Peter, Anna, and Emma came over after school to practice some English with our family. They take taekwondo with the kids and their school is literally across the street from our complex.
This little boy is so cute! Hudson was so excited to find someone that he could give his old bike to.
The kids did a few experiments...they all got to try and blow up a balloon inside an empty water bottle. They had fun trying!
So, the girls were happy to see this friend outside playing for a few minutes. Her parents keep her so busy that she literally has no free time. I was actually headed to look for a dentist for Lauren when we ran into her. I said that they could play for about 40 minutes and then we would go. As we were leaving the mom gives me a call and says "Hey! My daughter says Lauren has a cavity and that you are going to a dentist. Where are you going?" I told her that I had seen an advertisement and was going to ask if they could fill her cavity. Come to find out, she owns the entire company! She called ahead of us and got it all set up. First class treatment...plus she had them give us the employee discount :) I can handle that.
Here's Lauren getting her cavity filled.
This is what you call a FRESH egg! haha! Yes, this egg came out of the carton and was covered in feathers!
It was International Women's Day so the management at our complex was out giving flowers to all the ladies. It was raining so I didn't want to get out. Oh well.
I enjoyed seeing some of the pictures of the old ladies getting their flowers.
I love this picture!
Jonathan took the older two kids to see a movie. They had a good time!
While the older two were watching a movie, Katherine and Hudson came with me to drop Lauren off at dance.
We found these swings and ate a snack. It was very relaxing.
On the way home, we ran into a lady selling flowers and uh....puppies. Don't worry. We have not added any more puppies to our family ;)
The kids did have fun holding them though.
Katherine had a soccer tournament. Her team came in second place. She did so good and had so much fun!
These three were just chillin waiting for the next game to start. We were her biggest, loudest fans.
This is the only other girl on the team.
I so enjoyed watching her play! I was a bit sad as I looked around though. With the exception of 3 moms and 1 dad, we were the only ones even watching the games let alone cheering. All the dads left and went to play a soccer game for themselves (they asked Jonathan to join, but he said he wanted to watch his child play...they didn't understand why), and most of the moms were in a shaded corner playing on their phones. So, I'm sure we seemed a little crazy yelling and cheering, but that's ok. Katherine knows we were there and enjoyed watching her.
I have to sneak moments like this. I'm not sure what they were talking about (probably a movie) but I enjoyed watching them from a distance ;)
These two girls were so excited to go to the orthodontist! The bus had seats above the driver which made their day. Katherine is still looking good and Lauren won't need anything for at least a year or so.
passing the time
I always enjoy walking through this little park on the way to the orthodontist. It's so nice when everything else around you is buildings.
Lauren got some birthday packages in the mail. She was so surprised to get this picture! Granddad and Mammy had let her have it in her room in the States. They decided to send it to her. It is now hanging in her ballet corner of the room...and so are Regan's taekwondo belts...so when Regan is in that part of the room it's taekwondo and not ballet ;)
Here is the first picture I took of her opening her gift. It took forever!! :). So many boxes and so much bubble wrap! It definitely was not going to break. :)
Nine? How can she be nine?
This is Hudson trying to stay awake 30 minutes after she started opening the present :)
A doll! She was looking at in and had a sweet serious expression on her face and she really looked a lot like this doll. Of coarse, I cannot get that expression on film because she knows what I'm trying to do. You'll just have to trust me.
Benjamin also got some birthday presents in the mail! New clothes!
Lauren got some new earrings and Granddad sent a replacement for the owl bag that got stolen/left on the bus.
Men's medium! How do they grow up so fast!
Lauren wearing her pretty new dress
Heading to dance class
I got caught trying to take a picture through the window :)
They had a 2 minute break fro water. Lauren spent most of her break dancing.
We went back up to our friend's house to celebrate Yoyo's birthday.
The kids had a great time!
My kids were determined to buy an animal for their present to her. I told them that all animals have to be approved by a parent first. The only animal that was ok to buy was a fish. The kids were so excited about it!
Yoyo was excited to have her very own aquarium!
Mango cake
This picture cracks me up. Katherine looks like she is ready to catch a fish just in case it jumps out.
Hudson didn't know who Mrs. Pigglewiggle was (from a book if you don't know) so Regan decided to dress Lauren up as her so that he knew what she looked like.
The main guy gave Regan some red taekwondo uniforms to bring home to see if they fit any of her siblings. Guess who decided to try taekwondo again? Yep. Katherine went to class with the others to try it out. I'm not sure if she will continue or not, but she had fun doing it with everyone else.
Poor Scout. He has a hurt back leg. We aren't sure what happened. One minute he was fine and the next he couldn't walk on it. We took him to the vet and the vet said their is no problem. It's been 6 days and still no change. I hope it heals soon...whatever it is!
Hudson was so proud that he finished this puzzle all by himself!! He worked REALLY hard on it.
Here's my crew before taekwondo class.
One afternoon the older two were still working on their schoolwork and Katherine had gone shopping with her daddy. Lauren and Hudson asked if we could take a walk by the boats. They are doing a lot of construction in that area on. anew bridge, so things looked a bit different. Interesting nonetheless.
We took Shadow with us, too. He LOVES going for a walk! (Scout would rather sit and watch us go for a walk)
watching them work on the bridge
Lauren found a coconut on the ground.
These are some of our favorite trees. The kids love seeing all of the roots.
Lauren was excited to run into this little friend again. Twice in one week! She only had 10 minutes before her next class, so we played outside on the exercise equipment before she went in to class.
We celebrated Lauren's 9th birthday!!! This was the inside of her cake. Actually, it was one o the layers because the cake didn't rise for some reason, so we made a strawberry cake to go with it.
She wanted an Atlanta Braves theme (since that was her baseball team when we were in the States).
The birthday girl :)
A little Twister fun!
Also, they played Jenga (or cheated at Jenga...haha)
Jonathan was getting a little nervous at how many kids were there at the party. Lauren invited a few friends who then invited their friends (who also knew Lauren). It's all good. They had a good time, and we had smaller pieces of pizza. Some of the kids didn't even come to the table. They just wanted to play.
I'll name the ones I know...back row: Yoyo, Regan, Winter, Vanessa, ?1, Mian Mian (we call her noodles as a nickname), ?2, Wei Wei front row: Lauren, Katherine, Yi Fang from dance, Qian Qian from dance, Hudson, and Polly, our neighbor.
Lots of smiles all day long
Lauren thought this was funny. She got a whole book series, but it's all in characters. I guess since she speaks so well that her friends assumed that she can read all the same characters, but we focus on English at school ;)
This is one happy little girl. She loves this chocolate, but it's really expensive.
This was the present I was waiting for her to open. She has been wanting to buy a phone watch similar to what Hudson has, but was really struggling with her desire to buy things for others (and herself). We decided that instead of each of us getting her a smaller gift that we would put all the money together and buy her the watch. She was so surprised!
blowing out the candles
Regan making her ice-cream
so fun!
I think this was one of my favorites that she opened. Her dance friend gave her a music box that spins around and the ballerinas dance in circles. I think it was a perfect gift.
Hudson and Wei Wei play often outside.
Lauren and her best dance buddies, Qian Qian and Yi Fan
decorating cookies
After the party, we went outside to play and some kids had bought a chick at the market.
It was so cute!
I was walking the dogs (and taking these pictures) so I didn't hold it, but I got a hilarious video! They were giving it water to drink on the ground and out of no where this tiny little chick just took off running....straight towards me and the dogs! All the kids were screaming and trying to catch this poor little chick because they thought it was about to become dinner (in reality, the dogs were sitting calmly watching the entire event unfold) haha!
My kids will always find a tree to climb or a wall or something :)
Ok, so I know I said no more pets, but really, what's another fish. Lauren was so excited that she had birthday money and they she could have her own little bowl on her desk at school. Hudson bought 3 more fish to replace some that had already died in his tank.
I was excited that I got to surprise Jonathan with a blender! :) We had one a long time ago and he loved to use it. It wasn't made well and broke. WE kept looking for a decent quality and couldn't find a decent price on it. I've been looking for awhile. My friend said that she would help me keep an eye out for good deals online. Well, she came through! They had a flash sale for only 2 hours and I was able to get a really nice blender for a really cheap price!!! YEAH! Now if she can help me find the same kind of deal on a Kitchen Aid stand mixer ;)
WE were able to Skype with Ma and Emily!
It was Ma's 88th birthday! I'm so glad we had a decent connection!
