June in Changzhou!

Ok, so I have gotten really bad about blogging!  I know many of you check in for a new post now and again and it has been about a month since my last post.  Believe it or not, being a SAHM is demanding on my time and this takes the back burner to my husband and kids!  But now, Grace is napping, and the chicken is cooking in the kitchen, Blake is at school and Brian is at work, the house is mostly clean, laundry done and I can blog.

So the latest interesting things here in China, Sam's club opened in our city!  It is laid out the same as at home and many things are in bulk, however the selection is very different than what you would find at home.  They have a lot of fruits and vegetables, the meat is not like at home, they offer sandwiches, sushi, and cakes to take away.  There are no huge displays of things hanging from the ceiling of summer floats, tree houses, Christmas displays, you know what i'm talking about. The membership is about $25USD for the year and it is located in the basement of a large mall.   Here are some of the photos.  

The kids and I have a new indoor playground that we have been going to, it has a big blue slide that Blake loves!  Grace still hangs out with me in the stroller or carrier but she enjoys looking around.  At home, Grace is starting to stand holding on to things, she can sit up on her own and is almost 8 months old!  
















We had some friends over for a BBQ, we took the grill and everything downstairs to cook, as Brian was halfway through cooking the burger, about 6 guards showed up from the complex, speaking Chinese and we had no idea what they were saying.  After back and forth with 4 of us saying we don't understand, speaking English and just shrugging it off we figured they didn't like the smoke from the bbq.  Other people were walking by taking photos of us, they all seemed very interested in what we were doing.  After going back and forth with the guards, the burgers were finished cooking, but they wanted us to move under the building, so we packed up the food and chairs and such and moved it under the cover of the building. The food was good, it was nice to be outside on a summer day and have good company.

I went to a farewell BBQ at a park for some friends who are leaving China.  There were BBQ's there, they come and light the grill for you to cook your own food, no picnic tables, but there were benches and we made do.  Here are some photos of our bbq and what was going on around us.  That is the negative to living the expat life, friends come and go, it makes it difficult to get close to people, but also living abroad makes it hard to not find a few good friends.  One of Blake's little friends was part of the family that is leaving and while i don't think he understands he won't see his friend again we did try to explain to him what was going on.

Here are some photos of the kids from the past month, they are cute as ever and we are having so much fun with them.  Blake loves to read books, play with Thomas the train, watch Finding Nemo and run around like crazy!  Grace is laughing now, she smiles a lot and is much more alert to what is going on around her!

Random fruit carving at the local market!

Blake got a Golden Ticket for learning his shapes and colors at school!

Blake at the school play last week!  (On the right in yellow)

These are the lockers offered outside most stores, you can place your belonging in here while you shop!

We had a really nice Father's Day weekend, we went to Shanghai for the weekend and ate some really yummy western food.  Brian got his steak from Outback and we found some other good spots!  We took the kids to Century Park, similar to Central Park in NYC in that it is a large green space in the middle of a very large and densely populated city.  Here are a few photos from the weekend!

We are now counting down to school to be out for Blake, (July 3rd is the last day) and then going on our family summer vacation to Bali, Indonesia!  Check back later for more photos of our vacation!