What a Day!

We had a day filled with "end of season" activities today and what a day it was. The kids' swim team, the Hong Kong Island Stingrays, had the year end celebration today. Both Trey and Kyra received accolades...Trey earned a certificate for 25 Best Times and Kyra earned a certificate for 10 Best Times and a ribbon for the fact that she is the team's current record holder for the 9-year-old girls 200 Meter Breaststroke. We are ending the swimming season on a high note and they both plan to continue swim training over the summer while we are back in Minnesota.

Trey's South Side Hawks basketball program also came to a close. There was a 3-on-3 jamboree, where they divided up and mixed up the regular season teams. Trey was fortunate to have one of the biggest kids of the Under 13 group on his team. So, Trey's team ended up winning the jamboree for the Under 13's. Then, he and his two of his closest friends (who also all play on the same team during the regular season) won awards for their season of play.

It was a great day for them both!

Tyson's Field Trips

As the school year is coming to a close, Tyson's last few weeks have been filled with various field trips. Although I haven't gotten to go with to all of them - not for lack of trying, of course - I do have a few pictures to share from the ones I was along for. His field trips included a science museum, a history museum, a maritime museum and an old Hakka village, that has been restored, called Sam Tung Uk Village. Unfortunately, I don't have photos of the village because that wasn't one I "made the list" for, but I did go along to the science and maritime museums. Tyson enjoyed every one of them.

Trey's "Hong Kong Walkabout"

This past week, the fifth graders at HKIS went on their "walkabout" around Hong Kong, which involved something to focus on and write about. It could be anything...statues, doorways, windows, markets, etc. Trey and the boy he was paired up with decided to explore the street markets of Hong Kong. We started off at one of the wet markets and when the boys had had their fill of raw meat and other various parts of animals (cow tongue, as seen in picture), we moved into the regular markets containing trinkets, souvenirs, toys, electronics, clothing, etc. Although I have been in the markets many, many times, it was a true eye opener for my dear steak-loving boy. It shed a new light on where all of our meat comes from as we saw every possible part of all of the animals we eat meat from, being utilized. We saw live chickens being put in a barrel of boiling water before being plucked and chopped up. We saw two dead pigs, gutted out and watched as the man threw the intestines onto the floor of the shop they were selling the raw meat from. Ok, I even got to see more than I had seen thus far. Needless to say, we don't buy our meat from the wet markets. We buy it from the grocery store, and pay a premium price for meat shipped in to Hong Kong from elsewhere. For example, I saw the price of $120HKD (approximately $15.50 USD) for two chicken breasts the other day that were imported from Australia...compared to $20HKD ($2.60 USD) for the 2-pack of Chinese chicken breasts.

Anyway, thought I'd share a few "interesting" photos from our day out and about.

Keely Photos

I just have to share a few photos of our little girl who is growing up WAY TOO FAST! They are just a couple of my favorites...nothing specific to note about any of them. Three is such a fun age (or at least it seems to be this time around!) She is a very polite, happy, talkative little girl. She is constantly singing and dancing around the apartment. She is loving her preschool and is getting ready for her first official dance performance on a real stage in a city theater here in Hong Kong. Hopefully, I will have photos to post from that soon. Her performances are June 1st and 2nd.

Trey's Birthday Party

Well, we had Trey's birthday party (finally...yes, it is May and his birthday is in February) :) I told Tyson we should probably start planning his now - it is in October. Trey chose to have a bowling party and a friend of mine "sponsored" us so that we could utilize the bowling alley in a place called the Aberdeen Marina Club, of which they are members. We had a 4-lane alley to ourselves and then had food and cake also. I think they all had fun...wow! a lot of energy in 11 & 12 year-old-boys! :)