happy valley

Big highlight from last week, in the midst of the crazy... a trip to Happy Valley.

Happy Valley is a large scale amusement park, and even though many of the rides were not an option for my little people (only Julianna barely tall enough for the 1.3m height requirement on many of them) - well, they had a great kids area and even Luke qualifies when the height requirement is 0.9m!  ha!

Rides for everyone.... (the older three were such good sports and enjoyed these along with the little guys who were thrilled!)

And then some rides that the big ones could enjoy - Isaac (1.1m) was exactly the right height to qualify for this one

And this one was golden for both girls (and their Daddy!)

Julianna was doubtful at first but ended up loving the swings -

And these little boys rode more than one carousel.

Plus, a really cool climbing web in the playground area

and a water feature that delighted Luke and his buddy Layla.

We will be heading back to Happy Valley again.  Spent the afternoon and evening their with lots of friends and it was such a treat.  Just a gift, in the middle of some crazy situations.

get ready, get set,

Registration at the girls' elementary school was this morning.  It's more of a half day prep day type thing -  Matt dropped them off at their classrooms and then waited for a chance to talk to the academic dean about our scheduling/attendance hopes.  [Things are looking good - we'll hear the final word tomorrow but we are hopeful that the school will agree to let the girls just attend afternoon classes.]

Excitement (and a bit of nervousness) was the theme of the morning - they both picked out favorite dresses, then added their uniform jacket (even though it was too hot and then ended up taking them off before they left Matt!).  They loaded up their backpacks with school supplies and headed out the door.  Lydia balked a bit before walking in to her classroom but Julianna pranced in as confident as ever.  It's been nine months since they last attended school there, so it's a bit of a readjustment.  Word from the girls was that their classmates are glad to have them back and Lydia was especially excited to see one of her favorite school buds.

After talking to the dean Matt walked back by their classrooms and took a few pictures.

They each came home with a backpack FULL of books!

Isaac worked on Happy First Day of School signs for each of them.

All smiles here but he didn't have the best afternoon.... fell from a monkey bar type thing and really managed to do a job on his face.  Swollen nose, big bump on forehead, busted lip, extra scratches.  It's the real deal.  We scrambled to try to get some medical advice and - unless the nose is looking much worse tomorrow - I think we'll avoid anything more significant than ice and tylenol.  I'm slightly concerned his nose might be fractured?  But the swelling seems to be decreasing so hopefully we'll get a better look in the morning.  He had a rough stretch but perked up before bed and seems ok.  I'm expecting we'll hear from him in the night when the Tylenol wears off.

Honestly, after the past two weeks I'm feeling stretched fairly thin.  We could use an easy day tomorrow.  Cause it's back to school on Monday and that's no small deal.

Local school enrollment brings more blessing to our family than I could try to list in one sitting.  It also consistently proves to be a very effective means of keeping me humble.  I'm not totally ready for another big slice of humble pie, but it's gonna be on my plate this week, that's for sure.  [And if you have a child attending school in your home culture, and you spot another parent who is clearly the fish out of water .... give them a big smile for me.  It's harder than it seems.]

on the run

One of those weeks.  No point in listing out the many factors driving up the intensity but this will not go down in the record books as one of our smoothest.  

We've tried to keep up a semblance of home school.  Just a smidge of school work to keep the boat floating.  Due to some issues at our apartment we are not able to be home much this week..... not being home certainly makes home school tricky :)

But we work with it :)

two girls

These two are just charming!  A pair of daughters is turning out to be pretty great stuff for this momma.

They are such good friends it's almost eerie.  I cannot imagine one without the other.  They have their moments ("Mom, she's trying to finish first on purpose to make me sad" and "Tell her not to look at my paper or she'll just copy it, she always wants to draw what I'm drawing" and "I'm not taking her dirty clothes to the laundry basket, she can do it herself") but mostly they spend 95% of their lives within several feet of one another - and live to tell about it, happily!

I do not take it for granted.  Gentle personalities, loads of grace, lots of time together... that's what we've been gifted.  And I'm grateful.



Tonight I'm home.  Alone!  Yay for me!  It's been a long week and we haven't seen much of Matt and - incredibly - the crazy is just getting started.  He got home today and I was so thankful to see him that I locked myself in our room and he took the kids out for noodles :)  This quiet home is like a dream.  He'll be back for baths/bed (I told him not to hurry! ha!) but this little heart of mine needed quiet and I'm thankful for two hours.  Off to whip up a quick something to eat and do some reading.

friendship

Some pictures are most definitely worth a thousand words.

first days

You know it's complicated when you juggle THREE different "first days of school".  Bonus if you have multiple house guests going separate directions and somehow find yourself many days behind on laundry put-away.

We are currently rocking this system where I put folded laundry (my house helper does most of the folding.... bless her!) in rows on the kitchen table, one row per child.  Girls are easy... they each put their own row away.  Lydia sorts and puts away girl underwear and bathing suits and other extras.  The boys stuff I divide each row into stacks of shirts, shorts and pjs.  Isaac also gets a pile of underwear (he and JP share).  Isaac and John Paul put away their own stacks.  Luke is "in training" - he puts away his own stacks but with some coaching from Julianna!

It only takes me a quick minute to lay out the stacks and then I'm off duty :)

{I can't even think about winter when we'll be wearing 2-3 times the clothing!  For right now I'll celebrate that laundry is an easy victory!}

So our first first day?  Home school!  We started Tuesday morning and just such a sweet sweet day!  One of our house guests stepped in and helped with the little boys which meant the morning work went super fast! Few distractions!  Great attitudes from the girls and I'm filled with gratitude for a good day.  Will be remembering this one when the going gets rough later this fall!

[no pics. whoops.  I'll get them on the next first day.]

Next up in the first day series?  Isaac's first day of preschool - he's technically Kindergarten age but in China that means it's his last year of preschool.... Isaac and Matt went to school on Sunday afternoon to finish registration.

And then started today (Wednesday).  He's now going five mornings a week (this feels like a lot to me but we'll stick with it for now).  Isaac didn't seem to loose much of his language while we were home - or at least it came back fairly quickly - but I'm still expecting him to make some big strides this year in local language.

Isaac with the sibs at pick up!  He is definitely my most likely to balk when leaving Mommy - this little guy likes to be with me!  But he did so well this morning (after a 9 month break from preschool!) and was still smiles at pick up!  whew.

And our final first day is September 1st - first day of local elementary school for the girls.  We still have some kinks to work out with the administration on their hours of attendance, hoping we can figure out a schedule that is healthy expectations for them but also smooth for the school.

In the meantime they have started working with a tutor who is drilling them through much of the grammar they missed last spring.  The girls are in a strong spot with spoken language (so thankful!) but need plenty of help with reading and writing.  Those pesky characters are just so complicated :)  I'm already encouraged by their work with the tutor (and she'll continue once school starts - moving through the school material but at a bit slower pace and focusing on certain skills while ignoring some of the other work!).

Surely this will only get more complicated as the little two get older.  We would love to start John Paul at preschool but feel like he needs to focus on English (not comprehension, but clarity of speech) for now.  He and Luke are definitely picking up some language as we settle in here and speaking a bit more (real simple stuff) but our experience shows that they will need to be in a full immersion environment before we really start to see them operate comfortably in their second language.  Thinking about starting them in the spring....

my seven year old Lydia

It's hard to believe that Lydia is 7!  {ack! where does the time go?!?!}

But it's so easy to celebrate that Lydia is 7!

I love this little girl's personality, her bubbly nature, her zest for life, the bounce in her step.

She's just plain awesome.  And so is her big sister.... who gave her seven braids for seven years :)

We are loving our current house guest Amanda... child charmer extraordinaire!  So fun that she (and a  few others) were here for the birthday.  There were John Paul tears tonight at the dinner table because he couldn't sit by Amanda - she's that popular around here!

We ate cinnamon rolls and opened presents and played with friends and Lyds got a special lunch date with her Daddy, and the icing of the cupcakes was a knife-licking-fest and then french toast for dinner (her choice) and the candle blowing (oops couldn't find birthday candles so we used votives in a pinch!) and it was a day packed full of fun.

The girl with the cupcakes is pretty big stuff around here :)  

Seriously fun.

Seven is kind of "our number"!  Should be a good year for this daughter of mine!  

We woke the next morning ready for a pool party with friends.  It was overcast and cool but not raining - how in the world we managed to schedule a pool party on the coolest day of summer is beyond me but we did it!  ha.

Matt lead some pretty rockin relay races :)  Man of many talents, this husband of mine :)

Happy 7th birthday baby girl!

when stars align

In my dream world we have "reading time" every afternoon.

You could also (justifiably) refer to this chunk of time as "would everyone please be quiet for seventeen seconds so Mommy can regain her sanity and push through til dinner" :)

But I have bigger dreams too.  Dreams of children who learn to love books early and memories of late nights propping my eyelids open so I could finish one more chapter and hours of read-aloud and all that good stuff.

So I've pushed this one, fought hard for this one for years.  Or at least since Julianna stopped napping :)

And there are days where it seems to bomb and I wonder how we can call it "reading time" when everyone has a potty trip and complaint to lodge and a bad attitude to deal with and who knows what else.

But honestly, a lot of days, this works for us.

And I am grateful.  For a house full of little people and a quiet home and open books and little hands.  

and John Paul, who starts out reading

and ends up sleeping - {cuteness}

And Luke... my reader-to-be.  One day.

So I just got my computer back after a bit of a hiatus.  I could actually get used to no computer :)  I mean, I miss some things.... but.... well, it's nice to be 'offline' sometimes too.

There's been plenty to do without a computer - August is a BIG EXCITING MONTH around here.  We have house guests now, and again later in the month, and I'm hoping for an official home school start this week, and Isaac will head back to morning preschool and the girls gearing up for the local elementary start date and {I'd better stop here before I think of something else to do before bedtime!}

making welcome posters for our guests

Oh, and my littlest girl turned SEVEN yesterday.  Pics and stories to follow... my head is desperate for my pillow tonight!

keeping up (or trying to)

{subtitle: Life with four older siblings}

One of our favorite spots for a "hike"...The park areas surrounding this lake are really fun, lots of little paths and rocks and hills and places to explore.  We love afternoons when the kids can just let loose and roam - and we're left watching the crazy, and trying to steer everyone in the same general direction :)  

Times like these Luke works so very hard to keep up with the big kids.  Even though he's just 14 months younger than John Paul - 14 months is a big deal when you're only 2 years old -  Those big sibs though, so so precious, they are sweet to look back and encourage him along.

And when the going gets rough ..... well, he's most always willing to hitch a ride on Matt's shoulders!

At the end of the day, most every day this summer, it's baths/showers for everyone.  ohmyword, these kids get so dirty!

Especially the one who spends most of his day trying to keep up with the big sibs!

[Matt and I think Luke might be our most "natural athlete"... who knows what we know, but he just seems more coordinated and agile.  Relatively speaking of course :)  he he.  Time will tell.  Regardless, it won't be long before 14 months is nothing on this little boy, and the tables just might be turned!]

counting pandas

People around here get a little crazy about the panda.  One morning while stuck in slow traffic the kids and I started counting pandas - they are everywhere!  Pandas decorate the hoods of taxis, commercial buildings, public parks, everything.

Once we started spotting pandas we couldn't stop!

This one is a personal favorite.  He's actually "climbing" up the building and from street level all you can see is the backside of an overgrown panda scaling a massive mall!

We went to dinner with a group of friends (fun!) at a burger place (yum!) on the mall rooftop.  And there was the rest of the panda :)

It was too dark when we left the restaurant for me to get a picture of the panda from street level... next time :)

thinking gotcha thoughts

Sometimes when I say “gotcha day” my mind just floods. So much to think about.

I think about the whole event of a Gotcha.  No child ever shows up at a Gotcha Day because their history is painless.  It’s always prefaced by abandonment.  Always.  And for most (many?) the day itself is full of terror, fear, sadness, confusion.  Sometimes I can talk myself out of celebrating.  Why in the world would we go to any length to celebrate a day of trauma? 

And if John Paul had any conscious memory of that day, we might just skip the celebrating.

[I do think it is deep in his memory, and I do think there are times that different parts of it surface.  But I don't think he really truly recalls any specific event from that day.... he just repeats back the facts that we've told him.]

So at least at this age, for him, for our family, I’m firmly convinced that this day is worthy of a celebration.  John Paul spent the day on cloud nine. 

I'm not sure I've ever seen him so very excited about an event.  It was priceless.

Matt and I bought him a blue backpack, and the other kids worked to fill it with some goodies.  He wore it most all day long.

We invited friends to join us for a picnic dinner, with cupcakes to wrap up the celebrating.

{I wish I could get better pictures of John Paul.  He is so very very hard to photograph.  In all our pictures from yesterday I got great shots of our other kids, great shots of other people's kids, and a few decent shots of him.  oh well.}

The past two years - wow.  Some of the hardest I've lived.  Some of the best I've lived.

2 years.  God's strength glorified in our weakness.

We are so blessed to count this boy an arrow in our quiver (Psalm 127:4-5).

some pros, some cons

We just recently graduated to this "family bike ride" level.  Three kids on their own bikes, two kids in bike seats.  

It seems like a pretty big accomplishment since biking is definitely a "some pros, some cons" kind of proposition.  

One of the big pros is that we live really close to a terrific greenway system that's perfect for biking.  One of the big cons is that even with "really close" there is a significant bit of big city riding between us and the greenway - broken sidewalks, construction zones, and the ever present ridiculous traffic issues.  

So we navigate the crazy, and then enjoy the smooth.  

Actually super close and easy accessible to us is a slice of greenway with our favorite soccer field - not really a soccer field, just a (rare) expanse of green grass.  We call that area "clover field" and it's a great spot for our family, plus I can easily get the five kiddos there on my own with (relatively) little exertion and stress.  

But for a longer ride when Matt is with us we like to cross one more super-road and get to the greenway that runs along the river..... 

It's really so beautiful, especially considering it's surrounded by millions of people and lots of big city gunk (overflowing trash, yucky pollution, crowded sidewalks, honking horns).  But this little slice of greenway-by-the-river is a sweet oasis!  There are some areas where the green spots widen - good times to let the littlest two sets of legs get the kinks out :)

And here we are headed home... crossing the major north-south road near our apartment.  The brown buildings you can spot through the roadways are actually part of complex.

It's one of those "so close yet so far away" kind of feelings.  But we work our system (single file, pushing bikes, Matt in front with Isaac directly behind, then the girls and then Mom bringing up the rear.)  And we make it through the mess with no issues.

So I'm thankful for the pros and willing to work with the cons!  These bike rides are gonna be a fun treat for us :)

He ROCKS the grumpy face

It might be one of his superpowers.  This kiddo can make a grumpy face like no one else I know.

Thankfully, it never seems to last very long.  Which is why I look so calm in this photo {taken by Isaac}.

I secretly love this face.  And he knows it.

this will take a while....

This post, I mean.  Our internet speed recently slowed to a snail's pace and I'm not really able to post much.  We do tend to get faster service in the mornings, but it's a rare morning that I'm able to get any time in front of a computer!

This morning Matt took the kids on a short walk to our local market to buy breakfast so I grabbed a few moments to start uploading photos.  And now I'm back later to add some text.

We are still loving our summer - heat and all!  These are great days for us, and while the routine of a school year will bring different blessing, I will miss these summer days.

One afternoon last week we walked a few blocks to these little stores where my kiddos love to use up their spending money :)  Stores filled with all sorts of little trinkets ... Several kids bought little gifts for John Paul and his upcoming celebration (August 6 marks two years HOME for John Paul!)

Not to spoil the surprise, but he's getting a deck of cards and a new blue pencil :)  Told you they were little gifts!

He will LOVE LOVE LOVE it - the day all about him and the little gifts and everything else.  [Do you see him in the photo below? He tends to blend in a crowd like this, at least blends a lot more than my blond headed ones!]

Lots of contemplation for Isaac - he's a relative newbie to allowance and tends to spend it quickly!  

And then Saturday Matt got in a great morning bike ride with a  friend (in the mountains east of town) while the kiddos and I tried to keep cool in the pool.  

Today we all joined Matt on bikes for a great family ride - we also abandoned any hopes of staying cool!  Sweltering heat but so worth it!  I managed to get a few pictures that I hope to post.  But it might take about a zillion years to upload them, so don't hold your breath!
In the meantime, we're off to enjoy these last weeks of summer....