Tuesday, May 3, 2011

It's May Already!!

A friend reminded me that I hadn't blogged in a long time and I realized she was right. There just don't seem to be enough hours in the day... So here are some pictures from the last several weeks.

Olivia's elementary school had a Spring Fling in March to raise money. It was fun! Olivia got to meet the Chik-Fil-A cow! (Brooke would have nothing to do with him!)






Of course, if there are kids - there are bouncies. Olivia is usually good about keeping an eye on Brooke and helping her over the obstacle courses or up stairs.







Brooke loved the Tangled movie. I saw this project on another woman's blog and totally copied it, and it came out great. It's a DIY Rapunzel tower! First we put together a few empty boxes... (Thank you, naked Ken.)









Then we spray painted them purple...








And then we added brick and mortar, trees, leaves and flowers... Disney has nothing on us!!!








Brooke on the sofa with the Bostons.









Olivia on the sofa with the Bostons. (Notice a theme...?) Actually, Olivia came home from school with an ear ache this day. After a trip to the doctor, she ended up on medication and was back to school after another day of taking it easy. That was one month ago - and we've just now been back to the doctor with another ear ache in the same ear. New medicine this time. I hope this isn't the start of a trend...









Feeling better and clowning around...







Brooke is letting her hair grow out. She wants it as long as Rapunzel's (ugh). Now she wants me to braid it all the time. It's not quite long enough, but I'm doing my best. It doesn't show very well in the picture, but I got it all swept up and back. She ran to the bathroom to look and came out to proudly say, "I look Chinese!!" (Like that was something new?) I don't know what it is about having her hair up, but she loves to say she "looks Chinese" when it's done that way. Who knows what was imprinted on that young mind from her time in China?







Brooke pointing out that she didn't fall asleep like her big sister.








Mark on the sofa with the Bostons.







Olivia on the sofa with her Boston Terrier "pillow pet".







During Spring Break, cousin Ivey had the idea to eat at Medieval Times - where you eat with your hands and watch a joust. We'd thought about going there, but just hadn't gotten around to it. We were off to ye olde England!






It turned out to be great fun!! We were glad we went! The girls LOVED it! You are assigned seats around a large arena. Each area is loyal to a different color and knight. We were loyal to the red and gold knight. Huzzah!!!








The knights acted out a whole story as we ate - sometimes in the dark. Kinda tricky when you're already eating with your fingers (no utensils!). But it all worked out. They gave us tomato soup in a tiny pot with a handle, 1/2 a chicken (a full 1/2 - it was huge!), a couple ribs, garlic bread, a roasted potato, and pastry for dessert. The food was actually really good! When a big group is all fed at once, you never know - but we were quite happy. I knew about the "no utensils" thing beforehand, so I brought plastic ones for the girls' food. I was glad I did. It made eating very easy for them.










Our handsome Red and Gold knight! Too bad he got his butt kicked later in the show.










Brooke just looking cute with her shades and her panda.








Uncle Dave was around when Olivia tired to ride her bicycle (a.k.a. the death-mobile) again. He looked at it and touched it (literally - he didn't DO a thing to it) and Olivia suddenly declared that it was "fixed". She said that "Uncle Dave is magic!!!!" She was excited to ride again! (Daddy was left feeling like chopped liver.) We went back to the park and she rode like the wind. YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Whatever it takes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!








Just a nice shot of the stream at the park.








It was "Breakfast with the Bunny" time at Brooke's pre-school. Here's Mr. Bunny, looking very dapper in his teal, velvet waistcoat. Brooke wasn't afraid at all and hopped right onto his lap.









Daddy and Brooke at the buffet table before the egg hunt. Lots of yummy things to eat!











We had a new cat showing up on our porch at night. I assumed she was female because of the pink rhinestone collar she wore. We thought she was trying to make friends with Oswald until she climbed the 6 foot fence and tried to wale on him in the backyard. He fled to the top of the skinny, flimsy canopy on the deck. (We lost the canopy top when it caved in under many pounds of snow this past winter.) I heard the fight from indoors and when I got out back, this is what I saw. Poor Oswald was panting like he'd just run a mile. I had never seen any cat so upset/frantic. The Bostons had heard the fight and run out back, frightening away the attack cat. He spent the next full day and night in the basement, refusing to come upstairs. Finally he came back up, but would not go outside. He's back to normal now and I ran the other cat off with a water gun. He may have been the one "tree-ed" but it was mostly the other cat's fur that was in the grass. He gave as good as he got...








This is Gracie. We were pet sitting for her mom and dad during Easter weekend. I think all our Easter dinner guests had a mini-panic as they arrived, thinking we'd adopted yet another dog. Ha! She is a super-smart, well behaved little dog. She has her own wardrobe, but she goes naked when she stays at our house.








Brooke dressed up like an Easter egg! She is getting so tall!! (Polka dots are Aunt Debbi's favorite!)









Olivia's Kindergarten class had an egg hunt, also. Here are some of her classmates. She is acting like a bunny before the hunt.








Run around like crazy looking for eggs!!!!!!!!!!!!!










Stop for a second so your pesky mom can take a picture of you with your sister...









And then run aroud like crazy again looking for all the eggs you can carry!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!












Brooke, Olivia and her classmate, Jordana, after the hunt.










How Olivia sees the Easter Bunny... plaid.








Time to put the big table together for Easter dinner! Brooke takes her turn with the power drill.








And then it's Olivia's turn. Bbbbbzzuppppp!








Oswald napping in my bathroom sink. He is a most curious cat. He's getting older and more romantic all the time. He's such a handsome fellow.








Having cocoa/coffee and cookies with Daddy and talking with Grandma Helen on the phone!








We didn't do big Easter baskets this year. We took the easy route and gave each girl a gift. Brooke got a Hello Kitty doll and Olivia got a diary with a lock, plus they shared a Tangled DVD. We did a small egg hunt. Oprah helped with the egg hunt, even tho she slept thru the whole thing. (She sleeps most of the time anymore.)








Lots of chocolate eggs - what more could you want?








Grandma Sally with Lucy. Pink suits her! (Sally, not Lucy.) (Well... Lucy, too!)






Grandpa Howard...








Aunt Deb (different from Aunt Debbi) giving Smoochy some love.








Olivia and Ivey playing badmitton in the backyard against...










Dave and Dave! (step-cousin Dave and Uncle Dave). What form!!!!!!!!!!!!








After everyone left... Mark and the Bostons on the sofa. (Mark worked midnight shift, came home, got an hour's nap and then was the "Host with the Most" for Easter, so we can't blame him for z-z-z-z-ing out on the sofa.)






That's all for now! More later!!! At least I got current to Easter!

Saturday, March 5, 2011

Lion Dance

Just for fun, the girls got to take a whirlpool bath during "winter break". They LOVE the whirpool bathtub. Unfortunately, it takes about 100 gallons to fill (not really, but almost), so we only do that a few times a year. They really love all the bubbles.


Here is the dangerous bicycle trail we forced Olivia to risk her life riding. I know - what more could you ask for? It's flat, clean and beautiful... The first trip out went fairly well, but the second one was disasterous. (One step forward, two steps back?) What goes on in the mind of an overly cautious 6 yr old? Olivia peddles about as fast as a sleepy infant crawls. Brooke, on the other hand, is perfectly happy running right off the path, down the embankment and into the stream. (That didn't actually happen because Mark was able to grab the back of her shirt in time.) But, she'd laugh about it and do it all over again.


How's this for scenery while you ride?


Today was a fundraising carnival put on by the new China playgroup at Georgia Tech. The highlight was a Lion Dance!!


Several of the kids loved the lion, but...


some definitely did NOT. Poor Ella!!!


Brooke wasn't sure how she felt about the lion. As long as he kept his distance, she was fine. But when he got too close - she climbed up Daddy's leg! When the dance ended and the dancers took off the costume, she said loudly, "There's a man in there!!!!" Ah ha! She saw them before the dance, but somehow didn't make the connection. After that, she was happy to have her picture taken with the fearsome beast.


We got to try several boxed drinks they sell in China. One was sugar cane water, so you can guess what that tasted like. Another was "green gourd", which they said tasted like melon. Wrong! It tased like coffee. Ugh! (Of course, Mark and the girls loved that one.) My favorite was the green tea with jasmine.


Here's Brooke and Ella. Now that the lion is gone, Ella is happy again. The girls attend the same church and pre-school, plus - Ella and her mom, Laura, are our classmates in Chinese class! Ella is very good and pays better attention than Brooke. (She's 6 months older.)

After the carnival, we drove around the corner and had dessert at Ikea. We just love that place! Plus, we ran into the Perry's! We met Kim, Michael, and Sheridan during the wait for Brooke. Sheridan is from China and he's about Olivia's age. They had planned a cruise for "winter break", but Michael had to stay home, since he's a teacher and his county had to make up the snow days (week) lost in January. Argh!! Mother Nature strikes again! (Kim and Sheridan had fun, though!)