This afternoon, Avery showed me how to make a Chinese lantern like the red one he’d made in school that day. He told me he was born in the Year of the Rabbit, and wrinkled up faced and kind of harumphed, “I wanted to be a dragon” 😦
He asked me what sign I was – a rat. The look on his face made me think he’d decided his sign could have been worse. From there, he wanted to to learn how to write the Chinese characters for all of his favorite signs, so we looked things up on the laptop, he wrote out the characters, and we practiced saying the words in Chinese (because the computer pronounced it first).

At Tricks Gymnastics. Friends from Carson’s preschool were the main invitees.

The reveal:
Avery’s turn:
“Grandma, this is the Statue of Liberty.”
Time for Grandma to go home. Two boys jumping and popping packing bubbles.

Among Uncle Justin’s many talents:

Thais and Lenin went out to dinner tonight and I got to stay with the kids. Lola joined us.
Sophia and Lola created an elaborate scenario and built their own “home” surrounded by a fence. After about an hour, Avery came downstairs and said, “I’m not going to play that anymore. It’s hard being the dog.”

I watched Sophia and Avery Monday and Wednesday after school. Sophia and her friends have been reading this series of books.
2836 pages since Thanksgiving. The book to the right is the first in the companion series.

After the game, a simple game for three people (Carson was thrilled),
then 6,
then 8.

Sophia has a new room color – Brittany Blue – that she picked out. She explained how her mom taught her to choose a shade or two lighter than what you actually want. This photo does not do justice to the actual color.
Avery and I made Candied Walnuts.

At Leah (Lenin’s sister) and Jeff Kral’s.


When it’s time to open presents, everyone stakes out a location in the room or on the stairs. Carson chose to sit between my legs on the lower steps 🙂 He waited patiently while all the presents were passed out.