This managed to be another crazy month - but lots of fun!!! We had some house guests for a few nights - the Gumms from Syracuse,NY came with their adorable little girl just a few months younger than Zanna. The two hit it off and had a great time together. They played, pooped and (I can't think of another p-word to fit into this) and shared a bath together. It was too cute! It's nice to have another pastor's kid in our district she can look forward to playing with at conferences, the Labour Day retreat, etc. The day after they left we took off for a two night stay in Toronto. We had the opportunity to get together with most of the group we travelled to China with a little over a year ago. It was great to them all again, to see how far the girls have come and how well everyone is doing. It's just amazing how well they've all adjusted. The hotel we were at had a water slide which was a hit for Will. That and the fact that almost all the older siblings were girls he had all to himself. I wish we had taken a picture of him in the hot tub with all his "ladies". Ha!We had a chance to go to the famous Mandarin buffet restaurant. I have never seen such an amazing Chinese buffet, we were in heaven (I'm sure the Chinese food will be even better in heaven) but until then, this will do! And for those interested, the twins (affectionately called the snot sisters) are doing great and were still snotty (I'm sure there had been a period of draught for awhile).
The day after we arrived back from Toronto my parents came in for a visit to celebrate Zanna's birthday. We had a great time and it went very fast as usual. On her birthday, her godparents Skip and Karen came over to celebrate. Elmo was the character of the day! Having clearly recalled Will's 2nd birthday and the meltdown he had from too many people and no nap I learned my lesson this time around. It was low key but she had a great time and quickly realized this was an extra special day for her. As my custom is to make my children's birthday cake every year and stress myself out this one wasn't too bad. I made a chocolate cake (with the flour I ground in my new wheat grinder mill - that's a whole other endeavor) and wrote Happy Birthday Zanna and had little Elmo candies around it with an Elmo candle. As you can see from the picture, she enjoyed her sugar high!
I should have put this picture first because it happened earlier in the month but this was taken at a Chinese New Year party we were invited to. Here Will is helping turn the pasta wheel for the dumpling dough. Wayne helped fill the dumplings and we all helped eat them!! It was a very lovely evening and we felt honoured that a group of the Chinese community would invite us in their home and share this important part of Chinese culture with us.On the school front, we've done some special fun things. We met a group at the Experimental Farm where the kids got to learn about the food chain. It was very interesting and everyone had great time. Of course once we were home all I could smell was farm on my hair and skin - I had to shower all over again. I'm such a city girl!!! We've also participated in some book clubs. The first book was the Railway Children. There was a discussion circle followed by some Victorian period themed crafts and lunch. I took Zanna along since there were a few other little girls her age which turned out to be a pain in the butte! She plays great with kids but when it comes to people her own size she likes to hug them and it ends up in a tackle with her on top and the victim pinned to the ground screaming and wondering what when wrong. It's exhausting. The last book club was on Little Lord Fauntleroy. Loved this book!!! Had to take Zanna this time, more tackles.
Finally, this last Sunday we hosted the group from Ottawa we traveled to China with. It was a lovely evening, potluck style. It was great to see everyone again and Will had more ladies to schmooze. Zanna had more toddlers to tackle.
