A Day in Our Life in China

Okay so most of our family and friends ask us what life is like here in Beijing.  In response we thought we'd put up a "day in the life of the Featherstones" post.  This was going to be a present to Marianne for her birthday but it took me so long to find the time to put it up, now it can be a birthday present for my dad!  

ENJOY!

PART ONE:

MORNING COMES WHETHER WE LIKE IT OR NOT

It's 6:30am and the morning streaming through the curtains.  I am already up taking pictures of Mike hiding inside the blanket trying to deny the reality that it is morning because he was probably up too late the night before working.  BTW you gotta love the olive green curtains that totally clash with our stuff but I am trying to figure out whether it is worth spending $ on something we cannot take when we leave... 

Step two for Mike getting up -- checking the phone, email, etc.  At this point he did not know yet I had decided today was the day I was going to take pictures of him all day long

7am - Getting ready before I go to find out what the already-awake boys are doing downstairs

Quick reading of scriptures to get my spiritual kick for the day; I am reading right now in Exodus about Abraham and Lot.  Then off to find the kiddos downstairs.  They are already awake and Mike probably started breakfast.

BREAKFAST BEFORE SCHOOL

Breakfast time!  Sometimes we eat breakfast at the "Big table" but this morning we let the kids sit at the small table (usually that means we're running late)

Joseph is showing off his breakfast of Indian eggs, green broccoli and plain yogurt

Here is our lizzie bean watching the madness of getting ready for school and enjoying the craziness -- she's got avocado, carrot and egg (I think)

Here's Andrew with his scrambled egg, avocado, broccoli and rice/dhall crepe (it's actually Indian Dosai if you have ever had that south indian specialty)

Ayi gets here at 7:30am and warms up Andrew's lunch to send to school.  Joseph has school lunch but Andrew brings his own

So Mike is not around every morning (he travels a lot during the week) so we are so excited when he is here.  He is such a great help and I love every minute he is at home!  This day he was working from home.

Lizzie is done so we wash her hands in the morning kitchen sink

Changing Elizabeth's diaper (her diapers are stashed behind the little half wall in a basket)

Lizzie gets a nice and clean diaper to start the day!

GETTING DRESSED TO GO OUT THE DOOR

Now we tease, cajole or tickle the boys until they move to the front door where we put on shoes and jackets (or in this case their blue/green warm vests)

Mike helping Joseph put on his shoes

Ayi is helping put on Lizzie's big warm suit

Joseph is almost ready

Andrew has to wear his green lightning mcqueen gloves (which take forever to put on with each little finger)

Andrew says, "Yey I'm ready mama!  Let's go!"

ON OUR WAY TO THE BUS STOP

we're leaving our house and on our way...I have Lizzie Bean in the stroller on one side, their school bags in the other side

"Look mom I can ride FAST!"  EVerything is FAST to Joseph these days.  He LOVES race cars because they can go fast.  He often tells me he is much faster than me.
Joseph has a blue bike (his favorite color) and has improved so much since when we first got here -- now he can even ride over speed bumps, which was hard for him before

riding in the sunshine at 8am and we are seriously enjoying this gorgeous day!

andrew has parked his bike and is walking to meet the bus

Just a random shot of people parking their bikes so you can see the bike park area.

Andrew parks his bike alongside loads of other bikes

andrew has parked his bike and is walking to meet the bus

Joseph gets distracted on the way to the waiting bus by the motorcycles

Mike locks up the bikes

There is Andrew running to meet the bus.  the bus pulls up right outside the gates of our complex.  You can see the gates that we have to go through

DROP-OFF AT THE BUS STOP

Our little bus for the International Montessori School of Beijing is on the left.  The big British School of Beijing bus is on the left.

Making sure the boys get up on the bus

Here is Joseph in the blue vest.  The older girl in front of him always tells me with a big smile, "Joseph is SO cute!" It's really cute

There is Andrew looking for a seat

Here we wave and say "Goodbye boys!  Have a good day at school!"  Even thought I am always waving, the boys don't often wave to us - they just are already busy with other things in the bus!  I just tell myself I guess that's better than being one of the kids that are crying from separation anxiety...

All the moms wave as the bus pulls off -- it is a hilarious sight

Lizzie says goodbye to her brothers

Here are four of my BFFs - these are moms with kids that go to MSB - we all drop off our kids at the bus stop and hang out and chat for a bit.  I adore Catherine, Hilary, Jenni and Julie.

After drop off, I usually drop Lizzie off at home to get her Chinese play lesson from the ayi and then head to the clubhouse to work out (left).

Part two to come soon!

A Day in our life in China - part two

Part two of a day in our life

Actually I took the rest of these in the course of about a week...and for some reason when blogger added them, the pictures got mixed up a bit so they are not necessarily in chronological order

MORNING AFTER DROP-OFF

Morning walk back home after dropping kids off at bus.  Our good ol' trusty driver Shifu is waiting for us to see if we need to go anywhere.

Lizzie is starting to take off her hat now!  She is getting smart

Here I am smiling with the driver with my yoga bag still in hand

CALLING MIKE'S MOM TO WISH HER HAPPY BIRTHDAY

The morning is also the time we can skype, facetime, or talk with family back home.  Here when we got home in the morning we called Marianne to wish her happy birthday!  Mike worked from home this day which is why he is home in the morning

I'm always trying to take pictures of Lizzie, but the flash is so bright she closes her eyes most of the time!

GOING TO WORK OUT

then I said goodbye early and went to go work out -- this is our clubhouse which looks nice, but the gym is way down in the basement - not motivating to go work out!

the gym has this awesome blue floor that is straight out of the 90s

MORNING CHINESE TUTORING SESSION

My chinese teacher is named WeiWei

Around 10am my Chinese teacher comes over 2-3 times a week.  If Lizzie is awake sometimes I sit in the playpen while my laoshi drills me on my Ba sentences and vocabulary

I can't believe I actually can speak Chinese now.  I mean I'm not very good AT ALL but I can communicate the basics.  That is huge for me since I was in total denial that I could learn such an intimidating language

FAST FORWARD TO DINNER TIME

The boys at dinnertime

Lizzie at dinnertime

EVENING BIKE RIDE TO THE PARK

Here we took an early evening bike ride to the park before it gets dark

Andrew is taking a picture with the kids' camera of dada

Lizzie is now big enough to ride in the trailer

Hooray!

Joseph loves to smile, play with, sing to, and tease her

WE're off!

We park our bikes (see it is getting dark already)

Joseph climbs!

Andrew loves the see saw

Lizzie is on the other side of the see saw

Here I am teaching Joseph how to go down the fireman pole

First big slide with mama!  Hooray!

Lizzie LOVES her dada

GETTING HOME, GETTING THE KIDS TO THE BATH, THEN BED

Here we get home and she grabs for the mirror as always

This is a typical just before bathtime shot - Andrew drawing (this time on the magnadoodle) - and Joseph just playing around

I prepped the boys' teacher's birthday class craft the night before I brought it to school, so here is Joseph standing next to it.  I made two canvas quote paintings for the kids will get to put their handprints on them in the shape of a big heart.

Joseph is learning to read and it is so cute - he gets so excited

Andrew drawing -- he LOVES it and is usually doing it 40% of the time we are at home.  If not drawing, then reading (mostly drawing and reading about airplanes)

Joseph moving my easel around after I finished painting the canvases

Joseph is on his way up to the bath

"Look mama, I can walk up two steps at a time!"

BATHTIME

Bathtime here is fun since we throw all three of them in the same tub.  Lizzie usuall makes it in first and gets some quiet relaxing playing time while we drag the boys in

Usually while they are stalling and procrastinating getting in the bath, they step in to the nearby shower and tell me they're on the elevator going to floor number 12 (they just pick any random number)

AFTER BATH, PUT JAMMIES ON, SAY PRAYERS, AND BED

Getting ready for bed.  We usually end up sitting on the blue star rug for our family devotional every night -- this entails reading scriptures, then the boys say their individual prayers.  On odd days Joseph goes first, even days Andrew goes first.  Then we do a family prayer.  It's really a special time of the day and totally chaotic but wonderful

Lizzie just crawls around and makes a mess pulling down books from the shelves while we are doing family devotional.

She has a great time.  She is standing so much now!

THE NEXT DAY: CRAFT AT SCHOOL

I visited Andrew's school to help the kids make a craft for his teacher's birthday.  Tania and I planned the craft and two other moms came in to help us.

Here we are at the kids' school - the International Montessori School of Beijing  - presenting Andrew's teacher Jaime with her birthday craft and cake

I painted this quote because it perfectly sums up how wonderful Jaime is with each of the kids

Tania made an awesome cake with dulce de leche layered inside.  The kids also made flowers on pipe cleaner stems which we stuck into a planter pot

Jaime the teacher is in the front with stripes, and the kids are eating their cupcakes

This is the quote one we did for May (Joseph's teacher).

Andrew's class.  What a fun group - although I can't see Andrew in this picture!  He must have been off eating his snack

I took the boys home early on craft day and walking out we took pictures in front of the school mural

Andrew loves his lightning mcqueen gloves and beanie - he wears them everywhere!

THE END