Lucy Bug turns 2!

Lucy, Sucy, Lu Lu, Mei Mei, Lucy bug...you have so many names.  Happy Birthday to our dear Lucy Mei Mei, who brings much joy and laughter into our family.  We had a couple of simply celebrations for this two year old. Sunday after church we joined another family whose daughter was born a couple hours after Lucy...same day, same hospital. We joined their party for their daughter for lunch after church. Then we headed home and in late afternoon had cake and presents with our family, Lucy's friend and neighbor Molly (who is 2 and 1/2) and the Hunemullers.  She had fun with everything and has been enjoying her presents a lot!

 As soon as Molly came in, Lucy grabbed her hand and said "Come on," as she walked off to her brothers' room.  Neither of these two are shy and they have some hilarious conversations.

 I went with a Hello Kitty cake...Lucy has been learning to use the potty (sort of) but insists on only wearing her Hello Kitty big girl underwear...and carries around this little plastic HK often. I was going to do Elmo, who she also is a big fan of but this one seemed easier.

 Waiting for cake time...

 She actually knew to blow the candles...I guess she had just watched Bennett do this.  She was so cute trying to blow.

 The birthday princess in all her glory...she was decked out in style.

 Reading her book from Great Grandma right after opening it.

 Austin read all the cards to both Bennett and Lucy during birthday time this year...he is our official card reader in the family.

 Loving her new dollhouse! She acted like such a big girl...putting the baby in the bed, on the potty, riding in the car.  

Austin was so cute...he wanted to make Lucy a doll, so we helped him make a sock doll. He was so proud. And Bennett helped me pick out this doll high chair at Roundabout, the second hand store in town I love.  Proud big brothers who love her.  She also got many fun books and accessories. Thanks to everyone who made Bennett and Lucy's birthdays so special.

Bennett's party

We celebrated Bennett with friends today. CARS was the theme of course (Bennett always seems to like things that wildly popular world wide, making it easy to come up with ideas via pinterest) and we raced cars down the slide in the backyard, bean bag toss into a tire, did an obstacle course (again with the tire, which we borrowed from the car wash/mechanic shop down the street) and had a Mater disguise costume photo booth.  Cake and ice cream and lots of playing...fun and as always after these things, I am exhausted.  But Bennett felt special and had fun and it was a happy day.

 Bennett got a red scooter from his friends...with a bell and lights too.  Hoping he learns quickly and it helps bring him outdoors more!

 Following Mater with lots of disguises...

 Guess who?

Bennett with his friend Ellie...they are in Chinese school and coop together and have become good friends.

And tomorrow is Miss Lucy's birthday...after hoping she would have been a spring baby, God saw fit to bring her into the world four days after Bennett's birthday. So we do a lot of celebrating around here this week. Tomorrow will be much more low key- but cake with a couple of friends and presents. After church I think we will have lunch with her birthday buddy- a little girl from our church born same day, same hospital. We don't see them often but it is fun to celebrate the two little girls together. Yesterday was another post...but long day of a school field trip out of town. So I am going to go fall into bed soon!

Bennett Buddy Turns Five!

Our sweet Bennett turned five today!  Wow, hard to believe I know have a second child who is five.  I feel like the fifth year is such a big leap into childhood. Bennett continues to be our cuddly snuggler and hand holder but more and more is running alongside the big kids. He has grown in confidence at Chinese school, is starting to read and seems to be a natural math person (maybe the only one in our family!), still loves to be home with his cars and trains more than anything and is the best hugger in the family. Definitely the middle child, he has his funny ways of getting attention. We celebrated a night early Tuesday night with a birthday dinner out, followed by his choice of waffles and bacon for breakfast, followed by presents. Saturday is party day and we will have some fun friends over to celebrate with CARS and racing.

 Dinner at a newish restaurant to open in our area... the biggest pizzas you have ever seen. Pizza is his favorite. Joined by the Hunemullers who didn't make it into the picture.

Presents this morning...the first round. 

The Ringbearer

Austin was in his first wedding today as a ringbearer.  Our friend Matt got married this afternoon and had the cutest ringbearer ever at his wedding.  Austin did a great job, even though he was nervous about it. He looked so cute in his little suit and I got teary again watching the video...feeling sappy but he was such a little man.

 Austin with the groom. They bonded a year ago when Chris took Austin on a trip out west that involved a 30 hour bus ride!

 Austin with the flower girl. We were surprised to discover at the rehearsal that this girl from our homeschool coop was going to be the flower girl.  We didn't know her well, but they had fun playing together at the rehearsal.

 Getting ready for the big moment.

 And relaxing after it was all over...

 Doesn't he look just like a little man?  He kept saying that I couldn't call him cute "cute is just for babies". I could not convince him I call Daddy cute, lots of adults even can be cute.  But he was so cute.

And...sigh. I tried three times to upload the video of him walking down the aisle, but there was an error each time. I have never had much luck with blogger and videos. Anyone out there have any tips for blogger videos please let me know.  But it was a good day and he did a great job.  The other two also did a good job sitting through the ceremony (with a little help from coloring books and my phone and snacks) and all of them were fawned over for their cuteness.

To be Lucy for a day

Your day would go something like this:

 You would spend the entire morning (definitely more than one hour) wearing Mr. Potato Head glasses, because, well you can. Upside down over your nose.  (She would not take them off, even though they did not look at all comfortable to me.)

 You would score your OWN kumquat lemon juice drink from Coco drink stand because otherwise you would drink half of Mommy's and she wanted her own today. And sporting your new pink shoes you are so proud of too.

 Only to immediately use your cuteness in your favor to garner a FREE ice cream cone from the shop next to the Coco stand, ensuring you exceed your sugar quota for the day.  She waves, says "Ni Hao" and next thing you know...gets free ice cream (later she got free French fries too...I think we have some trouble coming with this cutie living in a country where foreign children are so popular).

 The owner of said ice cream shop kept taking your picture and you kept smiling big and cute every time ( the boys would NEVER have stood for that). When your cone got soggy, before Mommy could say no really, please don't, he had givenyou a SECOND bowl of ice cream. I am pretty sure your picture will appear in some advertising for this shop in the near future.

This girl will have the country eating out of her hand soon.  Oh my. 

Days get busy

The speed of life has certainly picked up this month...homeschool, Chinese school, friends returning from trips to America, used book sales, Chris is traveling this week and so on. And we haven't even hit birthday week yet for Bennett and Lucy or Mid-Autumn Festival (this coming Thursday). But in some ways things also have a slowed down feel...about two hours of the afternoon it is just me and Lucy and we are enjoying walks outside in the cooler weather.  Here are some of the latest views.

 Lucy makes friends wherever we go it seems. This is a little JieJie (older sister...by a few months) we met outside the other day.

 Lucy and Bennett also seem to be enjoying each other more than in times past...or Lucy is more excited/less scared of Bennett's rambunctious affection!

 Welcoming our neighbors back from 6 months away for pizza night. 

 So Saturday Chris and I had to "divide and conquer". He had about 4 things to do, but we also were all invited to the fanciest birthday party I have ever been to. For a one year old. The first year is a big deal here, as in many cultures. A local musician couple we met our first year in this city were excited to finally welcome their son after much waiting. This party was at the Crowne Plaza hotel, had a overwhelming buffet of steak, shrimp, sushi, Indian food, salads, tons of dessert and ice cream and so on. So I took the kids and we loved on this family by...eating a lot. The kids did a great job of talking to people in Chinese and tolerating a lot of attention, something the boys do not love (Lucy eats it up though). A fancy Saturday morning.

 Chris notwithstanding...Austin is joining a soccer "team". Chris actually is fine with it, though he always said he wouldn't teach his kids soccer.  This very informal group of kids from our homeschool connections is learning the basics and playing small scrimmages with each other for the next 6 weeks- but it is lots of fun for Austin. He really is liking sports and works really hard. He has wanted to practice a lot. Bennett ...had no interest and probably is a little too young anyway. But they are so different.

 After some not-so-amazing weather, we had a beautiful Saturday.

 Speaking of sports, Austin hit his first "outside the park" homerun with Chris.  They play often just outside our building door in a small-ish concrete space.  But he has never hit it all the way into the lake until the other day...he was excited, but wouldn't show it.  He gets so shy about his accomplishments and didn't even want to tell me at first...but I could tell how proud he really was. Baseball is still the first love.

What is that, you say? I had a new fruit for the first time last week. It is called "The northeast girl" fruit, comes in paper-like wrappers and tastes almost like a mango and a fig. You pop the whole thing in your mouth to eat.  I am also starting to make kefir, after getting the "grains" from a friend (kefir is a yogurt -type drink with lots of probiotics and good for digestive health). It is super easy to make and I am learning how to make it palatable for my crew. They like it now in smoothies with fruit and honey and hoping it helps us all feel good. I go in spurts and waves of trying different types of healthy eating and am experimenting with some gluten free grains, though definitely not going all gluten free (yet, but the thought of total gluten free is way too overwhelming at the moment). But I was pleased to learn I can get buckwheat, brown rice, rice and tapioca all ground into flour at the market across from the boys' school. Who knew? 

Our dirty dig

 We had our co-op kick off party yesterday with a beautiful blue sky. Lucy enjoyed some ice cream and managed to keep her clothes clean somehow.

 And she loves slides right now and does not want Mommy to catch her..she has an independent, "I'm a big girl" streak in her.

 These two were so cute. Bennett got stung or stuck by something prickly on his leg and did not want to walk home. Lucy was actually very excited to ride on Bin Bin's lap...she kept asking "Bin Bin yap? Bin Bin yap?"

 So, the dirty dig.  One of the things I love most about homeschooling is doing hands-on, non-traditional learning. We were learning about archeology as a way to learning about history.  We picked out artifacts to represent our civilization (any guesses as to what was picked?), buried them in the dirt (our planter was the largest dirt patch we could come up with) and Friday we dug them up carefully.

 More discovering.

And washing our artifacts...Lucy loved this part.