March Mildness

March is flying by and the girls have been busy at school: making projects, participating in a duathlon, getting ready for more performances, and preparing for a national standardized Mandarin exam.  Pip has been playing her recorder a fair amount and it is actually sounding like music.  With the weather warming up, we've been able to wander a bit more and find new tadpoles.  We make a trip each day to gather new ones and release old ones.  

Lunar Holiday

 

It was lovely to get some time away from school and for everyone to take a bit of a break.  Reading books, playing on the computer, playing games, meeting up with friends and enjoying the warm weather filled up the holiday quickly.  Highlights were celebrating the Lunar New Year with friends and Korean comfort food, ice skating, a birthday party, and some yummy treats while wandering the Puxi side of the city.

Pip starts her gymnastics CCA this week and both girls are excited for book week upcoming.  We were happy to find a used bookstore where they got a couple of new ones that have gotten plenty of use already.

Happy "Niu" Year

As we start the Year of the Ox (Niu) we've made it through an ordinary January.  Pip lost her front tooth and was co-winner of a spelling bee.  She had to make a few projects and has been reading the My Pet Slime series and a series of plays.  She was also one of the dancers in the school's Chinese New Year assembly.

Nina has started reading Harry Potter and also had to complete a variety of projects, including making a 3D model of a yurt to connect with her studies of Mongolia.  She also wrote a paper about a climate activist which was picked by her teachers to represent this school in a competition amongst the 65+ other Nord Anglia schools. While it's been a good stretch of school, we're definitely happy for a break and we're ready to sleep in a bit.

Robin Hood performance

Nina's grade level performed Robin and the Sherwood Hoodies this week. Nina was Dancing Dave, one of the Merry Men in Robin's ensemble. It was a joint production with the grade level above Nina's. It's a cute adaptation with a lot of jokes, some of which went over the kids' heads. They performed for the younger elementary students midweek as a dress rehearsal - Pip loved the show - and one evening for parents to attend. Kara works with the year 6 students (5th graders) so she was treated to action behind-the-scenes.

We've put together a video of highlights for the grandparents. 

youtube link

Otherwise, we're just plugging along with school and work. It was an unusually cold start to the year here with temps in the single digits, which is very rare for Shanghai, and pipes were freezing. But the weather has returned to typical so we've enjoyed being outside again. Now we're looking forward to time off to celebrate Chinese New Year. We hope wherever you are, you're safe and warm and enjoying a peaceful month.