Katherine is FIVE!

Wow, it's hard to believe that she is five already!  Her birthday weekend was a full one.  The cake was a surprise for her (bunnies...also known as tu tu....is her favorite animal) and we let her pick all the meals for the weekend.  She was apparently wanting some Italian food because we ate pizza, alfredo, and spaghetti over the weekend.  Whew!  That is a lot of pasta so close together :) but she was one happy girl.  Ayi ate 2 of the meals with us.  I have to say, it is the first time that I have seen garlic bread eaten with chopsticks!

She was so excited to get a new bunny in the mail.  She even took it to school with her one day.  That's a BIG thing because usually it's just "the original" tutu that she has had since she was a baby that goes in her backpack.  Oh, and she came home from school and said that now she is five, she is not going to suck her fingers at night anymore.  That's great with me! :)

Here she is digging into a birthday package! 

On her birthday, Benjamin woke up at 6am and drew this picture for her on his little chalk board.  He had it sitting on the table waiting for her when she woke up.  What a sweet boy.

Katherine, too, was very excited that her birthday had finally arrived.  She also got up early and got dressed and got some of her favorite animals out for the party.

Katherine had a little trouble blowing out the candles this year.  She just couldn't get her aim right.  It was quite funny.  I really like the look on Lauren's face here.  I think she is just wondering if she will ever get to eat the cake :)

 

 As soon as we were done eating the cake, Katherine and her little friend that came to the party, went to deliver cake to all of our security guards.  I'm not sure any of them actually wanted any, but how can you turn cake down from two adorable little girls.

We got Katherine a new bike for her birthday.  She has grown so much since we moved here, she just couldn't ride her "baby bike" anymore.  Now, she is having to learn how to ride with no training wheels!

She was very excited to go out with everyone.  She did decent on her bike with no training wheels (unless you count Jonathan hanging on to the back of her bike running with her)  Once she builds her confidence a little, she will be gone.

 Checking out her new backpack and some goodies hidden inside!  I loved that she had on Dora pj's when she opened up the birthday package.  Too Cute!

She also got a baby doll from the States.  She was working so hard to get it out of the box all by herself. 

Besides Katherine turning five, Regan and Benjamin started at a local school this week.  It's the first time they have gone to a school that is ALL in the local language.  The first day was a little overwhelming.  As we entered the school, we were mobbed by little kids yelling "Foreigner!" and "Hello!"  They were not trying to overwhelm the kids, but genuinely excited that they were there.  This school has 2,000 elementary students.



 When we arrived, we quickly noticed that the kids were not wearing the same uniform that we had bought at the uniform store.  We have now learned that the school as a MONDAY uniform that is ONLY worn on Mondays.  So, I have now bought the Monday uniform as well.  I was so proud of both Regan and Benjamin on how well they did going into the school.  I was able to get a quick snapshot of Benjamin being introduced to his classmates.

The campus is pretty big and is nothing like the ones you would see in the States.  It has a great track and field/P.E. area, and there are several buildings of classrooms each 4 stories tall.  I'm so glad they seem to be adjusting well (although Benjamin did throw up in class on his second day...poor guy.  We think he may have gotten car sick because they had gone from a different location to school that day).

 In case you are wondering, yes, we are still homeschooling as well.  We homeschool in the morning and then take them to the local school after lunch.  (schools here go from 7ish to 5:30)  This is a picture of the kids doing their first science experiment.  It involved making pudding.  They got to take of few bites out of one bowl before putting it in the refrigerator and left it overnight.  When they took the pudding out the next day, they could see how everywhere their spoons had touched, the saliva from their mouth had started breaking down the food already.  A fun little experiment.

 Here they are displaying their art from this week's art class.

And finally, I had to put this one on here.  Katherine completely surprised me this week when she drew a picture and then wrote her name in characters beside it.  So cool!