Time to Catch Up

So, it's been over a month since I last blogged but I do have a good excuse...my Internet has been out since the end of July plus I had an extended visit to Cincinnati with no access to my computer. But now is definitely the time to get back on task and get some blogging done. So, without further ado, here is a "second part of summer" recap:
I took Savannah and Xander to Chocolate World in Hershey, Pennsylvania. We went last summer and had such a great time that the kids wanted to go again. And who wouldn't want to visit the city that smells of chocolate and the free samples that are handed out? We had a wonderful time once again.


The kids also completed the library's Summer Reading Program which earned them each a certificate of completion and a free book.


One of the highlights of my summer came on Friday, August 1, as I headed up with 3 fellow "Twilight" freaks to New York City for the Stephenie Meyer/Justin Furstenfeld of Blue October concert series. Along with hundreds of screaming teenagers, we listened to several songs that had inspired Stephenie while writing her books as well as listened to a Question/Answer session with the lovely author. We each received her autograph for our "Breaking Dawn" book, the book that I spent the next few days reading. It was a very satisfying ending to her delightful series.




My dad flew out to Baltimore so he could accompany the kids and I as we drove to Cincinnati for a 2 week visit with my parents. It's quite a long car trip to Cinci with stretches in the middle of nowhere so I was extremely grateful to my dad for flying out to Baltimore one day and then driving right back home the next. What can I say? I have great parents. And we sure had fun with them for the 2 weeks we were there. We got to visit with Bryan also for a few days before he left to attend graduate school in Mexico. Heidi and the girls came out the second week we were there which made my kids really happy...they LOVE spending time with the cousins. Some of the fun things we did while we were in Cincinnati were hang out at a local water park;


cool off in the little pool;


spend time with fun Uncle Bryan;

play pirates, of course;

have fun being chased by Grandpa the Monster at the park;


help Grandpa mow his lawn;



spend more time at the park with the cousins;



enjoy a walk through the nature preserve;




see the animals at the zoo (some of our favorites were the roaring lions and the gorillas);



attend a live Bird Show;



just enjoy hanging out with each other;

spent a morning at the Cincinnati Childrens Museum;




took lots of rides in the wagon;

tried to catch Jeffie;


and participated in our own Olympics!




We had such a great summer and now it's back to the normal routine.

China

China was the country we studied last week and it was as much fun to learn about as Egypt had been. The first day we watched a travel DVD which showed different places in China, one of which was this little restaurant in one of the villages. The tour lady was shown a table holding different edible items. She asked what the wiggling bag was and it happened to be a bag full of frogs. Right there on the video the Chinese guy takes out a live frog and then just slices it open. Then they brought out a snake for her and proceed to cut off its head. Both of these animals were made into a meal for her. Yeah, pretty gross! Savannah and Xander both said, "We don't want to eat that Chinese food." They're used to chicken lo mein and wantons...quite a difference! Anyway, after watching the video and looking at various books we did our normal routine of studying and crafts. We learned about the Chinese calendar and what Chinese year each child was born in: Savannah - horse, Xander - monkey (what a surprise!), me - ox, David - rat, and Noah - pig (no surprise there!) We studied some Chinese symbols, the panda bear, the emperor's clay army, and the Wall of China. The kids always enjoy coloring...


...we made paper lanterns...

...we made blossom trees with our fingerprints...


...we painted Chinese symbols on scrolls which was quite amusing (this is a picture of Savannah painting a panda bear first)...

...and Friday night we had our Chinese feast, minus the frog, snake, and dog. I thought about teaching the kids to cook a Chinese meal but the thought was only there for a second. We live about 10 minutes away from the best Chinese restaurant; why would I cook when I can buy from the experts? We hung up all the crafts the kids had made throughout the week for decoration and enjoyed our tasty food.

This week - Russia!