Holidays and May Fun

As I mentioned in the previous post we just celebrated our 10 year anniversary! These fun photos are from the actual day. You might be wondering why the pictures are so kid centered if it was Monty and my anniversary, well. . .that is a funny story. We had an extremely busy week as new students arrived and others traveling so there was never a lack of things to be done. On the morning of our anniversary I was not sure if I could get Monty out for the day or not since his schedule had been so crazy. That morning as he quickly ate breakfast and was heading out the door to meet with some people he kissed me and said, "I'll be back in an hour and we'll go to the amusement park and celebrate, okay?" I said "Sure!" and set to work getting myself ready and the kids sun screened and little bags packed for an outing. When Monty came back up the hill the children squealed with delight and were waiting in the truck clapping and cheering at the fun outing ahead. Monty, being a bit distracted, did not notice them in the truck until it was running and we were driving away. He then looked at me and said, "why are the children going for OUR anniversary?" I was certain that he meant all of us when he said "we'll" and "amusement park" in the same sentence. It was too late now, so off we went to celebrate our 10 year anniversary with the "fruit of our marriage."
I must say that I was delighted to have the children along as Monty's phone rang non-stop for the first two hours. All were very important calls and some international so he needed to take them. The children and I rode the rides again and again and again. Each time we would look to see if Monty was off the phone yet and when it was obvious by his pacing in a corner that he was not, we rode the ride one more time. This was also our first time to take Judah to the amusement park, so it was fun to have some time to introduce him to the rides. Thankfully Monty's mobile phone battery died after the first two and a half hours of calls so we had him to our self the rest of the day:).This ride was actually quite hilarious. It is a monkey pulling a rick-shaw. We had never rode it before but it looked harmless so I put Judah on. As the ride began it bounced up and down while going in circles. After the first round, Judah waved, the second round, he reached out his arms for me, by the third he was sliding out of the seat in an attempt to escape and his head was the only part of him on the seat while his body dangled. As I was about to jump the fence, the guy who operated the ride (along with 4 other rides at the same time) went in and pulled Judah back up into the seat. Within two more rounds he was dangling again so the ride operator came back to the rescue. He finally shut off the ride and told me he did not think Judah was quite ready for this kind of ride. The funny thing is that at the amusement park there are no age nor height requirements for rides. All throughout the rest of the day (and week) Judah kept saying, "Momma. . .ooooeeeeeahahaha. . .bump. . .NO!" Which basically translates, "Mommy, please do not put me on the monkey ride AGAIN!"
We did get a couple of hours to our self on the anniversary outing. We have some wonderful friends who live in town and graciously agreed to let our children nap at their house so Monty and I could get a bit of a date in. There is also a restaurant in town that carries real Italian Ice Cream! What a treat!!!! They do put sliced tomatoes on top of the ice cream for decoration but oh well, the ice cream still tastes fabulous. We also walked around some streets that we had been wanting to explore to see what kind of shops are available. At one point we heard a band practicing and followed the music down an alley way to find the "Cultural Center" for our city. Monty was sure some of the band members had already passed away and were propped up with the ancient instruments. The person who worked at the place happened to be a new friend that comes out on Saturdays to teach the girls and I Chinese. So, she wanted to give us the full tour. We had to sip tea with her boss and got to hold pre-historic fossils that had been found in our city. It was interesting but not quite what I imagined four our 10 year anniversary.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MONTY!!!!!

May 12th is a special holiday around the Mowery household as we get to celebrate Monty's birthday! This year he turned 31. We had a fun day as I surprised him with lots of friends coming over for Mexican dinner and then we had desert at another friend's house. Monty got some fabulous presents. One being a book he has been overseeing translation on for 2 years was printed and delivered on his birthday. Also, our friends, the Langston's surprised Monty with a back rolley thing (the green object). John has one for his back problems and every time he is out of town Monty makes me borrow it because it seems to do wonders for bad backs. Monty was very thankful and his back has been as well.

Happy Mother's Day!

Here Judah, Manon and I are making a special Mother's Day Breakfast of Carmel Walnut Rolls, YUMMY! I think Judah and Manon actually ate more than they rolled out .
Here the children are presenting me with the beautiful cards they made with Daddy that morning.

More May Fun!!!

Manon invited Judah and Henna up to her bed for story time. The children all rest each day for 2 hours (actually I am the one who needs the rest so they have to stay quiet). Judah naps, Henna plays with babies in her bed and Manon has really blossomed in reading during this time. The past few day she has read one 80-100 page book each day. I am really proud of her! Henna's "baby Judah school" gets more creative!
This is Judah's evening routine, he gets out of the bath and jumps on his "tuo la ji" (tractor in Chinese as he calls it) and zooms around the house - NAKED!