goodbye summer 2011 ... hello FALL!

i am SOOOOO happy that fall is finally here! noticing that i didn't blog at all, almost, over the summer, here's a quick look back at our summer.

activity-packed days ...

meeting our new friend, natalie ...

meeting our other new friend, ellianah (born on the same day!)...

lots of park days ...

a visit to husky stadium's hall of fame ...

huskies' end zone ...

on the field ...

jedi knights ...

snuggle time ...

3rd birthday celebration at wallowa lake ...

trips to the grocery store ...

sharing cold drinks ...

story time with miss kelly ...

barbequeing and four-wheeling ...

dinner at red robin's ...

saying "bye for now" to great friends ...

biking ...

climbing ...

boating ...

and the best for last ... SUCCESSFUL potty training!!! no more diapers!

a wonderful summer indeed.

a host family

this summer, we were given the opportunity to host an intern from china and had a great time welcoming miss schusie into our home! schusie is from nanjing, china and had just graduated from college studying materials science before heading over to the u.s. for the first time. she was able to secure an internship at the national laboratory out here where we live. she came a bit earlier than the rest of the interns so we got to spend some extra time getting to know her. i was most worried about two things being the host family; one was whether the kids would overwhelm her (they didn't!), and two was whether she was going to like the food here in america. we learned that schusie did not care for hamburgers or hot dogs, which was fine by us because we don't eat those very often. her favorite "american" food was pizza. yum! thankfully, she preferred my cooking over most everything else because it was closest to what she was used to eating back at home. whew! unfortunately, we didn't get very many pictures with her because she and i kept forgetting to pull out our cameras. here are the few that we did manage to capture! they are from the day she arrived and the day we sent her off to head home. :(

lucas' turn!

one of my last posts was all about emma, so this one will be all about lucas. :) he is our ever-inquisitive, articulate, video-game loving, judo master! just kidding about the judo master part, but he IS learning judo at our local dojo and he's having a blast. the other night, he was in his skivvies and we caught him doing judo/karate moves in front of his window for all of our back neighbors to see...so cute! a few weeks ago, we got a great surprise when his sensei called him forward and presented him with a medal for having "the heart of a lion." i was so proud of him! his sensei told him that he was hard-working, aggressive, diligent at practicing and attendance, and had the heart of a lion, which i looked up and found it to mean "a fierce warrior." pretty cool! a couple of weeks later, lucas took his first test and received his first yellow stripe. another proud moment! (2 yellow stripes and a third test will get him a yellow belt.) i could tell he was really proud of himself, which is awesome because he can be really shy sometimes. besides judo, lucas is loving his swim lessons, still very much into star wars and anything that involves shooting a gun, playing soccer, boardgames, and movies. our little boy is not so little anymore. :)

he was very gracious to share his medal with his sisters!

independence day 2011

we had a quiet and lovely celebration of our country's independence this year. it started out with swim lessons for the kids (no break, even for the 4th of july). it was nice because allan got to go with me and see how great lucas and emma are doing. after swimming, we headed out to burbank (wa not ca) to pick up some fun fireworks. the rest of the day was spent hanging out as a family, cleaning out the garage a little, and then having a friend over for dinner. we had to wait until it got dark before we could set off the fireworks, and lucas was in such agony over it! the girls really didn't like the loud noises, but enjoyed seeing the pretty displays of light. the funniest thing i can remember about this year's july 4th is when i took emma back into the house to go potty. she told me, "i don't like bad moms." i'm like, "what? is she telling me i'm a bad mom?" after some questioning from me, i figured out that she was saying she didn't like the MAD BOMBS. they were the ones that made the loudest boom of all the fireworks we had. so funny.

you can see from the last pic that i'm obviously not the photographer.

he was too busy playing with the explosives.

a night to myself

allan decided to camp with the kids in the yard tonight. it was a last-minute decision, so no s'mores or campfire, just a tent, some sleeping bags, and 3 headlamps. i was sick, so i stayed in. secretly, i was a little excited to have a quiet night to myself! :)

their tent

my tent

elise pointing out a bug to emma

a little facetime to say goodnight!

an orchard in our yard...almost

we went to pick cherries a couple of weekends ago and picked almost 20 lbs of bing, rainier, and benton cherries altogether! they didn't last very long in our fridge. so good! we love having ray french's orchard just around the corner from us. in fact, their orchard backs up into the yard of our neighbors across the street. the only bad side, of course, are the pesky little fruit flies that appear. now that cherry season is over, we are looking forward to some yummy peaches that are coming soon. the kids can't wait to bite into a juicy donut peach!

lucas was our "taster," or more like sampler :)

sweet elise peeking out from the trees...her shirt was filled with cherry juice at the end

emma and brayden, so cute

me and my boy

me and my other boy

pretty girl emma

our loot only minutes into the pickin'!

our big girl

i have been meaning to do a post about emma for a while now. she has just gotten so big and so independent! we've been really busy so i haven't done a great job capturing all that she has learned and accomplished lately, but here's a peek at two of her recent big "moments." i love this girl to pieces!

our local library has a rule that you have to be able to write your first and last name in order to get your library card. emma has reached that accomplishment! last friday, after story time, we headed over to the counter and applied for emma's own library card. she did such a great job!

getting ready for the headshot. don't you love her with her little purse?

cheese...

the librarian was super nice and didn't mind the kids crowding around behind the counter to see the picture

waiting for the card to print out (not sure what elise is looking at)

here you go, emma!

an official library card holder!

emma is also playing soccer for the first time, through the ymca. her very first practice was a bit rocky in the beginning. she didn't want to be out on the field without either me or allan, but now she just runs out there and does her thing. can't wait for her first game this thursday!

and this is just a cute picture of emma holding up her letter cookies. she was so excited that two of them got stuck together and spelled 'hi!'

family time!

my parents and aunt from hong kong came to visit us last week and the kids had such a great time with them that they barely slept a wink. as soon as morning came, they jumped out of bed ready for another fun and adventurous day. my aunt does tai chi every morning so the kids watched her intriguingly while she did it in our yard. the kids also couldn't get enough of gong-gong and po-po (grandpa and grandma). my mom said that each morning she would find the kids sitting on the floor in her room staring at her until she woke up. they are so silly! we went on many walks, played at the park many times, had lots of great food, went to toys 'r us to pick out goodies (spoiled!), and us girls got to go shopping sans kids one night! the best part for me was getting to sleep in because my mom and aunt took care of the kids and fed them breakfast in the morning...yah! the last time i saw my aunt was 4 years ago. so glad she was able to come with my parents to visit us again!

my three little turkeys

lucas and gong-gong

the whole gang, but separately b/c we needed a photographer

my sweet girls

my aunt (my mom's sister), me, and my mom

fast friends

last summer i got to spend a weekend in seattle with a gal from my church who is originally from hong kong. it was neat and refreshing to spend time chatting in cantonese with her, which is something i don't get to do very often now that i'm away from home. she was able to teach all three of her kids to speak cantonese even though her husband is caucasian and speaks zero chinese. it makes me really, really want to teach my kids chinese! anyway, we became fast friends and my kids have come to ADORE her daughter and son even though they are way older. they came over for a visit the other night and after lily and riley played some cool tunes on the piano for me (they are both phenomenal pianists!) riley captivated lucas and emma with a bedtime story. the next day, i took my parents over to their house for a visit and here are some pictures of the kids with their newfound friends. pretty sweet.

siblings

elise & elisa

lucas, emma, and riley

doing the robot

a simple room for e&e

a while ago i posted about elise moving into a big girl bed and the two girls moving into the same room together. i promised to show a picture of their new digs, so here it is. it's pretty simple, just like the rest of our house, but that's the way i like it!