The Gruffalo, recited by Josh as he fell asleep

The Boys at CNY

Sarah and I went to the City Kids CNY celebration this afternoon, and the boys took part in a lion dance and some songs. The videos give a pretty good sense of the afternoon - they were all super sweet!
The Lion Dance

The Singing

Happy New Year

The office is getting its annual spring clean, in preparation for Chinese New Year. I know embarassingly little about CNY, given that this is our fifth in HK. But here's what I do know

• You have to clean your house very thoroughly before CNY.
• During the 3 days of CNY, you must NOT clean your house (or you'll sweep out all the good luck)
• If the weather's warm at CNY, that's baaad luck. 
• Everyone gets new clothes
• The supermarkets play the same irritating music for several weeks (just like Christmas)
• There are lion dances everywhere

The boys have been preparing for Chinese New Year at school, and this afternoon I'm going to see them perform. This is their favourite song:

Elmer the House

Understairs shops

HK$30,000 a month for 30 square feet?! 

Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden

Pumpkin and mushroom and rice. And a mug of yummy freshly squeezed OJ

The Bay

CWB now has the most expensive retail rental prices in the world - must be time to move.

The Hong Kong Football Club Christmas Fair

Dashed from the wedding registry to a gorgeous lunch at The Upper House to the Christmas Fair at the Footy Club. Here are some pics.

Interviews and Chrissy tree

In other news, the boys have got interviews at the ESF Hillside Kindergarten, which is great. The ESF schools provide English-language schooling for English-speaking children who can't access the local school system. Hillside Kindergarten got 770 applications for 176 places this year, mental isn't it?

They're interviewing 200 kids for those 176 places, so our chances are fairly good. On the one hand I would love them to go to ESF because it is easy to get to, relatively affordable, and gives them priority to get into the ESF primary and then secondary schools. On the other hand, they are starting City Kids 5 afternoons a week in January (they'll be Bumblebees!), and although it is ho ho ma fan to get to and from, I do love that place. It reminds me so much of being little. We went to a Christmas party there the other day and the boys made jingle bell bracelets, red and white hats, reindeer puppets and candy canes. They sang songs and Santa (Grandma Christmas, as J and F call him) gave all the kids a present. It was super cute, we had a great time.

This is Felix and Miss Radhiya 

Ross, enthralled by Grandma Christmas

Our tree!! at last

The time has come

It’s official people. We’re potty training. Watch this space for dry Buzz Lightyear pants.

The first few days have gone relatively well, with the exception of yesterday, when the boys chose to giggle for two hours instead of having a nap. The afternoon was characterized by a billion trips to the loo and lots of costume changes.

I spent a happy half hour last night (after I had recovered from the agony of having lost my beloved laptop) making a sparkly, spangly reward chart for the boys. They get a Thomas the Tank Engine sticker (let’s not discuss the fact that in these parts he’s called Thomas the Train) every time they use the potty or loo. Fascinating stuff huh? Bet you’re glad you came to the blog to see what we were up to.

Photos from the MOMs Christmas Party 2012

Thanks to Jasja, Han Willem and Jo for these