First Book Report

Here it is, minus the writing part which will apparently be done in school.  The favorite part of the book  DRAGONS LOVE TACOS (teacher picked it) was when the boy realized that the "mild salsa" had a disclaimer at the bottom saying that it contained bits of jalapeno peppers.  It was important to the plot that, while dragons love tacos, you must never, ever give them spicy hot salsa.  I won't spoil the rest in case you want to read it some day...

p.s. She did this with Daddy and, unless they're both lying, his pencil never touched the paper.  He did help her by drawing certain things on HIS paper and she reproduced parts from his and from the book, but I'm still pretty impressed with how it came out, especially the expression on the boy's face. Can't wait until diorama days! 

Snowy Week

 We got about 6 inches of really heavy, wet, sticky, perfect-for-building-stuff snow on Saturday morning, canceling Aikido and leading to a fun play day with Lucy!

Then the blizzard came Monday and ended last night, after dumping over 30" in our town.  This time it was crazy light fluffy whiteness, but walls of it!

We had an early dismissal on Monday, no school yesterday or today, and so far a 2-hour delay for Bea for tomorrow.  We'll pay for this fun in June.

I just love this photo:

Okay, I'm done now.  We have enough snow on the ground to last at least until March, so here's hoping winter made a brief pitstop on us and is heading elsewhere until next December!

Hera

Ever since Quynh went away to college, I've been hoping to meet another Vietnamese young lady who lived nearby and would be willing/able to spend time with Bea regularly to play with her and expose her a bit to her native language.  We finally hit the jackpot!  Meet Hera, aka Huyen,  a 19-year old senior at a nearby prep school who gets right down on the floor with my 6-year old, meows with her, plays marbles and hide-and-seek, watches children's you-tube Vietnamese videos with her, eats dinner with us, and is just plain a blast to have around.  Sula loves her too!

(Here's Bea's attempt to write "Dad" in Vietnamese)

The only bad thing about Hera is that she graduates at the end of May and is likely going to college a thousand or more miles away, but  we plan to soak her up as much as possible before that happens!

Aikido

For over five years now I've heard Anthony say "when Beatrice is seven, she's going to take aikido."  Well, just a few months away from that milestone, today was her first class.  Every Saturday morning, and/or Wednesday evening (which I doubt) we'll be heading to Worcester to this lovely dojo we discovered long ago.

Holiday Week 2014

I'm writing this as Bea is laying in bed with a 102+ fever and the worst lethargy I've ever seen her experience.  We spent Christmas Eve with my family and then went to Maryland through New Years and we were the healthy ones amongst various ill family members, but finally it caught up to us.  Anthony and I drove home flu-ish on Friday and just as we were feeling better last night, Bea started with symptoms.  So it looks like she'll get at least one more day off before starting school, though she certainly isn't having any fun right now. We had a chance to spend a couple hours with Samantha from Bac Ninh while we were down south, and the girls had a great time playing together.  

Hopefully it won't be another two years before the next visit!

The present of 2014 seems to be the card game Sleeping Queens, which Santa brought, and even Lolo and Lola got in on many of the dozens of games we've played:

It's also a crafty Christmas, and here's Bea with her needlepoint kit,

art set,

and headband making kit, which she just loves!

and, since it fits in with a Christmas post, here she is at dance a couple days before the holiday when we were treated to an impromptu recital:

She actually stayed awake until midnight at Tita Lucy's New Year's Eve party!

A good time was had by all. Bring on 2015.  Can't believe I'll have a 7-year old in that year!