Hotel Life and House-Hunting

I think we may have found an apartment!  (Sorry, I don't have any photos of it at this point.) After almost 3 full days of searching, we finally found one that we can imagine living in.  They will need to do some small renovations before we move in, but I love it's location--and its minimalist, modern Japanese style. It's perfect because it is walking distance between both Mabel and Cora's schools, has an indoor play area with small ball pit, a swimming pool, gym, a grocery store in the basement, and some storage space :)  Turns out, not a lot of apartments have storage.

Here's Cora at the Taipei American School signing up for her preschool, Tiger Tots.  Needless to say, she is smitten with Joanna, one of the coordinators.  I think this was after knowing her for about 10 minutes.  Mabel and Edith were in the car with the company's driver, asleep.  

This isn't the house we want, but isn't it nice? You can rent garden space on the roof.

More house-hunting.  They take their closets very seriously here.

Sorry, guys.  We didn't decide on this apartment either.  (The amount of bedazzling was unreal!  There were "jewels" glued onto the wall.)

This is my favorite light fixture :)

On Saturday, we went exploring. Here we are in front of Taipei 101, one of the tallest buildings in Taiwan.  You can't really see it, but it's tall :)  We ate lunch in the food court there before going to Leo's Playland.

Cora was pretty jazzed about riding the MRT (metro) for the first time!  It's super clean and easy to use.

This happens a lot for the girls.  Sterling and I only dream of doing this!

Edie at Leo's Playland.  These little bouncy horse things are my new favorite toy!  They feel and act like a big exercise ball, but the kids love bouncing on them!

Rockin' out.

Cora made a new friend from San Deigo!  When the girl's nanny found out that Cora's birthday was coming up, she invited us over to the birthday party they were attending there at the play place and gave me and Cora cake!  So nice!

Happy 4th of July!  Thanks Jen O'Leary for the matching dresses!  In case anyone had any doubts that we are American, we made it very clear today :)

Fun Kid Fun.  Yes, this place is called Fun Kid Fun.  Not sure what tae name means, but we LOVE it!  It is honestly a game changer for us.  It is an indoor play area only about 1 block from our hotel.  Today we stayed for over 3 hrs (until Mabel melted down)!  It's pricier than I would like, but this may be the one thing that keeps us all from going crazy.  One can only live with 3 kids in a hotel for so long :)  

Our little rock climber, Mabel.

Here's the baby play area.  

Cora cruisin' in the electric car on the "road" around the little play city.

Inside the mushroom house.

Mabel picking (magnetic) fruit in the orchard.

You know you are in Asia when the play kitchen is equipped with sushi and dumpling steamers for imaginative play!

Making a chameleon at the art table.  Mabel got her first teste of Taiwanese education when the staff member told her 2w

Fun Kid Fun had a little animal demonstration while we were there.  

Cora loved the chameleon and turtle!

We actually came back to Fun Kid Fun after dinner when Sterling got home.  They let her hold Funny, the chameleon. 

We went to Fun Kid Fun again today because I have no idea what else to do with these three girls ALL DAY LONG.  Honestly, it is way too hot and humid to go on a walk or to the park.  Also, we don't have our triple stroller with us here in the hotel, so I can't go too far because Cora has to walk and she has been know to dash away or get too tired to walk.  Maybe we will try exploring the shopping mall?  There is also a government-sponsered play area a metro stop away.  Do I dare take all three of them my myself?  To be determined...