I just had to open up with this picture of Lauren. She loved sitting in this tree. She got turned around backwards and just happened to look up at me and I had my camera ready :) I think this will be one of my favorites.
We have had a great week of building relationships here and being able to share our story with those we are meeting. We have met two different girls from Korea recently who have both come over to our home to visit. This particular girl was great with the kids. She loves kids and my kids loved her. The kids kept putting "bugs" on her to "scare" her. It was a fun afternoon. We asked her to stay for dinner. She was very surprised that we ate so early (6:00) because she does not eat dinner until 9:00. We then explained bedtime.
This is Mo Mo. He is the little boy from last week eating the snowcone. He and his family came over and we spent the entire day together. It was a great time. I had to keep reminding myself that we had just met them a week ago because we felt like we had known them much longer. This little boy only speaks Mandarin (with a few English words that he is learning) so he was my tester. I would say things to him and if he knew what I said or answered my question correctly then I knew I said it pretty close :)
This is where the title of the blog comes from. Our two families ate lunch together and both contributed. Can you guess which ones are from the east and which ones from the west? The only one I will explain is the top right item. It is a special food from China that they only fix during the dragon boat festival. There is a story that a famous poet died in a river, so to keep his body from being eaten by fish, they made this dish and threw it into the river for the fish to feed on. And so, the dish is fixed during this festival (which is this coming Wednesday). Basically, it is sticky rice with beans and peanuts all mixed together and wrapped in a bamboo leaf and tied together with a string.
After lunch, we headed to the park for the kids to play. It was a beautiful day for it. Katherine and Mo Mo had a blast running through the sprinklers. I am glad she has made a little friend. They played great together. His parents thought Katherine was 4 because she is so much taller than him. He is actually the older one.
Loving the day!
After playing in the sprinklers, Katherine just layed out in the grass. I'm not sure if she was trying to warm up/dry off in the sun, tired, or just contemplating the day. Regardless, she was cute just relaxing in the grass. It reminded us of her Auntie Em!
Lauren even got in on the action (and Jonathan inadvertantly got wet as well). The follwing picture is to prove that she really was having fun.
The only time she got upset was when she thought Jonathan was not going to take her back through the water again.
This is our friend, Jasmine, whom we have gotten to know. We have already learned a lot from each other.
We let the kids take their bikes to the park and they finally got to ride them again (it's been raining a lot here, so they have been waiting for a pretty day to ride). Benjamin told me that he wanted to go home beacause it was going to rain. I said, "Rain?! There's not a clound in the sky. It's not going to rain." He looked up and out and around and pointed waaaaay off in the distance to some clouds. "Yes it is. See?" "Benjamin, those are just a few cirrus clouds. They don't have rain in them." "Well, those serious clouds look like they are coming this way!"
She will always be my girl who loves to be up in a tree. She informed me today that she no longer wants to be JUST a teacher when she grows up. She wants to be a ballerina, a doctor, a teacher, and a singer like Hannah Montana. "You don't want to be a gymnast?" "NO. I'm already that!"
Also, we heard her tell someone that she likes Chinese oranges. It took us a few minutes and then we realized that we have been calling them Mandarin oranges instead of just oranges. I guess the two words are interchangeable :)
And this is how we all felt after a long fun-filled day and week. It's a good tired though. See you next week!
