August, the Sunday of Summer

Summer is quickly ending and school will begin on September 1.  Overall, the girls are looking forward to starting a school routine and meeting new friends.  Ben is bracing for the madness of the first month in which he'll take on some extra duties while some teachers are not back in the country, or are stuck in quarantine for a while.  

We've been fortunate this month as the air quality has been excellent and the rain nearly disappeared.  Unfortunately it's been a heat index over 110 every day.  Therefore, we've spent a fair amount of the day inside playing cards, games, and reading books; the girls have been reading a lot of Roald Dahl.  We've had some fun play dates here and there with different families and it's nice to get to use some other pools!

Shanghai Bound

We're currently bound to Shanghai and trying to make the most of it.  It has been one of the rainiest summers in Shanghai history so we've had a lot of time to get to know our new house and neighborhood.  The girls have liked getting more room to play with their toys and exploring some new parks.  There are pros and cons to the new place as we have moved farther from the heart of the city, but now we don't need to take an elevator, don't share any walls with neighbors, and can see stars again.  The girls have had some playdates with friends and summer seems to be going quite quickly with random little events.

Since we can't really travel, we enjoyed a staycation with some friends at Disney.  We stayed a few nights at the hotel, went to the park twice, and ate plenty of food.  The rain stopped for these days, the air pollution was completely gone, and it was very hot.  We went on the water rides more than usual and Pip loved that she was tall enough to go on all the rides this time.  It was a fairly magical trip and we were sorry to see it end.

 

Cheers to 14 years!

Pip is Eight!

HD Link

Pip is another year older and got a new house for her birthday.  She makes people smile, is optimistic about most things, and works hard to make things turn out the way she wants.  Vivian tried to invent her own language (Pip-latin), loves doing partner yoga moves, and still likes designing towns and classes for her toys.  She continues to have opinions about everything and isn't afraid to share them. Other than constantly bugging her for Chinese homework help, she is a good sister to Nina.

She's also very proud of waking up at 8:08 on her 8th birthday.

Double digits

Nina turns 10 Video Link

It is mind-blowing, but Nina Jennifer entered this world ten years ago.  She has grown into an adventurous, sensitive, conscientious girl who likes to laugh and play games.  It's funny that Kara was once worried that 3-month old Nina had so much to learn and wondered how would she gain a vocabulary; now Nina can speak Mandarin.  Nina is a very loving daughter and a truly caring sister; she takes care of Pip, has fun playing with her, argues with her (in Mandarin), but is always there to help.