Hong Kong: The Arrival

 Tuesday morning I had to leave as soon as the kids left for school.  I told them I needed selfies with them before I left so I would have pictures to look at while I was gone. Callie slunk away and disappeared.  Marian was thoughtful enough to dash over, pose briefly and then she ran off to school, which she was a few minutes lateer than she wanted to. It was a terrible photo, but all I could get, so it gets posted.  Delaney and Rylee love me enough and took the time to get decent shots with me.  I love my dumplings.  Josh had left on Sunday for Korea, where he spent the week competing with 12 or so other Drama Teams at the Far East Tournament.  So I got nothing for him.

I took the Shin to Fukuoka, flew to Hong Kong and took the trains to the hotel.  I roomed with my amazing friend Lynnette, who came out from Yokosuka and we had a fabulous time together.  We spent Tuesday evening strolling the Ladies Market and spending money.

One horrid picture of me and my darling daughter Marian.

Hugs with Delaney. 

And me and Rylee. 

The view from the 12th floor of the MetroPark Hotel in Mong Tok.... or was it Kowloon?

The Ladies Market.  It is several blocks of these stalls of goods for sale and lots of special deals for you, today only, just for you. 

 Me, having too much fun burning cash at the Market.  I think we were out till 10pm.... maybe later!

I sampled the more palatable (to me!) foreign options at the breakfast buffet.  Everything on the plate was yummy.  And I went back for more.  

President's Day Trip

We had grand plans for President's Day but things didn't quite go as planned.  It poured rain and the stuff we wanted to do was closed.  So we went to the big YouMe Town mall and had a good time finding fun things in the shops and we had an amazing lunch at the pancakes and burgers place there. It was a succesful outing and the kids were amazing.

Here are pictures of our shenanigans:

I don't know what this is, but I'm amused.

This also amuses me! 

Selecting lunch options. 

Yeah, he's cool. 

My cute little girls. 

Why yes, that is a mountain of whip cream on the strawberry-banana pancakes. 

Sneaking a selfie with Callie. 

Josh is ready to dive into this tastiness. 

Who wants whip cream when you can get ice cream with your pancakes?! 

The bacon cheeseburger. 

Marian and her delicious coconut cream pancakes. 

We polished it all off.  Okay, Rylee had one pancake left, but that was all!

Josh is an.... actor?!!

 When Josh told me he was going to go to Drama Club I thought it a bit out of character.  But sure, whatever.  I was rather surprised when he said he really liked it and would be going back.  And I was impressed.  He performed in his very first play with the High School Drama Club and it was a lot of fun.  We all went to cheer him on and he did a great job!

The play was called "Everyone gets Eaten by Sharks".

Joshua's bio.  Love it!

I hope the video plays.   

I quite enjoyed it.  And I was so busy doing the video clips that I did not get any photos!  Oops. 

He said DO NOT video his monologue, so I didn't.  But the lighting was terrible.  So here is a bad picture of Josh giving his amazing monologue!  (His was one of my favorites, he really did do a great job!) 

The cast coming out for bows and accolades.  

A not-good picture of their poster. 

And a close-up of Josh on it.  I sure do love this kid! 

And we all went out for ice cream afterwards!

Random stuff

Rylee brought home this awesome picture she drew in class.  She was asked to draw something she wants to accomplish in 2017.  Too cute!!

Some of the shells we brought home from Okinawa were not very pretty.  So we painted them.  Now they are pretty! 

Dan took me to lunch at the yummy Indian place.  I have devoured the naan and salad and am polishing off the curry and rice.  So delicious.

We went to a friend's birthday party and they had the amazing face painting lady who also did these fabulous "tatoos" that she painted on.  Rylee LOVED it, and it is still there, 5 days later!

Birthday Cake

 I know, its like her birthday never ends!  I promise this is the last post about it.  On her official birthds-day she wanted lemon cake again, with ice cream.

You can't tell that she's holding a bag of pistachios that her sister gave her for her birthday. She was feeling quite clever with her "pistachio mustachio"!

Super-sweet card from Callie. 

Opening the box from Grandma. 

Checking out the loot. 

Thrilled with her new fabric!