Playtown & Hootenany

Another work week AND yet another weekend of outings and playing have come to an end. Friday night was an easy hike over the catchment to Stanley. Sean is becoming an accomplished hiker and although our previous 1-hour hikes now take 2 hours, the difference is that Sean hikes nearly the entire way. As always, plenty of bugs, seeds, plants, and more to stop and observe along the way.

Saturday morning, we all three slept in until 7:30 - unheard of, but very welcome! Sean took Chris and his friend, Liam and dad Kevin to Playtown, an incredible indoor playground. Karla was able to catch up on her to-do list in a quiet house before the boys came home for naps. The afternoon was spent out on the field on the mats and riding his scooter while Daddy got lots of work done at school. After dinner, we returned to the field for a Race for Haiti sponsored by the freshmen class and all three Buxtons gladly biked, walked or ran around the track a few times to help raise money for the earthquake victims.

Sunday we ichatted with Nana & Papa, went to church, came home for lunch, napped and then went to Eliott's 2nd birthday party. The theme was "Hootenany" and a couple other families joined together in singing, playing instruments and the usual party playing and eating. It was so good to join Jeff & Robyn in thanking God for Eliott's two years and the time our families have grown together, too.

Going to bed, I am filled with gratitude for our family in Canada and the good friends God has placed around us. Amen!

Hike Night 22 Jan

A busy day at school but out the door about 3:56. Sun is shining and I need to get outside. The house was quiet as I came in so I sat down to read. Not long after I heard a "Mommy, where are you?" from downstairs. We were out the door about 20minutes later after Sean and Dad watched a Dinosaur Train episode. Sean was not terribly keen but doing anything too soon after the nap is a 50/50 on whether he will love it or cry.

These hikes are pretty slow, it takes us an hour to get to the upper reservoir. But,its great to get outside and walk and talk and look for seeds and bugs. The lantern bugs were there but up high on the tree. We hiked up to Parkview and the clouds were coming our way, it was windy but just cool and by the time we reached the top we were ready for dinner. We catch a taxi at Parkview down to the HKFC and then walk a block or two to SUSHI one.

Sean was excited about the sushi train as well as the sushi. He eats all the california rolls, and today he discovered Edamame - soybeans in pods. Well he devoured this with lots of "beans are good for you" comments to let us know he likes them. We caught bus 40 home from Causeway Bay and by 9pm Sean was in bed asleep and we were watching Heros season one. Tomorrow is two birthday parties which means CAAAAKKEEEEE twice in one day!

Saturday with the boys.

Saturday dawned chilly and grey but the Buxton Boys had some plans for today, give Mom some rest! So as she rolled over to go back to sleep we were pulling on pants and packing bags for a day out on the city. We skip breakfast and begin the "walk of eternity" with the birds chirping and the world to ourselves. There are not a lot of people up at TT Gardens at 7:20am on a Saturday.

Getting to the bus stop Sean goes to "call his mom" on the payphone and I watch for Bus 14, the double decker! We didn't have to wait long but we didn't get the front seats, so we went straight to the back of the top deck. Sean has become quite comfortable on the bus and he just checks out what is passing by as we head to Shau Kei Wan. Its shaping up to be a beautiful day, cool at about 16C, but blue skies fluffy clouds and wind.

Shau Kei Wan is the standard, buns, milk and more buns! It is not the healthiest breakfast but it sure is popular! Sean got a sweet red bean bun and I got a ham and spring onion one that I won't get again. Then milks and COCONUT BUNS! I type it that way because it is said that way along with ICE CREAMMM, and CAAAAKKE whenever he sees them in passing. We eat with the old guys and gals of Shau Kei Wan at one of the sitting out areas. We chat and they stare and then we go on our merry way.

Today our merry way was onto the MTR to head to Admiralty and Hong Kong Park. We were exploring today. We saw the Conservatory with its display of local plants, then we went to the aviary were we got to see all the cool colours of birds eating breakfast. By this time we were ready for a snack. I think it may be a Buxton male thing to eat constantly. Sean was getting a bit hyper by this point so we ran to the playground and did some dirt digging, some slide sliding, and some ladder climbing for about an hour.

Dad was getting a bit antsy/bored so he began enquirying about moving on to Hong Kong Botanical Gardens and Zoo. Turns out its just up some stairs, around a corner, down a street, across a bridge and you are there! So we did it. I had in mind lions and tigers and bears, oh my, but there was just no time. We had to get some food into us! So we stopped at a shop to refuel with water "waters good for us!" and got a foam airplane and spinny straw. Well I might as well have purchased Disneyland. We were completely (Sean) enthralled for the rest of the day. Which was good because we had to walk down to Central catch an MTR to Sai Wan Ho and eat noodles still! The ladies had a great time laughing at us as Sean brough out his tiger chopsticks and we muddled our way through ordering.



We had a great day and got back for 2pm bedtime.

Back to life...

I was out in town on Friday night getting some stuff done and was really enjoying taking photos with my iphone. Here is one from the taxi stand at Times Square.

Well we have been back to school for 3 days now. Students are all stressed as they have Semester Exams starting Monday.

We have been having some huge decisions to make here regarding where we will have BuxtonBaby#2. Canada crazy expensive. If there are any complications at all it will cost $20-30,000! So we may have to do it in asia. We will pray and see if it becomes very clear.

We have been doing some winter cleaning, getting rid of anything that we don't use and that turns out to be quite a bit of books, toys, and did I say books?

Sean is happy to be back home and have all his friends back. He went to WiseKids today with Karla and the playgroup. 1.5 hours of playtime in this huge shop. It has a kitchen, an area for camping, lego, trains, etc... He loved it and Karla was totally impressed. When I came home he was very happy to be playing "on the field" with all the kids. Tonight we did a bike ride up to the high school parking lot that took us through three elevators!

I need to get something done for Career structure at least start my context which will be very similar for all six pieces of evidence.