Homeschool in May
I am incredibly thankful to say, we have had a really great month of homeschool. I think this is the first time since November that I can say that. Every day we consistently completed what I had for us to work on. That’s huge!
It is always my goal to get the main chunk of school done before lunch, and I think that happened 3-4 times, but usually there wasn’t too much to finish up after lunch. I do think we would finish before lunch all the time, if I could get going faster in the morning. Between my sore back, having pregnancy exhaustion, as well as a lingering cold/infection thing… I move rather slow in the mornings. But the girls are gracious and understanding. In fact a few mornings Elizabeth has gotten started on some of her work before I ever make it to the homeschool table.
This month we saw some big accomplishments! I can say that Anna & Elizabeth have fully completed their school year. Elizabeth is now an official 2nd grader, and Anna is now a 1st grader. And they are hard at work on the work for the new school year.
She has had several assignments where she had to write a letter. She LOVES doing this, but on the last day of her book, we were running a bit late, and our sweet post office lady was pulling up as we were finishing up. Elizabeth ran out to meet her to give her the letter. She was so sweet to wait a few minutes for Elizabeth!
Then it was Anna’s turn to get the mail, so she handed the mail off to Anna.
Poor Hope, doesn’t like to miss anything. She must be doing whatever her big kids are doing!!
Elizabeth has made good progress in her Shurley English grammer book and has no problems with the concepts. She is also making good progress on her Saxon Math 3 book and is still working through the review, which seems to go on and on! She is eager to get to the point where she finishes learning her multiplacation tables. We have 6, 7, 8, & 9′s left. Then we can move into the bigger numbers.
Anna has finished the first book in the 1st grade Sing Spell Read and Write book, and is 1/3 the way into the 2nd book. This is my first time using this curriculum, so all I have to compare it to is the Veritas Press Phonics Museum I used with Elizabeth. I thought that the Veritas Press would be too much for Anna, but truthfully, I liked the way the phonics/diagraphs were presented much better in the Veritas Press curriculum, and I am seriously considering going back to that when it is Nate’s turn. I am thankful I didn’t give it away now! Anna is really enjoying the Math 1 book. She has had no problems learning her doubles math facts and is excited that her math worksheets resemble Elizabeth’s!
We have seen a lot of improvement in Anna’s handwriting the last few weeks – WHEN she chooses to concentrate. :)
Steve started teaching the girls history, and I am very thankful for his help with some of the homeschool. I do know that it is going to spoil me, and when we get back to China, I will certainly miss his help! :)
Nate has started his learning to read book and can’t wait for that one on one time with me each day. I love how excited he is. Although I do know from experience, the excitement will wane around lesson 40-60.
He is older than the girls when they started this book, but I also knew that he isn’t in the same spot they were. I had already decided we would take it slow and stop when I can see it is a bit too much for him.
He was so proud to complete his first 10 lessons! And the way his sisters cheered for him, he was even more excited!
I also wanted to take a picture of our homeschool area. Because the house we are staying at has an eat-in kitchen, we have taken over the dining room table, and it serves as the homeschool table/craft table. So far it has worked well for us, and I am thankful that I can get their school work all laid out the night before.
During homeschool time, Nate participates for a bit, plays with cars for a while, entertains Hope for a few minutes, and sometimes runs errands with Steve.
We have 2 shelves that contain all our homeschool stuff. All we have are the items have have used the last 5 months/ or are currently using. I have a few things that we aren’t using yet, but I haven’t purchased our material to take back to China yet.
I have no idea what June will hold, but May was GOOD! :)
More on swimming
We have one week left in our 5th swimming lesson session. The lessons are getting more full as summer is arriving. I am SO grateful we started in on lessons back in January! :)
The kids have made good progress, and now that the weather is warming up, we are able to see that as we go to friends’ pools to swim!
It is SO nice to not have to take arm floaties for 3 big kids and a baby!
Elizabeth has gone from the very beginning level all the way to the highest level they offer for her age level. She still has areas to work on and strokes to strengthen, but after the next short session, she is about done with lessons. We have thought about putting her in the swim team, but the timing of it is not the best right now.
Anna is doing much better with her breathing, and with more practice time she will do great. She still has more strokes to learn, but she is doing good with the basics.
Nate continues to swim freestyle as long as he can hold his breath. He struggles with getting his head over to the side for a breath and instead lifts his head too much, then his feet go down and it takes a few moments to get horizontal again so he can continue swimming. Thankfully he seems to know what his personal lung capacity is and hasn’t gotten himself into any trouble yet.
Elizabeth swimming…
Anna waiting her turn… she would rather not wait! ;)
Nate’s turn.
Elizabeth swimming backstroke.
Anna really enjoys the ‘social’ aspect of swimming! :)
Anna kind of floating.
Working on kick technique.
We have been SO thankful that pools are warming up, and we have several friends who have offered their pools to us anytime. The kids did some nighttime swimming with their best friend Jillian. (It was cold and I have no idea how they swam so long!!) They all used a diving board for the first time and didn’t even blink. I was worried that at least one of the big kids would be nervous, but they weren’t even phased. My parents neighbors and sweet friends have a pool that we have used twice already and it is just beautiful. The kids love going there!! And I do too!
Nana and the big kids.
Anna & Nana
Nate swimming.
Elizabeth the fish.
She rarely has her head above water.
She loves diving for rings in the deep end, whereas Anna & Nate dive in more shallow water.
Fun play time.
Elizabeth was also determined to learn how to dive. We had read a book about Sammy Lee the Olympic diver and she was quite inspired. She has made some progress, but still ends up with quite a few belly flops.
Here is her best one of the day. She has discovered that a good dive feels smooth going into the water, whereas a bad dive, feels like a spanking on her legs. haha
This afternoon they spent 3 hours in the pool. What a perfect way to spend the afternoon!
Nate finally had admitted his eyes were tired and was ready to go home..
Loving this season!! :)
Hope on the treadmill
Last night before bed, Elizabeth informed us that she needed a little more exercise before bed. I guess an afternoon of bike riding was not enough. So everyone got a turn walking and running on the treadmill. Hope is not one to be left out of anything, so she got a turn too. The kids got such a kick out of watching her crawl on it and then just ride it to the end over and over. Anytime Hope is somewhere new, or in a new situation (such as crawling on a treadmill) she gets really serious. So that’s why there are no smiles on her face!
Here’s the video:
And for those who like videos… here’s another one of Hope taken a few weeks ago of her singing with Elizabeth.
Mother’s Day 2012
We had a good Mother’s Day 2012. I was just tired all day! Of course I am tired most everyday, so nothing new there! :)
We didn’t have any big plans, other than lunch with my family. The kids had all made me sweet cards, and Elizabeth actually made 3 cards. Just to make sure I was covered.
Wedid have plans… we were supposed to be in Florida, celebrating Mother’s Day with my in-laws. But with my medical situation, the doctor made it clear that I was NOT allowed to travel. And because we had planned to be in Florida during this time, my own mom had decided that would be a good time to go to California to see her mom. So not only were we not on vacation in Florida, my mom was not there to celebrate Mother’s Day with us!! We did get to celebrate with my 2 brothers and my sister-in-law who is a ‘mom-to-be’!
And as usual we had a great time together!
My entire family has a favorite restaurant, and that makes it easy for choosing where to eat. We head to Spring Creek BBQ. That is the food I miss the most while we are overseas. And on Sunday’s you get a free scoop of Blue Bell Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream. And to my pregnant self, that was the perfect desert. I also love Spring Creek because all 3 big kids can share a kids meal, and I can also order a kids meal! Oh, and their bread. Just smelling it adds calories.
After lunch we snapped a few pictures of our family.
My sister-in-law & me. Virginia is 19 wks and I am 29 wks. (I think. It is incredibly hard for me to keep track of my own pregnancy).
Virginia & Michael. My brother is a handful.
We are so very proud of him. (haha)
The kids rode bikes for a bit to show Uncle Mike & Aunt Ginia all they could do. Then Uncle Mike decided to give the kids a very valuable life lesson. What to do when you get tied up. Literally. He tied them all up and then told them to get untangled. It was hilarious.
But after a few minutes, Elizabeth decided the funny part was over and strongly requested to get untied.
Then Nate said it had to be his turn. He was laughing so hard I was worried he was going to ‘lose it’. :)
And once he was free enough, he started the chase for Uncle Mike.
After a few hours we said goodbye to Uncle Mike, Aunt Ginia, and Uncle Drew, and the rest of the day the kids played mostly nicely. And I believe I took a short nap. Perfect end to a fun day!
Hope at 9 months
One day I grabbed Hope out of the high chair, wiped off her food covered face, missing the fact that she had wiped food into her hair, and plopped her down outside to take some pictures.
She was NOT in the smiling mood – she was very serious about watching the kids playing in the yard behind me.
Here are her pictures…
And just so you can see Hope is quite good at making funny faces – here are a few!
I just wanted to record what Hope is up to at 9 months.
Sleep
She has really had a good month – she is finally sleeping better, still NOTHING like my other 3 kids, but better! She goes to bed at 9:30 and usually wakes up about 7:30. She has been napping really well. She takes her morning nap from 10-12:30pm, and her afternoon nap from 3-5:30.
Eating
She is still eating 5 times a day, and solids are still hit or miss. She eats between 2-3 cubes of baby food (homemade), but when I have to give her something store bought, she will eat about half a container/meal. She eats solids at lunch and dinner. She prefers her food a bit chunkier now and also is good at self feeding… so far she has self fed bits of banana, bits of peeled grapes, bread, and her gerber puffs and their yogurt drop things. We will start trying some cheese in the next few weeks.
On the go
Hope’s crawling is quite fast and she will quietly sneak off somewhere. Thankfully I have help. I will tell the kids “who can find Hope first”, and usually she will have crawled off around the counter in the kitchen or into the laundry room. She prefers walking to crawling, so as long as she can hold onto something to help her cruise she will do that. She usually gets nervous to cruise with only one hand, so she does a lot of sideways walking. She has taken her hands off a few times to test out the standing alone thing, but it doesn’t last long.
I am extremely thankful that she finally agreed to like the walker. When we first got it the big kids just pushed her all over the house at high speeds, so it took her a while to figure out that she had to self propel the thing. But FINALLY she decided she would use it herself. And just like Elizabeth, she does not ‘walk’, she ‘runs’ in that thing. The ONLY reason I love the walker so much is that when she is in it, she is not picking up bits of this and that off the floor and eating it. When the kids are crafting or playing with certain toys, it is not good to have Hope on the floor ready to grab anything that dropped.
Communication
Hope is a quiet baby when we go somewhere new, or she meets new people. She doesn’t talk much and instead just studies all that is going on around her. But when we are home, in her usual environment, she is LOUD! She talks and sings and makes noises. She loves to copy any noises she hears.
The other day we were eating dinner with some friends, and Hope was crawling around in their living room, and came into the dining area under the table. Our friends husband heard some growling and thought something must be wrong with their little dog, but turns out it was Hope, so had heard growling somewhere and was trying it for herself. It is a deep growl that doesn’t seem possible to come out of her sweet little-ish self. Cracks us up.
She also has been known to copy fire trucks, ambulance and police sirens. We are still trying to get some video of this!
She says mama, dada, yea (too funny), clap, and a form of ‘hi’. The kids would add about a hundred words onto my list – as they are often confident that Hope said something that Steve and I didn’t hear.
She continually makes us laugh and is such a joy! We ADORE this sweet girl!!
Homeschool update
Our 2011-2012 school year has been interesting. To put it mildly.
We did not start our school year until October. We returned to China the very end of September after Hope was born, and started school a week later. We spent all of October and all of November working hard. Even when Grandma & Grandpa Webel came to visit, we maintained our homeschool schedule. While it wasn’t all fun school work, we were catching up with the basics.
Then the beginning of December I headed to Hong Kong for 3 days so Hope and I could have a doctor appointment, and that is when we found out I couldn’t return to China, and we had to in fact return to America. I sent as detailed lists as I could to our friends who were doing our packing, and the majority of the homeschool items we were currently using, made their way back to America.
We arrived in America the end of December, and it wasn’t until mid-January that we slowly started getting back into our homeschool. And when I say slowly, I mean REALLY slow. Like I think we only did about 15 minutes the first day back. But over the last few months we have gotten better about completing our work for the day.
Then we took 2.5 weeks off when I hurt my back and couldn’t get lessons together or sit at the table with the kids. Since then, we have been hitting the books hard. Focusing on our core subjects to ensure that we don’t get behind in those.
On 4.23.12 Anna completed her Kindergarten Sing Spell Read and Write curriculum.
She was super thankful!
I do feel that it was quite basic for todays kindergarteners (I am sad to say), so we quickly jumped right into the 1st grade curriculum. She has made really good progress as it starts off very slow. We are actually doing both books at once, as the beginning book is just coloring and matching sounds.
Over all she has enjoyed the SSRW curriculum, we pick and choose what we use from it, but I haven’t had any problems with the simple readers and she likes them because they are easy. I think about halfway through the 1st grade curriculum she will be a little more challenged and we can slow down.
Anna’s reading has been slow… she does a good job with her phonics and the site words are coming along. (I ONLY teach the phonic rule breaker site words, as the rest will come on their own.) Anna is a competent reader, but hasn’t developed the love for it yet. I think a few more months and she will be the kid who won’t put books down.
On 5.3.12 Anna completed her Saxon Math K book. We will also jump right into the Saxon Math 1 book. Anna sometimes struggles with waiting for me to explain a concept and wantsto just jump in and figure it out herself. We are learning a balance in that!! :)
She also completed her first handwriting book.
She is still struggling with her handwriting, and spelling is a challenge, but we will continue to work on those!
On 4.30.12 Elizabeth completed her Saxon Math 2 book. She had no issues with this book, and I can’t believe how quickly she grasped the concepts. She has now learned part of her multiplication tables, with the exception of 6, 7, 8, and 9. (But knows a chunk of those too). She has a basic understanding of division, graphing, she can tell time to the minute, does pretty good on her addition/subtraction drills, and really grasps things quickly. It does make me laugh as when asked her favorite subject, she will usually respond with “not math”. But when I pull out something new, she gets really excited. I think perhaps it is the drills that are needed for speed that she tires of.
We will take a bit of a break from her math, and just work on flash cards and a few other concepts with some supplementary work. And plan to start her Saxon Math 3 book in a month or so. I am COMPLETELY conflicted about what curriculum I will use with her for 4th grade math. Absolutely no idea. SUGGESTIONS??
We ended up doing both the 1st grade veritas press phonics curriculum (which I loved) and now the 1st grade Shurley English Grammar curriculum (which I also loved). They are SO very different, but she learned a lot with both of those. The Shurley English Grammar was simple, once we introduced the new concepts, but I plan to continue using that curriculum and I wanted her to start at the beginning with it so she would understand all the grammar rules and jingles that it introduces.
She can now classify sentences with all the parts of speech. We have a few little ones left to learn, but she has caught on quickly. She does laugh when she says a few of parts of speech names, and asks ‘who named these things??’
She has started to get introduced to different styles of writing, and I appreciate the way the Shurley English curriculum teaches them slowly, as Elizabeth isn’t a fan of topical writing, yet.
When we finish that curriculum up in the next few weeks, we will move into the 2nd grade Shurley English curriculum.
Elizabeth is funny with her handwriting. When she knows it will count – like in her handwriting book or when she is ‘graded’ on her neatness, she can write beautifully, but when she is writing notes or writing something in a hurry, her handwriting looks like a high school boys writing! We are trying to instill some pride in her handwriting, so she is motivated to keep it neat no matter what she is writing. Hmm.
She is working in the 3rd handwriting series that we use, Getty-Dubay Italics, and will start working on cursive soon. She is excited about that.
We have spent the majority of the time just working on the core subjects… but we will work on Science and History more over the next few months. (Story of the World, and Apologia)
Nate has been working on his handwriting… and has started on the first of the sing spell read and write books. He enjoys doing those. Otherwise he just overhears things his sisters are working on. We will start him on the Saxon Math K book in a few weeks as he has already heard all the concepts too. He just needs time to work it out for himself!
Elizabeth has done a few extra things – with my mom. Like piano lessons and sewing lessons. But that is it, in regards to the kids’ extra curricular activities. I need to be better about bringing in some fun things to do.
I showed Elizabeth some of the hundreds of options available for unit studies and planned on letting her pick one or two, but she can’t seem to narrow it down. She just loves to learn and take in information. I just gotta keep up!
I have been trying to think through what items we need to take back and what other materials they will need over the coming months… and we recently had a few items come in the mail. The kids were so excited. Of course so was I.
Steve opened the boxes, and Hope was eager to get in on the action…
When she couldn’t see what she wanted, she decided she would just use the opportunity to play with the big kids toys while they were distracted.
We got a big back of science experiments. Things that require a backyard to do. Perfect timing. We currently have a backyard!
I also ordered this simple human body chart. It talks about all the layers of the body… and Elizabeth has LOVED looking through it. She had been asking for one, and is so thankful to have this.
She actually decided to test herself on the bones of the body. She makes me smile.
We need a few more reading books for the girls, but otherwise we are set!
SO as you can tell, we won’t be taking a summer break. And honestly, my kids don’t really know the difference too much. When some of their friends here are all of a sudden around more, they will catch on, but for now we can just keep going.
Instead of summer break, we will take breaks like ‘mom just had a baby’, and ‘we are relocating back to China and trying to get settled again’. It will all work out! :)
I hope to do better about detailing what the kids are working on and how they are doing.
Like this:
Nate’s un-birthday pictures
The girls had such a good time taking birthday pictures with Steve, that Nate wanted his turn. And why not. With hundreds of parks nearby to choose from, they headed out to snap a few. It was hot, but Nate was a good sport!
Love all these updated pictures of my kiddos!
Here’s Nate at 4.5!
Love this sweet boy. I am so thankful for him and his kind heart!
Happy 6th Birthday Anna Grace
Oh my Anna. I hardly know where to start when trying to describe Anna.
I have always said, and it remains true to this day, that Anna has challenged me as a mother more than any other child, and more than I could have imagined possible. And I SOO love her for it!
Anna has an amazing ability to read people. I learn a lot from her! She thinks through everything she does, and most of the time is motivated by how a situation can benefit Anna. She thinks through situations quickly and is quick witted.
She is a strong leader and often is the one organizing play and games for Elizabeth & Nate. She is never shy in new situations.
At 6, Anna has finished her kindergarten year of homeschool. She does well at her work, but is not always self motivated. She THRIVES on an excess amount of praise, and that must be a part of our day for Anna to want to try her best. Otherwise I think she doesn’t see the purpose in putting too much energy into making her handwriting look good!
Anna became a Christian in February of this year and we have loved the changes we have seen in her. More and more we see her acting out of kindness and love instead of a desire to put Anna first. Her heart is becoming more sensitive and she has grown in compassion for those around her. We are thankful for the times we have seen the Holy Spirit working in her heart, convicting her of sin, and giving her love for other people. She is ready to be baptized and we are working out the details to have this happen sometime in the next month. It has been SUCH a joy to watch her grow and fall more in love with her Savior!
In our family, Anna is our night owl. She can stay up and happy longer than any other kid, but also enjoys sleeping in each morning. She is good about rolling over and going back to sleep in the morning, where as Elizabeth & Nate are up and out of bed immediately upon waking. She is also not overly cheerful in the mornings… and so her overly cheerful, talkative older sister sometimes can annoy her first thing.
Anna has done a pretty good job with her swimming lessons. She has been in lessons since January and has done good with the strokes, she just struggles a bit with the timing of the breathing. We are sure that with lots of practice this summer, she will really become a strong swimmer.
She also has mastered riding her bike without training wheels. She had to figure out how to not lean while turning, but once it clicked, she has done great! She is very proud of herself and once again wants tons of praise. She will tell me “mom, please watch, the entire time”… and then will show me her latest trick.
Anna still holds the title as the comedian of the family. She takes great pride in being the one to make the family laugh, and has even asked Steve to provide her some new material to use on the rest of us. We see a lot of similarities in Hope’s personality compared to how Anna was as a baby, so Anna feels she has some up and coming competition in Hope!
Our lives are so rich having Anna around. Steve and I have often said, we can’t wait to see what plans God has for our girl!
Happy 6th Birthday Anna Grace!
This is the hose
I think one of my favorite things about being in America, besides time with family, is the outdoors. I love how simple it is to be outside here in America. You just go. I don’t have to plan or think through anything. Just open the door and the kids can run outside. Barefoot, if that makes your heart happy.
Our last stateside also gave the kids a lot of time to have freedom outside, but seeing as how the girls were almost 3, almost 2 and Nate was just itty bitty, they don’t really remember it. So it feels as if we get to reintroduce them to the joy of a backyard.
The weather has been warm and Steve decided it was time to re-introduce them to the hose. We had ribs for dinner, and the kids were a mess. He informed them they needed to go into the backyard and strip down. They obeyed, but were unclear why dad was asking them to do this.
And then he proceeded to shoot them with the cold water. The squeals were priceless. And loud.
After a few minutes the game switched to the kids all taking a turn with the hose, which meant they headed straight for daddy.
There were a lot of laughs, except for Hope who got sprayed a few times and was NOT happy about that. She loves water, when the temperature is appropriate and it is not being sprayed in her face.
And Steve taught the kids a little trick. He played it on Anna. The child with the biggest sense of humor.
After steve kinked the hose and Anna got sprayed in the face, she laughed. The other kids might have gotten a bit upset…
They were thrilled with the hose time and are eager for more evenings outside with water! I love a backyard!!!!
Anna’s 6th birthday
Anna’s birthday began with the 3 big kids waking up MUCH earlier than usual. Anna is usually our late riser… but on this day, she felt the urgency of getting her day started, and made sure she was up early, and went around making sure everyone else was awake too.
She requested cinnamon rolls for her breakfast, and I once again released all guilt that I didn’t make them myself, and just enjoyed the convince that America has to offer.
Then we let her open presents from Steve and I. We gave her a little picnic set, and 2 new necklaces.
She also opened the first of several cards from Elizabeth.
Hope and Nate loved watching all the action!
We then got ready for the day so we could do a video chat with Grandma & Grandpa Webel and they could watch Anna open her presents from them.
Elizabeth was explaining to Hope what was about to happen when the video chat started and the boxes opened.
And my apologies, but I was busy holding the ipad during the video chat. No pictures were taken. Use your imagination. There was stuff everywhere. And excited and overwhelmed girls. Anna received lots of fun little things and a whole lot of littlest pet shop stuff.
Then Steve asked Anna what she wanted for her birthday lunch. She answered ‘cheeseburgers’. So Steve got busy making those cheeseburgers. What a good daddy. They looked and smelled great, but when we sat down to eat, Anna explained to us that she did not mean to have said ‘cheeseburgers’ and really just wanted grilled cheese sandwiches. Oops. But thankfully she liked the cheeseburgers, and we will do grilled cheese soon to make up for it.
After lunch we packed everyone up and headed to my moms house. Once we got there, Anna and I got busy making Anna’s birthday cake. The kids do all the planning of how they want their birthday cake to look (on the actual birthday day). Anna had drawn a picture and had very specific rules about how her cake would be.
It was a strawberry cake, with pink vanilla icing. She wanted two layers with fresh strawberries between the 2 layers and then fresh strawberries around the cake.
We got half of it finished before heading off to swimming lessons, and then finished it up when we got home.
She was completely thrilled with how it turned out.
Anna had requested pizza for dinner, which we also just bought instead of making. Sometimes I am overwhelmed with how fast things can be in America. You can buy everything already done! And at this point in my life, I am okay with that. I will go back to making everything from scratch soon enough… :)
She had also requested fruit salad, with a very thorough list of which fruits could be included!
Then we had cake. And she ate her strawberry cake with mint chocolate chip ice cream. To each his own! :)
After the singing finished, Anna was really fast to blow her candle out – faster than I was expecting, and I missed the blowing picture. I asked her to pretend blow the candle out, and of course I got a silly face!
Anna got a new dress and some money from family. She was thrilled!
It was a fun birthday and Anna was so thrilled about turning 6. This evening after we were home and everyone was coming down off the sugar, I asked Anna if she felt any different, to which she said “Oh yes I do. 6 feels so much bigger than 5.” I am glad she feels older!
Happy Birthday to Anna!!
Anna’s 6th birthday pictures
Steve took Anna for her 6th birthday pictures. They turned out cute, and were very true to who Anna is. The sweet side, the animal/bug lover girl, the crazy, spunky personality that keeps us laughing.
Love you sweet girl!!
Like this:
Chinese food and Sno Cones
Today we decided to go searching for a Chinese restaurant. We have been in America over 4 months (can’t believe it has been that long already!!), and while we have cooked some Chinese food at home, we haven’t eaten at a Chinese restaurant. Some friends of ours told us about a place that had more ‘real’ Chinese food. We set off and were hopeful that it would remind us of home a bit.
I didn’t take any pictures there, but let’s just say there were many moments that remind us of home!
The food was okay… they had good green beans… and one of the dishes we ordered was not what we were expecting, and that reminded us of China!
Our waitress stood by our table the entire evening talking to us. Yep. That’s just like China.
The other customers kept staring at us. Again, just like home.
The rice was free. That’s one of my kids favorite things about China, and now also this Chinese restaurant.
Overall it was a pretty good experience. The kids ate mostly rice. And Steve and I had some good laughs about the differences and similarities. The best difference was that I got water with ICE! :)
We decided on the way home to let the kids have a sno cone. Just because.
The girls had tried them not too long ago with a friend, but Nate hadn’t experienced it yet. I also don’t think I have had a sno cone since college, back when we used to walk miles for the sno cone, eat, and walk back to school just to feel like we were burning it off. When in fact it was just a time waster so we didn’t have to study.
Elizabeth had ordered a banana flavored sno cone on her first try, and was satisfied with that and would have just continued to eat banana flavored sno cones for the rest of her life. So I stepped in and encouraged her to try another flavor. She tried watermelon. And liked it.
Anna however, takes a different approach. She made Steve read the list of flavors over and over as she kept adding up the number of flavors she wanted in her treat. I think she ended up getting 4 different flavors and I think she even realized that she overdid it! (Of course, being our stubborn Anna, she ate it regardless of how she might have disliked it.)
Nate was adamant that his sno cone would come out blue, so he had a blue cherry flavor or something. It was quite entertaining listening to the kids discuss and decide what they would order. I got a Dr. Pepper flavored sno cone. Oh yum.
We took them back to our house and sat in the backyard with the perfect weather enjoying our treat.
I am thankful that Hope seems to have gotten over her grass issues and can join the rest of us grass loving family members outside.
I love this picture, even though the quality is horrible. Nate was walking really slowly so Hope could crawl along side him. He would pick her up and carry her all over if he was allowed, but since he can’t do that, he is content to go at her pace. That’s love.
Hope had enough exploring and is headed back to mom and dad.
Steve is eager to take the big kids camping. And we will start with a backyard camp out. He set the tent up so the kids could enjoy it, and they had so much fun playing in there over the last few days. Anna brought the checkers out and Nate brought a large number of matchbox cars to the tent. They had their chairs set up with some bottles of water and they played hard!
Steve made a sign for our fence. So appropriate.
The Webel Family Circus. Perhaps I should rename this blog.
We had a fun evening out and I am loving the memories! :)
Hope’s quilt
My mom is a quilter. When she first started quilting, she took some classes and made quite a few really nice quilts. But then of course life happened. She moved to Italy for 5.5 years and traveling around Europe didn’t allow as much time for quilting. Not to mention she was resposible for hosting large numbers of friends and family who wanted to go visit them. (WE do not have that problem in China. We can’t seem to get friends and family out to visit!! Who wants to go to China??) Anyway.
She has made a quilt for each of my kids. A special quilt that they will treasure for always. FOREVER.
Then came Hope. Hope arrived as my parents were packing up their lives in Italy and about to move back to Texas. So Hope’s quilt was put on hold. Then instead of my mom having a few quiet months after their return from Italy to work on Hope’s quilt, we messed up those plans and returned to Texas just 2 months after them, and it has been a whirlwind ever since. But finally with our lives setting into a routine, mom was able to grab time to work on Hope’s quilt.
She brought it over as soon as it was done for Hope to have.
She liked it!
And now my mom has started on Luke’s quilt, as well as the quilt for grandbaby #6… (Michael & Virginia’s wee one (due in October)… as I pass the torch from the grandbaby making days onto them. May they have tons and tons of kids really fast too.) ;)
Thanks for the really special quilt mom!!!
Swimming lessons
Back when we thought we were going to be coming to the states in August, we had planned to get the kids signed up for swimming lessons as early as needed to ensure they were in lessons as much as possible.
When our plans changed, I did not forgot one of our major goals for our time in America. Get our kids some skills in the water!! They LOVE to swim (read: play), and be in and around water, but had no ability.
I called around to see who offered year round lessons, and found the local YMCA did! We signed the kids up for the first session. It started about 2 weeks after we got to America. Each session lasts for a month and they go twice a week. Tuesday/Thursday at 4. The kids were SO very excited and thankfully all through the first session the excitement ran high.
We signed them up for a second and third session. Each session has a different teacher and at times I like that, but other times when they have a really good teacher I wish they could keep that instructor.
They break the classes up first by age, then by skill level. The younger class is 3-5… which meant that Anna & Nate were in the same class, and Elizabeth was in the older class. Other than that, all 3 were in the very beginner level.
We were mostly happy with the way things went… with a small exception for Anna & Nate’s class. They had 2 girls in their class who required a lot of the teachers attention. And while they were waiting, and slightly bored… they pestered each other! haha
After 2 sessions of that, we decided to separate them! It is going much better!
The second session did not have any other kids for Elizabeth’s age/level, which meant that she got a teacher all to herself. Social Elizabeth was sad not to have others in her class, but she made some really great progress that session with a teacher who pushed her!
The third session brought the same thing for both Elizabeth and Anna. Their respective classes didn’t have any other students, so they are both in classes by themselves. Nate still has 4 other classmates.
After we finished the 3rd session the kids are still just as eager for swimming lessons as when we started back in January. I am SO thankful they are enjoying it so much, and even more thankful that they are doing well. Elizabeth can successfully swim the length of the pool on her own, and has learned several different strokes. Anna can get about a third of the way across… and Nate about the same. He is actually really good at swimming underwater.
We are now in the 4th session of swimming lessons, and Anna is in a class with 4 others, which means she is not getting as much practice time. Nate however is struggling this session. I mistakingly signed him up for the beginning class, when I should have put him in the next level up. He is therefore extremely bored. And his teacher is hesitant to challenge him. Not sure why. Thankfully it is only 2 more classes and then we will move him up and he will have a different teacher.
At this point, we are really happy with the kids progress. Elizabeth can swim the length of the pool using several different strokes. She still has a few things to work on to make her strokes stronger, and needs more work on her breathing when swimming the freestyle, but overall she is doing good. She will go into the highest level next session, and her teachers have talked to us about if she can join the YMCA’s swim team. We would LOVE for her to do that, but are not sure if our schedule will allow with everything else we have going on.
Anna can swim freestyle and backstroke a little, but still struggles a bit with the breathing and staying straight in the water. She will make a lot of progress with more pool time this summer.
Nate is doing really good, but still needs more work on his breathing. He can swim freestyle for as long as he can hold his breath for! We are hoping that next session will challenge him more and he can make more progress.
We had planned to take the month of May off while we travel to Florida, and resume lessons in June, but with my pregnancy complications, I am not allowed to travel. So we quickly got the kids signed up for May as well. We will get in as much extra pool time as we can this summer and hopefully they will get stronger and more competent in the pool!
We are also already signed up for June, but because of the kids different levels, we couldn’t get them all at the same time, so we opted for a Saturday morning class. I know that only going once a week will be different for them, but hopefully we will be getting lots of swimming time in during the rest of the week.
We are still talking about what to do with July/August, as the situation would be the same, just going to the Saturday morning class… but we will decide soon as those classes will be full soon!
We are REALLY thankful that all 3 kids are able to get in the pool without any extra flotation devices and are now not just confident in the water, but competent!
The teeth around here…
I am way behind in updating about the teeth situation around here, and I know you all are eager to know about the Webel kids teeth.
I will start with Anna, as this is new territory for her, and she is still really proud of this step into big-girl-hood.
Anna:
Feb 25th, 2012- Feb 26th, 2012
Anna has now lost 2 teeth. She came to me one morning a while back and told me one of her bottom teeth was lose. I wanted to cry. For some reason it was okay for Elizabeth to lose teeth. She is my oldest afterall. But for Anna? It just made her seem WAY too grown up. She quickly realized her 2nd bottom tooth was also loose, and we also found that the permanent teeth were coming in.
On the night of the 25th, it was incredibly loose, so I asked Anna if I could have a try getting it out. I have learned when they are ready and I knew hers was. So a quick yank and it flew out of fingers and we were all instantly on the floor looking around for the precious first tooth out! (We found it)
She was really excited and we had to make a few phone calls and take pictures!
(In case you are wondering about her hair. It’s a sock. We roll her hair into a sock to get her some curls for the next day, and to keep knots out.)
You can see the new tooth coming in where her tooth used to be.
The very next night, we had finished dinner, and were having some celery for dessert. (It was dessert because we had also put peanut butter and chocolate chips on top (aka, ants on a log)). Anna took a big bite of celery and the 2nd bottom tooth came out.
So we grabbed the camera again.
She just kept saying “TWO TEETH… I HAVE LOST TWO TEETH!!”
The celery. She finished that piece of celery after the excitement slowed down!
These days Anna’s holes are less evident as her big teeth are almost all the way in. But a few days ago I discovered her two top teeth are also loose. I made her promise she would wait until after her 6th birthday before she lost those too! :)
Elizabeth:
Feb 26th, 2012
On the same night Anna lost her 2nd tooth, Elizabeth lost her 5th tooth. I would have thought she just wanted it out because Anna lost one too, but Elizabeth is not one to bring on extra pain, so I am confident it was ready.
When Elizabeth first lost her first tooth, back in 2010, Steve and I had not yet discussed what we were going to do about the tooth fairy and payment for the teeth. So we just didn’t. We just ignored the whole ritual. But then Elizabeth heard that some kids get a tooth fairy, and told us that even though she knew it wasn’t a real thing (and truthfully she was grateful that it wasn’t real, as she wouldn’t really like a fairy coming into her room at night…), she wanted us to pretend. And we had NO problems with that. So on her 5th tooth, we put it under her pillow, and after she crashed, we exchanged the tooth for a dollar. (We decided we would do a dollar bill in America, and when we return to China, we will give them a kuai (.16¢) and since they will lose the majority of their teeth in China, we will still come out fine. ;)
But Elizabeth started thinking about it. She had lost 4 teeth in China, and didn’t get anything for it. Anna was now looking to get her 2nd dollar bill, and Elizabeth did the math. The tooth fairy owed her some money. So she wrote a note and asked the tooth fairy to please make it right.
And the the tooth fairy, being a kind soul, did not have any problems making restitution.
Since then, Elizabeth has gone on to lose 3 more teeth. Bringing her total to 8! Her two front teeth and two bottom teeth have been replaced by permanent teeth. So her holes are all on the right side of her mouth, as the teeth on the left are also coming in.
It has become such a simple thing around here for Elizabeth to loose teeth. She wiggles it, then pulls it out, and brings it to us to see. And then adds a dollar on to her total net worth.
Nate:
Has, thankfully kept all his precious baby teeth.
Hope:
Despite all the teeth happening around here, at 8.5 months she has not yet managed to get a tooth. And that’s fine. The big kids are curious how much a baby tooth can really hurt if she was to bite them, so for now, they are not sticking their fingers in her mouth.
Elizabeth and Anna were 11.5 and 11 months when they first got a tooth, so we are guessing Hope will take after her big sisters.
When Anna lost her 2 teeth, and Elizabeth also had hers coming out, my mom had a little party for the girls… complete with chocolate cake.
It has been fun around here! Hopefully it will be awhile before we have any more teeth happenings.
