Letitia's Flower Girls

Showing Diane how her tablet works.

She thought 'Deenan' was so funny.

Playing with Letitia.

Not sure how she talked Letitia into entering the fort?!  I wasn't sure how she'd get out but she managed it :)

The Bride and her flower girls.

My cousin Diane and her daughter Letitia came over for a visit.  Letitia is getting married next May and she came to ask the girls to be her flower girls.  Of course they said yes, or I said yes for them.  Jia has no clue but she had lots of fun playing with them.  Lili thinks it's cool and will take this in stride.  Fei on the other hand, is simply delighted that she'll be in a wedding party.  It's like a dream come true for her.  Such fun. 

Daycare

Turned out too dark but I love this photo.

Jia is using Fei's little kindergarten back pack and her old Tinkerbell lunch kit.  She is just thrilled to be packing her backpack in the morning and when she gets home she likes to wear her backpack around the house :)

Checking out her snack on the first day.

So, it turns out trying to roof a house, renovate a kitchen and install a pool with Jia underhand is just too hard to do.  Eric's hand is better and he's ready to get going. 

We went to a daycare a half block from our house to see about some part time care.  Jia started on Tuesday and has done three days this week, for about three hours each day.  It's been fabulous.  She loves going, says she loves Judy and is happy each morning to go back and play with her friends. 

Eric has been able to get more done.  We'll see how long this works out. 

Full disclosure, Judy reports that Jia is a miss bossy pants, pushes the other kids, takes things out of their hands, refuses to sit down at snack time and tells the kids that everything there is hers.  I do know it's wrong that I find that funny and I am talking to her about being nice and caring towards her new friends and I'm proud that she's so strong willed.  She's certainly entertaining!

Visitors at the school.

Seven local schools have Native dance groups and they are traveling around together and visiting other schools to share their culture.  They came to our school to dance on my flex day, so Jia, Eric and I went to watch.  One of the dances was a friendship dance and the dancers (over 60 of them) came into the crowd and invited someone to pair up with them.  Fei was picked.  Awesome opportunity for the kids performing and for ours getting to watch and be a part of it.

Emily turned two.

We switched kids with Penny, she took Lili for Haley's Birthday party and we took Hanna with us for the day. 

Fei getting some hugs from Emily.

Jia having a blast with Zoe.  They played great together.  Very sweet.

Jia was so excited to go to Emily's Birthday party.  They had so much fun stuff set up in the back yard, it was sunny and warm, there was a kiddie pool and all was right in her world. 

Fun Fair

Hanna won a cake at the cake walk and picked Fei's cake.  Aren't they so cute together.

Fei and Hanna helped Al at the fishing booth.

Lili helped me at the ring toss for lemonade.  Which was great, I didn't anticipate how much getting up and down the job would entail!

Jia did a fair amount of fishing :)

I told the girls NO cotton candy for the baby but she was asking repeatedly for some so in the end it was Mommy that caved.  She was soooooo happy to have some but she didn't eat much and didn't want any more the next day.

Trying to organize volunteers, not so fun.  But we filled our spots, had to use Grampa as well as Lili, Fei and Hanna, also had to have Gradma watch Jia but I filled my spots.  Not sure I'm too interested in being involved with that part next year.  I'm just too busy and my gut wants to scream, I called you, call me back!  What's wrong with all of you, it's just a one hour committement.  Why is it always the same people over and over again?!  Don't the parents who don't help ever wonder who does all the work for these 'fun' events?  Off my soapbox.  The weather was great, lots of families turned out and a decent amount of money was raised.  Bless the Mom who over saw the whole event.

The new roof.

Eric has been wanting a new roof since we bought our house 8 years ago.  I admit that I didn't personally view that as a fun project and I've never been exactly thrilled about it.  This year, he put the new window in the kitchen and it rained and there was a leak and Eric wasn't having any more conversations about 'when' we were doing a new roof.  He's had the roofing material for a few weeks just waiting for nice weather and time.  So...he's now roofing.  It makes me sick to watch him up there, three stories high at the back!  He's wearing a roofing harness and anchored to the peak.  Jia has already learned that the sound of the ladder means Daddy is coming down from 'up in the sky'.  I'm still not thrilled about the project.  I'm happy to get that weird green roofing off of our house.  I'm thrilled that our house color options are widened.  I'm glad that Eric is relieved to be repairing the crappy job the old owner did.  I'm horrified at the mess it's creating.  I'm not enjoying the scheduling we're all having to do to free Eric up to work on the roof.  My Mom is trying to help by taking Jia here and there...thanks Mom.  It's just a phase, it will be over soon, I hope.

Look what we bought!!

We've had our inflatable pool for two years and when we opened it the other day it was in pretty tough shape, full of frog eggs, slime and long stringy algae.  All of which was ok, gross but ok.  The tarp had actually melted to the top inflatable ring.  Ick.  Lili and I spent time trying to pick it off but the ring itself was yellowy (used to be silver) and sticky and it looked thin in places.  It has literally melted.  Two days later the air was gone and we knew we'd have to do something else.  We discussed possible solutions and came up with nothing except buy a new pool.  Not a good time while Lili and I are going to China, Eric is redoing our kitchen, the new roof is going on and we have to paint the house this year.  Yikes.  I had sent a link to Eric a couple weeks ago of a pool for sale and he wasn't interested but now that we had to do something he asked me to look and see if it was still there, so I looked, and it was.  We went last night to see it and bought it right away.  We're all really excited about it.  Especially me. I've really missed the pool from our old house.  The cheapie temperary one really should have lasted more than two years but I'm secretly glad we get a much bigger/better pool!!  Eric went to disassemble it and take it home today.  A nice break from being up on the roof.  Perhaps he can put it up when it's just too hot to be on the roof.  Ideally I'd like a deck like the old one but that will have to wait, we're soooo out of time for anything more. 

Update:  The pool is home in pieces, ay' yi' yi'.   Heaven only knows when Eric will have time to get it up.  It just looks so daunting to me.

Mother's Day 2012

Jia fell asleep just as we arrived at the petting zoo. 

New baby pigs!

"no tankyou, I don't want to touch"

Jia walked around taking pictures for the longest time and then she discovered brushes so she could attention the goats without touching them.

Lili LOVES this tree and climbs to the top every time we take her there.  Fei has been more reluctant but she took a bigger interest this time and got up to the top!  More importantly, she made it down on her own!

We met up with friends, not planned, just a nice surprise.  Kids were so happy to see Asia and Emily.

I woke up to lovely gifts.  Girls surprised me with some cosmetics for our China trip, some new Corelle for my new kitchen shelf, chocolates and lots of cards and poems.  Jia made me a card at her little drop in center and she was so happy to present it to me.

Eric went to work on the roof and the girls and I did some more purging in the basement before we got ready to leave for Victoria.  We went to Costco to look for a bigger tent, they didn't have one.  Then the petting zoo and park and finally to eat out at Cafe Mexico, my favorite.  Our friends joined us and Mom and Dad ate at Green Cuisine, their favorite.  After dinner the kids all had ice cream cones from Green Cuisine and played in Market Square.  What a nice, calm, peaceful afternoon.

Another piano?!

The girls are really, really starting to enjoy playing the piano.  They both practice several times a day, there is almost always loud piano music playing at our place.  I often wonder if the neighbors are enjoying it as much as I do or if they're annoyed.  There has been steady progress in their playing, we've finally reached the point where they just play and the music is lovely.  Songs are longer, more complicated, easier to listen to, less mistakes.  They used to fight over the piano and about two years ago I started a campaign with Eric to get another piano for the basement and he was vehement that he wasn't going to move another piano in.  They're too heavy.  So we endured the fights and looked for solution, they don't fight often anymore but when ever there is free time they race to get to the piano and then the other has to wait and then there is complaining about who got to play longer.  So, I started the campaign for another one for the umpteenth time.   I had located an upright grand that I wanted to go look at and he finally agreed.  When I went to get the peoples phone number I noticed that someone else had posted a free piano so Eric called them and went to look at it on Sat. while the girls and I were at Jia's music class.  I got home and was told that he had arranged his guys and would be picking it up at 5 that day!  It's a 1900 Gerard Heinzman, for free!  It's marked up, not quite as pretty as our upstairs one but the sound is incredible on it.  Girls were very pleased.  Fei seems to like it better and now she plays it while Lili plays on the wii downstairs and Jia plays with books and toys down there.  It's awesome for Eric and I, especially when we're cooking dinner, we can hear them downstairs all happy doing their own things.  We do actually realize that it's somewhat insane to have two full size pianos in the house but what else is that great big house for?!   Wonder if we'll be looking for a third when Jia is older?

#2 Mothers Day Tea

"Oh Mommy, I a Princess!"

What a moment, seeing Jia so excited to get up on the stage for the first time.   Well, up on the stage when she was allowed to be up there :)

Awesome, awesome big sisters to take such tender care with their little sister!

Look at that bow!

Every year the girls dance teacher throws a Mother's Day Tea.  It's usually quite casual and she lets the little siblings dance.  We told Jia she was going to get to dance and she was unbelievably excited about getting to go up on the stage.  I put a new plaid dress on her and she whirled and twirled and declared herself a Princess.  Ahhh.  Then when we got to the hall she asked reapeatedly when was it Jia's turn to dance.  She finally made it up on the stage and then froze when the girls started dancing.  Yikes.  Finally Fei and Lili leapt up to her rescue, took her hand and guided her along with the other kids.  Sniff sniff, I was so teary at that point.  So incredibly proud of my big girls for looking out for their little sister like that.  Jia got to dance six times on the stage and Lili and Fei went with her each time.  Lili and Fei were lovely to watch too.  Six years they've been doing Highland now.  I grinned through it all.  Such fun.  Oh and I won a solar frog playing a trumpet so it was all good <grin>.

Update:  Mom captured the whole Jia freezing on the stage and Fei and Lili coming to the rescue.  You can totally see such emotion on her face and then such joy with the big smile when they got her.  Awww.  I had turned my camera off and was getting up to get her so I didn't get that footage.  Here is the youtube link http://youtu.be/gZ2g-_hBdiQ

Chihuahua Group

The big girls danced at a Mothers Day Tea on Saturday.   We actually went early and met Penny and girls there and attended the tea.  It was nice and relaxing to sit and drink tea with finger sandwiches and treats while watching my girls dance.  There was another dance school there and some kids from Jump Start (jump rope group).  Our four girls were pretty excited watching Jump Start and three out of our four want to join the group in September.  We'll see.  Schedule permitting.  Have to admit it was really cool and I can totally see what they found so appealing about it.

Fei followed them around until she got all three in one picture.

On Sunday Eric took Lili riding and they came across a black bear on the trail.  She was so excited and scared.  She saw him and put her head down and closed her eyes!  I asked 'why did you do that!?' and she said "I didn't want to 'see' what was going to happen next".  Too funny.  We've suggested she keep her eyes open next time!  Fei isn't sure if she wants to see a bear up close and personal like that! 

While Eric and Lili were riding, Fei, Jia and I took Lacie to our first Cowichan Chihuahua Group play date.  The group just started last week.  We had three Chi's there.  Lacie wasn't totally thrilled.  There was a boy Chi there named Tucker that was particularly taken with her and attempted rude behaviour non-stop.  Fei was pretty busy protecting her :)  Lacie mostly just wanted up and who could blame her.  She wanted up so badly that she let Jia pick her up! 

Lili and I finally have our itinerary for our trip.  I put a cheque in the mail on Friday to pay the down payment.  I have to keep telling myself this is the trip of a lifetime to ease the pain of the costs.  Michael has even arranged for us to go to the police station in Changting and meet the officer who picked Lili up from her finding spot and took her to the social welfare institute.  I cried when I read that.  Lili is taking it all in stride.  Showing very little emotion.  She says she is too busy to spend time worrying and thinking about adoption issues.  I on the other hand, constantly weeping about this homeland trip, totally over emotional about it all.

Cross Country

Once upon a time when each of our first two peanuts came home we were told by the professionals that they wouldn't ever walk.  Each of them for different reasons.  With Lili we just went on blind faith that she would be fine and very slowly she built strength and muscles.  With Fei, Eric was shown how and then did excercises with her several times a day until she was strong enough to carry on like normal.  What ever normal is.  Anyways, here we are years later watching our little girls run in a district cross country event!  Amazing.

Lili ran last year and was second to last coming in.  This year she's worked hard and you have to love her attitude...she was hoping this year to just not be so far back in the pack.  There were 41 kids running and she was 26th!  As soon as she was done my Dad was telling her there were 15 kids behind her! 

Not the most flattering picture but it is what it is...

Our missy Fei ran for the 1st time and came in third!!  Wow, that was exhillerating to watch.  Bursting with pride.  Oh, and it was wet and cold and they had to run in the mud and Fei's age/grade were the last ones to run. 

Jia held it together pretty darn good for a two year old who had to wait two hours in the rain to see her sisters run.

Recording her third place!