Sunday, June 23, 2013

Winding Down

 This is one of my new favorite pictures.  I needed an updated picture of Lauren and Ayi before we came back to America (just 17 days!).  These two are going to miss each other!  When we moved cities last year, Ayi did not come with us.  Lauren would lay on the couch just looking a her picture and would hug it.  It was so sad.  Ayi would call her every week.  Then, it was a happy day!  Ayi moved to our city!  I am sure we will be making phone calls to let them talk ;)
 This is Regan's favorite teacher at her school.  I think they look the same age!!  Am I getting old?
 We had some friends come by for a visit this week.  We have not seen them in a long time.  Benjamin enjoyed having a boy to play with AND they both like chess.
We also got to meet the newest member of their family.  Katherine was so excited to get to hold the baby!  She loved it bu only lasted a couple minutes.  She said, "Mom, I can't breathe.  He is squooshing me."  So funny! 

Monday, June 17, 2013

Our Hearts Are Full

I had to make a quick trip to another city.   When my friend and I went there, there was this huge rubber duck in the water.  It just made me laugh.  Katherine would have loved this!
This little girl had her first real run this week.  She ran about 3 miles with her Daddy.  Jonathan told her that she was too little and that she couldn't go, but she insisted that she could do it.  He let her try and sure enough, she made it.  She was so proud of herself.  That cup of water was so good afterward.
We had the privilege of watching our second child enter into our forever family.  Our hearts are full of joy. 

 Waiting his turn.
 I can't believe how tall Regan is getting!  Love her!  The view was absolutely great.  The perfect backdrop for a wonderful day! 
 Katherine posing for me.  I thought I had one o Benjamin also, but there are others in the picture with him. 
 Loved this part of our school day.  The kids got a little confused about how we could leave at 9pm one day and arrive in LA 2 hours before we left :)  So, I drew them a little picture.  I think they got it.  Hoping that the jet lag is not too bad!
 My little Meimei writing her name with chocolate candy bars!
Regan spent several hours making a new monopoly game.  She is debating over the name...American Girlopoly, A.G.opoly, Carolinopoly, or something else (another American Girl name)  She can tell you ALL about any one of them!  She even took down all of her giraffe stuff in her room and has redone it with American Girl stuff. 

Monday, June 10, 2013

Two Adorable Performances

This is the first year we have not had to be out of town for the end of year performances.  They usually do them the month before classes are finished.  Lauren had hers on the first day.  She was beyond excited.  It was hard to get a clear shot of her in this one because she was in the back row, but this one turned out.  When I picked Lauren up from class, her teachers said she had been so happy all day.  They said that they have never seen a kid so excited to wear make-up.
She was chose to be one of six girls to carry the umbrella and wear the qipao.  She looked adorable.  She saw us during this dance and has a hard time not smiling at us :)
After the show, the classes got group pictures and a group picture with the parents.
 One proud big sister!
Lauren was so excited to give her daddy a big hug when she was done.
Yes.  That is make-up on a boy.  Each kid got the exact same make-up.  This is Lauren's best friend, Fang Shu Xian.
Katherine's dances were on the second day.  I had no idea that the homemade dress was for the performance!  She was absolutely adorable walking hand in hand with her friend, Cheese Tank.
This was part of the second "dance" which was really showing off the fact that they could sing the Wheels on the Bus in English.
 I would post a video of this one, but it was a LONG 7 and a half minutes!  I had NO IDEA that you could make that song go on for so long ;)
 Katherine's class some how did not get the memo about group pictures afterward.  All the parents were waiting and by the time we got up to the kids' room, they had been changed into normal clothes.  We took the kids out for lunch since it was a special day.
Here is Benjamin pre-hair cut on day 1 with his little sister...
 ...and his post hair cut picture on day 2 with his other little sister.  I am trying to get a video up of the little girls dancing, but until it gets uploaded, here are a few shots of some of the other kids dancing.




Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Children's Day

 We just celebrated Children's Day.  Lauren and Katherine were so excited about it.  They were told that they did not need to wear their uniforms, needed to wear a beautiful dress, and bring a purse in their backpack.  Katherine got up at 5:40am and woke EVERYBODY up because she said they could not be late.
 Jonathan and Benjamin had a boys day out and Regan and I had a full day of scrapbooking.  It was a lot of fun.  I wish I had gotten more done, but I really enjoyed getting to spend the time with Regan doing something that we both really enjoy.
 Our friend wanted to take us out "to play" since it was children's day.  We got up early and went to catch the train to another city.  She had the whole day planned out for us.
 My girls went crazy over this little street shop that was filled with hair bows.  It was a little too crowded to actually see anything, but they had fun.
 We saw this amazing stone cathedral.  It really was beautiful.  I gave my friend a hard time because they made her put a wrap on to enter the building because her skirt was too short.  Anything above the knees was too short to enter.
 Little Miss drinking her juice.  She had to have sunglasses anytime we were outside.  The kids are not used to pretty sunny days ;)
 A street vendor selling fried robin eggs...they looked good, but we didn't get any.
 We ate lunch at a famous local noodle shop.  After many tries with chopsticks of trying to eat the never ending noodle, Lauren decided to go for the spoon and dive-in approach.  It seemed to work pretty well for her.
 We saw a guy making all kinds of things out of metal.  It was fun to watch and Benjamin said he wanted to learn how to do that.
 So, the guy gave him a lesson and let him help make a spoon.  We spent a lot of time with us, so we decided to buy one of his spoons.  It's a neat little souvenir.
We are the little ants on the bridge :)  I love the reflection in the water.
Two of the girls in a wedding "carriage" at a museum that was near the park.
This little girl was a cutie. She just loved Regan (a lot of kids do)  They played on the subway and I managed to get a picture of her looking right at me.
The subway always takes a little longer than you expect.  We almost missed our train back home.  We had to run as soon as we got off the subway and just barely made it.  The train left before we even found our seats!  Too close! :)
And last but most definitely not least, I am SO happy and proud of Jonathan for reaching the advanced level in his language!  Now, it's time make more concrete plans for coming to the States :)