Have you ever seen...?

 ...a zebra digging a hole in the road?

Jumpin' Gym

Today one of Tirzah's classmates celebrated her fourth birthday at Jumpin Gym, a venue that is a cross (in my opinion) between a flashy casino and an indoor play centre. ICS had a day off school, so the children and I all headed to Hung Hom for the party.

Once the children had their arm stamped, they were free to go on any of the rides as often as they liked.

The children were also each given a bag of ten tokens to use on the pinball machines. I did my best to dissuade Jemilla from the addictive coin drop.

At one point, the party-goers were all rounded up for the birthday cake and snacks. 

Birthday girl Marie with Tirzah

Then the children entered the giant padded maze for more playing.

Carla, you'll appreciate this: Keegan spent at least half an hour foraging around the edges of the ball pit for "treasures", as he called them. His finds for the afternoon included the following:

• one drink bottle
• one marshmallow
• four hair clips
• five dollars and fifty cents in change
• one watch

He was pretty pleased with himself!

Craig met us at Jumpin' Gym after he finished work, so we stayed a bit longer so the children could show him some of their favourite rides and games.

"Look at all the tickets we won!"

I had to laugh at the fact that after playing hard for over three hours and winning lots of tickets, the only prize the children could redeem their tickets for was a single pen.

Thank you, Jumpin' Gym, for entertaining my children so well for the afternoon; I'm glad that they could have the experience. And I'm thankful that now they've tried it once, I don't ever have to take them back again!

Camp (by Jemilla)

This week I went with the fourth and fifth graders from ICS to camp for three days. It was awesome! I had been excited about camp and waiting for this day for a whole year! These are all the photos I took.

My friends Adele (left) and Yat Sum (right)

The bus we took to Fan Ling

First glimpse of camp

"Look, everybody! CAMP!!!"

Lots of fun things to do

Another friend - Eunice

The playground

WHERE ELSE IN HONG KONG DO YOU FIND REAL GRASS???

Everyone who came had to wear the camp t-shirt

The worship team

My teacher Mr. Kadow

A stinkbug

My high school counsellour Emily

First meal - everyone's hungry

The camp owners tell us the rules - Mr. Kwok had to translate the Chinese

My T-shirt design made it into the camp booklet!

The Love Hall (a.k.a. Main Hall)

Bible sessions (we went to eight in total)

More playground fun

Archery

Me and my friend Michael

Another Bible session on cooperation

A stray cat

A cicada

Another meal

Ms. Waymire taught us some silly songs

Roasting marshmallows and making s'mores

Our dorm/cabin

Another meal

Winners of the "Amazing Race"

A caterpillar

One of the teachers

And yet another meal

Me

Another Bible Session

"Camp Cash"

The dancing

Another cat

More dancing

Traditional Chinese food

Swimming

I love being able to take the camera underwater!

 Late night snack - PIZZA

Our last meal was more Western

Silly picture

And then my camera died...

The good news is that I get to do it all again this time next year!