Non-stop birthday fun

Every day seems to be a party since our return to the states.  We've been excited to see some family and meet new little Baby Benny.  We seem to eat nonstop and when we're not eating we're playing games, swimming, or going on other adventures.  The girls have enjoyed  visiting a giant candy store, stopping by a farm, golfing at the driving range, and seeing Como Zoo again.

Nina has had a great year and really liked Year 3 (2nd grade).  She liked her teacher, was a lead in many school assemblies, and still continues to amaze us with her Chinese.  She loves reading books and has chosen to have her own room in the new apartment.

 

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Vivian is as vivacious as ever.  She is good at exploring and providing her theories on anything and everything.  She worked hard in school and got good reports from her teachers.  Pip still loves to play with her tiny toys, creating towns and stories with her sister that keep them entertained for hours.

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Fireworks

It wasn't on the 4th, but it was still fun to see some fireworks this week at Disney.  With the joy of moving apartments and extra-expensive flights around the 4th of July, we stayed in Shanghai for another week to get settled.  We've made some trips to pick up furniture thanks to IKEA. We still aren't fully arranged at the new apartment, but we managed to have some fun when we weren't unpacking.  Evening tickets to Disney are pretty affordable and we tried to plan for a rainy day so there weren't long lines.  The rain never materialized, but the lines were non-existent after the fireworks so it was a lovely time anyway.  Staying up late in the summer is not a problem, especially when you're going to shift 12 hours via jet lag soon enough.

The girls really enjoyed the new Toy Story Land, especially given how we recently watched the new movie.  They managed to get more rides in this trip than any other despite the half-day and rode on  enough to make Kara tap out.  Nina bravely tried the TRON ride that is fairly intense.  She was a bit scared but laughed by the end.  Ben and Ryan had the treat of being the only two people on that ride later in the evening and loved it.  

Another year done!

Despite the schoolyear ending later here, the year seemed to go quickly.  The last few weeks have  had a lot of fun, stress, visitors, and farewells packed into them.  The girls had a lot of events, parties, and both girls got to have morning tea with the principals as rewards for some of their hard work.  Lastly, some of our good friends from the past two years are moving on to different adventures and it's been bittersweet hanging out with them more while their time was running out.  We will greatly miss Gill, Courtney, Deb & Graham but hope to visit all of them on their turf in Scotland, Tennessee, & Australia.  We've sadly had to leave our original apartment and moving is never fun.  We're finally getting set up and making the new place feel more homey.  Somehow we made the move between hosting visitors as our friend Esther stayed with us at the old apartment for a few days and then a White Bear friend, Katie, studying in Hangzhou, stayed with us a for a weekend in the new apartment.