Hokies and Pirates

First game of the season for our team was held at the Panther stadium in Charlotte. We didn't win, but it was a great game! We got to be with college friends Melissa and Rex, John and Sharon, and Keith and Maya (who graciously hosted all of us and our kids for the weekend) which is always fun no matter where we are or what we're doing.

Sunday we went out to Lake Norman where Keith and Maya's boat lives. We swam, skied and tubed, a first for both Alex and Kate, and they loved it!

Strange Fruit and Snowcones

This weekend in Raleigh was the third of four Arts Alive on Lichtin Plaza events. Art on the Edge brought us unique performers and collaborations of disparate art forms that managed to meld beautifully, and the installation, Levity III, which was like a circus tent gothic cathedral smoothie with some Islamic architecture sprinkled on top.

Friday night we went to see El Gleno Grande. He was hysterical. Street performer style humor and skills. A little juggling, some mime, some magic. Pulled unwitting members of the audience into his little world on stage. But his crowning glory, was his equestrian spoof. Apparently he has some links on his web site, www.horseguy.com, where you can see him in action.

Then we visited? toured? experienced? Levity 3. It is impossible to put into words and I think it really wouldn't matter much my interpretation because I think everyone is going to experience it differently. I will say that we were very fortunate to have visited it last night because there were so few people there and we were able to wander at our own pace. And for us part of the experience was just finding a little spot where we all stretched out and enjoyed the kaleidoscope of colors and sounds.

After that we went back into the Fletcher Opera Theater where a local (Chapel Hill) band, The Old Ceremony, was performing in conjunction with members of an Argentine Dance school and an aerial dancer. The music was incredible. Kate loved it! Kept saying "I like this song"! The music was bit too loud for Alex, so we only stayed for a few songs. I'll need to remember ear plugs for his next time out.

Today we went back to see Strange Fruit perform "Swoon!" Similar to El Gleno in that they reminded me of street performers, but perched 12 feet off the ground on poles that the artists would bend and sway as they "told" their story of love, jealousy and anger.

After sitting out in the sun it was decided that snowcones were in order. We weren't the only ones ready for some cool, so while we waited in line we had some time to chat with a fellow Exploris family we ran into and make a run for some water.




As we were getting ready to leave we stopped to thank a mom who we had sat next to briefly during "Swoon". Robin and her (Asian) daughter, Lucy, had given Kate a lollipop right as the show started so we didn't really get a good chance to say thanks. We chatted for a while, interupted every once in a while by either Kate or Lucy. At one point Kate pointed to Robin's t-shirt which had asian characters on it and asked "Chinese?". Robin told her it said Fu. I told Robin, "Oh, that is where Kate is from. Fuzhou." And guess what?? Robin's Lucy is a Fu, too! Such a random meeting half a world away from where they both started.

All That Glitters . . .

is not old . . . enough!



How did I miss that little girls now wear makeup?? Maybe I've always been out of the glamorous loop. Perhaps the fact that I didn't start wearing makeup until Alex was 2 is tell-tale to my lack of beauty savoir-faire. But I had no idea that first graders were hip to maybelline, etc. And no idea that girl's clothing stores offered free makeovers on weekends. It was arranged that Kate would get to go with her friend Bailey to one such "event". Kate was thrilled. I was apprehensive? And a wee bit scared (for Bailey's Mom who was taking the two friends).

Fortunately the makeup and hair adornement was low key. Although, and you can't really tell in the photo, they only shadowed-up one of her eyes. Is this yet another trend that I have missed the boat on??

Playdate

Our first playdate for Kate at our house. Anada is one of Kate's friends from her last school year. Confusing, I know. She had a few weeks in Ms. B's first grade class at the end of the 2007-2008 school year (just to get her feet wet) and then started up (with Ms. B again) for the 2008-2009 school year. So Anada has moved on to second grade, but is still a good friend of Kate (and her sister Alice quite adores our little bug, too).

Let's Go Home?

Our first vacation as a family of four. Pine Knoll Shores, NC. Just two nights at the beach. And throughout the weekend Kate kept asking "let's go home?".

When we first got our match with Kate in January, we were sent a link to a yahoo group for families that have adopted children from Fuzhou City Social Welfare Institute. We found a group of families that had a wealth of knowledge about both Fuzhou and Nanchang; all those "been there, done that" families sharing their experiences.

We also found that they get together each summer. Hold a reunion of sorts for all these children that called Fuzhou City home. They pick a different location each summer for their reunion weekend, LaLaFuLooza. So cute!


For the 2008 Fu-Fete, Atlantic Beach, NC was the chosen location. Perfect! Friday night was a pizza party at a fabulous park in Morehead City. Loads of fun crafts, an amazing playground and fun music for dancing. Saturday morning Phil and Alex took surfing lessons while Kate and I boogie-boarded and splashed in the surf. Saturday night was a banquet at the North Carolina Aquarium in Pine Knoll Shores. What a perfect venue for a party! We had dinner next to the largest saltwater tank in NC, with all the fishys swimming past. We learned about the aquarium's logger head turtle relocation assistance program and met one of their baby turtles. There was more dancing.



Kate tugged on many heart strings with her excited cries of "Kate's house in China" when she saw pictures on video screens of Fuzhou City SWI. As we were leaving the aquarium that night she grabbed my hand, pointed to the screen and said "Kate's house in China because . . ." and then fell silent. We hugged for a while. Then as we were leaving the building she asked again, "let's go home?"

We're Soaring, Flying

Not just the lyrics to one of Kate's favorite songs, but a daily ritual with the two sibs. We feel a wee bit guilty that we didn't go ahead and build the swing set when we moved in two years ago. "Alex is too big. He'll never use it." Oops. He's out there several times daily, Kate or no Kate. Better late.

First Grade

Our area of NC has been growing incredibly fast. It is evident in the number of new housing communities, license plates from all over the US and the log-jam traffic on roads. The local schools have suffered from the crush, not being as prepared with enough schools/classrooms to accomodate all the kids that have infiltrated. Last year, in an effort to ease crowding and better use existing buildings, our county schools switched to a predominantly year-round calendar. Most kids in elementary school are on one of four tracks alternating in-school weeks with three week breaks throughout the calendar year.

So while it is summer vacation time in many parts of the country, and even for a lot of kids here in Wake county, for Kate it's first grade time! She's been in school now for several weeks and is loving it. She likes her teachers, enjoys the structure, happily takes her Hello Kitty thermos full of noodle for lunch, willingly does her homework with me in the afternoon and loves the school bus.



We are extremely lucky to have so many friends that want to help Kate so finding a couple of bus buddies was a slice of cake. Emersyn and Zoe, two lovely fifth graders, have been crucial to my retaining of sanity with Kate's daily bus riding. They sit with her on the bus, but, most importantly, meet her at her classroom each afternoon to make sure she gets on the correct bus and makes it home!

Friends

We had such a lovely time this past week with our very wonderful friends, Michelle and Emma, who came from St. Louis to visit with us. Thank you, Tom, for sharing them with us!


And thanks to Michelle for the fun iphone photos.

Learning

We're all good. We're all busy. We're learning so much this summer. And we're keeping busy.

Kate has started school. She's in the first grade at our local grade school. She rides the bus. She was taking Spanish. We felt it better that she wait on that one. She's been to two of her classmates' birthday parties. She loves her teacher. And she doesnt' like it when there is a substitute.

She's rapidly learning English. She can say Gabriella and Sharpay (I'm sure I just misspelled her name) and Troy and Chad, and she runs around outside with the basketball yelling "get your head in the game".

I'm learning not to let her temper flare-ups stress me out. Fortunately we're seeing fewer tantrums. There's a power plant we would drive past every so often near Blacksburg that had a huge banner proclaiming how many days they'd been accident-free. As the days accumulate that we've been tantrum-free, I think that maybe we should post it out there for all to see. Then on those days at the bus stop when I'm looking a little worse for wear, the big zero will provide fair warning to any and all. And what a fabulous head's up for Phil. No more shocking awful when he walks in the door. To be fair, they really are very infrequent and the duration with which she puts the house on lockdown has decreased substantially.

I've been working overtime trying to get caught up on our scrapbooks. I'm currently in France and the year is 2002. Although that isn't really how far behind I am. I typically will go from the most recent and work my way back. I'm also trying to figure out digital scraping and using Photoshop. Thank heavens for all those digital scrappers that have paved the way.

The Human Hamster Ball

More Pictures

My dearest friend in the world requested more pictures. Big apologies. I've no pictures of Alex enjoying the lovely alpine dinner of melted cheese, charcuterie and corncihons. I do, however, have quite a few (perhaps too many??) shots of the two sibs engaged in water warfare, with one parched pooch in between.

Sorry about the excessive number of photos. Perhaps next time you'll place a cap on your request. Hugs!

Happy Birthday, Alex

Wow! So hard to believe that 12 years ago today I was officially introduced to the most amazing little person. I'm so proud and dazzled by the person he is today. He is so caring and intelligent and goofy and he makes our lives complete in a way we could never have imagined.

Happy Birthday my sweetest guy and thank you so much for all the joy that you give to this family!!

Why Don't They Write?

One of my favorite movie lines. In our case it's not because we've been scalped, but rather very very busy trying to sort ourselves out.

It's been a full week home and we feel like we're getting to know an entirely new little individual. We still have some of the goofy faces and parroting and laughter, but we also have a lot of whining and a few really good temper tantrums. Fortunately the "good side" seems to be crumbling the hard shell of this strong-willed young lady and she's learning that the tantrums are ineffective in getting the desired results. It's been rather stressful for me, as Alex has always been such an easy going kid. I'm ill equipped at dealing with the strong willed child.

We've discovered that she's fantastic at folding laundry, making her bed and feeding the dogs, but lost when it comes to sitting down and playing. We need to hook her up with some imaginative kids because this chick is severely lacking in the ability to play. Toy sets that we've gotten for her get constructed identically to the picture on the box, then are placed carefully on her dresser never to be touched again. Yet give her a laundry hamper full of clean clothes and she knows exactly what to do. The only exception to this have been her dolls which seem to get new coifs daily.

She's also quite fond of doing whatever big brother Alex is doing. Both on the porch eating popsicles and playing game boy.




Yesterday she had a chance to get creative with sidewalk chalk with a few of the neighborhood girls (Abby, Emma and Emersyn) and today it was wild and wacky with the slip n' slide and Alex, Nolan and Emersyn.




And I feel like a used car lot with all the bikes we've accumulated in the past 48 hours! We started with Emersyn's old bike which is a little large right now for our petite lass. Then we were gifted with a smaller bike that while easier than Emersyn's was still a bit too heavy to manage. Finally, like Goldilocks experienced, the third and smallest was just right! We can pedal and turn without falling over. Plus we have a horn. Easily removable with a screwdriver. Thank God.