Father's Day

The cake. You might know the one: 7 lbs, $17 at Costco. Four layers of chocolate, chocolate and more chocolate. Ever since Costco came to D.C. and I gave J a membership for Christmas, he has been eyeing this cake. He asked for it for his birthday, but I really didn't feel like our family was capable of eating four cakes in one, especially when Joel's birthday is two days later. After sensing his disappointment, however, with the cake we ended up getting, I decided Father's Day (if we could be joined by friends) was the perfect occasion.  Seventeen friends could only finish half the cake.  J proudly ate the REST of it over the next two weeks.

Here are "the dads" and some of the kids.

lost teeth

I had forgotten how exciting it is to lose your first tooth. She wiggled and worked on it for weeks, and when I picked her up from school one day and she gave me the big grin, I was almost as giddy as she was. Claire has now lost her top front teeth, too, and I love her smile.

minivans

This was the year we became a minivan family. Four car seats just couldn't seem to fit into any other car. Carpooling, soccer practice (o.k. one soccer practice), and lots of road trips.  We embraced it. So much so that when we found out that we couldn't ship our 2009 Odyssey to China because it will be over five years old by the time we get there, we went ahead and just bought another newer Odyssey.

Temple Spires

Because we lived in Northeast DC this time, we often passed the temple on the beltway.  Always stunning.  This is the kids trying to pose as the temple.

Spring Camping

A different campground, this time in VA on the Potomac River, but same friends (and even better cabins). The highlight for Claire was catching and then SELLING a snake to some park employees. All of the kids loved playing on the banks of the river.

Backyard Baseball

This was our first house with a backyard, but because it wasn't completely fenced, backed onto an alley, and was FULL of mosquitoes from June-October, we didn't use it much. There were a few glorious weeks in the spring when we were able to get outside and play some baseball. Sylvie, especially, got into it.

Underwear Party

Potty training is a chore, but our good friends the Hansens helped us celebrate Paul's success with an underwear party. It was the kids' idea and basically consisted of throwing underwear at each other, but we also bit round tortilla chips into the shape of underwear.  Yay for spontaneous parties!  And yay for Paul (and me)!

Chinese Immersion School

The girls were very lucky to get into a Chinese immersion charter school in D.C. this year.  Sylvie was in Pre-K (part of public school in D.C.) and had full immersion every day. Her teacher and assistant were fabulous, and she really soaked it up.  Claire alternated Chinese and English every other day, so she had two teachers. We were so proud that she was able to catch up to many of her classmates who had been at the school for two years already.

Chinese learning board

There was lots of Chinese learning going on at our house this year. I made this board from one of our moving boxes and printed these basic characters, so we could review often. The girls loved to rearrange them into sentences or categories, and I thought it made for some interesting decor.

Paul turned three this year!

Zoo Quilt

J's parents, Karin and Tom, came for an extended visit, and while they were with us, Karin made this amazing zoo quilt for Joel. My not-so-amazing sewing project was the bird dress I'm wearing. Thank you, Karin, for your patience.

Russian Ballet

Sylvie started ballet in Bangkok where her teacher told us that she has natural talent, so we were on the lookout for a good class in D.C.  Lucky for us, we lived right down the street from a Russian pre-professional ballet boarding school where they also offer community classes. Sylvie (seated second from the left) had a great year and learned a lot.