This and That

Ok, after the incredibly daunting task of writing the Hangzhou blog, I wanted to write one of just some normal, every day stuff that we've been up to around here.

The kids are almost done with school- Cooper is done on June 15 and Sophie is done on June 22 (well, technically she's done on the 28th but we're pulling her out early to spend more time at home :). 
Cooper seems to be making progress in school with the PECS program, although we have not started implementing it at home yet.
After frying my laminator Ben brought here from the US back in March, Coop's school kindly finished laminating his visual schedule stuff so we have begun the task of assigning everything he does in a day with a visual card cue. The idea is that eventually we can have the cards all lined up and run through the day's events with him at the beginning of the day so he will be able to prepare and anticipate the day without any anxiety. So, this means when he gets up and I change his clothes, I show him the card, get dressed, and read it to him and show it to him several times so eventually he'll know that when he sees this card it means that he's going to get dressed. This repeats with breakfast, sunscreen, shoes on, car to school, lunch, toys, nap, Soph's bus, playground, etc etc. It's a bit overwhelming so we're doing a few key things each day and will slowy add more.
Honestly, we have no idea if we're doing this right or not. There are no classes here to teach me what I'm supposed to be doing for Cooper. I'm simply trusting that God continues to have a plan for me and my little man and so I'll keep trying what I think will help him until someone tells me differently! :)


Here is a picute of our "backyard" (our terrace) in the spring!

On Saturday, May 26th, the Racquet Club held a charity carnival type of thing. There were a ton of kids games and booths where people were selling things.
It was a hot and humid day so the Lawlers and us both had the thought to grab some chairs by the pool before heading out to the fun.
Here are some of the pics from our day-
This cutie pie is Isaac. He'll be 3 in November and he is in the process of becoming quite the swimmer! Just a few months ago he hated the pools and the water but now he's just a little fish! This day he was looking particularly adorable so I just had to capture his cuteness on film. :)

Looking down part of the outdoor pool...

Looking the other direction towards the new condos that are being built. The area closest is the kiddie pool and then the beach area is straight ahead there. Not too shabby... :)

 

Ok, so the first one was to the right, the next was to the left, and this one is straight ahead. It's a little island in the middle of the pool.

Ben trying to put Coop down for a nap at the pool. Cute, but totally unsuccessful. :)

So, instead of napping, Ben, Sophie and Coop went for a swim together.

This is Ben "teaching" Isaac to swim. I love how the Brits do it. :) Don't worry, he had his floaties on, and he loved it. :)

Yes, people, you are seeing it. This is my girl swimming by herself with no help!!

You see the smile on her face, right?

Yeah, that smile was actually a panic-ridden giddyness. Ben had just let her go to prove that she could swim if she really wanted to (she keeps trying to claim she can't). I'm glad to know that if worse came to worse and she fell in, she can easily swim to an edge. However, she was not to happy about us testing her like that. :)

The carnival was a good way to burn some time. We bought some tickets which we could use for games. Of all the fun games and things to do, she wanted her hair colored!

Pink and blue. I have created a punk rocker already!

Her other favorite- fishing. She could have stayed here for a loooong time.

Cooper, on the other hand, could have stayed in the bouncy castle all day and night. He really loves this thing. I'm starting to wonder if I need to get him one for at home... :)

Sophie decided she had had enough fishing and wanted to join her little brother in some bouncing fun. Mia and Isaac joined as well and they had great fun. We had to drag them out!

All in all, a very fun day.


We also received some presents for Coop and Soph from Aunt Jody, Uncle Danny, Grandma and Grandpa Vander Ploeg. Sophie was thrilled her birthday was still being extended!

She received a new Dora activities book that she was thrilled about.

The next present she opened had her collapsing back in joy-

She was so happy to get another Tangled doll- and this one can go swimming with her!!

So, I had to post some pics of the amazing birthday cards that my sister-in-law, Jody made. They were amazing! She so talented.
Ok, so here are the front of the cards- cute by themselves, right?

Turn the cards over and she had made the kids' favorite characters- Dora and Cinderella! Cooper even smiled when I showed his card to him- he totally recognized it as Dora! Loved them!!

Cooper also showed great interest in the presents he got (and for those who don't know, this is really rare!!). This little blankie is super soft and Cooper seriously loves it. He sleeps with it now and constantly hugs it. It's really cute!

His other present was another chewy tube and he's making some really good use out of this! Since I won't let him have pacies he just walks around all afternoon chewing on this.

Great presents, guys! Thanks!!

Hangzhou

Ok! We've had another adventure that I want to get down because we had SO much fun!
Last weekend, on May 19th, we headed out to Hangzhou in the Zhejiang province of China. We hopped on a fast-moving train at 9am and headed southwest for an hour to what the Chinese call "Heaven".

Here we are in the Hongqiao Railway Station- quite a bit bigger than Grand Rapid's Amtrak station!
We were, of course, great entertainment for the locals waiting for trains.

Kids are free on the trains but it means they don't get a seat. We had 4 seats with 4 adults and 4 kids in them :) It actually wasn't bad, thanks to Dora! You're going to see a theme with that wonderful little cartoon on this trip...

These were the second class tickets- very nice actually!

Only a bit crowded. Good thing the train ride was only 45 minutes!

Some of the views from the train. Mostly just farm land.

This weekend was a redo as we tried to go over May 1st but had to back out for hotel issues. A few families backed out of this weekend as well bc the forecast was for rain and they didn't want to chance it. Boy, were they right! It was rainy and a bit cooler, but, honestly, it didn't stop us from doing anything we wanted and I think it helped keep the crowds at bay a bit.

We had hired a driver for the day bc we heard that taxis were tough to get. So we ended up having an 18-seater for the 8 of us bc we had originally booked it for 4 familes and then only us and the Lawlers ended up going. It was great bc we had brought food and just ate lunch in there out of the rain and away from the crowds.

Our first stop was Huagang Park which was on the west side of West Lake. It was a simple, pretty park with peacocks, pagodas, big trees. Very green and lush. So unlike the China I have come to know and way more like the China I had always envisioned.

See, it didn't rain the WHOLE time... :)

Sophie's "cheese" face in front of a peacock exhibit...

Some natural rocky area (well, I think it was natural but you never know around here...)

A pretty pagoda thing.

By a part of the lake...

The lake with the Leifeng Pagoda in the background. You'll see that later up close...

Sophie under an outdoor terrace. Really pretty!

This was a bridge that took you from the side of the lake to a tiny island in the middle of the lake. Missed that this time so we'll hit it up next time.

Isn't this just a picture of China? Old stone bridges, pagodas, boat thingy, kinda misty. So pretty...

An attempt at a VP family pic. At least we're all facing forward! :)

This was a really cool tree that had roots that entwined around other roots which then entwined around other roots. Hard to see it here but it was neato!

Sophie with a wild peacock in the tree behind her.

A better shot of the peacock...

My beautiful girl overlooking a river in the park.

After the park we hopped back into the van and headed to the Lingyin Temple. This is a large Buddhist compound that was built in 326AD. It's at the base of a mountain so as you walk to the entrance of the temple there are various Buddhas carved into the side of the mountain. It's really neat to see! There were some caves as well- so much to see but we were running out of time till lunch so we had to plow on.

Here are some of the carvings...

More carvings...

This carving is one of the most famous of the Temple- it's known as The Laughing Buddha.

Rain, rain, go away.... the walk along the base of the mountain going to the entrance of the temple

Some outdoor incense-burning worship areas....

One of the temples with a buddha in it

We were SO not supposed to take pictures in the temples but since I know these are nothing to be scared of and that the real God could make them fall on their faces if he chose, I took some anyway. They really were quite silly looking. Some were happy, some scary, who knows... That's Liz on the left there. She's not a buddha. Just a pretty pregnant friend. :)

This was the biggest buddha we saw. He had blue hair. Ok.....

 Here's big blue-haired budda dude.

Now, I am not a believer in all things buddha, but this thing was so cool!! Ben was telling me that it tells the story of humans acheiving the different levels of enlightenment. It was all in wood and had hundreds of different tiny carvings of buddas in various states- starving ones, happy ones, etc. The whole thing was about 25 feet tall.

Some of the main buddas in the front of the wall. I seriously could have looked at that wall for hours, there was so much to see!

On the outside looking in...

Another view of the wall- at the top was a really old wooden guy peacefully squatting in a prayer position with a small smile on his face. Apparently he had reached Nirvana. I'm pretty sure Heaven will be way better. Just sayin'. :)

The kids treking up the mountain, one temple at a time. Good thing for suckers! :)

Another temple, another buddha. I'm sure they all stand for something different but I'm not sure what. They are pretty to look at, and the artwork around the statues was amazing to see, but it really was nothing but empty statues.

This was a temple that had row after row of wooden buddhas. Some were creepy, some funny.

The one on the left has a face pulling out of a face (ummm, ok). The one on the right has a dragon-snake thing coming out of his ear.

This was in the middle of the temple of rows of buddhas

This was outside the gift shop. I think it means that they didn't want people smoking because the items inside are valuable and easily damaged. It's so clear, right? ;)

My sweet angel boy. To the right was the mountain side where the stone carvings were. To the left was where the temples were. There was a river next to the mountainside. Just really pretty!

Upon leaving the temple area, we went through a little market where they were selling trinkets and food. These ladies were working hard.....or hardly working. :) Oh, China....

After the temples we headed to the tea fields. SO pretty! Very much like a vineyard, only without the grapes. :) We went to the Longjin Tea Museum. It was still raining but it made the tea fields look misty and dreamy.

Entering the museum. It had a section for the history of tea in China, why it's so important to them, what good it does for them, etc, etc...

This was a machine that they used to grind tea leaves.

4 main bowls where you'd place the tea leaves. Then you rotate the whole thing and it grinds them up. Then you release a lever and the ground up leaves fall into buckets underneath.

Putting the girls to work...

Peak-a-boo! Learning about different kinds of tea leaves...

This fantastic diagram shows the many ways tea is good for your body. It made absolutely no sense and I'm pretty sure half of it was made up. :)

Liz and I decided to partake in an official tea ceremony. She had steamed cups that she poured water over to  clean them then steeped the tea for exactly a certain amount of time (seriously, there was a timer) and then poured us the tiniest cup of tea. I gotta admit, it didn't taste any different than the Lipton I use at home..... ;)

 Cheers!

The longest name for a building ever. The International Tea Culture Exchange Center of China. Ok.

Near the end of our tea adventure we decided to do a tea sampling. 4 different kinds of tea were made for us and the host also gave us the history of the tea and lots of other info.

The kids were totally disinterested in this part so Dora came to the rescue, yet again!

This described the kinds of teas- Jasmine, Ginseng Oolong, Black and Green.

Quite the fan fare to this little tasting...

This was the jasmine tea. When she put it in the pot it was a wad of dark green. As the water takes hold, the package unfolds. It was really cool!

The tea is now ready to drink! Steeped for about 3 minutes. Once you see the jasmine flower in the middle, it's time to drink!

I can't remember which tea this described, we just liked what the tea does for you- those nasty electrom agnetic waves....

We did finally get the girls to try the ginseng oolong tea. It had this amazing sweet flavor at the end of it that was kind of addicting. We thought they would like it- Mia did, Sophie was not a fan... :)

After the tea museum, we headed back to the hotel. The plan was to have a rest, then grab some dinner and head out to a light show that the guy who did the Bejing Olympics put together.

Our hotel turned out to be awesome. A huge props to Liz Lawler for finding this place!!! It was called Oakwood Residence Inn. It was actually like a one bedroom apartment.

Here's a view from the window. The front door is on the right. The kitchen is on the left. On the far left is the doorway to the bedroom.

Ben was ready to relax....

Cooper was not. No nap that day and his mind was reeling!!

It was still raining so we didn't want to travel far for dinner. Thankfully, there was an Asejin Ramen right around the corner. While we waited for food with over-tired and hungry kids, Dora, once again, saved the day. :)

I meant to take a picture of the food when it came but we were so hungry we just shoveled it in as fast as possible. It was all really good- even the kids loved it!

We were planning on going to the Impression West Lake Show but the kids were knackered and the adults were knackered and the weather still wasn't great so we scrapped that plan and called it a night. After hitting up Starbucks for a night cap piece of cheesecake. :)

The next morning it was still (yes, I know) raining so we grabbed some taxis after a breakfast of Starbucks and headed out to the Leifeng Pagoda. This huge pagoda is the best place to see West Lake. The pagoda is on the top of a hill so they have escalators to help you up in case you don't want to take the many many many stairs.

The entrance to the area was covered in amazing stone carvings. The kids loved playing in it, although there were a few trips and spills. :)

Here's the entrance to the area

The stone steps before the escalators

My sweet boys

These were some stone pillars that I originally thought were birdhouses. They weren't. They're just there to look cool...

On our way up the escalators. Sophie, Isaac, and Mia loved it!

This was inside the bottom of the pagoda. See, the original pagoda had been destroyed. The bricks of the pagoda were considered lucky so local people kept coming over the years and stealing them to get a piece of luck. Eventually, enough bricks were taken and the pagoda collapsed. The remaining original bricks are behind the glass and people throw money over the glass to hopefully bring themselves some luck now. Here, you see Ben hoisting Isaac up so he can throw some money over the glass. They built a new pagoda over the remains of the old one.

There were, I think, 4 or 5 floors to the pagoda and each one had a main room and then exits out to a terrace that surrounded the pagoda and gave 360-degree views of the area. Each main room was full of these amazing wood carvings. They were so intricate and detailed and just beautiful.

This was looking up in one of the main rooms- the pictures around the top of the room are more wood carvings. Just beautiful!

Can you tell I liked the wood carvings? :)

From the top of the pagoda this was the view of West Lake. It was misty and windy and beautiful.

More views...

Looking down. Eek!

A temple in the distance.

A very sleepy little man with Daddy. He was not as impressed with the views as we were! :)

See? I am here! I don't take ALL the pictures. I sneak in one every now and again. :)

This was this weird dragon boat that celebrities get to ride on from time to time. Ben was telling me he knew Arnold Schwarzeneggar has been on it.

I found this to be a very classic "China" picture. The misty lake with the lily pads and the people going over the bridge. I really liked it!

After the pagoda everything kind of went to pot. We wanted to find this restaurant, Angelo's, to have lunch there before heading to the train station. We had tons of time, initially, so when we couldn't find it, we just hunted around and walked around for about 30 minutes until we stumbled upon it. It was advertised as a New York italian place and we were ready for some good american food.

My little man was SO tired after 2 days of no naps. Poor little man. He was such a good boy the whole weekend!

A view of the restaurant. The food was really good! I had a calzone, the kids and Liz had pizzas, and then Bens had fish and chips. I'd definitely eat there again bc it tasted like home!

Once we had eatten we hopped into some taxis and headed back to the hotel to grab our bags. Then came the mad rush to the train station. We hit some unexpected traffic and what was supposed to be a 15 minute taxi ride turned into a 45 minute one. Our train was at 3pm and they leave at 3. There's no waiting. We arrived at the train station at 303. :( Liz and I had been texting back and forth about where the other one was. They were originally behind us so I thought they had missed the train as well. I texted her when we got there so we could all go get new tickets when she texted back they had made it on by anout 30 seconds. Oh, my heart sank. :( Their taxi driver had started driving on the sidewalks and got them there with 5 minutes to spare.
So, Ben and I headed around the corner to the ticket stand, which was a madhouse. The kids and I were tired and I was ready to cry. Ben took over and got the new tickets for an hour later and we headed to the waiting area for the train.
This was the waiting area.

 Welcome to China. :)

Here was our train. We had to get first class seats for the ride back and it ended up being nice. Bigger seats, more room for us. We were very happy to get home!

Overall, the weekend was a great success and we had a ton of fun. There was so much we didn't get to do bc we ran out of time (literally) so we will definitely go back when family comes to visit!