Sharon and Photo Time

So, Sharon (KB's mom) has been to visit us twice this year.  For some reason during and just after her first visit I was unable to upload pictures from her visit, but I can now so here are a few.

The series of pictures below deserve and explanation.  Sharon wanted a picture of the family together.  Since I was probably still in my pajamas when this happened, I volunteered to take the picture.  Here is how it went down.

First they tried to coral the kids...

 ...they were not successful.

I like this picture of AB.  She is all ready to pose pretty.

Next, I managed to take 5, that is  F-I-V-E, pictures of Sharon, my kids, and my precious husband with his eyes closed.  I have posted all five pictures of KB with is eyes closed below for prosperity. 

Finally things began to unravel...

...and this was the last picture I took.  AB has clearly checked out. 

I am not sure if it was the subjects or my rocking photography skills, but it was because of this attempt at taking a family photo that we took Sharon and the kids to a real photographer when she came back the second time and came out with nice looking photos like this.  Slightly better for sure.

Swimming

In honor of our 7th wedding anniversary next week (wow), KB and I stayed without the kids at a swank hotel one night while Sharon was in town.  The next morning with the help of Zhou Mei, Sharon brought the kids up to the hotel for a swim before checkout.  It is by far the nicest pool I have swam in during our stay in this country, but it was also probably the coldest.  KB does not seem to mind the cold, but gosh I am a wiener.  I can never get past it.

DB was a bit suspicious of the cold water when I first dipped in his little toes, but once KB jumped in and splashed DB, as far as DB was concerned he was not getting in the water, ever. This first picture is DB just after KB splashed him.  Poor scared baby.

Tired of me coddling him, KB took DB from me and apparently DB did not think the water was any better once he was in it.  He takes after mommy.

However, this girl loved swimming so much that she still wanted to stay in even after she began shivering and her lips began to turn blue.  She takes after daddy.

Even after a while DB was still not happy with the cold and terrified to let go of his duck floatie.  We seriously had to pry his tiny ice-cold hands from the handles when we tried to get him out of it.

 This is how we spent a lot of time at the pool, KB taking care of DB and me trying to help AB blow bubbles and also trying (failing) in my attempts to teach her to hold her breath under water. 

 I guess when you only get to swim 2-3 times a year, it is a lot to expect of the kids to do the things they had no fear of doing last year.  Pity.

See this picture?  It is standard in our family that KB will ruin half of all of our family pictures by closing his eyes.  Too bad we only took one.

 In the end we got out of the pool because AB seriously needed to warm up and DB never got over his fear of the icy cold water (can't blame him).  Poor baby.

Getting Older

I added a 1 to my 30 a few weeks ago.  Dash decided to forgo giving me a drawing on paper and created artwork on his face instead.  He was so proud.

My friend and her helper made me a yummy cake and were gracious enough to only include characters that I can read.  

These guys were pretty excited about the cake.  Too bad AB did not eat all of her dinner and was only able to watch us eat our cake.  Seeing that this happens often, I would say she did not learn her lesson.

Fun Fact: There are some crazy candles here in our country.  I few years ago I was given a miniature Roman Candle that I thought was just a fancy, slightly scary, looking candle.  I lit it and it surprised me - here is the video 2009 Birthday Candle. This year our friends attempted to find another flame throwing candle, but alas they had to settle for a candle that plays "happy birthday" over and over again and the candle below which had colorful flames.  I still thought they were cool.

 A few days later KB and AB made me this cake together.  It too was yummy.