Our Fourth

For the fourth we were invited to our friend’s, The Corl's, house. Todd was super patriotic and decorated everything spectacularly! In all my life, this was probably the most patriotic party I’ve ever been to, and we’re in China! Their house was decorated with tons of flags, red, white and blue and posters of flag scenes. They even had a Constitution hanging on the cabinet.

We sang the National Anthem, said a prayer, and dug into tons of American fare! We had burgers, baked beans, watermelon, potato salad and chicken, Yum!


Zachary and I went up to eat on the roof where all the kids were eating. Most of the adults stayed down stairs, but I can never turn down the opportunity to eat on a roof, with ocean & mountain views. Eating on a roof makes everything better. IMO.

After lunch we had dessert! I made lemon bars and a lemon, blueberry cake and another lady brought monster cookies! Everything was delicious. After lunch we sat around the living room and told stories and laughed. My cheeks hurt when we left from laughing so hard. We had to leave early, but as we were leaving everyone was planning to go outside for a watermelon seed spitting contest and to play kickball! So fun!

Lemon Blueberry Cake-Recipe found here. :)

It was a great afternoon.  I really felt for one of the first times since being in China, like it was a holiday!  Thank you Todd and Sue for a great party!!!

A Qingdao Bay Boat Party

 

The beautiful month of May was filled with birthdays! One of those birthdays was our friend, Sonny! You may remember us mentioning Sonny here. He's a great guy. He's incredibly generous, hilarious and humble. We love any time we get to spend with him! For his 40th birthday he decided to rent a boat and take his friends out for dinner and some Qingdao Bay views. 

The birthday boy and his brother and sister in law. 

 

Once every one was on the boat, we set off for the sea, and the waitors, chef and bartender Sonny brought from the hotel, started shaking, pouring and bbqing things up. There was also lots of fresh fruit and veggies.

 

 

The views were great but the boat was really rocking over each wave! It was hard to hold our plates, drinks and hold conversations. At some points we had to grip the table so as not to fly out of our chair.

People were even falling over! So they decided to turn the boat around and go back to the dock to enjoy our lunch and cake.

Zachary and Ash tried to catch a few fish while we were docked. One guy on the boat actually caught one and immediately stuck in on the barbi down stairs. He was super excited!

The Mosby Man and I

Some of the best birthday cheese cake I've ever tasted. After we ate we headed back out to the sea to enjoy the last hour with the boat.

Our view as we headed back in for the final time-tons of Chinese people taking pictures of us and the Olympic torch.

Happy Birthday Sonny! We had a great time! Thank you so much for having us!

Spring & Silas

Every Sunday we get to see this cuteness, not the dandelion, but the cuteness below, Silas. He is a delight to be around. He's just hilarious. We love watching him search for chocolate & sweets, give his sisters sweet hugs, play with his toys and just be all boy, each Sunday.

Silas loves to go outside! A few Sundays ago with each person that left Silas was getting more and more anxious to go outside! He would point to his coat, put on his shoes, and finally put on his coat, as each new group left his house Sunday, hoping, just hoping, maybe he too would get to go outside!

I was watching the scene and my heart just melted for the little guy, so Zachary and I decided to take him outside on a walk. I'm so glad we did. It was awesome to see the outside, spring weather and flowers, with a little 2 year old by our side. He quickly sought out the dandelions and blew those seeds away like a pro.

We love the spring time here! I know we've said it before but I'll keep saying it and taking pictures! Its just so beautiful!

This little one looks familiar! We have lots of these in Texas!

Silas quickly discovered, thanks to Uncle Zachary, that if he hit the cherry blossoms, tons of petals would go flying off! This, of course, was great fun for him!

After a while of playing in the grass and hitting trees, Silas headed towards the Klugg's (his fan) house but animatedly started saying "bike! bike! bike!" and walking across the square to a lobby where tons of bikes were kept. I told Silas, "Sorry, those aren't our bikes. Those are someone else's." But he was on a mission. He walked into the lobby and started saying, "Bike! Bike! Me bike!" and pointing to a very cool strider. So, after much inquiry of Silas, "Is this your bike? It's yours? Yours?" we finally determined that it was, in fact, his bike!

Of course, he knew it all along! He probably thought we were very slow! This little man showed his bike who's boss! He was awesome on it! He was flying across the square with his legs up and having so much fun!

Zachary and I are convinced that this bike is amazing and our kids will never have training wheels but instead a strider. I mean, really! He's two! And he was already balancing with his legs up.

Looking fly Silas, looking fly! I love these little moments that make us slow down and just enjoy the things and people around us.