Busy Weekend Recap

It turned out to be a very busy weekend. After the Saturday morning birthday party at Chuck E cheese there was the celebration of the Chinese Moon Festival at Chesterfield park. There were around 20-30 kids dressed in traditional Chinese attire. It was a pot luck and we brought Chinese dumplings. There was quite an assortment of food but Lily was much more interested in playing with friend Jada. Luke showed us that he has finally mastered the monkey bars all the way across! He was so proud he must have done it over 10 times to show us. The kids all gathered around to hear the story told about the woman in the moon and how she swallowed the pill of immortality too soon and ended up floating up to the moon. The kids all gathered their red lanterns and paraded around the park several times in the dark.
Sunday I woke up with my head spinning and the feeling that I had just gotten off the tea cups at Disney World. Don't know why but this hits me every once in awhile and it feels awful. I kind of laid around all morning. By afternoon I felt better so we all went to Campbell Farms about a 30 minute drive from here. Logan brought along his girlfriend Candace. The farm is a playground of activities, there is a 4 acre corn maze, a jumpy house, the train, a pony, a magic show, pumpkin painting and a ride out to the pumpkin patch to pick your own pumpkin,. It's not a cheap venture but the kids had a good time. Now they have had their baths and many stories and are finally asleep.

Play in a Day

School was out yesterday so the kids went to "Play in a Day" at the Springfield Little theatre. The kids spend the day pretending and singing and dancing so that when the parents picked them up at 5 the kids put on a show. They sang and danced to Zippity do da and then performed skits. Both of the kids seemed to enjoy the day but were pretty worn out.
This morning we were off to Chuck E Cheese to a birthday party for one of Luke's classmates. Lily came too since John was busy and they had a good time playing the games, eating pizza and running around. It is now my job to try and get them to lie down and take a nap. They both were playing well together but at some point Lily got mad and suddenly they were hitting and punching as only two siblings can do. Both ended up in tears and 5 minutes later Lily was fast asleep.
Tonight is the yearly Moon Festival, a Chinese tradition. I should have some photos to share tomorrow.

The week ahead

Luke is a cowboy

Lily rides again

Luke and Lily at the festival
We all had a good time at the Fair Grove Heritage reunion festival. The kids got kettle corn and tornado tators. They both rode horses and went through the petting zoo. I am leery of petting zoos due to all the outbreaks of illness they seem to be plagued with but I made sure the kids used the hand sanitizer afterwards.
Monday I attended a team building seminar all day that was actually pretty entertaining. I made my supervisor team attend as well and hopefully they will not hold it against me.
Lily has been complaining of general cold symptoms for several days now and today I got "the call" from school saying this was her third trip to the nurses office and although her temperature was 99 and not the 100 that the school requires sending home, they felt that she truly did not feel well and so I made an appointment with our pediatrician and picked her up. Once they got all the wax out of her left ear the verdict was a major ear infection. So it was off to Walgreen's to pick up a 10 day supply of antibiotics. It is always stressful trying to keep everyone healthy.
While at Walgreen's Lily chose her own personal PDA play phone so now she can "text message" and talk on the phone.

Catchin' up

Rodeo Twins Luke and Lily

Razzle Dazzle Rodeo style

Napping in an unusual spot

Doing what cats do best

Introducing Nadia our newest family member

It has been a very long break since my last posting. I got talked into facebook and that sort of took over my long distance communication with friends and family. Meanwhile, Grandma and Grandpa in Arkansas don't get the opportunity to see the kids very often so I decided to get back to posting so I can print out a copy with photos and snail mail it to them. This may keep me on track!
Last Sunday we went to a rodeo of bull riding at the JQH arena on the MSU campus. I would have to say that for the most part the bulls won, the majority of the cowboys did not make it to the bell, however some of them did after a jolting ride. Luke and Lily enjoyed the show especially the antics of the rodeo clowns.
This was week 5 at school. We attended open house on Tuesday night. It was difficult to get a word in with Luke's teacher but we did talk to Mrs. D Lily's teacher and found that Lily can often be heard singing in class. Mrs. D commented that Lily has a pretty little voice but at times she does have to ask her to stop singing so the class can move ahead. I think for the most part the kids have settled into the routine. Friday they got the privilege of wearing a hat to school if they paid a dollar, some type of fund raising for the 5th grade. Last night the parks department hosted a parent's night out at Sequiota school so for $15 the two kids had dinner, played games and watched a movie while John and I went out for a grown up dinner and rented a non-kid friendly movie to watch at home. The kids were still wide awake when we picked them up at 9 but it did not take them long to fall off to sleep once home. Luke actually slept all the way until 5:45am this morning instead of his usual 5am on the dot time. I appreciated that extra time of sleep.
We are getting ready to head to the Fair Grove Heritage Reunion festival this afternoon. John is working with the scouts parking cars and the kids and I will enjoy the beautiful day while feasting on fine festival cuisine. More later.

Photos from the winter games

Bars dismount


Beam dismount


Cartwheel Lily


Final pose


Salute

Lily's Birthday

Lily's birthday surprise

It was Lily's 5th birthday on March 4th. When she woke up we surprised her with a couple of gifts. She got a Hannah Montana girlie kit with nail polish and glittery eye shadow and earring stickers, all the bling bling a girl could want. She also got a real 1/16th violin. Lily had been taking violin lessons Suzuki method but was very bored playing on a cardboard violin so we took some time off. John's hope is that the real violin making real music will increase her interest. So far that theory seems to be working as Lily plays her violin as soon as she gets up and she has mastered the rhythms that she was not getting with the cardboard version. Last night she was able to play while John accompanied her on the piano in a duet. Considering it was just the same note only different rhythms, it sounded pretty good. Now of course Luke is very interested in the violin as well and he is now playing the cardboard one when ever Lily plays the real one.
Lily will be having a birthday party next weekend out at the Sac River riding stables with some friends so her birthday really gets extended.

Lily did compete last Sunday in the Winter games and did very well. Daddy was able to shoot video of all four events and she ended up with two blue ribbons and two rainbow ribbons. She was very happy with her results and had a wonderful time with her gymnastic friends. We will be getting a disk with photos in the next couple of weeks. It will have all her action shots during the routines plus pictures of her team and a couple of poses of her alone.

The weather here has turned very warm and hopefully the kids and I will be outside enjoying some sunshine today.






Lily's birthday morning

Winter Games

Lily prepares for the Winter Games


Lily is inspired by Nastia after watching her performance


Lily meets Nastia up close and personal


The Springfield gymnastic team and Nastia

This past Friday night Lily got the chance of a lifetime, to meet Nastia Liukin, the all around gold medal gymnast from the Beijing Olympics. Springfield gymnastics hosted the Winter Games and was able to bring Nastia in for a performance. The girls from the Springfield gymnastics gym got to meet Nastia in a private room for autographs and pictures. Lily gave her one of the Chinese braids we have as a good luck charm. Saturday Nastia performed for the crowd. It was stunning. Lily was in awe. Afterwards she said she wanted to go home and put on her leotard so she could do the things Nastia did. Sunday afternoon Lily will be performing with the level one gymnasts. She is excited but a little scared. At this age, it is meant to be all about having fun.