Friday - Beiling Park

Nihao from China. Today we went to Beiling Park in Shenyang. It is a tomb for an emperor from the Qing Dynasty. It was huge with a lake and lots of trees. It is under renovations right now. The Clothing Police (older Chinese who make sure the children are wearing enough clothing to stay warm) got us twice today! Once this morning at the park and then later at Wal-Mart! We have to make sure her pant legs are pulled down when she is in the sling! There were people dancing there, getting their morning exercise. The Chinese like to meet to exercise and be social. We then ran into a group who were practicing riding unicycles! Jerry asked (rather had Shiyan ask for him) if he could ride. They loved it! Everyone was surprised that he knew how to ride. Cameras were flashing and everyone was laughing. One gentleman took an interest and had Jerry ride several times with him and pose for several pictures with his camera. YingYing and I even had to be in his pictures! He was quite the celebrity. They asked if any of the rest of us wanted to ride and laughed when we said we didn't know how. Too bad he didn't juggle for them too! I see Shenyang circus in his future! We'll have to check with Sarah tomorrow to see if she got any better pictures. I only have a few. Something to look forward to for tomorrow. The buildings at the park were very similar to the ones at the Forbidden City. Tomorrow is another free day and we are hoping it helps us all get over colds. The weather has turned colder here and much windier, so we took another trip to Wal-Mart for hats and gloves! It is just a 15 minute walk...we are beginning to know our way around better! Hanna won't let BaBa carry her, so MaMa gets that job. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining, but a break every now and then would be nice! :) I'm glad I have my sling to help take the pressure off of my arms. MaMa is her nurturer and care taker. BaBa is her playmate! She loves running up and down the halls in the hotel playing ball or crawling around on the floor. She is teaching us more Chinese each day... and we're teaching her more English!
We had dinner at a Chinese buffet tonight for Patty's birthday. We even had birthday cake! When we sang, the piano player played Happy Birthday too! It was delicious and great fun. What a way to remember this birthday for her. Chinese use very long candles on their birthday cakes. I'm hoping to find some before we leave to use for Hanna's 3rd birthday.

A note for Tabby: The China Daily Newspaper says that 75% of the Chinese people support Obama! Imagine if they could vote!

Boys - we love you more than the chocolate ice cream we had for dessert tonight! It is wonderful getting to see you each morning. We hope you have a great weekend and we'll see you soon! Thank you for being such wonderful boys!