The State Fair!

We hit the fair this morning.

Joe's favorite: The all-you-can-drink milk booth.

Jia's favorite: This ride.


Willa's favorite: The giant slide! (She wanted to do it forever! In fact, we heard about it for a looooooong time afterward.)

Farmhand fun:




My favorite: The shirtless, beefcake guys handing out the Harlequin romance novels!

Fun on the Farm

We visited a farm about an hour west of our house this morning. It was gorgeous!

The girls fed sheep.




And turkeys and chickens.

Groomed Wendell the baby bull.

Harvested some vegetables.


Climbed on hay bales.


And had a great time!

YMCA Camp (Otherwise known as "Letting Go")

Jia spent the week at a YMCA day camp. She was excited to go, particularly because she would get to skip "quiet time" for an entire week. I must admit that the moment I signed her up I began regretting that decision. In fact, I was more anxious about camp than about kindergarten due to the swimming, boating, climbing, campfire-making and daily two hour-long bus rides all supervised by (gasp!) teenagers! It was enough to make an overprotective mom feel faint!

I'd made a promise, so Jia went. What a result! She did fall asleep on the bus rides back, but thankfully, did not fall off her seat and thump into the aisle as I feared. She didn't drown or get lost in the woods. She didn't fall into the fire pit and she didn't get a head injury while climbing. Instead, she had fun every single moment. And returned every day filthy, exhausted and thrilled.

Here is her group:

Here she is teary at just the thought of having to wash off her paint from that day.

Jia, looking a little taller after the last day of camp.

As a side note, I had a good laugh at the opportunistic ice cream truck driver that arrived at the bus stop every day when the kids returned. He had the entire bus screaming for ice cream!

Jia learned a lot at camp that will be applicable to kindergarten. She learned that she can handle the bus by herself, she can make friends easily and she can manage the long day! And I learned that sometimes it's better, for everyone, to just let go!

Parties Fit for a Princess

Jia had two birthday parties this weekend. On Saturday, she had a princess party. It was a different type of party this year because she planned a lot of it, including the guest list with a new emphasis on "school friends!"

For food, we had princess treats including star-shaped strawberry cream cheese sandwiches, princess wands (made out of pretzel rods, white chocolate and sprinkles), fruit with pink marshmallow dip, princess punch and other sweet things. For activities, the kids embellished wands and bracelets with ribbons, decorated star cookies, got artsy at the imperial coloring station, and visited the "Royal Beauty Salon." At the salon, they received princess braids and had flowers and other sparkly gems applied to their nails. It was so fun to see all the girls in their fancy dresses (and cousin Han as a prince!).




Here's Jia decorating cookies:

And getting princess braids and fancy nails:

Jia went for drama with her multilevel cake. We served it with raspberry sherbet.

On Sunday, we had a family birthday party. We celebrated Jia's birthday along with my grandma's (90) and my uncle's (70) and his friend's. It was a great celebration and the kids had a blast. We got some terrific family pictures and Jia was excited to get her first corsage.






And last but not least, happy anniversary to Joe! We've been married eight years today and I'm lucky, lucky, lucky to have you as my husband!

Happy 5th Birthday Sweet Jia!

Jia, you are FIVE! You are F-unny, I-nquisitive, V-ibrant and E-nthusiastic!

You are sensitive and kind. You make terrific jokes and have a great sense of humor. You are such a good listener in your classes that your teachers often make you the leader so that others may follow your example. You are interested in EVERYTHING from frogs to ballet to fairies. You especially love art projects and clothes! You have a zeal for books and we are astounded at how well you read. We have to say your name repeatedly to get you to hear us when you're engrossed in a book. You are working on standing up for yourself if someone wrongs you, and we're proud of how far you've come with that. You choose gentle and sweet girls as your friends, and they seem to be good matches for you. I have no doubt you will quickly find friends in Kindergarten. (In a couple of weeks! Sigh.)

Willa deserves a squeeze too. She came downstairs this morning with one of her favorite toys, gave it to Jia and said, "Happy Birthday Jia! You can keep it forever!" Jia gave her a hug and told her she could keep it. I love those sweet sister moments!

Happy Birthday Big Five-Year-Old! We love you!

Up North!

We just returned from being up in Northern Wisconsin with my family. Here are a few pictures...




Fun at the local nature center!




Crazy prism glasses!

Peering in at many huge frogs!

Good times on the boat!




Happy kids!