I used the Ipad during the last hour on the way back, pretty awesome! If you are considering international traveling with kids, there are three suggestions I'd like to give: 1, Be grateful for the long layovers and make good use of it! (I'm not talking about over 5 hours' long layover though). I had two four-hour-long layovers and my kids just went crazy playing. They worn themselves out. I know it's hard to watch them if they run around but if you can watch them and are comfortable letting them play then they'll be tired during the flights. That's what happened to us. Amazingly both boys fell asleep once we took off for almost every flight back. 2, Don't get front seating where they can put up a baby bassinet if you don't have a baby!!! We did and it was nice to have more room but the main problem was that: You could not lift the arms of the chairs then your kids might just have to sleep sitting. My boys didn't like to sleep in sitting position. So it was hard for them to find a comfortable position. But with the lifted arms, they could put their heads on my lap or put their legs on my seat, which would be more comfortable. 3, Traveling at night is much more easier than travelling during the day! (At least for me...)

For most part I'm grateful that my pregnancy has been going well and has allowed me to do the trip without much discomfort. I got eyed at many times during the trip which didn't bother me and also got a lot of compliments about being brave. If doing a trip like this with two kids makes me brave, then being pregnant on top of that probably makes me crazy :) If you are crazy like me, I say go for it. Otherwise I'd suggest not doing it when pregnant! 

I will do a part-two for our time staying in China later. Stay tuned!