HKG129: Kennedy Town

beautiful s1 playing on the "speakers" with olivia

beautiful s2 playing with a bowling pin feature on part of the play equipment

a whole bunch of adorable and hungry kids gnoshing on some lunch fixin's

cranky bug. i told her to find something besides the monkey bars to do b/c they were too high up and i had to keep leaving q-whose-middle-name-should-be-danger to help her up there only to have her slip and fall off the first rung b/c it was so incredibly hot and her little hands were so sweaty.

beautiful bug listening to her friend, s, on the speaker

leave it to q to find the dirt and start excavating. this kid loves him some dirt. he's going to have a field day when we move back to texas and he realizes he has an acre of space to dig.

q chillin' out at the mahjong table at belcher bay park

q on a springy motorcycle

q was having a game by himself at our building playground tonight...he was pretending the drainage grate is a train track and was helping arthur out of an emergency.

today we headed into kennedy town with our chicago friends to check out the kennedy town swimming pool. the pool area has a really big lap pool and a smaller kids' pool that is AWESOME for small kids. the girls are getting to the age were it might have been a little bit boring for them, but they hung in there and were happy campers. the boys had a ball. after playing at the pool for an hour, we headed in to belcher bay park to have a picnic lunch and play for a bit until it was time to go home. it was super duper hot today. this afternoon, my friend forwarded me some information about the apparent temp...it was 107 today. bleh.

this afternoon, we got out for some quick errands and to visit our favorite shop cats. we got to pet and play with the 25yo kitty that looks just like la fu...she was pretty majorly affectionate with olivia. in fact, when olivia tried to walk out of the office, the kitty wanted to go with her.

tonight, the kids are having a sleepover of their own. i am thinking that livie really enjoys sharing a room. we might have to look into letting them share on a regular basis. quinn seems to like the company, too. q's room is so tiny, though, that livie is shoved into a corner on a couch cushion...if we were to make this a more permanent situation, we'd need to move both of them to olivia's room, which is much bigger.

HKG128: Directionally Challenged

q didn't want to look when i asked him to smile and let me take a picture of him on his only-kid date. daddy took matters into his own hands. literally :-)

today, we met up with our chicago friends to go check out the central library and victoria park. we go to victoria park a lot...it's one of our favorite sunday activities. we take bus 23, and presto-whamo, we're at the park.

today, we hopped on a tram because there's a tram stop very near our friends' apartment. when we got off the tram, i whipped out my trusty navigator, and the other family whipped out their map, and we set off. we asked several times for directions/help, but somehow, we still ended up going in the opposite direction of the library, which is right across the highway from victoria park (and there's a foot bridge, so it's easily accessible).

we still had a great time. during our fruitless wanderings, we found two play areas and one amazing toy store. one play area was like my gym or little gym, and thus closed to us b/c there was no free play. also, it was designed for wee ones the boys' age...it would have bored the girls to tears after a few minutes. we checked out another play area that was in the back of a toy store. after determining it would cost between 30 and 60 USD to play there for 45 minutes, we moved on to toys.

the kids had a ball checking out the store and picking out a special toy. next stop was a pizzeria. we had to wait a bit for a table, but the wait was well worth it because the pizza was delicious! we headed out once again to find the park/library. we got THIS close, but by the time we did, the baby boys were falling down tired. we called it. we will try again soon.

after our outing, olivia went back to our friends' house for a playdate and sleepover. q CRIED his big blue eyeballs out when he realized sissy wasn't in the taxi with us. i took him to our pool after his nap, and he refused to play. he just kept asking for sissy. tomorrow morning, we will all meet up at a really cool pool that is designed for young kids...zero entry, slides, and sprinklers. i am sure that q will be THRILLED to see sissy. by the way, i did finally download a compass app on my phone...hopefully, this will end my streak of fruitless adventures :-)

tonight, josh and i took q on an only-kid date... we took him out for a hot dog dinner and then for ice cream. he did seem to forget to miss sissy while he was munching down the hot dog, dripping ice cream everywhere, and having mommy and daddy at his beck and call and ready to swing him every three steps on the walk home :-)

HKG127: Adventures

kids playing around with the baby swings at the zoo park. livie brought her stuffed dragon along for the adventures and spent quite a bit of time swinging him in the baby swing ;-p

today we kept the morning kind of quiet. i took livie in to see a doc b/c she's been complaining of ear pain. she has some slight irritation on the outer ear, but the inner ear looks great...what a relief. after the doc's office, we went to the zoo playground for a bit and then to an international grocery store.

after a nice, quiet afternoon, we headed out to meet up with our chicago friends at an indoor playroom that we hadn't been to yet. it turns out that now that school is out, everyone else had the same idea. we could not get into the playroom, so instead, we wandered around looking at markets and trying to find a playground. we had a great time at the market we found, but we did not find the playground. i need to download a compass app on my phone so that when my navigation app tells me to head southwest, i actually know which direction to turn.

after our fruitless wanderings, we stopped at a mariott hotel to eat dinner at their restaurant. we had a delicious, relaxing meal, and then called it a night. we hope to be headed off on big adventures with our friends tomorrow, too!

HKG126: Terrific Tuesday

today started out pretty slow and mostly quiet. q woke up healthier than he did yesterday...his nose was much better and there were no content issues with his diapers, but he also woke up in a super mischievous mood when it comes to behavior. i swear to god he did everything he knows he's not supposed to the entire day. he totally wore me out.

we started the day waiting for construction crews to arrive and finish the last of the most recent construction, groceries to be delivered, and for our friends to come visit.

our friends arrived just as the construction crews finished up and just minutes after the pizza arrived...perfect timing. we had a ball sharing pizza and fresh fruit while being entertained with a fashion show. the girls went to town with some play makeup and clothes. the boys played around with trains and cars, taking occasional breaks to heckle the girls. once nap time hit, the girls moved onto playing the wii, making brownies, and doing some art projects. q was super unhappy about being separated from all the fun, so he took only a short nap and woke up on the wrong side of the floor (he refused to sleep in his bed. again.). late this afternoon, we went out to play on the playground. the kids had an absolute ball. livie cried when her friends left. if she could find a way to be with them 24/7, she'd do it in a heartbeat.

today, my grocery delivery bubble was burst. i have so thoroughly been enjoying grocery delivery and have had very few problems. today, there was a problem...a rather big one. first off, the groceries arrived an hour outside the 5-hour delivery window. this isn't too bad...not much to complain about. the groceries all arrived HOT, though. and several of the refrigerated items were not stored with ice or anything else cold. in fact, the shredded cheese i ordered was a big oily lump of melted goo (cheddar doesn't melt "pretty"), and the two containers of margarine i ordered showed up in liquid form. i submitted a complaint right away, and got a phone call minutes later. tomorrow morning, those items will be replaced. now that summer is really heating up, i will be sure to be meticulous about very plainly requesting that cold items be stored with dry ice (which is how it's usually done...never had to request it before).

kids tuckered out after their playdate

in order to keep q out of the girls' craft, i gave him his own supply of shave foam to play in. he made use of it, as you can see.

it's a good thing shave foam has some detergents in it...made it easier to clean up this gigantic mess.

athletically-inclined s totally owned the wii basketball court!

one monkey

another monkey

and another monkey. this monkey did so much monkeying around that i had to send her home with band aids. i felt very bad about that until her family let me know that this is totally normal for her :-)

three artists working hard on their 3D pics. we used a combo of equal parts shave foam and elmer's glue along with some glitter glue to make a 3D paint. i learned this trick from miss pam, olivia's 3yo teacher at harmony hill preschool. this trick never gets old. if i wasn't so damn tired, i might be whipping up another batch of this paint to make my own creations :-)

the girls singing and dancing to a tune on just dance kids

HKG125: Meh Moday

today started off rocky...around 1 a.m. and 2 a.m. and 3 a.m. the boy was up and restless a lot last night. i am too damn old for all that all-night partying, so i started off in a major deficit this morning.

along with the strange night wakings, q was just off his game today...snotty, sneezy, clingy, and just off. and then he started producing some strange output from a region south of his nose ;-) all in all, it was a day to be locked down.

we managed to get out to pay a bill, but other than that and a very quick trip to the downstairs playground while it was empty (lasted less than five mintutes b/c other kids came down and josh brought ours back to avoid contamination), we stayed home today. we had to miss out on some fourth of july fun, which just sucks, but it's better for all involved. i suspect q has a sinus infection and that the drainage is what's causing the output issues, but until i know more, i don't want to take the chance of spreading the love.

i am hoping that tonight is a better night and that tomorrow gets off to a better start!

la fu was totally into the theme of the day. he took the lockdown very seriously ;-)

i was spying on the kids playing in the bathroom to ensure there wasn't any major damage being done, and i noticed that la fu put himself right into the middle of the action. this cat is brave!

q taught sissy his sit-in-the-toys trick.

HKG124: Super Sunday

sunday morning started off quiet, but we decided to get out for a quick adventure before getting home to get q down for a nap. we knew that since saturday was super busy and fun, it was imperative that the little man have his nap.

we headed over to wong nai chung resevoir park to have a little paddle boat adventure. it was splendid. the scenery was amazing, and the paddle boat ride was perfect...not too long and not too short. we all had a great time.

sunday afternoon, josh and i took the kids to kolwoon park on a good recommendation from our chicago friends. it was awesome. the park is amazing...it's very beautiful AND fun. there's also a pool area with three pools. we went to the park and aviary first, and then josh took the kids to the pools while i met up with a friend to do some shopping and sight seeing in the temple street markets.

we had a great time shopping until we were ready to drop. we jumped in a taxi to head to a restaurant called the flying pan...this is the place josh and i went to a week or so ago...american diner food. well, our cabby was CRABBY and was throwing a hissy fit the minute i told him where we wanted to go. then he drove around the long way, dumped us in the middle of SOHO, and told us to get out. he was a real charmer. to further complicate matters, the navigation app on my phone would give me the street addy for the restaurant only in chinese characters...so, after a fruitless search, we headed to the peak cafe instead. the peak cafe is pretty awesome itself, so we still had a great dinner.

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HKG122 & HKG123: The Start of a 3-Day Weekend

yesterday was another public holiday for hong kong, HKSAR Establishment Day. that sounds incredibly fun, doesn't it? this day is the anniversary of hong kong becoming part of china again. i had a shift at the SPCA yesterday morning, and i asked the woman i was working with what she was doing for the holiday. after she finished looking at me like i had just cursed out her mother, she explained to me that it's not a holiday, per se, just a public holiday. she mentioned that there would be many, many protests around town all day and that most hong kongers do not celebrate the day. i did see many gatherings surrounded by cops, but i couldn't read the signs, so i didn't realize that the gatherings were protests about the holiday.

josh was off work yesterday, so our family spent a very fun day with our chicago friends. josh and the kids met up with the b family to ride a really cool cable car up a mountain to check out the giant budha. they all came back with rave reviews. the outing took longer than anticipated, so i ended up not meeting up with everyone until late afternoon (i had planned to catch up with them for lunch as soon as my shift with the SPCA was done, but they were just starting up the mountain when my shift finished).

we all met up at silver mine bay beach after they were done checking out the giant budha and having a late lunch. the beach was pretty amazing. it's in a very remote part of lantau island, and the surroundings are breathtakingly beautiful. this was my favorite beach BY FAR at this point. my only complaint is that the water is murky and has some debris in it...not nearly as clean as other beaches we have been to.

after playing at the beach for a while, we all headed over to an italian restaurant and had some delicious pizza, pasta, and appetizers. it was a pretty awesome day. i am pretty jealous that i missed out on the giant budha adventures (and we will go again soon so that i can check it all out), but i also had a great time at the SPCA. i worked in the cattery again.

la fu came THIS close to getting a sister, but for now, the verdict is he stays an only kitty. this little girl cat i was thinking about bringing home is listed as "needs home urgently." i asked why she was listed as such, and the woman i was working with said that she's been hard to place because she bites and scratches. i played with her quite a bit, and she is a very physical kitty, much like la fu. she does paw and bite while playing, but i didn't find her to be aggressive at all. i asked some more questions about her and did learn that she will not be euthanized. this is the reason i did not bring her home yesterday. i will keep my eye out for her, though, and if she becomes more urgently in need of a home, i will be scooping her up to bring her home. i am a little hesitant simply because i am possessive of my waffle kitty. i don't want to share him with anyone; i LOVE being his playmate and cuddle pal. oh, and i have enough small people and pets to care for as well ;-p

today was a pretty low key day...we just ran a few errands, endured another construction invasion, and hung around the apartment. the big event for the day was cleaning out the fish's tank and changing out part of their filter. i managed to lose one of the clips that holds the top of the tank in place correctly, so now we are having to run more interference to keep la fu out of the tank. poor fishies.

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