Here's a picture of all of us in their lovely home.
Left to right: Alex, Lynn, Brian, Tyler, Holly, Avery, Cherie, Claire, me and JianGang sitting on the floor.
You've heard of Lynn before as she and her father took me out and about Singapore showing me around. Alex is her husband.
Holly is from the Des Moines office and is working in Singapore until May. Brian is her husband and their children are Tyler (1.5) and Avery (3). I've had the great pleasure of babysitting for their kids and have really enjoyed them!
Cherie is married to JianGang and their daughter is Claire. But....here is the cool thing...this is how their names are written in Chinese, and in the proper order:
翟剑刚 (husband)
张越 (wife)
翟焕婷 (daughter)
Isn't that gorgeous!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Their written language is amazingly beautiful.
Here's some other info Cherie shared with me about their names....
Chinese surnames are usually one character. However, there are some that are 2.
Chinese names can be 1 or 2 Characters. There is no middle name in Chinese naming structure.
Surname always appears as the first word in both written and spoken language, followed by name.
Children usually follow dad’s surname.
In modern Chinese culture, as man and woman are equal, some parents name their children using Dad’s Surname + Mom’s Surname + Name.
Both my husband’s and my daughter’s names have 2 characters, whereas mine is 1 only.
The evening was fun as we sat around and visited and they put a beautiful spread of goodies out for us to partake in. Okay, so you know I don't eat a lot of things, but I was convinced to try a Kuih Kapit also known as a "love letter". It is a cookie type food that is made of flour, water and egg and then baked. This is what it looks like:
We watched the kids and were greatly entertained by them. How we ended up without a picture of Tyler, I have no idea. He was such a hoot...he ate, and ate, and ate, and ate. The food was on the coffee table...right at the height of a 1.5 year old and he was in heaven!!! It was so cute.
Claire was the proud "Mommy" of two dwarf hamsters...Snow and Sapphire. She brought Snow out of the cage and scared me to death! I remember when Zac had a dwarf hamster, Rascal, and I didn't much care for this one any more than that one...they look like small mice to me. They are cute...as long as they are contained. Claire put Snow in a globe to run around the room...and stay away from me...Thanks so much Claire!
Here's a picture of Claire handing off Snow to Avery. Pure joy on that face!!!!
Claire and Avery became quick friends. It was so cute. Avery is holding a Hong Bao (an envelope given on the Chinese New Year and contains cash). On a side note, I received my first ever Hong Bao this year also from a co-worker. How fun!
We then headed out to the West Coast Park for the kids to get to play on the playground equipment. Unfortunately my camera broke (I've fixed it now) and I wasn't able to take pictures of this park area. It was amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!! There was this jungle gym thing that had to have been 15 feet high and was a triangular thing with ropes to climb on...clear to the top. It was cool. The kids played and had a great time.
We then headed out for a traditional Chinese dinner....McDonald's. Okay, so that's not really a traditional Chinese dinner...but it was right at the park and convenient...and fit my taste buds quite nicely!!!!
The evening was wonderful and soon it was time to bid our goodbyes and head to the train towards "home-sweet-away from home". It was an awesome time of fellowship and I am so thankful to have been included.
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