Cruise - Day 1 (part 1?)

I didn't take any photos the first day and I haven't collected Jason's photos yet. These photos of our first day came from Josie's camera.
We took the high speed rail to Taipei and then the slow(est) train to Keelung. From then we found a taxi and went to the harbour. Those are the pictures on Jason's camera...

Taiwan's Father's Day 8-8

The cake we ordered!

Stanley's Birthday

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After swimming class, we went to McDonalds for Stanley's birthday party. It was great fun. They had a party area attached to the play place. The McD's employees even had activities for the kids. Josie was super happy!

Rayne... The expert Mama. She just picked Herbie up and suddenly he was asleep.

Olivia

Josie and Kathryn

Sabrina and Sam

Another Swimming Class (Aug 7)

Once again the got to play after class.... so they played, and played, and played, and ......

The BIG waterslide.....

Josie's Birthday - Dinner

We went to Chili's in Taichung for Josie's birthday. She was super excited to have all her friends there. It was a very pleasurable night.

July 31st - First Day of Swimming Lessons

James was kind enough to do the leg work for this. He found out where and when and how much and he organized the kids too. So the class consists of Stanley, Chris, Olivia, Kathryn, Josie and two others.
The teacher took them in the kiddy pool first to get them used to the water.

And when they were done, they got to play.

Josie's Birthday - Morning

Josie woke up bright and early and informed us that it was her birthday.


We tried to delay it as long as possible but she found the bag with the gifts in it.

We found a Sponge Bob full helmet the day before. She loved it.

She also got a CD player, which was quite convenient as Mama and Papa Hogan sent her some audio books.

She was also super stoked about her princess camera.

It's hard to believe that she is already 6 years old.

Family Pictures Arrive

One day shortly after graduation, the family pictures we took came in. The school provided a graduation book where professional photographers came to the school to take pictures. I posted those last month. As part of the package we were given a free family shot. Well, we couldn't stop at one, so we actually purchased a few more photos.

Graduation July 17th

We dropped Josie off at the convention center in Huatan early in the afternoon. The school looked after her until we arrived later that evening. They practiced one last time during that time. When we got there, we were ushered to our table and served dinner as the other classes did their plays.
I suspect that Josie's class had the proudest parents because when it was their turn, there was no room to be had at the front. I couldn't get a decent shot. Silly me. I stood back as I thought it would be rude to stand right in the front at the foot of the stage blocking the view of others. Yes, silly me. I left an opening for others to do that and in turn I had no view or proper shot of the actual play. Thankfully the school provided a DVD of the show.

The excitement before grad....

Taking pictures with the teachers after grad...

Linda and Steven gave Josie some gifts for grad.

Josie's diploma....