Day Four

中秋节快乐！Happy Mid-Autumn Festival!! We finally had our first low key day where there were no planned appointments, no alarm clock (although Sean chose this morning to wake up bright and early on his own), no place to be and nothing particular to do.

Sean really wanted his own coffee this morning.

He wasn't too sure what to think about it.

Yes, please. I'll take all three!!!

It's going to take time, but these three are well on their way to becoming amazing brothers.
I don't automatically think, "oh, gotta grab the camera!" when we are having a bad moment,
and we have them...So don't think that life is all roses for our new family.
But these rosy moments make every second of the hard ones totally worth it.

We all need a few more Captains!

 So here is where our story becomes another crazy day in China!!

We have been so excited because today is Mid-Autumn Festival, one of our favorite Chinese holidays. We have so many memories of lighting a lantern together as a family and watching it float away with our prayers of thanksgiving (totally our American twist on the holiday...) We love watching the sky become speckled with tiny lanterns as the night goes on. We (okay, probably more like I...) was so happy to be able to make new memories with Silas on our first holiday together. So I looked up information about what to do in this city for the holiday and we set off to the biggest park in Guangzhou (first mistake! I must have forgotten where we are) where they were having a big lantern display. 

QiLong's first experience riding the subway.

Sean was not a happy camper at this moment. Nor for the next hour at that! 

 Our first family meal at McDonalds!

We were glad to finally make it here after an almost 2 hour experience with the subway!

(Did I mention it was a holiday?)

Our cheeseburger loving boy was happy!

                               

Stephen has been such an amazing helper! He always has. I honestly don't know that we could do what we do without him. He has grown so much in the last three years and I am so thankful everyday for my big boy! Even though he is older and does display it in the same way that a toddler does, it hasn't been an easy transition for him either. But I am so proud of him and the way he tries to find his own way to love his new brother. Here they played with this car together for a good 20 minutes. Silas already looks up to Stephen so much and this was a very sweet moment. 

Where's Waldo?

 Did I mention that for some reason we decided to go to the most popular park in the city?

Did I mention it was a holiday?

After we stepped foot outside, I realized why I don't leave my house on holidays usually.

But I was determined to find some lanterns for our boys.

 We had one tiny meltdown when Silas didn't want to ride in the stroller. But Justin carried him for a while and it was fine. By the way, this kid is heavy!! He is one of those kids whose size looks deceiving. I have to give kudos to Justin for carrying him up and down the hills!

There were three parks with a lantern display that we could have chosen from. One of them, we found out some information from our guide that made us say, Um No Thanks! He was telling us about when he was a kid and how much fun it was and he said, "It was so cool! You didn't even have to walk because there was so many people!" HA!! And the other one was actually closer to our hotel, but this park is the most popular park in the city because of this statue. It's so famous it's on the Starbucks mug. So I knew that I wanted to have a picture here for Silas to have in the future.

We had to hike a good ways to get here, but we made it to THE five goats statue.

After all we went through to get to the park, we had a lot of fun. But we didn't see one lantern. I asked a few people where they were and they would give me the good ol' Chinese directions...point and say "that way just a little bit." It is a huge park, so I'm sure we just missed them. We found ourselves back at the main gate and were so tired by that point that we decided to go on home. I was a little disappointed but it was starting to rain anyway. (There is supposed to be a typhoon coming through tonight, so we weren't even sure we'd be able to do anything at all today. So I'm thankful! And hey, we have the goat picture forever! :) 

 Nothing like bubble pictures!!!

Headed back to the hotel.

 So we try to always have snacks available for Silas in his bag. It's something that we learned is needed with kids that have been in an orphanage. Sometimes they will hoard food when they realize how much there is available, because they have never had the option to eat more than what is given. So the idea is to always have snacks available, so they don't feel like they have to hoard.

He has had this bottle of Skittles since the first day we got him. He eats them one at a time. Today, he would take the bottle out, get one and give it to Sean and then get one for himself, and then put the bottle back in his bag. He is so kind and thoughtful. He is always sharing with his little brother.

Silas teaching us a Chinese board game. He found it in a store and was so excited to show us how to play!

 We decided on easy for dinner since we'd worn ourselves out. I fixed the boys some noodles in the room and Justin walked next door to get us a sandwich. He came back with a moon cake fr om Starbucks for us to share. Moon cakes are probably the biggest tradition for the Mid-Autumn Festival. They are pretty much like the fruit cake of China. Everyone gives everyone moon cakes, and then you re-gift them to someone else. (Or maybe that's just the Americans....hmm)

But this one was from Starbucks, not a traditional moon cake, so we cut it up and gave it a try! It wasn't too bad. The best part was that Silas was pretty excited. When I told him what day it was and that this was our very first 中秋节 together, his little eyes squinted into a big smile and he devoured his portion of the moon cake!

QiLong made this paper lantern himself and brought it to us as a gift on our Family Day!

He didn't quite understand the self-timer thing. haha. 

1

2

3