Monday, September 26, 2011

Preschool Update




Meili continues to do amazingly well in preschool. Her teachers tell me that she has earned the nickname, 'The Cleaner' since she is content to continue to clean the classroom long after the other children have moved on to other activities. She is so excited to go to preschool and wakes up each morning hoping that it is a preschool day. She comes home talking about everything that she did there, and enjoys playing with her friends, Cohen and Luke. Interesting to me that her two best buddies so far are boys. I wonder if that has anything to do with having 3 brothers???


At Meili's back to school day, we learned that there is a Maile in her class. Her teachers are calling her Mei-Mei, probably because that is what they hear me call her when I drop her off-but also to avoid confusion. Last week, it was Meili's turn to bring home the All About Me book that has a page in it about each of the children in her class. Funny coincidence that Maile is also Asian and also has the middle name 'Grace.'


Meili's page is above. Not sure why it is sideways here but good to know that she is indeed talking to her teachers, at least enough to give her cute little short answers to their questions...:)

Friday, September 23, 2011

My Xander


Some days motherhood has me overwhelmed with dishes and laundry and places to be. Today I'm just overwhelmed with how lucky I am to be a mom.




Can you even stand the cuteness?!

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Court of Honor

So proud of our Taylor! He was awarded his Eagle about two years ago, which is a great accomplishment but he continues to 'Do His Best' in scouting and is still earning awards. At tonight's court of honor, he earned the Denali award which is the highest achievement that a Varsity scout can earn. He also earned his 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th Eagle Palms. He has a goal to earn each of the Boy Scout merit badges and has about 60 of them so far. He earned 16 more tonight. Almost there!







Friday, September 16, 2011

More Florida "Fun"


I was playing with Meili on her bedroom floor the other day when I heard a large 'thud.' I looked toward the direction of the sound to find this delightful creature. The picture does not do it justice. The thing was no less than 4 inches long! I wish I would have thought to put a ruler next to him before I snapped the photo but I'm actually surprised that I had the presence of mind to grab the camera. This is the kind of thing I would expect to see in a science museum, not in my daughter's bedroom! I trapped it under a toy bin while I tried to figure out how I was going to get rid of it. My usual 'smacking it with a flip-flop' method was not going to work in this case. I ended up taking it to the park across the street and hacking it in half with a shovel. When I left him, the two halves were still walking independently of one another. The bug guy came the next day and I showed him this picture on my camera. He called it a Stinking Cockroach and said that it is really rare to see one at all, let alone in a house. I really hope I heard him correctly and this stinking cockroach is not actually a stinGing cockroach!

Two days later, I was sewing in my living room and heard another 'thud.' When I looked, I found another uninvited guest.


I might actually think this guy was cute IF I SAW HIM OUTSIDE. The next 45 minutes pretty much sucked. My first reaction was to grab the camera and capture the novelty of the occasion. Then, I started to get concerned that he would hop somewhere that I couldn't catch him and then I'd lose track of him only to be surprised by him when he landed on my face in the middle of the night. I thought I could catch him in the same bin I used to catch the amazon cockroach until I observed that he could jump about 12 feet at a time and became completely grossed out. My next inclination was to go and close my bedroom door so that if the frog remained loose in the house I could at least breathe easy in my own bedroom. In trying to do that, I only succeeded to chase him INTO MY BEDROOM. At about that time my mom called and was entertained by my hunting prowess. I got off the phone with her and went for the pool skimmer. FYI, it is not easy to maneuver a 10 foot pole in a 12 x 12 bedroom filled with furniture. Exasperated, I called Matt at work and begged him to beam himself home and catch the damn frog.

I kept him on the phone while he drove and I had a staring contest with the frog who seemed to get a kick out of making me scream each time it hopped to a new vantage point in my bedroom. At one point, he tried to hop up a wall and fell to the floor. I had a straight shot and got him with the pool net. Thankfully, he hopped himself into a tangled mess in it and I could get him outside. What an ordeal! I hate wildlife!

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Happy Moon Festival!

I have to tell you-If I ranked holidays by ease of preparation, this would be my favorite! We have been celebrating Autumn Moon Festival-'Bouton Style' for about six years now and we love it! We usually pick up Chinese take out for dinner, but have been known to make spaghetti and call it Longevity Noodles. After dinner, we eat Moon Pies (suppposed to be moon cakes, but we don't have an Asian bakery anywhere nearby, and if I made them, not sure the kids would eat them anyway) and go outside and look at the full moon. Sometimes I read the kids the story of Cheng Er from the Moonbeams and Dragonboats book. So easy, so fun!






















Sunday, September 11, 2011

Bucs Game

Matt scored some free tickets to the Buccaneers game this weekend and treated Noah to a great father-son day. This is the first time in a long time that we have lived anywhere near a pro football team. They had a great time, even though it was HOT. We'll have to go as a family sometime.