Revved Up

A great outing today for Dad, Lucas and Lance. Our church sponsors outings for the men almost every week in summer, to keep the men connected and out of trouble. Too many wives and kids disappear to their home countries and leave the men here working. So, this morning, they had an outing at the Shanghai F1 track on high speed go-karts. Fortunately for me, my family is still here and we could get out as a threesome together, with about 18 other men.

What a blast! The cars are much quicker than you would think by looking at them, with average lap speeds over 50kph (35mph), even including all the tight corners and hairpin turns. In case you wonder if the boys can drive -- they were great, both faster than me I believe. In fact, Lucas put in the two fastest runs of the day, leaving 18 men to boast about who got second place. :)

With such an amazing group of friends, and such incredible kids, I would say that I am clearly the winner.

R

Backyard Camping

Since Wednesday was the Dragon Boat Holiday and Wade didn't have school the next day, the boys had the idea of getting out the tent and sleeping outside. Wade had been asking to do this a number of times and now he was finally going to get his chance.They brought Lance's computer out there and watched a movie and had popcorn. It was fun until about the 30th mosquito bite and then they gave up and went to sleep in the family room with their sleeping bags. Unfortunately, too many bugs had gotten into the tent and Wade and Lance didn't want to share their space!

Wade and Lance get along so well and act like typical brothers rough housing, teasing and giggling. Lance is such a great big brother to Wade and is teaching him so many things. Wade has been wanting to learn how to skate board like Lance so yesterday Lance took him out and starting teaching him some tricks. Wade was actually able to do a trick. That was after Lance had taught Wade how to make crepes for breakfast that morning. We are thankful for their great relationship which takes place mainly in Chinese since Lance is so good at speaking to Wade in his mother tongue. Wade gets to practice English with the rest of us!

Sixteen years ago...

Sixteen years ago, on June 16th, 1994, I gave birth to my first son. What a blessing and joy it was then but even more so now! Lucas has become such a fine young man and a delight to have as a son. I helped him start his day with breakfast in bed including french toast, bacon, melon and juice. The flower I cut for him was full of bugs! The rest of the day was pretty low key since all of his friends have gone back to the States for their summer visits. I did prepare one of his favorites for dinner (Burgundy beef over noodles) and then we went out for Cold Stone ice cream after dinner. Since Stacia is in India this week, he wanted to wait for her to return to celebrate with a dinner out at Peter's Tex Mex. What a sweet brother!

On the last day of school last week (half day), Lucas and his friend Ben celebrated their birthdays with some friends after school by going out to lunch and then heading to a bowling alley to play pool (?). They had a nice time before heading out to the next party which was a going away party for a friend moving back to the States. Now its on to enjoying summer break!

Family Creativity

We have had some fun around here this year, watching Lance build up his electronic creativity this year. His school has required a number of projects, and others he has just "run with it". Here is a full size movie poster he made for one class, posing with two of his buddies...fortunately, they never actually made the movie!

He also made several "Public Service Announcements", where they learn about putting a positive message out for people using video, with unique camera angles, sound effects, music, etc. He has done several awesome ones, getting outstanding marks for use of media to get his point across. The one that is about procrastination won a second place award at the Shanghai Film Festival!

I think when I was in 7th grade, we were still dipping film paper in these strange chemicals, and it took about 5 minutes to make one photo! Neat to see how new technology can be used -- for the better.

This is our first time uploading video to this blog, you will have to tell us if it works or not.

"Small" Group Picnic

Our precious small group gathered for an end of the (school) year picnic to celebrate a wonderful year of studying the Book of John together. We also have three of our eleven families who are repatriating back to the States and we wanted to have a memorable send off. Forty-four of us gathered for a delicious summer feast and we enjoyed perfect weather in the mid 70s. We have a wonderful picnic pavillion in our neighborhood with a small soccer field, basketball court and skate park. There was plenty of activity going on with bball, soccer, baseball, frisbee, badminton and more. Everyone worked up a good appetite.

Life 4 Him Small Group

We ended our evening with prayer for our dear friends the Thompson's (Austin, TX), the Hyde family (Rochester, MI) and the Kleimeyer's (Jupiter, FL). We love you all and you will be greatly missed!

Another teenager in the house!

Happy 13th Birthday Lance!Lance and his buddy Jack joined in to celebrate their birthdays together again this year. Ten of their friends joined in for a party at a local sports complex for two hours of fun.
The Chinese have a thing about Disney characters and cartoons in general. They put up this lovely sign for the guests of honor to wish Jaky and Lancie a Happy Birthday - how appropriate!

Lance was wowed by the skateboard deck that two of his friends got for him and had signed by a couple of famous skateboarding dudes. The question is, will Lance actually have the nerve to use this board? They get pretty beat up in a hurry once you start doing your tricks on them.

They had two hours of basketball and ping pong fun. It was a nice group of kids. They enjoyed a nutricious meal of pizza (the sauce was ketchup-yuk!), french fries and pop. It was all topped off with Creme de Mente cake, one of Lance's favorites.

Look out Allen house, there are now 3 teenagers in residence with two more closing in!