First and foremost dear friends I apologize, it has been months since I last posted something. I have 100 excuses and basically they all suck. :) So I am going to start with the most recent and do my best to get caught up in the new few weeks. I will just list them as I write them and won't back date them. Be on the lookout for Adeline's birthday (and birthday last year, pathetic I am...I know) :), our trip to Japan, summer awesomeness, school updates, Henry's field trip to the Great Wall and lots more fun I'm sure.

Halloween this year was super fun, but with the ever present hilarious China twist. :) We joined the Esmonds for a champagne brunch at the Westin hotel in Beijing. The food was great, the decorations unique (yes they are real organs/spine etc in the pictures!!) and the company was awesome. We were there for 3.5 hours enjoying delicious food and drinks. The kids had a great area to play, get tattoos, make crafts and hang out. They were all told by the parents that after having one plate of healthy food they could eat whatever they wanted. They were blown away that we let them eat candy, cakes, cookies, milk shakes, popcorn etc all in one sitting. My kids are already begging to go back. It was definitely great, but it came with a price tag...most expensive meal we have ever had actually. :)

One of the highlights at the brunch was that Adeline won the costume contest, as Pippi Longstocking!! She was thrilled to say the least and was rewarded with a cooking class. Henry went as the cone zombie from Plants vs. Zombies and Truman as Yoda.

Another was Mitchell eating a larva...sooo gross! Kudos to him for trying though. :)

While at lunch, Nikki and I started receiving texts from friends that we had been wrong about the date of trick or treat night. We had been told on numerous occasions that it would happen on Monday night because that was Halloween. Well, it was actually Sunday night. Go figure. :) Thankfully the kids were already dressed up from the brunch so we headed from the Westin straight to Cathy's house to enjoy appetizers, more drinks and great friends. The dads took the kids out trick or treating and the moms stayed back at Cathy's (each with the own bowl of candy) and we enjoyed more great conversation and a bottle of wine. We had to laugh when the kids got back and we checked out the candy. They were each given shrimp flavored candy, halls cough drops and saltine crackers (not individually wrapped). Hilarious, only in China!! :)