Friends and Goodbyes

So many ex-pats we know have moved back to the U.S. over the past two years. So many reasons for their leaving, good reasons to go.  And still, when the time comes and they start selling their things, and we start reminiscing, my heart aches. 

The thought of such change, the thought of our fleeting moments...the cringe in my heart is sometimes palpable.

And yet we celebrate the friendships, we guide the going with prayer and we trust...

Trust HIM for grace in the next thing, whatever it may be. 

And quite frankly, these days, I need to learn that trust in the small, teeny transitions of daily life!

We hosted a good bye party.

 I hosted a Ladies Night 'good bye'.

And we did tell funny stories, encouraging stories, hope filled words.

These women. Love them. I laughed and cried and laughed until I cried. 

It was sweet and good. 

Goodbyes are always hard. A Gazillion times over now, they do not get easier. 

And while they remain a reality for the ex-pat, I am still learning to maneuver the emotions that come with them...

Our little toy

Gabrielle can draw a crowd.

Even with local kids that frequent our house, she is a show stopper. They may go play dress up, they may make up dances and shows, but they always come out to see what the baby is doing and play with her, and ask to hold her.

And to be honest, she has become quite our little piece of entertainment. She is mimicking so much now and her expressions are hilarious. David does this little gangster-like thing with his hands, a peace sign coming from his mouth and she copies, noise and all (okay, not quite the peace sign). She loves to pretend she is talking on the phone. Yes, all of our kiddos did this, but for some reason, since every sibling and everyone around is noticing it seems more exciting.

 With all the kiddos and friends inside one weekend David decided to have some fun with G.

"you guys line up and call for her, we will see who she comes to first, everyone has to use Chinese to be fair"

 She started moving, then stopped in her tracks and looked at me with the camera.

 And then she went straight to Bella.

During round two she went straight at the crowd and turned a sharp right towards me. 

Everyone got a big kick out of this.

(we learned this game from the Williams crew, circa 2010 Bradington, FL with Sammy the toy)

Sweet snuggles

Tobin Bike Riding

I know I have only said this about a hundred times on this blog, but this man is my hero. The one on the right. The Daddy. He has persevered through teaching the three oldest kids how to ride their bikes, and Tobin, at just three-and-a-half!

And just to be honest, I was skeptical. I wanted to give up and I wasn't even the one learning. 

David taught Bella in about 4-5 days. She was highly motivated. Tobin became highly motivated... for about a day. After that it was hard. David took off the training wheels and spent time on a few weekends really teaching him, running with him, etc. He kept telling me, 'he almost has it'. 

I took him out once and he yanked away from me and almost crashed, then stopped suddenly and I almost crashed. That was when I said: 'put them back on, he isn't mature enough', to which David said: 'one more week'. 

A week later, I was surprised. I took Tobin out by myself because everyone told me he could ride his bike. 

I came right back inside and said: 'oh my goodness, David, he can really ride. He can start, he can stop, he can turn. I can't believe it'

It took a patient daddy and altogether not too much time, and not too much pushing. He would want to quit and David would say one more time, or he would quit for that time. It certainly helped watching his sisters and other older kids around ride their bikes. Now our family can loop our block together, even with baby Gabrielle on the back!

On Wars and Such...

[We have been reading about the Revolutionary war for our CC cycle 3 history.]

Tobin likes to 'play war' like any good little boy...he makes guns, he pretend explodes things. He kills the bad guy. He is a superhero. And I tell him not to use his superpowers at school. I bought him winter gloves and told him they had super powers, he thought I was so serious. It was precious. He is a sweet, tender boy that always kisses his sisters good night. But he loves to rough and tumble and have victory. War style. Remember he is playing war with girls, which is interesting. Bella has to think things through. 
A week ago I heard Bella say "we are fighting the American Revolution"

Today:
B:"We are fighting the...the...umm..."
Me: "The British?"
B: yes, the British, the bad guys...We are America!
T: "bang bang, mommy here is your bb gun (hands me gun he made with connecting blocks), who else can we fight?
B: Let's fight Japan. (this country is still steeped in very anti-J sentiment)
Me: nah....someone else
B: China?
Me: No, we live in China.
T: (background noise of guns and planning)
B: 'The Indians!' (I think she means Native American Indians)
Me: No, Indians weren't bad
B: they were mean
Me: No, not always....can't fight them.
B: what country can we fight?.... I know!! We can fight UNC (she means the tarheels)
Me: YES, go fight UNC (I double over in laughter)

Now we need to work on Peacemaking.

Pumpkin Carving

We have never carved pumpkins as a family before. And honestly forgot it was so close to Halloween until we went on our date night. We walked into a restaurant that boasts western food and everyone was dressed in wicked, grotesque gore. I was so glad our kids were not there, they would have had nightmares.

Oh Yeah, Halloween!

We had a good meal and returned home to a good report from our helper about the kids. On Saturday David took the kids out to buy a kickstand for Tobin's bike (he now goes NO training wheels, deserving of a whole post soon), and to buy a big pumpkin (and smaller ones for me for fall decor). They also came back with flowers (romantic!). This was during my home school prep time, though baby G, now quite sick with fever and ear infection needed TLC as well.

When they returned, they they set to carve the pumpkin:

We had recently read 'The Pumpkin Patch Parable' again and Sophia got it out to help daddy know how to carve :).

My neighbor asked me about Halloween, I told her that I did not know how it originated and that we didn't celebrate it, but as a kid it is a favorite, simply for the candy! What our kids don't know right now won't hurt them.

 They love our little pumpkin, David did a great job. Bella sat down and asked me what I was doing mid-morning and I told her I was chopping an apple, but she was really talking to Mr. Pumpkin. She then said with her smirky smile: "Are you staring at me?" She laughed at herself and moved on.

 

Tea Bag Art

This was a CC Cycle 3 Week 5 activity that I stole from Pinterest. The girls loved it. 

I made a pot decaf peach tea, I turned on some music and then got out various decaf fruit teas for them to smell and guess the fruit. I asked them to tell me how each of their 5 main senses were being used. (I made them taste the tea).

I had water spray bottles and they went to work.

making various designs with the colors (and water color paper)

 We are so thankful for our back yard and table! The pleasant weather (finally) has had me able to serve them lunch outside a few times this week.