Happy Halloween

BY MAGGIE DING

Maven enjoyed a fun day with her friend's at her Montessori school with her buds

With Sabrina (her birthday is the same day as mine!) and Mackenzie

Then off to celebrating with The William's family as our tradition for the last 6 years. 

The girls dressed as Mermaid's this year but as you can see from the white shirts inside, it was chilly! 

Isabel and Sabrina joined us toward the end and what a coincidence! Isabel is a mermaid and Sabrina is a cat to match Riley! 

Taiwan: Taipei Zoo

By MAGGIE DING

We hit up Taipei Zoo today after much begging throughout the week from Sedona. She was determined to see all the cute animals in person after previewing them on my computer at the hotel. 

There is an elaborate panda exhibit, which was fun. (Side story: My dad told his best man, whom we call Shing-chan, we were at the zoo -- to which he responded, "I own the panda building, but not the pandas." OK. Not something you hear often.)

Some amusement was had at the display explanations about using "poo" to fuel the "zoo" in Taipei.

Despite one of the hotter days during our week, the kids were still racing around on our way out of the zoo. Afterward, we headed back to the XiMenDing district for some Chi-ga noodles and to check out some local shops. 

At our favorite hair-clip shop, Pier Mei, we took fun pictures with my mom and Aunt Kelly. (Maven fell asleep, so she and Kevin were back at the hotel.)

For dinner, we met some of the cousins and family up on the 12th floor of the family hotel. Many will not be attending the official engagement party hosted by Mary's parents tomorrow. The head table at this dinner featured Dad's fourth and fifth brothers and Mom's fourth, fifth and sixth brothers.

Table 2 (below) had Mom's third brother's family -- with cousins included but missing Luc. 

And our table (below) had Dad's fourth uncle's children. Oldest son is the white shirt. His middle sister is in the red sweater, and youngest in black next to me. My cousins Shing-I and Alex (Mom's 3rd uncle's children) aren't pictured but sat with us also. At our table we passed the time by calculating the number of cousins we had on both sides. For Dad's side, we counted 46 cousins! Mom's side has 24 -- so I have a total of 70 cousins! 

Dad's fifth Brother came from Japan and brought the girls some fun toys. 

The girls ended the night playing with their second cousins: Mom's third brother's grandchildren.

Taiwan: Taipei 101

By MAGGIE DING

My parents wanted the kids to see the nicer, more modern side of Taipei, so why not a trip to the 101 building -- second tallest building in the world with that freakishly fast elevator. Took us 45 seconds to get to 89nd floor. It was pretty neat. 

Sedona had a great time listening to the informational phone while on the observatory to learn more about Taiwan. She is really growing up.

Two of our favorite spots so far on this trip were drawn here (below, left) as we waited in line to go up: Tamshi Fisher's Wharf and Pingxi Sky Lantern!

After we took the elevator down, we waited for Felix and Mary to finish their sightseeing and come down. Sedona and Maven ran around the expansive mall in the meantime before we had lunch (the kids discovered KFC is a little spicier in Taiwan) and... 

 Can you spot Sedona and Maven in the vertical photo above? And Sedona is racing around the circle "track" in the horizontal photo, too.

... later a dinner with Kevin's relatives, led by cousin Joseph and uncle 3-Gu.

Taiwan: Our Sky Lantern!

By MAGGIE DING

To have everyone together, my parents rented a tour bus just for our family: Mom, Dad, Felix, Mary, Dad's fourth brother and his wife, Aunt Kelly, Mom's first sister, Mom's third brother's wife, a family friend and the four of us Dings.

Our first stop was the Wang family mausoleums. 

Then we hit up a local market area -- so cute and fun. We had handmade fish-ball soup, noodles, boba, mochi ... all yummy stuff. In case you're not in the know, glasses without lenses are the cool thing for the kids these days -- and we found some fun ones there for the girls (and ridiculously cheap compared to the night market in Taipei!). You'll see the girls wearing their glasses in many photos from here on out ...

Sedona, who is obsessed with cats and dogs, has been on the hunt for the strays or roaming ones all around the roads here in Taiwan. Here are a couple pals we found ...

Between bus stops, the girls sat and cracked the high-quality watermelon seeds we bought on the first day. 

And lastly our favorite stop, New Taipei City, which was featured not long ago on "The Bachelorette" TV show. We walked a suspended bridge and decorated sky lanterns. The lanterns had four sides for us each to decorate a side with messages and wishes. Then we lit a flame in it and sent it up into the sky. Truly a unique and cool experience. Kevin went first -- allowing us to learn that too much ink will run down the page, which is why he made his "DING" letters vertical -- then Maven with all the hearts, Sedona with flowers and balloons and me. (Video to come).