Bikes are out!

Spring is really here.

Boxes

Lili, Fei and Jia's new home.

I've been on the hunt for recliners for months now.  I don't like them.  They almost all look old style.  If I like the look of them they're uncomfortable.  Anyways, I finally found one at Wal-Mart by accident in the brown tone Eric wanted so we bought it and attempted ordering the last one in existance to come to our store.  They told me it would take two days but actually took three weeks.  They look lovely, the color is perfect and they're very uncomfortable.  Eric thinks they'll break in fast since they're cheap.  We'll see.  In the meantime, it turns out the chairs weren't important at all, it was all about the boxes last night.  Seems Lili and Fei have been eyeing the one box for three weeks and last night as the two boxes became available the plans were flying.  They now have a new two room bungalo in our living room.  Eric worked for an hour with them taping it all up they way they wanted.  Then once they moved in, Lili and Fei helped Jia decorate with stickers for an hour.  Fun times.  Eric sat in a new recliner watching tv and I sat on a couch just soaking up the joy and watching the girls play.  It just amazes me how well the three of them play together. 

Fei has taken her hair creations to a whole new level.  She can now weave hair!  Lili doesn't like getting her hair done but even Lili had to admit this look was pretty cool.

Still working on fine tuning our Beijing/Changting trip with details like which price did we want to pay for Opera seats.  Now Lili and I are going to stay overnight in a Hakka village.  We're staying in a Hakka guest house (round dirt building).  I'm told it's a Western guesthouse, I sure hope their version of Western means a bed off the floor, a flush toilet and some electricity.  What an adventure.

Projects

Kitchen project is going well.  Eric got the new/antique piano window in.  It's a modified door panel and it looks great.  Now when our elderly neighbor passes on and her son subdivides (he's told us his plan already) we won't have to look at a new house out our kitchen window.  I'm pleased that we've done this now instead of waiting until we had too.  We might live right in town but we have amazing privacy in our house.  Eric told me he can see the older lady next door doing her dishes.  Wild.  We've been there 8 years and I had no idea he could see the old house back there!  I can't see it.  Wondering now if that's a height issue or if my eyes are really that bad?!  Either way, it was funny when he said it and then he was shocked I'd never seen her.  He likely thought that was why I came up with this plan. 

Lili has some homework assignments.  Kid has been waiting years for this day.  She has three that she is working on and I think she's delighted.  Me...not so much.  I really resent having to do school work on my limited time with the kids.  Maybe I'd feel differently if the kids were struggling and I needed to help them more or if I was home with them, but I can't stand getting home at 5 and only getting three hours before bedtime for Jia.  We have some really super crazy evenings. 

Thinking about having the girls drop dance for the rest of the year.  Lili is bored.  They're both tired of practicing for the year end show that they don't want to do and I'm tired of our week being so busy.  It's time to ride bikes and walk the dogs instead.

Eric has been taking Jia to a play group more often, she calls it school and she just loves going.  This morning she was laying in her bed yelling out to all of us "does Jia have school today?  See friends?". 

Awwww.....so sweet.

It was my flex day yesterday and Jia was clearly not feeling great, we spent the entire day on the couch all cuddled up.  She's usually so active so it was a bizarre day to say the least.  She gravitates to Eric when she is tired and will occassionally crawl on him to sleep during the day and yesterday she came to me.  Pure Bliss.  She is so sweet.  Told me the baby was cold, so I wrapped her up and she asked Eric for a hot milk bottle.  She was out before he got back.  She woke up at her bedtime and we just kept her up until we went to bed.  I was worried that she'd be up all night but she slept through and seemed a little more like herself this morning. 

Still working on booking Lili's homeland trip to Changting.  Crazy how long this is taking.  I finally got our price quote today, it's about what I was expecting.  Need to fine tune some details a bit more but it's really starting to look like this will work out.  Oh...and we still have to apply to all of the proper government places and we could be denied.

Easter

Not sure what these are called, recorder/keyboards?

Take the picture already Mom, so we can hunt for those eggs!

This was one seriously scary Easter Bunny, but Jia was excited and wanted to see him.

Missed her nap and crashed after eating out with friends. 

We had a nice relaxing Easter, time spent with Gramma and Grampa and good friends.  Kids enjoyed the new toys, movies and goodies.  We did the scavenger hunt at the Forest Museum.  Jia is all about trains right now so it was the perfect place for us.

I'm still working on booking mine and Lili's China trip.  We're getting closer to possibly getting ourselves to Lili's SWI in Changting.  Fingers crossed it all works out!  We've found a travel agent in the States that arranges homeland trips and does all of the proper channels and permissions.  So exciting.

Lili brought home a reporting from her teacher, all A's.  So proud.  Fei brought one home a couple weeks ago and she is exceeding in all of the scholastics and fully meeting in expectations in the social skills.  So, so, so proud. 

Kitchen project is still underway, slowly but surely.  Eric shimmed up the upstairs, that straightened the slooping floors in the girls bedrooms.  He also built up the outside wall that fixed the issues on the outside of our house.  We're both feeling better about the integrity of the house.  There were some concerns so we're happy the issues are all fixed.  Eric is so talented.  Next he framed in over the window for a couple of pot lights over the sink.  We've called an electritian to deal with the old knob and tube.  Hoping that happens this week.

Whales Tales

Eric took Jia to a drop in center and she loved it.  This past Monday I took her and she was delighted to be back.  She made a paper mache easter egg that we left there to dry and Eric will take her back on Wednesday to paint.  Fun stuff.  She loves the other kids and is trying hard to play with them.  It's a great set up and it's free, gotta' like that part.  I'm thinking since I'm not sure she'll be ready for pre-school this Sept. (age 2.8) that this might be a great stop gap until we put her in the following year.  I was wondering around the room while Jia was playing and I saw a picture on the wall with kids that looked familiar, imagine my shock that it was little Lili and little Fei.  Too funny.  They're with their music teacher Kathy, I'm guessing they're 4 & 5.  How funny is that.  I ran to get Jia and show her, she didn't think it was funny but she did like seeing her sisters and Kathy, who is her music teacher too.

What a difference

It's hard to squeeze out time to make changes so the kitchen facelift will be slow going for sure.  Mostly we've been going through cupboards making room for the island stuff and just general purging.  For the record...I'm not the hoarder in our family...just sayin'.  We got a new microwave/fan for over our stove.  LOVE it.  Totally cleared so much space off of our counter.  With the island gone and that one minor change it already feels like a whole new space.  I'm pretty easy to please.  Now we're discussing putting a dishwasher back in the dishwasher space even though we won't use it.  We'll put it in just in case we ever have to sell.  Eric tries to explain the ceiling/window/light/shelving/sink plan to me but I just can't picture things like he can.  I just trust it will be great.  For now it feels so wonderful with the high ceilings and open space that I'm already happier in there.

Big Girl survived Camp Q

Lili did it.  She went to camp for the weekend.  She had four classmates in her room.  The rooms were fabulous.  Million times better than when I was a kid and went there!  There were 8 bunks and full bathrooms for each room.  She came home tired, grumpy and covered in mud.  Must have been a good time :)  She enjoyed her friends, the games and the adventure thrills (breathtaker and zipline) but she felt there was too much God talk.  She says she will consider doing another weekend trip there but the week long summer camps are just too long.