Back to school - actually the first day of real school for Lela, she's in kindergarten. She decided to be pretty in purple. After putting us through 3 months of anxiety and angst, she skipped onto the bus with barely a backward glance. She’s doing great, has made new friends and had a pretty perfect first report card. It seems like only yesterday that we were staggering groggily off a plane from China with a tiny baby girl. Where did the time go?
Lian's an old hand - she rode the bus to her speech intensive pre-k last year. September 16 marked Lian’s second Family Day. It’s amazing what she’s done in 2 short years; had major surgery, learned English, learned how to speak, and had to relearn what ever she had known in China, a lot of early concepts are very tied to language. She is one brave and amazing little girl, with a wicked sense of humor and a big heart. Lian is in her second year at her pre-k and loves her new class. Between the late start (first full day wasn’t until the 14th and then with the Jewish holidays they had a light start to school and were able to ease into the routine, sort of. The routine involves blasting them out of bed at 6:30am as the first bus (Lian's) arrives at 7:35 and Lela's at 7:50.
Trying to get a family picture. This was the best of the lot, sigh.
Our church has a beach party to kick off the fall. It was a cool day,but everyone had fun.
Mum, fresh corn on the cob slathered in butter.
A Pines family reunion was organized by Cousin Beth. We arrived in two waves. We were the early birds for lunch and overlapped with the next crew for about an hour, time enough to do a group shot (guess who is Photoshopped into this one).
My Canadian cousins came for a visit, Elizabeth (formerly Buzzy) and Jane. We recycle names in our family as those are also my sisters' middle names, and Lian has an Elizabeth in the middle too.
But on to the main event. Halloween. Lela's school has a Halloween parade. The parents gather on the lawn side of the front parking lot and the kids walk along the lot from one end to the other. Pretty soon there is only a tiny lane as the paparazzi parents go in for their close ups. After vacillating wildly, Lela went for princess with a twist and decided to be Mulan of Chinese history and Disney fame. Thank heavens for Ebay, where I located her costume.
Halloween party at Lian's class. They are singing a song about a spider crawling up the leg, up the arm, up the head. Lian once again went for pink princess, Sleeping Beauty in the Disney color coding scheme, AKA Aurora, or Wohwa as Lian puts it.
The spider made it to Lian's cheek, eek!
The big day was on a Saturday, allowing for hours of trick or treating. We hit the road about 2 o'clock with friends and went around our neighborhood.
Pausing in the rounds for a sample break.
Look Ma, we've all got sucker colored tongues!
Pausing for a snack break with pal "Dorothy" at her grandma's house. Then they T or T'ed around that neighborhood. I swapped duty with Jamie and was back at the ranch handing out candy , so there are no pictures. Then they went on to Grandma Pines' neighborhood, finally wrapping up about 8pm. They could barely lift their bags of swag, which last well past Thanksgiving (suitably rationed) .
Trying to get a family picture. This was the best of the lot, sigh.
Our church has a beach party to kick off the fall. It was a cool day,but everyone had fun.
Mum, fresh corn on the cob slathered in butter.
A Pines family reunion was organized by Cousin Beth. We arrived in two waves. We were the early birds for lunch and overlapped with the next crew for about an hour, time enough to do a group shot (guess who is Photoshopped into this one).
My Canadian cousins came for a visit, Elizabeth (formerly Buzzy) and Jane. We recycle names in our family as those are also my sisters' middle names, and Lian has an Elizabeth in the middle too.
But on to the main event. Halloween. Lela's school has a Halloween parade. The parents gather on the lawn side of the front parking lot and the kids walk along the lot from one end to the other. Pretty soon there is only a tiny lane as the paparazzi parents go in for their close ups. After vacillating wildly, Lela went for princess with a twist and decided to be Mulan of Chinese history and Disney fame. Thank heavens for Ebay, where I located her costume.
Halloween party at Lian's class. They are singing a song about a spider crawling up the leg, up the arm, up the head. Lian once again went for pink princess, Sleeping Beauty in the Disney color coding scheme, AKA Aurora, or Wohwa as Lian puts it.
The spider made it to Lian's cheek, eek!
The big day was on a Saturday, allowing for hours of trick or treating. We hit the road about 2 o'clock with friends and went around our neighborhood.
Pausing in the rounds for a sample break.
Look Ma, we've all got sucker colored tongues!
Pausing for a snack break with pal "Dorothy" at her grandma's house. Then they T or T'ed around that neighborhood. I swapped duty with Jamie and was back at the ranch handing out candy , so there are no pictures. Then they went on to Grandma Pines' neighborhood, finally wrapping up about 8pm. They could barely lift their bags of swag, which last well past Thanksgiving (suitably rationed) .
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