Celebrations

It seems that our family partied a bit this summer.  We celebrated a birthday, or a half birthday, every month from May to September.  I'm partied out!

LBean turned 7 in May.  She asked for a camping birthday (she's saving her tooth fairy money to buy an RV).  I attempted to make a "campfire" birthday cake with Twix, gummy bears as the logs and hot embers, and a fruit roll-up for the flame.  I don't know how impressed she was with it.

This was our attempt at a family picture.  Jamie was already back in China and my mom took the picture.  It's almost complete!

I love, love the pictures of  Jamie's grandparents talking to Jamie on FaceTime. Technology is an amazing thing!

"Camping Cousins"

This girl ate more than her weight in hotdogs this summer.  It's one of her favorite words (and foods).

Jamie's grandparents with a few of their great-grandchildren!

Happy Birthday to my 7-year-old!

As we were planning LBean's birthday, EBean started asking about her birthday.  I assured her that when December rolled around we would also have a party for her.  What she was really asking was if she could have her Grandmas at her birthday party just like her big sister.  Well, that was enough to break this mama's heart.  EBean's cousin graciously agreed to share her June birthday party with EBean and so we planned a 1/2 birthday! And, it literally was 6 months until her birthday.

This girl girl is getting a hang of all these parties.

Two birthday girls!

It's a 1/2 cake for a 1/2 birthday for a 4 1/2-year-old!  EBean requested a chocolate cake and we piled on as much as we could.

You really can order anything online,
even a 1/2 candle.

She's not a fan of being sung to.

Watch out, this girl is serious!

The last birthday we celebrated in the US, was ChinaBean's 2nd birthday.  We feasted on popcorn, peanuts and pizza, some of ChinaBean's favorite foods!

This girl is ready to party!

Uncle Mike knows how to party too!

I love all my crazy girls, even when they stick out their tongues.  

ChinaBean had a few "helpers" opening her presents.  

ChinaBean's favorite birthday card came from Uncle Matt.  It burped the Happy Birthday Song. She's played the card so much that the battery has run out.

Happy birthday to our miracle!

"Popcorn" cupcakes.

The end of August brought us ChinaBean's actual birth date, so we celebrated, again.  ChinaBean is giggling, but it's hard to tell in the picture.

We celebrated ChinaBean's birthday with a family  that has a special place in their hearts for  ChinaBean.  They saw her through her first surgery and have loved our little girl for a long time.

ChinaBean was so excited to get some new Signing Time videos.  She literally threw her hands up in the air!

Whew, last birthday of the season, Jamie turned 30-something-ish at the beginning of September.  It's a good thing that Caterpillar makes a full range of machines, because I will be systematically going through each machine for Jamie's birthday cakes.

I have an expat confession to make...the cake was cute, but it didn't taste so great.  The cake mix was one I had brought back from the US a while back (ahem).  I can get cake mixes here, but they are expensive, so if I have room, I'll bring enough mixes back for birthdays.  I knew the mix had expired, but I also knew it wasn't "bad" just that the leavening was probably old.  Sure enough, the cake didn't rise like it should have, and even my girls noticed the cake was flat.  I cut the cake in half, doubled it up, and slathered on a lot of chocolate.  We ate it, because it's imported cake mix that crossed the ocean, and as an expat we don't waste precious things like that.  (Even if it's yuck!)

No more parties until December.  Maybe by then I'll be ready for another one! (And maybe a cake mix that hasn't expired.)

July's Highs

I'm still not back in full-time blogging mode, but that's okay with me!  Now the adoption is finalized, ChinaBean has made it successfully through another heart surgery, my girls and I were re-united with Jamie after living three months on separate continents, and I am simply enjoying "being".

We are settling into school routines, I'm finalizing my schedule for helping out with some speech kiddos at school, volunteer responsibilities are resuming, and our family is just relishing being back together.  

Thanks for bearing with me as I took a break from this virtual scrapbook and journal!

June was a fun month for us, but July was even better.  Everyone was healthy and we were able to do lots of fun activities.

Great-grandpa had some things to show ChinaBean (and it didn't involve an Apple product)!

ChinaBean got the "all clear" and we started weaning her off of three of her meds.  She returned to China only taking her baby aspirin.  Yippee!

We played, a lot.  Inside. Outside.  With friends. With cousins. We played some more.

Well hello there!  Didn't you live in Suzhou at one time too?

At the local candy shop "on the square"

Okay, I played with friends too.  The spa, late night trips to Walmart, and saying hi to the "neighbors".  My friend Shannon (below) lives in Suzhou too and we just happened to spend some time in the US living across the street from each other at our respective friends' homes.  I called the street the Suzhou Respite Area.

Picnics on the patio with cousins

Time with the other great grandparents, Mom-o & Pop-o

4th of July! Complete with a parade, floats, candy and fireworks.

Have you ever seen a cuter little bug dressed in red, white & blue? She caught onto the idea collecting candy at the parade very quickly!

Poised and ready for some more candy to come her way.

Thanks to Jamie's cousin Josie, ChinaBean
got a nice frozen treat too.

EBean thought is was a bit hot on the float! I say
keep throwing that candy.

More visits from family.  I love my Aunts very much and I really love watching them as Great Aunts to my girls.  They drove several hours just to have lunch and the afternoon with my girls before turning around and driving home.  That's the kind of aunt I aspire to be.

And, finally VBS (vacation Bible school).  My girls asked for three things for their summer (well actually four...to take off their shoes and run through the grass): go to the American Girl Store in St. Louis, go to the Wisconsin Dells and go to VBS.  I am happy to say check, check, and check to all of their requests.  We ended our time in the US with a bang and a whole lot of memories!

What's That? Wednesday: Numbing Spice

I'm back!  Well, sort of.  I'm easing back into my school-year routine, our weekly schedule and my to do list.  On my list is to get back to blogging and I'm starting real slow this week.

I cannot believe I haven't blogged about the "numbing spice" that I have a love/hate relationship with.

If you look below and ignore the chopsticks and the large slices of ginger, do you see the little reddish peppercorns? Those are Sichuan numbing spices.

I was first introduced to the spices accidentally when went with a group of friends to eat at a local Muslim Chinese restaurant.  Someone ordered the spicy green beans and I bit into a peppercorn, not knowing what it was, and my tongue started to tingle and go numb.  As first I was embarrassed that I might be having an allergic reaction (c'mon, who is allergic to green beans?) and I wasn't going to say anything, but I did and then a friend filled me in on the numbing spice.

The spice is used a lot in Sichuan cooking, which is one of the spiciest Chinese cuisines.  I was told that once the tongue is numbed, then you can eat even spicier foods.  I don't know if that is true, but it sounds good!  Because our Ayi is from the Sichuan province, she cooks spicy dishes for us often.

I had to share the description I found on Wikipedia:

According to Harold McGee in On Food and Cooking, second edition, p429 they are not simply pungent; "they produce a strange, tingling, buzzing, numbing sensation that is something like the effect of carbonated drinks or of a mild electrical current (touching the terminals of a nine-volt battery to the tongue). Sanshools appear to act on several different kinds of nerve endings at once, induce sensitivity to touch and cold in nerves that are ordinarily nonsensitive, and so perhaps cause a kind of general neurological confusion."

Our Ayi described the dish as málà, which literally means "numbing" "spicy".  And, in doing my Wikipedia research I found out that málà is also Chinese slang, but I'll let you google that.

And, just for fun, here is a picture of 8 little girls we went with to dinner at the Muslim restaurant (where I first tried the numbing spice).  Between the three families we almost had a girl at each age, birth to 7 years!

June's Highlight Reel

It's been quiet on the blogging front because we've been making lots of American summer memories.  Our family has returned safely to China and we're enjoying our last few weeks before school trying to beat the heat at the pool.

Enjoy our June highlights!

Visiting friends...

The joke was this was the "guest house" at our friend's house.

Playing with cousins...

Camping (in the comfort of an RV, thank goodness for satellite TV and air)...

Every campout needs marshmallows!

Road trip...

No compact car for our family.

Visit to the American Girl Store...

EBean got her new American doll, Julie.

St. Louis with friends from Suzhou...

Waiting to go up to the top of the Arch.

At the Butterfly House.

Tourists in my hometown...

Old Carthage Jail; Carthage, IL

Time with some of my college friends (and all our kiddos)...

Stay tuned for July's memories!

School's Out for the Summer!

My girls are out for the summer, from all their schools...China and America.  

We left China in April to return to the US for China Bean's surgery.  Because my oldest girls would miss the end-of-the-year festivities and good-byes, each girl took in treats to her class to tell them "see you in the fall".

EBean attends a school that has both a Chinese section and an international section.  In EBean's class, about have are Chinese and the rest of the students are from various countries.  Half of EBean's day is conducted in Chinese and the other half is done in English.  I'm pretty sure that she has the best language skills out of our entire family!  The current plan is for her to attend the same school in the fall.

The children enjoying cupcakes.  We had to
tell some of the students how to take the paper
cupcake liners off and eat the cupcakes.

EBean with her classroom Ayi (assistant)

EBean with her "English" teacher.  The teacher
attended the same university in the US that
Jamie and I attended!

LBean attends a private British school and she studies Mandarin for 30 minutes a day.  Below is a picture of her Mandarin teacher and class.  

LBean was in Year 2 this past year, which is the equivalent of 1st grade in the US.  Below is a picture of LBean's class and her classroom assistant.  LBean's class celebrated with cupcakes too, which has become a favorite.  It really is just a cupcake mix from a box, but they sure do like eating them!

Love this picture of LBean and a classmate.  Her friend gave
her a book as a "going away" present.

LBean's Year 2 Class

We were very fortunate that both EBean and LBean were able to attend school for a month in the US while ChinaBean was preparing for and recovering from her open heart surgery.  It helped provide some normalcy and familiarity for them as well as keep LBean up on her academics (LBean missed the entire last term of her school in China).

EBean with her preschool teacher.

LBean had a very special 1st grade teacher and I can say
that because she is my sister-in-law! I think LBean only
goofed once and call her Aunt instead of Mrs. B.  

We are excited that ChinaBean's medical restrictions have been lifted and we are going to make as many "American" summer memories as possible.