Harvest Moon Festival!

Our FCC (Families with Children from China) group celebrated the Chinese Harvest Moon Festival on Friday.  It is one of my favorite FCC events, the kids get to run and play, there's lots of yummy food, lantern crafts and of course our releasing of the lanterns!

This year was a wonderful time again and we all left it tired and happy!  The lanterns were beautiful being released into the night sky!

 But before we let the lanterns go we took time to play hard and meet up with all our FCC friends!

 Love this one of Sammy & baby O!  Lots of giggles and happiness from these two guys!

 Simone of course worked on her "Fairy Houses"...a favorite project for her and some of her pals!

 We enjoyed the water and watching the ducks as we waited for the sun to go down.

My silly sweaty boy-he played hard for sure!

 

 After our dinner we made our lanterns.  I was told we ordered "Sammy proof" ones this year!  (we still have his so good they were definitely great lanterns!! Thanks Elizabeth)

    We lighted up the way as we went on our lantern walk!

 And our lovely group photo!  We have such an amazing group of families that participate in our FCC events.  It makes my heart happy to see all these kiddos together, celebrating some of the culture of their birth.

 

 Finally ... it was time to light up the night with our lanterns.  We all help each other out lighting them and then stand back and watch them float into the night air!  It is beautiful and peaceful-just a real treat for all!

 Some of the kids decided to lay in the grass to watch the lanterns go....

 It was a super fun evening for everyone!  We got to meet new families and catch up with old friends and celebrate the moon with our wonderful children!  I feel so lucky to have such a great support group with the FCC and can't wait till next year's harvest moon!  As Simone said on the way home "well, only 364 days until we can do this again"!
J

*We used 100% biodegradable lanterns with no parts that can be harmful to livestock

Nature Day

The pool is closed for the season.  The weather is beyond amazing.  We haven't had a "family" day in a long time.  So we just knew it was time to head to Ijams Nature Center for a day in nature!

  We ran into some school pals (Sammy's friends - not Simone's for a change!!) so the kids ran and played in the natural playscape area for a while, getting all the energy out!  Then we headed to the pond to see what we could find!  We spotted a lot of bees in the flowers.

 And a bunch of tadpoles, some water lizards and even some full grown froggies!  Can you spot it on the lily pad?  It was so cool for the kids trying to spot all the reptiles in the water. 

 Then our pals left so we enjoyed our picnic lunch and then trotted on our nature trail walk,  We have this favorite little spot to put our feet in the creek.  It sure was cold today! 

 But the kids didn't seem to mind one bit!

 Sammy got tired and ended up in the carrier.  He gets a great view of all the high up things...spider webs, squirrels, birds...

 We finished our walk so we decided to hang out for a while, just being cute!

Love our family days in nature!
J

Oh so busy!

I know, I know.  Your tired of my "oh I'm just so busy" excuse for not posting on the blog.  I'm quite over it as well.  Really, I am.  But it is true, we are just always on the go.

We've been goofing around....

 And starting the school year....as a THIRD grader!!!!

 Missing JieJie as she heads out for school.  They went to camp together all summer and this big girl school thing was not pleasing to him at all.

 We finished our season at the pool with sadness and can't wait for next summer and all our pool fun & friends again!

 Sammy got dressed up to "do his work" as an "on-site guy".  Complete with Simone's running shoes, chainsaw, golf club and of course hard hat...

 And I don't want to sound paranoid...but I think somebody has been playing with my camera again.  Just a suspicion of course....

 "Hello, hello...any other banana phone dudes out there"?

 And like I said...we've been running.  Literally running.  Simone joined her schools cross country team and is loving it!  I am so pleased, as we've tried a few organized activities and she hasn't quite found her niche.  But she is really good at cross country and enjoys it!  Yipee..

So see...we have been busy.  And when we're home it seems we're still busy - playing, cleaning, hanging out.  The kids are starting to play together more, which is great, but usually it involves some game or project I have to help with or engage in.  No complaints, just a new/different phase of our lives.

So my apologies, yet again, to the bloggy world.  Someday I may get back into you regularly-although I fear by then the kids will be grown and I won't have all the joys and craziness of parenthood to write about!
J