Falling Back in the Routine

Hey There!

Yeah, we've been busy getting ourselves organized for the

fall/winter schedule of activities.

Josie and Clara Rose continue to ride the water in swim class

and now that fall has arrived we are back in gymnastics and loving it!

The China Care Bears program kicked off their school year this weekend!

The girls are taking language classes with Care Bears followed by

a fun Care Bears Play time!

They also started Chinese class with Mei Mei this year and after having two classes

the vote is "LOVE IT!" and  everything Mei Mei.

Below is Clara Rose running around playing games with her China Care Bear Playmate.

They got acquainted pretty quickly and became fast friends!

Speaking of fast friends and becoming super independent . . .

Josie's playmate this year is also one of her language teachers.

Josie adores her and couldn't be more thrilled!

I hardly saw her at all afternoon because,

"Mommmmm, I'm busy!"

Here are the girls and their playmates listening to a Chinese fairytale

while enjoyning a yummy snack.

"How Chur!"

After China CareBears, we stopped at a nearby playground for

a dinner picnic with friends and some good play time!

Josis was proud to conquer her fears, climbe the spider web,

and cross the rope bridge.

All the girls playing on the

"spider web."

The girls also started bi-weekly Chinese classes with

Mei Mei.

They both love the Mei Mei videos and are thrilled to be taking classes with her.

After the class we headed off to a nearby park for a picnic and more playdate fun

with our friend Gracie and her mom.

The forecast for the weekend was a 'wash out," but

the day was lovely and quite humid!

The girls cooled off playing in the lake and

pulling out leaves.

Notice that Clara Rose is squatting.

Clara Rose showing me,

"My Bum is WET!!!"

Happy Faces!

Silly antics!

And, the best of the best . . .

Our new routine typically ends like this.

What better way to end a fun day than with sisterly cuddles while watching a

favorite cartoon before bedtime.

Happy Autumn Moon

The Autumn Moon Festival begins Monday with the full moon, the eighth lunar moon of the year.

I think I have posted about this important Chinese holiday before so I am not going to describe it in this post. I am preparing to go away for a week on business and the weekend was bit more hectic than I prefer preparing for this trip.

Between craziness at work and the hulabalu from the Hurricane the week before this year's Autumn Moon really snuck up on me!

But, we did manage to get some fun activities in for the holiday all weekend long.

Friday-night the girls stayed up a bit later than usualy and we went for

a nightly stroll to gaze at the nearly full moon.

Saturday the girls and I went to a local Dragon Boat Fesitval and Taiwanese Festival.

It started off with a shuttle bus ride on a school bus-- which may not sound like \

much to you, but when you are 3 and nearly 5, getting ride in a real

big kid school bus is all the RAGE!

There were a few performances including a really

booming drum corp.

The girls wanted their picture taken with the drums after the show.

A famous Taiwanese Band, Wu Shu, played several beautiful songs.

Josie was a little disappointed that we didn't get to see any dancers perform at this event,

but she really liked the music.

We wandered to the river-side and watched a few of the dragon boat races.

The seating for these races aren't as nice as the dragon boat races we

watched last month, but you are able to get closer to the boats.

Josie and Clara Rose both say they want to race in a dragon boat

when they are big enough.

Each dragon boat team had at least one member compete in a dumpling eating contest.

It was a fun event to watch.

The winner ate 19 dumplings in 2 minutes.

Before we left four of the dragon boats floated out in the river next to each other and all the riders and many people on the banks threw a pink carnation into the river

in memory or support of someone fighting breast cancer.

It was a nice ceremony and lovely to watch.

That afternoon I made some yummy dishes, following to the best of my ability,

recipes from my Chinese cookbook.

Dumplings (of course!).

Tea Eggs

Pineapple fried rice with Shrimp, served in a pineapple shell.

Call me crazy, but I think this might be more of a Hawaiian dish than Chinese- but it was a fun dish to eat.

Today we did a little bit of shopping and then hung

out in the yard.

The days are sunny, but a bit cooler.

Fall is in the air.

 

Squirrly Bike Rides

Labor Day me and the girls spent the morning going for a nice bike ride.

Josie was a little nervous to start, it's been a while since she spent time on her bike.

We headed off on the 2-mile bike path and I pretty

much figured we'd need to shorten it a bit.

Josie started off in the lead and maintained that position for the entire ride.

They both did super good riding their bikes!

I did hold onto the back of Josie's bike and the front

of Clara Rose's when we went down hills.

Josie worked on using her brakes, but still wanted me to slow her down on the hills.

Clara Rose rode her bike with Baby Jaguar in the baby seat.

There was only one spot on one hill that Josie need an extra little push to get up, and only a few hills that Clara Rose needed some help peddaling.

I was/am really amazed at how well they did!

We passed 1/2 mile marker; 1-mile marker and they still wanted to keep going!

Then we passed 1-1/2 mile marker and I figured we were getting close to the parking lot.

Then we arrived at the 2-mile marker-- still in the woods.

Uh-oh!

The trail I thought was 2-miles was actually 3-miles!!!

The girls peddaled on!

Until finally, we made it to the end!

Clara Rose was pretty tired from the long ride and Josie gave her a big hug to calm her tears of joy--

to be back at the blue car!

Now it was time for a relaxing picnic at the playground by the sea.

What a great spot!

But wait, we are not alone!

Look!

Up there . . .

Do you see her?

She is peeking at us!

There she is-- see her peeking at us around the trunk?

The girls were soooo excited!

Especially Clara Rose!

She LOVES baby squirrels!

Her favorite shirt has a baby squirrel on it!

We threw some crust and a few grapes on the ground and

made a new little friend.

Quite the big day!

A 3-mile bike ride followed by

lunch with a squirrel!

This was the best Labor Day EVER!

We hope yours was just as great!

One More Time . . .

To hit the beach this season.

Say it isn't sooo!!! Summer is coming to an end and with Hurricane Irene, it sure did go out with a big BANG!

We decided to hit the beach one more time-- not the sunniest of days,

but we had a great time!  The beach wasn't very crowded at all and the waves were rolling in-- very lovely.

Speaking of lovely . .. . . .

We were  a bit surprised at how warm the water was!

There was quite a  rock line in the inter-tidal zone--- left overs from Irene, I am sure. 

A little hard on the feet!

The waves were a bit too big for Clara Rose-- Josie went running into the surf for Daddy and Clara Rose came running back to the shore toward Mommy.

We decided to stroll the beach and along the way came across

this guy who was making, what appeared to be an underground beach city.

Oh wow, did he have all kinds of tools to work with!

At the end of the walkable beach we came across some ruins.

Heading back with the ruins in the background.

Jie Jie showing the girls how to really jump the waves!!

Back at our sand spot, Josie decided to take a snooze.

Clara Rose only pretended to nap!

We hope you enjoyed the last of your summer fun as much as we did!!