The summer break has finally arrived!! :) The kids were all allowed to choose one fun class for the summer. Katherine and Benjamin chose swim lessons. Since the coach was completely booked up the entire summer, she said she could teach just Katherine and Benjamin weekday mornings because local schools were not out yet. It was perfect. They got one on one coaching and the rest of us got to swim around a bit, too. Their lessons are now over, but they look forward to some more swim days this summer.
We took the kids to McDonald's for ice cream. They were so excited until our McFlurries and Sundaes came to us...they were all yellow to promote the new minion movie. If it were just yellow then ok, but it was banana flavored! The kids were not thrilled with the switch. No vanilla available :( Hopefully the regular ice cream will be back soon.
We ran into Ayi. She was on the way to our house, but I couldn't resist the photo op.
The kids had movie night in our room. This is how they started...Hudson soon fell sound asleep and the others continued to enjoy Mary Poppins.
Jonathan is so good to find creative ways to help us celebrate the 4th of July! Here was our little flag fruit plate (apples, bananas, and blueberries) with some southern cookin' to go with it...sweet tea, fried chicken, and corn bread :)
Lauren's last week at school had all of the kids' art on display. She was so excited to run around and show us all of her things.
My two little swimmers...Katherine and Benjamin
Lauren was giving the little cat some attention. She finally has a name....Gracie. She a fast little kitty, too.
Lauren's school celebrated their 15th anniversary, which means another performance. One of the mom's had to go backstage to take some tights to her daughter. She took this picture and sent it to me. This is Lauren's teacher, Xu Laoshi, and her best friend, Chloe (Liu Yi Jin) and her other friend Du Jie Yin
Also, another parent snapped this at the performance. Her seat was much closer than my seat.
The teachers also performed a dance. It was very good.
These were all of the people that performed that night. All of the shows were really good.
After the show, the kids got one last picture with their teacher. Then Fang Xu Xian and Lauren (and parents of coarse) went to get them a snack. Lauren was soooo hungry afterwards. The kids arrived at 4:30 and we didn't leave until 10:30.
The NEXT day...her class got together for one last hoorah. They had a buffet lunch, the kids played games, and sang one final song to their teachers (who all started crying this time because they knew it was the last time for the class to be together). The way it works here is the teachers move up with the kids every year until they graduate from kindergarten, elementary, middle, or high school. So they really do have a special relationship with the kids. Most of these kids have had this same teacher for four years (Lauren had her for three years because she did not start at the school until she was 3 years old in xiao ban)
So, what does a 10 year old boy do to entertain himself at a kindergarten lunch? He makes static electricity :) and yes, I know a hair cut is on the list of things to do soon :)
I think Katherine had just as much fun as Lauren. They both won a flower hair bow.
And yes, Hudson played with balloons, too.
So, to start our official summer, we had a girls scrapbook day and the boys had a boys day out. Jonathan forgot to take pictures, so I will just have to tell you the exhausting day he had ;) The boys started by going swimming and playing all kinds of games in the pool, going to Burger King for lunch, going to the arcade, going grocery shopping and buying some "junk food" for the girls because Lauren said, "Yeah! Today is a fun day which means we get to eat junk food!" coming back to the house to drop off the food, going to an indoor play place, and finally coming home for dinner and stories.
This was Lauren's first official scrapbook day. She was so excited and had her spot claimed for the "event." Look how neat and organized...my entire room was so neat and organized...
...and then the fun began and my nice clean room was no more :)
taking our little junk food break and watching the movie on the computer...and yes, ALL of those pictures are of Regan and Kayla Moore :) Best friends.
This had to be my favorite page that Katherine did. She just loves her bunny.
