Spring has Sprung

I'll try again to wish the Spring gods into action. Today's temperature is finally above 60 degrees and I do believe it's supposed to be sunny all day. It has been a long, loooonnnggg winter and an unseasonably cold spring from what the other expats tell me. However, even the brutal weather can't slow the Whitfield girls down. We're on some kind of marathon month, with activities, parties, field trips and performances filling up our days. Last weekend, the twins attended three birthday parties (water balloons and squirt guns, pizza making, and giant romper room) and have two more (bowling and chocolate factory-candy making) this weekend. While we were at one of the parties, another family had just come from the Volvo Open and asked us if we wanted to go to the final round. They had bought tickets for all four rounds, but couldn't go on Sunday. The day started out fairly decent and the Whitfield women marched into the JinJi Lake Golf Course dressed all in pink. We walked about four holes and positioned ourselves around the 17th green and 18th tee walkway, scoring several balls and smiles from the European players. The twins had a party to attend and it started to rain, but Katie didn't want to leave. Luckily, we'd run into our friends, Carl and Caroline. They were more than happy to stay with Katie since the players seemed to flock to her. They stayed until the trophy was presented.

The twins' class went on a field trip to the newly opened Suzhou Aquarium. Since we'd just been to the aquarium in Dalian less than two weeks ago, the twins were not all that jazzed about it. They enjoyed the busride and entertained everyone with Mamma Mia songs. It was a nice facility, but they were still working out the kinks and teaching the dolphins to do more than one trick. They also allowed WAY too many groups in at one time. Our little ones just about got trampled by the older chinese students, who were more excited over all the little kids than the fish. The Dulwich teachers were very protective of the students and didn't allow any pictures to be taken of them. I normally am ok with this, but these students were grabbing Sydney and Sarah in an effort to photograph them. Nope, not going to allow that.

Katie's class is studying Buddhism and this week they are going to Wuxi (about an hour and half away), where the largest Buddha is situated. She's a bit confused about religion. She asked why so many people believe in something that is so different than what she believes in and was she wrong or were they. Not sure if her philosophically minded mother should have been the one to answer that question, but decided to go the educational route. I told her it was important to learn about all cultures and religions, trying desperately to skirt the right/wrong issue. An impossibility with Katie, she has to know, but she's willing to relent until after the field trip.

Katie was invited, along with nineteen others to sing at a star-studded, fundraising event. No Brangelina sightings, but evidently, the chinese stars who were there are quite well-known. When Katie and I were waiting for Mr. Liu, all of the stars came out to get in their cars, while the horde of fans was still inside trying to get out. Katie locked eyes with one of them and walked right up to him and introduced herself. This man just beamed and his entourage stood there gaping at her. Of course, I wasn't quick enough to capture the moment but there were television cameras so I'm sure someone did.