It has been a super busy few days and full of wonderful memories. THE DAY finally arrived. Lauren has been asking for months when her graduation was going to be...and here it is! This was her graduating kindergarten class of 2015 (3 kindergarten classes of 40 kids each) Can you find her? She's sitting on the left side of the stage.
This was one of three performances that she did at graduation. All of the kids sang 3 songs together, her class did an orchestra style performance (see below), Lauren played the triangle and the tambourine...it was really better than I anticipated, and then the girls did the dance above "Da Yanjing" and the boys did a separate dance. She absolutely LOVED every second of it. The principal of her school came to her class on Monday (graduation was on Friday) and presented Lauren with a special award/gift for her performance at the graduation. The principal only gave 2 kids in the school this gift. I was so proud of her. Any times she hears any kind of music, she just can't help but dance. It brings a smile to my face every time.
Lauren is in the front, second to the right
Lauren is also in the dance class at her school. They had their end of the year performance on Monday afternoon. She did so good. I can't believe how determined she is. She had a fever of 102 and insisted that she still dance. She did great, but I could see it in her eyes that she didn't feel good. That normal spunkiness was not there.
This one was some Indian style dance.
She had the lead in this dance.
One of my favorite parts of this dance...not sure how she does that.
This was walking home after the dance. She was asleep by 7:00 and stayed in her pj's and watched movies all the next day. She needed a down day.
We ordered Japanese take-out and Katherine ordered a hefty order of hot dogs and french fries. Yes, she did eat all of that! And with chopsticks, too ;)
Now this was the surprise of the century! Jonathan decided that he would surprise the kids with this adorable little kitten that they have been looking at since it was born. If you know Jonathan, he is not a cat person. The kids said that they didn't think he would ever get a cat because they that he didn't like them. He said he still doesn't like them, but he loves them :) What a sweet Daddy (I like the kitten, too) :) Charlie on the other hand is trying to pretend that nothing is beside him.
So, the kitten still has no name. It is fascinated with Regan's iPad. We thought about naming it Apple..haha! The kids just haven't been able to settle on a name that they can all agree on. So far they have come up with Baby, Tiny Typhoon, Luna, Ziva, Gracie, Molly, and Galaxy. We will have to settle on something soon or it will remain "Baby Charlie" as Hudson calls her.
She is just as cute as can be...
...and I love the belly
She's so tiny and playful. Now we just have to get Charlie to like her.
The kids had their belt test this weekend. They all broke their boards with ease and did their routines. Lauren is now a yellow and green belt and Regan and Benjamin are now green and blue belts. They also gave a few special awards to a handful of kids for how hard they work during class times. Regan and Lauren both got one! :)
Strike a pose.
Someone was so tired that he actually fell asleep on the couch! There is a first for everything.
Katherine and Benjamin started swim class. They are doing great and having a blast.
Hudson and Regan get to enjoy the pool while the others are in class as well. Hudson is getting better in the pool and it is good for his coordination.
Jonathan's work had a party for all the teachers and kids at McDonald's. The kids all learned how to make cheeseburgers.
We left McDonald's to find a taxi and just outside the mall were some inflatables and things.
We let all the kids choose one thing.
Three of them chose the trampolines.
Lauren chose the slide.
Hudson also chose the bounce house. Not a bad trip for a dollar each :)
Lauren went to a robot restaurant with one of her best buddies for dinner. They are in the same class at school and he lives in our complex. She just loves going out to eat with them because they always take them to crazy restaurants.
Here's a familiar seen every day...men on the streets playing cards.
Happy Father's Day, Jonathan! The kids ordered him a waffle maker online and it came just in time! This was the best group picture that I could get...there was always someone looking somewhere else :)
And we enjoyed the waffles!!!! YUM!!
Ok, this is one of my favorites. No, she is not singing in the rain as it looks. It was raining earlier and she refused to use the umbrella. Then the sun came out and the umbrella came flying over head and she said, "Oh no! The sun is out! I need my umbrella!" Only here. :)
A friend took us fishing. The kids really wanted to catch something.
Regan caught 1 shrimp and Benjamin caught 2 shrimp! YEAH! It was quite funny to see Benjamin catch the shrimp. As soon as he caught it, he would drop the pole and run. The groups of guys sitting behind him (eating all their shrimp that they had caught) would just laugh and laugh and then get up and get it for him. This was as close to the shrimp that we could get him...and he didn't even like being that close.
We ate dinner with our friends and had many interesting things, including but not limited to fish, turtle, chicken, pigeon, squid, shrimp, peanuts, and more. I was surprised that I actually likes a few of them.
Katherine using a water lily for a hat on the way home.
I love seeing this. Sweet friendships.
The other thing the kids did was swing on some ropes. So, as you can see. Our days have been full...and these were just the things we took pictures of!!
