The Tomorrow after Tomorrow

We tried to go to our neighborhood post office to pick up a package (thanks Coco!) yesterday, and it was closed, in the middle of the day on a Friday, with a sign taped to the door. I wasn't the only one surprised by this, and many people were crowding around to read the sign. Of course I might have been the only one who had no idea what it said. Our driver got out to offer his help and read the sign and I guess didn't know how to explain it in English to me, so he simply said, "maybe tomorrow?" And then added "or the tomorrow after tomorrow." While not grammatically correct, it struck me as a beautiful turn of phrase. Maybe we should start using it.

Easter Egg Hunt

Found all the eggs (and the chocolates)!

Found one!

There it is!

Jello-Dyed Easter Eggs

I wasn't really planning on doing eggs this year, as obviously Easter isn't really celebrated in China, and I didn't think Amelia knew anything about it. But when we bought some regular old eggs at the store and they happened to come in a small plastic basket, she said "We can use that basket for our Easter eggs!" I don't know where she learned about Easter from, or if it was just coincidence that she said this 2 days before Easter, but I took it as a sign that we should color some eggs. Next problem, of course there are no egg dying kits and I also couldn't find food coloring, so what to dye the eggs with? I weighed some options and ended up going for...Jello! It was relatively cheap, colored the eggs well, and Amelia and I had a lot of fun decorating them. They ended up rather sticky, but it turns out that washed off and still left all of the color, so a successful venture after all. The Easter bunny hid the eggs and some chocolates in the yard, and both kids had a great time finding them, in fact so much fun that we have been playing Easter bunny all week and hiding all kinds of things in the house and yard. 

In case you were wondering, the bandage on Amelia's chin was a little too much twirling in the shallow end of the baby pool. Healing nicely now, and after the first day she didn't seem to notice it too much.

No match for an eager 3-year old

Boxes of Fun

We received word recently that our container that left our house in Aveiro on February 29th and started it's long journey around the world a few days later, was held up in Spain and waited out nearly the entire month of March there. So what we thought would be 6-8 weeks of waiting is already stretching longer. The current estimate is arrival in China the first week of May, followed by 7-10 business days to clear customs, puts us at about May 15th for the earliest possible arrival, though I think the smart money is even later. Luckily our house is semi-furnished, so this time around we have beds, sofas, and a dining room table. Plus our air-shipment arrived with a couple of boxes each of kitchen supplies, clothes, toys, and a few other miscellaneous essentials. However, after a month the kids are already getting a little bored of the few toys we have on hand, so we had to create something to bridge the gap until the rest arrives. So, those boxes from our air-shipment are now doing double duty and keeping the kids entertained. 

Baking up a Storm

 A New Home for the Dolls

4-wheeling!

Once we made the Doll's House, we had to go bigger!

We've only got one left though, any ideas? 

No Foolin'

In what I hope to be the first of many installments of interesting and amusing signs we see during our stay in China. Here is a good one from our walk yesterday:

Ooops, forgot a very important word here...what could it be?

And a little family photo. Currently Spring is in full force with trees in bloom everywhere you look.

Amelia is still not fond of everyone wanting to take her picture, however, when we saw a wedding couple taking photos in the park and they asked Amelia to be in one, she could not say no, after all she was going to get her picture taken with a bride, a BRIDE! And she had flowers, and a tiara, and PINK SHOES, and did we mention that Amelia is a little obsessed with brides and weddings at the moment?