Sarah's class put on some performances for us this afternoon and it was darling. Sarah spoke in a loud, strong voice when it was her turn to speak and I could just see that she was having so much fun with these performances. After that, we went to the classroom and had tea. It's hard to believe Kindergarten will be over on Tuesday!
Sarah was so incredibly excited to lose her first tooth tonight!
Lovely Elmer art, Sarah.
"I am unique! I am unique because I have red hair. I am unique because I do not love my mom and my brother says I'm ugly."
Imagine my surprise when I came across Sarah's "I am unique because...." art today when I was visiting the school. This is posted in the hallway for everyone to read. I don't know whether to laugh or cry. I'll choose laugh and post this here because, really, what good would it do to cry? I'm pretty sure Sarah & I had had a fight the morning before she did this!
Henry & I spotted this restaurant today when we went to Uniqlo to get some inexpensive black shirts to make capes for his party this weekend. Henry thinks Nana would really like this place!
Here is Henry disguised as Yoda from Star Wars (the kids' latest obsession).
I felt kind of bad for the lady here, she really didn't know how to command attention from this group of 3 & 4 year-old boys.
I was proud of Henry here: he chose a brown bear after everyone else chose white.
He named his bear Super Bear (although the lady mis-heard and put "Super Bean" on the birth certificate!).
He fell asleep in the taxi on the way home.
Henry was invited to his first birthday party today! A lot of his friends in his class are also hosting their first birthday parties this year (Henry's is next week!). He was so excited about this day but he was also still not totally back to himself. He declined a trip to the ice cream shop after build-a-bear if that gives any indication of the severity of things!
Henry likes this giant face at the doctor's office.
Henry hasn't been feeling well the past couple of days so I decided it was time to take him in for a visit. He has had a horrible hacking cough and just hasn't been himself. Hopefully the medicine we got (ridiculously cheap by the way!) will help him feel better.
Henry & I participated in some collaborative art at his school this morning. We were instructed to choose some fabric to put on the canvas and it would be like leaving a little piece of us behind. I thought this was an interesting idea and it may be a good way to use the baby clothes I've been saving for an unknown project. Henry chose a blue piece of fabric & I chose orange. It just happens to be that our favorite colors are Broncos colors.
This is how Anna sees us. We were supposed to dress like we were going to an awards ceremony. Henry went with his own style.
I don't know how, but this kid fell asleep during the performance (the music was pretty loud).
Sarah & I were glad we brought our scarves to stay warm in the cold auditorium.
Anna's performance was great. She snuck in because when we signed up someone had just left her class and there was a space available for her. We had to go to extra rehearsals but this was by far the best choreography she's had and she did a wonderful job. I am always amazed at how much confidence she has going up on stage!
The kids all had a great time at the Cold Storage Kids Run. Anna was old enough to go on her own, I had to go with Sarah, and Craig had to go with Henry. The race wasn't organized very well and we ended up waiting around in the heat for a while but when it was time to run our kids really went for it! Henry was particularly proud of himself. When Craig asked him what was the best part of the race, he said, "I winned it!" and when Craig asked him what he won, Henry said, "a medal!" They all say they want to run another one.
The best thing about a LEGO camera is that you can just re-build it when you drop it on your marble floor!
"smile, mommy!"
I love the color of this bench at Henry's school.
Henry just loves this project!
We are just passing time on a little walk while Anna is in ballet.
Henry's hair is getting long and it's also sweaty so it's fun to "shape" it.
For the record, he says he was pretending to be a dog in these pictures.
Walking up to the front entryway.
The front porch.
The entryway. This area is not air-conditioned and gets really hot because of the windows above the door. There are no outlets here or in the hall so we can't even put a fan in here.
Our shoe cupboard & coat rack. These were not meant to be the final solution to the problem but it's beginning to look like it will stay this way!
Looking toward the guest room. Family room on right; storage under the stairs, office, & bathroom down the hall on the left. Dining room at the end of the hall on the right.
This storage area under the stairs is pretty nice--it wraps around the corner there and keeps most of what we would have had in the garage out of the way.
Family room.
Game room from the family room. We usually keep these two rooms open to each other to share the A/C and not feel too cut off from each other.
Into the kitchen from the play room.
Laundry & dishwasher. I also use this sink to hand-wash dishes as the sink in the kitchen is too shallow. This room is open to the outside.
The maid's room. This is off of the laundry room and is not air conditioned.
The maid's shower & toilet area (in the same room as her bedroom).
Dining room.
We keep those curtains closed all of the time because the sun comes in from this side for most of the day. We rarely use this room.
Guest room/bike room. We'll move the bikes & trainer out of here when Corrine, Anita, & Brian come!
Main bathroom (also the guest bathroom).
From the guest room to the front door.
Office.
Looking down from the stairs at the top of the entryway.
Hallway to bedrooms. We keep these curtains closed (or mostly so) also because this area is not air conditioned and the sun gets too hot.
Anna's room.
Look from Anna's room toward the master bedroom. Sarah & Henry's room is on the left.
Sarah & Henry's room.
Sarah & Henry's bathroom (Anna has her own as well).
The sitting area of our room. We can open/close that wood door wall. I usually leave it like this. This is where we read to the kids at night.
The bed side of our room.
We have a door from our room to the upstairs balcony (also a door at the top of the stairs on the other side). We never use this area. Maybe we would if we bought some furniture. Heat & mosquitos are not encouraging me to go buy furniture for this spot though!
We have a lot of closet space! We don't use the top cupboards at all.
Our bathroom (the only one with a bathtub and some built in storage.
I've put off taking pictures of the house so far because we haven't hung up all of our art. Today I decided to just do it because who knows when we'll get it hung up! The walls are concrete and we've been using 3M wall hangers for the framed stuff and blue tack for other stuff but a lot of things keep falling off the wall (several frames broken) so I've gotten pretty discouraged! It would really make our house feel more like home with the art up but I might just give up on that dream.
This is the peacock that lives in the yard next to the school gate.
I left out the ingredients & a recipe for chocolate chip cookies as a subtle hint when I went for my run this morning. Amazingly, Craig & the kids figured out what I wanted for mother's day!
We were treated to an exclusive Mother's Day singing performance in the afternoon.
I get excited every time I see that Henry has written his name!
The kids were excited that Nana's birthday package for Sarah arrived today!
The big hill we have to walk up to get home.
Dog-Lions guarding a gate.
Mildew on a wall. If it were on my wall I'd be disgusted with it, but since it's on someone else's I can appreciate the stripes as art more.
The front of our house.
I had my big camera with me on the walk home from school today so I took a couple of shots.
Sarah did a great job with her performance (there is also video). I could tell she was a little nervous for her speaking parts but she did it anyway!
We had another morning with the Chameleons today so I got to see how the metal sculpture is coming along and find out about the connect-a-straws that Henry loves to build with at school.
Henry was excited to help me with the cupcake delivery to Sarah's class.
Again, there's Henry right in there with the Kindergartners (he wouldn't eat in Anna's class).
It's really hard to believe that Sarah is six years old already! I'm really proud of how easily she seems to have made friends in her new school this year (both in Texas and in Singapore, actually). She is still just as fun, creative, and spunky as ever but she is gaining some maturity as well which is exciting to see.
Sarah is turning 6 on the 6th so it is her golden birthday. She was totally thrilled by this in case it's not obvious!
Henry was much less intimidated by Sarah's Kindergarten friends than he was of Anna's 2nd grader friends.
Checking out one of her painting kits.
We also did our family celebration tonight since Craig has to go out of town tomorrow!
I love the colors on the buildings around Anna's dance school.
Waiting for dance to be over.
Packet pick-up for their race!
Henry wanted to wear his crown to school today. I don't know where he comes up with his poses.
Henry insisted on bringing the water bottles from CB&TL home yesterday. He had a very specific project in mind for them. Together after we dropped of Anna & Sarah at school and before we drove to his school, we made some very fancy binoculars that will be perfect to bring to Show & Tell tomorrow!
Binoculars.
Unicorns.
Baby unicorns.
The kids & I went down to the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf to give Craig a ride home from his group ride today. We got there earlier than necessary and he was a little later than planned...the kids entertained themselves with water bottles.
