MM teaching Papa Chinese

This video was taken on July 11 (a week before our trip to France), we were still in Charlottesville Virginia, busy with all the packing. MM was teaching Antoine Chinese.

Backyard play at sunset

Look at the two girls' expression in the house... and a super cute Lily at the end of the video.

For once, the backyard play had more girls than boys. the dynamic of play changed a little bit, there was less superheroes and more "dollhouse", well, sort of. The kids built a house. MMwas very much in her elements, this was big bad wolf and three little pigs for her.

She invited Avi (the girl in pink) over and over again to come to the house with her. and then Diane (just turned two) come with an older boy.

the girls hiding...

a monster (the bigger boy) came ... the older girls ran and Diane was left crying.. she got too involved with the play and forgot that it was just pretend and got scared.

MM and Avi in their little house again, waiting for another monster/robber to come.

Lily watching... and pretending to be all kinds of animals by herself...

some hitting occurred btw the boys and the older one got punished. the girls stood by and watched anxiously.

and then the game resumed...

AND, Oscar was not here today because Helen just gave birth to a little boy this afternoon!!

congratulations to the Bohnenkamp family!

celebrating the moon festival /中秋節快樂

Ming Ming and her lantern... we had a small party for the moon festival: we got some Asian snacks, fruit, lanterns, moon cake from both Hong Kong (popo smuggled a few) and Chinatown (Max got a few), beer and Chinese liquor. all the neighorhood kids and adults have fun! The backyard is really an ideal place for this kind of get-together.

lantern decorations..

it turned out to be a great party! the moon festival is really a nice tradition to keep, although that I have not celebrated it for maybe ten years now.

and the weather cooperated, nice autumn evening with a clear sky and a bright moon..

first day at Akiba Schechter Jewish Day School

Ming Ming starts school today. There was no problem at all: she waved goodbye happily this morning at drop off time, and seemed really happy about starting school life again. During the weekend she told popo many time that her new teachers' names are Emily and Hannah, and that she likes them. Here she is walking out of Akiba Schechter when we went to pick her up at noon. Tomorrow there will be only popo at pick up time.

The big kids are staying for the day.
After school we tried out another tennis class with coach Ralph, will start formal section (only 15 minutes each class) tomorrow.

preparing for mid-autumn festival/ 買燈過中秋

爸爸在看一位師傅拉面, 明明最高興的則是買了一個燈籠...

和婆婆在唐人街

Movie night at the backyard

it is finally warm and sunny, an impromptu BBQ at the backyard to take advantage of the weather..

popo and Max cooking

MM scratching her head about how she could join the boys, she still doesn't like biking

Movie night!

all the kids stayed for the whole film, which ended around 9:30pm.

school visit

School starts next monday for Ming Ming... We are invited to come in for an hour of visit today for the kids to meet their new teachers and get familiarized with their classroom, and get to know a bit of the school rituals (the good morning and goodbye songs, that they need to wash their hands first when they arrive, etc). Although it lasted only for an hour, Ming Ming really gets into the idea of starting school and is now really looking forward to it.

singing a getting-to-know-each-other's-name song and a goodbye song.

I was there for another orientation on Sept 1, and was surprised by a few details: 1, strict kosher rules - we need to pack MM's lunch (which I don't mind at all), but no meat or shellfish is allowed, which means that I probably have to cook something else for her every day (for her old school, I packed whatever we had for dinner). And even for birthday cakes, we would need to get it from a specific kosher bakery for it to be accepted at school. 2, they observed Shabbat day every friday, they will bake their bread, light candles, sing and pray, and eat their bread I guess. I don't mind that MM will learn some Hebrew words and biblical stories, but feel a bit mixed about a routine ritual like that.
There are a lot more new things to discover, I think we will be learning and blogging a lot about Jewish traditions this coming year!

Ming Ming and Popo

MM puts her baby in a sling

Ming Ming and Popo

going out for a walk, of course we would need a stroller for baby and another one for ming ming.

met a girl called Oliver at the playground, it turns out that Oliver is a month older than MM and she goes to the same school as MM (but in a different class). This will be her second year there, and they really like it (glad to hear that).

MM and Oliver in a tunnel

playing nice pirate and mean pirate

Happy Birthday PaPa!

we were so focused on building Ikea furniture that we almost forgot papa's birthday! Luckily tatan Nana called this morning and so mama tried to save the day.

Max and Helen came to share some cake with us.

and Oscar came to play with Ming Ming. She was thrilled.

she is still very timid among all the children, but she is fine when there is only Oscar. Usually when we are down in the backyard, Ming Ming is very quite, and she always makes me promised that I would stay with her.

Helen and Max

drawing spider webs for spider man

settling down

We spent two days in Ikea (well a full day and an afternoon) trying to buy most of our furniture there.

the delivery is quite speedy. this is our dinning room - toy storage system and dinning table and chairs waiting to be assembled.

Living room..

Antoine spent a few days assembling them... there was always Ming Ming and TV to keep him company.

Ming Ming found a small house to play with and make art in.

the sofa is done.

dinning table taking shape, and MM helping to clean the floor.

Yes! Popo has arrived on Sept 5th, we waited for her for three hours at the airport, too many people waiting at immigration. The three-hour wait was long but MM was in a good mood the whole time. She hugged popo upon seeing her and was quite excited when popo finally arrived. It has been more than 18 months since they met each other, but MM surely remembers her grandma well.