One Month of School Completed; It's time for a Vacation!

No really, this week is vacation.  All of China will be off celebrating a national  "Golden Week" and we'll be getting the heck out of dodge.  It's been a busy first month of school, I do think a break sounds good.  

ChinaBean headed back to her little preschool at the beginning of September.  Could she be any cuter?!  She attends a Chinese preschool three mornings a week.  If you ask her, she eats rice and soup every day for lunch (which is probably true).

ChinaBean was walking home from school pretending to talk on her wooden iPhone.  She's a woman with a mission.

EBean was very excited to be recognized as her class's Golden Child.  She was honored during the weekly school assembly for her perseverance while trying to write sentences.  We celebrated with the traditional visit to Cold Stone.

EBean has also been taking swimming as part of her PE classes this term.  She loved it!

Nice form EBean!

Girl Scouts has resumed.  This is the start of my 4th year as a leader!  Now I have a better sense of how women end up leading for 20+ years...they must have several daughters too.  LBean is a second-year Brownie and EBean is finally a Daisy.  The poor girl has watched her sister do activities and make crafts for the last three years and she is super excited to be an official member this year.

Our troop has grown so much that my friend Sarah will be leading the Brownies and Juniors and I will be taking on the Daisies.  We have around 21 girls in our lovely troop.

Bridging ceremony.  Time to welcome the new Brownies. 

EBean playing a game at our first meting.

 Each class at the girls' school takes a turn to give a class presentation at their school's weekly assembly.  LBean's class performed at one of the first assemblies and I think it's nice to get it out of the way.  Her class performed a skit, sang a song, and showed a video about endangered and extinct animals.

LBean with one of her closest classmates

Taking a selfie

Class 4D at Dulwich

LBean's entire grade took a 3 day, 2 night school trip.  The kids were bused to Taihu, a lake situated about 1.5 hours from Suzhou.  They took a ferry to an island called San Shan where they learned about ancient temples, hiked a Buddha trail, picked oranges, made s'mores, watched a movie, took a night walk, and lots of other interesting sights.

Packed and ready to go!

Selfie has been mastered.

I was teasing LBean about this picture.  I asked her if she
realized that this was someone's underwear.  She said
that one of her teachers made a joke about the undies being
ancient artifacts!

Let's see, I know I'm leaving out something...homework, after-school activities (knitting & ballet for LBean), lunch-time club (ballet for EBean), violin practice, birthday parties, orthodontist appointments, colds, strep throat for me, and on and on and on.

Maybe we really do need a vacation...

Typhoon Tuesday & Tuna Tradition

A typhoon was passing through the area today, so it was too wet to be outside.  Instead, we stayed inside after school.  We played with some pumpkin-spiced homemade play doh.  Everyone played with the play doh for over an hour, even Ayi!

ChinaBean giving the "V" for victory.

EBean made several birthday "cakes".

After I explained to Ayi that, even though I had cooked the play doh on the stove, we don't eat it!  Instead we played and played some more.

Love Ayi's smile!

We ended the evening with a new-ish tradition.  Jamie is in Japan all this week and for a long time we have eaten tuna noodle casserole for dinner when Jamie is traveling.  The tradition was born when I was trying to decide what to make for dinner when Jamie was gone.  It seems that the dinner expectations are lowered a bit when he is away.  I tried to think of something that we might enjoy, but that Jamie wouldn't mind missing...tuna noodle casserole came to mind.  He hates canned tuna (he's so refined, I am not, I love the stuff).  The girls enjoy it too, so although we miss daddy very much when he's gone, we try to enjoy our "girl party" and canned tuna.  See you soon daddy!

What's That? Wednesday: My Daughter's Mandarin...She's Got Skills!

Since moving to China, our entire family has taken language training in one form or another.  Jamie has had private lessons at work.  I took about 9 months of private lessons in our home.  We met twice a week for an hour at a time.  I took a very looooong break (18 months) and I happy to say that I've restarted my lessons after the new year.  LBean's school teaches Mandarin 30 minutes a day 4 times a week.  Even ChinaBean hears a good amount of Mandarin from our Ayi (housekeeper) and now at her new preschool where all the teachers are native Chinese speakers.

However, it's EBean that is the most impressive.  She has attended the same school for two years now.  Half of her day is presented in Mandarin (and about half her class are native Mandarin speakers) and the other half is presented in English.  Last year she would tell us that she didn't understand or speak Mandarin.  She would not speak it at home.  This year is a completely different story!  She is our most fluent speaker in the house (and she knows it).  I've been told by my Chinese friend that EBean's tones are correct when she is speaking and even she is impressed.  EBean is much more confident in her skills and now she speaks Mandarin to our Ayi, sings and talks to herself in Mandarin when she is playing at home, and if she is being particularly ornery, she'll speak it to us at the dinner table (and we have no idea what she is saying).

Some time ago a family member shared with me that they would like to hear EBean (our 5  year-old) speaking Mandarin Chinese.  The family member had a hard time imagining what EBean might sound like speaking another language.

About two weeks ago, I was finally about to take a decent video of EBean speaking Mandarin to her best friend.  They are looking at a coloring book about the movie Frozen. Enjoy the video!

Newton Sports Day

Last fall EBean's school had their annual Sports Day.  All the children march out with their classes and waving flags.  The year before EBean was supposed to wear yellow, which we didn't have.  I did a frantic search at a local children's store and found a yellow sweater, which was probably only worn for Sports Day.

This year was much easier because now the children wear uniforms to school Monday-Thursday and Friday is free dress day.  The school provided the classes with colored scarves, so my only instruction was to wear red for the Sports Day.

For some reason, which I still don't quite understand, Elise was promoted to "big flag carrier" and she got to march out carrying the large, red Newton flag.

Here she comes...

Waving her class's flag.

And now has made eye contact with mom and won't look at the camera.

Waiting with her class.

Getting ready for morning exercises.

ChinaBean enjoyed the morning at her big sister's school too.

There four different games or races to complete. In between each activity the children did part of their morning exercises and dances.

EBean is getting ready for her race.  Last year she wouldn't participate at all and this year she did all four games.

ChinaBean was very excited to be with the rest of the students and she tried to act like a big girl.

We made it down the slide a few times in between games.

EBean's last race was the cutest.  They had to dress up in a fireman's costume, race the wheelbarrow with a water gun through the cones, and then spray a "burning" boat.  EBean has good aim!

Everyone was awarded a gold medal at the end.  "We are the Champions" was evening blaring in the background.

Congrats EBean!

School Days (or is it Daze?)

Both LBean and EBean have had a good start to their respective school years.  EBean is still at Newton Kindergarten, which has two programs, a Chinese kindergarten and an international program.  EBean is in the international program and 1/2 of her class is Chinese and the other 1/2 are international students.  We love her program because 1/2 of her day is taught in Mandarin and 1/2 of her day is in English.  We were told by friends that we would really see her Mandarin skills jump during her second year at Newton and that has certainly been true. 

EBean hops on the little yellow bus at 8:45 and I get her off the bus at 3:30.  She eats a Chinese lunch (no pizza or mini-corndogs here) and is no longer taking naps at school, she's a big Pre-K kid now.  This term she is very excited to be taking swimming lessons once a week during school.  Although, she thinks they could do a little less kicking practice.

In the elevator and on our way to EBean's first day of Pre-K.  LBean hadn't started school yet, so she got to see her sister off too.

Let's go, we don't want to be late!

Time for a quick picture because the bus is here.

Getting on the bus and off she goes!

Home again.  ChinaBean is so excited that her sister is home.  She was waving frantically and saying "jie jie" (big sister) over and over.

LBean is a big Year 3 (2nd grader)  at Dulwich College this year.  This means a new school building, the junior school, a new school uniform, and lots more responsibility.  I think she was more excited than nervous about all the changes and she has handled it really well.  This term she is taking ballet once a week after school and Suzuki violin once a week during school.  She also enjoys being able to go to the library during recess time.

Jamie walks LBean to the bus every morning at 7:30 before he catches his ride to work.

Sisters

About a month after school started, EBean's new school uniform arrived.  This is the first year that her school is requiring uniforms Monday-Thursday.  Fridays are free-dress days.  She is really excited to wear a uniform just like her big sister and it makes getting ready in the morning really, really easy (yeah)!

It seems that once school starts, time begins to fly and we measure time by the next approaching school holiday.  One holiday down, just a few more to go...

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.)