It was so great to travel with my parents to Taiwan, but it was even more fun to have them in our home for two weeks! It is such a special feeling to have them waking up and eating breakfast with us, sitting with us in family devotions each night, and letting them gradually assimilate to the chaos around us.
Unfortunately, our first day back home brought flu-like symptoms to Samantha. She curled up on my bed the entire day. My mom - tenderhearted little grandmother that she is - just couldn't bear to see Mantha so sick. Mimi snuggled up to her so she wouldn't be lonely; Samantha loved the company.
The next day, she was back to her normal self again and sat with my dad while he played the piano. It's nice to hear music being made by someone else!
One of the fabulous things about my parents - you know, besides the fact that they've raised me all these years, put braces on my teeth, loved me when I got married at 18, and travel the world to see us - is that they always buy shoes for my kids. I don't actually know what size shoes my kids wear because my parents ALWAYS buy shoes for them. It's a wonderful little arrangement.
This trip to our home brought lots of shoes for everyone. Samantha's sparkly light-up shoes had laces...which meant G-pa had to teach her how to tie!
And ta-da! Samantha can now tie her shoes! Thanks, dad! =)
Silas got new shoes too, but his are velcro. (No shoe tying lessons for him for a while; if only he'd stop sticking shoes in his mouth, I'd be happy!)
Partial though they are to shoes, my parents are equal-opportunity shoppers. When my dad heard about a quaint touristy shopping area an hour away, he wanted to check it out. So my parents and I herded the girls on a nice little bus ride to go visit this shopping area.
It's laid out like an ancient asian city, with the pagoda-style roof and old city wall. Inside among the knicknacks and chinese vases were several little archery booths. Emma was beside herself with joy and could barely contain her "Narnian" English accent. (You'll do well to remember that Susan from Chronicles of Narnia was gifted the bow and arrow by Father Christmas.)
For $1.50, we got 10 arrows. Everyone got to try their skills:
Well, ok...everyone except Abby. I didn't trust her with sharp objects, and I likely never will.
Emma and Samantha freaked out this hat vendor when they started wildly grabbing at hats and starting their pretend playing. In hindsight, I should have bought these two hats to add to the dress up collection; they're always playing Jessie from Toy Story, and this hat would have been perfect!
Samantha had more of the Queen of England look:
One of the winding paths took us next to an old church. Even though this building seems like it's not used anymore, the gardens around it were still beautifully maintained. I really loved the rustic look of the place surrounded by such lush greenery.
A little closer to home, we still found plenty of ways to spend money. One afternoon while we were out walking, we stumbled upon this man making artistic chinese calligraphy. He'd write your name or anything else you wanted on there, and then decorate it with traditional chinese art. His work was beautiful, and inexpensive too! He just sits on the side of the road with his desk - talk about low overhead!
We had him make scrolls with each of our girls names on it, and then we had some made for my parents and my siblings. This scroll has our family name on it.
Later that night, we introduced my parents to Apples to Apples, Jr - our favorite game to play with the kids.
Samantha's 6th birthday pics coming up next...
2 comments:
I hated to burden Samantha with 'learn to tie your shoes or else' but she's such an eager learner! So glad she has mastered it (or Mantha'd it). I didn't realize how cute those hats were or I'd have bought 'em. Grand kids and impulse buys go hand in hand (and hat in hand). Grand memories. G-pa
How fabulous! I'm so glad your parents got to come back to your house. That looks like so much fun!
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