Matt is home, we're heading out!

Daddy's re-entry is almost always celebrated with a good wrestle.  Lydia and I sit on the sidelines and laugh til we cry.  Lydia is not much for wrestling and I'm in the no-way-jose category.  John Paul has been known to sit out a few too (though not this time).

But Julianna and Isaac and Luke are intense.  And they love it.

[see below for JP (in the blue pants), and perhaps one reason why he is tempted to sit out a round or two!]

We rallied for a victory pyramid - Daddy is home!

It was a full afternoon with Daddy-wrestling and last minute packing and getting most of Matt's laundry through the washer/dryer.  He came in from the far north and tomorrow we head south, so the loads full of long underwear and layers upon layers are switched out for shorts and swim suits.  perfect.

Late afternoon the crowds were restless.  We walked to the mall for dinner.  Actually, we ended up snacking on street vendor food en route and it became a progressive dinner of sorts, topped off with bits of brownie cake for dessert.

And now the kids are all in bed, the luggage is zipped by the door and we have a driver picking us up at 5:30 tomorrow morning.  It'll be a bit of travel, connecting in Hong Kong to Bangkok and then a bus ride to Pattaya (on the coast east of Bangkok).  I'll be surprised if we make it door-to-door in less than 14 hours.

Good thing this little band loves to travel :)

dinner on wheels

We are cruising through a longer Daddy-less stretch and also prepping for a few weeks away from home.  And what that means is we are scrambling to make meals happen :)  I'm aiming to just cook once a day (apart from breakfast, which is both cooking and not-cooking, depending on what label you use for things like big pots of oatmeal and dozens of fried eggs).

This afternoon I found myself without a dinner plan (ha!) and five hungry kids to feed, so we headed outdoors on a combination of bikes and roller blades and scooters.  First stop? picking up some photos I had developed.  Next stop?  something for dinner!

We ended up at a little hole-in-the-wall type place for 包子 and 稀饭 (fist-sized meat-filled dumplings and watery rice soup).  But it wasn't quite enough to fill all the tummies all the way, so we planned a little extra stop right at the gate of our complex.

Deep fried potatoes, hot hot hot.  (temperature-wise and spicy-wise!)

We rolled up to this rolling cart and wheels = convenient, whether they are roller blading kiddos or carts full of deep fried potatoes and all the fixins'.

We bought our potatoes, rolled on inside the gates and settled down on benches just outside our building to munch our second course.  We had a beautiful view of newly-lit-up trees as the skies darkened - the maintenance staff here is busy decorating for Chinese New Year and we watched them put those lights in the trees before we left for dinner.

All in all, dinner was a win.  Now I just gotta figure out what we are going to do about tomorrow :)

two pics to love

So our temps dropped another ten degrees and it's a nice crisp cold with snow flurries one day and sun shine on others so I can't complain.  I'm loving the slower pace of our days with Chinese school done for the first semester and out for a month long break.  My little two are still in preschool three mornings but other than that we are home and it gives the big kids so MUCH MORE TIME to just play and I love it!  Chinese school has a ton of perks but I'm a big fan of more time at home too.

My home schooling highlight from last week (and honestly, maybe from the whole semester) is this sweet little note Julianna attached to her Astronomy book.

And proof that our days are chilly and our home is much warmer than outdoors- foggy windows!  

This was clearly written early in the morning before one sister had reason to temporarily 'forget' her love for the other! ha!  they are sweet friends but they can drive each other (and me!) bananas at times!  I'm thankful it's mostly love, and that they took the time to write this message during one of those moments.  

I wanna be more of an encourager, quick to point out what's right, eager to find the good in my kiddos... so this little note was a good start to my morning too.  I saw cold gray skies and poorly insulated windows - they saw a little spot to spread the love.  

already wearing sunglasses?

and this afternoon we went....

to the dentist!

Matt was able to go along (big win!) and we cleaned teeth for all 7 of us!  [Well the little boys don't quite count but they did get a fluoride treatment.]  We have a new place quite near our home with western-standard care and they can clean three sets of teeth at one time.

We came home and went for a long bike ride by the river.  The city continues to improve the riverfront area and recently connected two long stretches of greenway (that previously required a detour to a tunnel under railroad tracks and a surface level road crossing... now it's a finished continuous underpass, so nice!)

I'm still amazed that we can ride for miles and never leave greenway!

those five precious heads

Sunday evening Matt and I teamed up for haircuts times 5.  He buzzed Isaac and John Paul, I went to work with the scissors on the girls and Luke.  And now our heads are officially ready for Thailand!

And one of them, well she's looking a bit like me :)

At this point our heads are just about the only thing that's ready.  I just pulled out summer sandals and had all the kids try them on for size.  And a lot of the clothing I packed back in September when I was putting away summer clothing (this is my happy habit, to pack for winter vacation when I'm putting summer clothes into storage, and it does make for easier packing when January rolls around).

but there is still plenty to be done, and with Matt heading out for many days on the road, I'm feeling a little pressure to be ready early.  we shall see.....

the monster

This piece of artwork (The Monster) comes to you courtesy of Luke Joseph.

Who has a very awkward smile, and very chapped lips, and very shaggy hair.

Momma can't do anything about the awkward smile stage but I will tell you that we cover his cheeks in vaseline every night and there are 5 heads of hair that I plan to cut this week!

This is my favorite post-bath game.  Hide and seek.

Clad in only a towel, Luke sprints down the hall, drops to the floor, tucks the towel around him and hollers "try to find me Mom"

It's incredibly adorable.  You should hear him giggle.

He's had some less adorable moments this week too, learning to not argue with Mommy and testing his boundaries like your average 3 year old.  Then occasionally he sits on the couch and big brother reads books.  And Mom gets to take a deep breath, for a short moment or two :)

John Paul's speech therapy has dropped to once a week (we were going twice a week in November and December).   The therapist lives very close to us (amazing in this mega-city) and it's an easy drive but I'm still thankful to have more slow afternoons at home.

So this is our Monday at 1:30 pose - big three in uniforms and backpacks off to school, little two bound for speech with Momma.

Thankful for big kids who buddy up with little ones and lots of helpers of all ages.  We are definitely getting older!!

The big news from this week is that our ayi has a slight fracture in her ankle.  And needs to rest with her foot up.  For a month.

I spent most of Monday trying not to panic.  She's a pretty indispensable part of our little ship here, and the idea of not having here is.... well, no fun.  By Wednesday God provided temporary relief!  Ayi's younger sister is helping out and we are so thankful!  It's not the same as ayi, and we miss her lots, but we are so thankful for help!  Luke has had a blast showing her the ropes and hopefully ayi will be ready to come back when we return from Thailand.

ticking off days

This was one of those weeks that just flew by.  And I'm thankful, since weeks in January don't tend to fly as fast as I'd like them to.

Both schools (home and local) are still going strong and we will be well past the halfway point in the year before we take our long break in February.  I guess the nice thing about that is we come home to just a few short months of school before summer.  The difficult thing is we are all just about ready for a real break!

I spent a few of the afternoons getting Christmas put away and re-assuring the little two that Christmas would come again next year.  They were no big fans of the putting away part of Christmas.

We continue to spend inordinate amounts of time with both Legos (see the float plane in John Paul's hands?) and matchbox cars.   A new fleet of matchbox for Christmas really spiced things up and if you look closely you'll also see several lego vehicles in the collection pictured.

We have not quite two weeks before Matt leaves on a long trip and my to-do list includes a bit of shopping and trip-prep and my goal is to only buy fruits and veggies between now and our departure (clearing the fridge and freezer and pantry of all sorts of excess).   By the end we'll surely be eating a few interesting meal combinations but for now I've got lots of everything to choose from.

Tonight the little boys are already snoozing, Matt is reading Narnia to the bigs and I'm contemplating an early bedtime :)  With the big kids I just finished a terrific book (Bound for Oregon) and last night we started My Side of the Mountain.  One of our super-fun Christmas gifts was the entire set of Magic Tree House (books 1-49).  I've been reading them aloud to the little guys - John Paul has been ready to engage in this kind of read-aloud for a while but it took Luke a bit longer to track with them. John Paul's patience is paying off and it's fun to be entering this stage with the younger two boys (though I still read plenty of short picture books as well, and always George, lots and lots and lots of Curious George).

a party for a 5 year old

To celebrate our John Paul we  headed to our very favorite hotel with heated indoor pool.  This place beats everywhere else in the city at this time of year!

We checked in and started swimming, and just kept on swimming :)  It was so fun to get everyone back in the water and really got us excited about heading south in just a few more weeks!

All my little people just keep getting bigger, and their swim skills improve too!  John Paul's new pool floats (birthday gift) and swim flippers for just about everyone (christmas gifts) were big wins in the water.


and now the countdown is on!  We will be heading to Thailand on February 1st... out of the nasty pollution and gray skies and the days can't pass quickly enough for all of us!

my boy John Paul.... and he's FIVE!

He has been READY for this day, oh to be 5!

And a day where he gets to be the center of attention and pick all the meals and open the presents and just love his newly 5 year old self :)

Breakfast choice: roll-up pancakes (kinda like crepes, with powdered sugar and bananas)

And then the gifts... and he opened those from his siblings first and he was so careful to make sure Daddy got a picture of him with each of them!

For the next 2 months these guys are 2 years apart.... and then they will be little stair steps again (my 14 months apart brothers)

Gotta love that Lydia picked a candy called "sugar", ha!

and now it's Isaac that is stair stepped age with John Paul (5, and 6) .. until Isaac hits 7 in March.

In our family 5 is a big birthday - time to start getting allowance!  So we got this little man three piggy banks, to help him keep his Saving, Spending, and Giving cash organized ;)

The lunch date - always a highlight!

Such a big boy proud to be out to lunch with his Dad.

The afternoon flew by and we were joined for dinner by our dear friend Amanda, who definitely has a special place in her heart for John Paul.  And the feeling is mutual!

The family... growing up and celebrating well.

John Paul was pleased to see that his FIVE candles gave each sibling one to lick. ha!  Classy people, we are!

Hard to believe that my John Paul is five.

We have more celebrating to do too - headed to a hotel with an indoor pool tomorrow for some swimming fun.