School Update

We spent all last week enjoying Briana's fall break! I have lots to blog about regarding our week off, but I am going to give a quick school update first. Bri is back to school tomorrow!

The Friday before fall break was "Lunch With Grands" day. It landed right during the week of the book fair. What a coincidence - wink, wink. Bri loved having lunch with Gramma and Papa and yes, she ended up with a couple of books. Here are a few pictures that my mom took of the lunch...

Speaking of books, Briana now has a book donated in her name to the school library. When a child has a birthday, a parent can pay money to "donate" a book to the library in the child's name. The child gets to pick out a book that is currently in the library and his/her name is put in the book permanently. Bri picked out a book solely on the basis that it had a cute owl and butterflies in it...
 

This was the view one day when I was sitting in car line waiting for Miss B to get out of school. It was sooo pretty...

At Bri's school, the kindergarteners are each assigned "A Big Buddy." The Big Buddies are kids from the upper grades and they come visit the kindergarten classrooms every so often - to help them read them books, play with them, enjoy "frozen treat Friday", etc. Bri's big buddy is an adorable Asian girl. Bri told me a few weeks ago that she and her buddy were talking, and Bri told her buddy that she was born in China. Bri's buddy said that she was not born in China but that some of her family was Chinese. Bri was so excited about that. The week before fall break, Bri's buddy (who is on the safety patrol) was in charge of greeting the students at the entrance of the school each morning. Every time Bri walked up to the door, she and her buddy would give each other the biggest hug. It is truly amazing how quickly they have bonded. I asked Briana what her buddy's name is and she can't remember. I told her she needs to find out her name because she can't keep calling this little girl "Hey you." Heh.

Bri's teacher often takes pictures of the kids at school and posts them on FB for us to see. Here are a few of Bri at school.

Bri on the playground...

Making a queen crown...

Sweaty after the Boosterthon...

Briana going under one of the classmate's legs during a class dance party (ahem)...

So far, school is going great. Bri she really likes school and is making friends, but I still think she prefers hanging with me and having fun on her terms though. She doesn't love having to get up really early in the morning five days a week. She was super excited about fall break. I kept her busy the entire week, we had a wonderful time, and now I am trying to recover.

I will leave you with this lovely picture of my girl - she was very irritated with me that she couldn't wear her silver sparkle shoes to school with her zebra outfit on "Letter Z" day because she needed to wear sneakers for P.E. Can you tell that she wasn't happy?

Have a great week everyone!

Eleventh Birthday Party of the Year

I cannot begin to tell you how excited I am that another beautiful Chinese adoptee has moved into our neighborhood. Briana and Mary Lin now have a new friend named Ella and she moved into our neighborhood with her mom and dad about two months ago. Ella turned 3 and had a party last Saturday - Tinkerbell style.

The kids got to make wands...

Temporary tattoo station...

There was food and drink of course...

Place the star on the wand...

Candy coming out of a pinata...

And who can forget the super fun jumpee? All I saw were bottoms going into the inflatable and I had to snap a picture...

I am thrilled that Briana has a new, super sweet friend in our "hood"!!!

Chasing Dragonflies

On the evening of the Autumn Moon Festival (Sept 12), Bri and I walked outside to see if we could see the moon. Unfortunately, it is still pretty light at 8 in the evening and there was no moon to be seen. Briana did manage to chase a bunch of dragonflies buzzing around. I actually caught one on camera. They were fast suckers...

I had to get Bri in bed because she had school the next day, so she missed seeing the moon that evening. I did read her the book "Thanking the Moon" and she fell right asleep afterward. I saw the moon bright and clear through my bedroom window at 9PM.

I made chicken fried rice and stir fried broccoli for dinner (and I pan fried some frozen potstickers for Bri too)...

When I was driving Bri to school the next morning, guess what we saw? The moon! She was so excited because she missed it the night before. I snapped this pic on my iPhone after I dropped Bri off at school and I pulled into a strip mall parking lot...

We managed to see the moon in the morning. Is that lucky or what? :D

Guess Who Is Horseback Riding Again?

Yep - Miss B! She had her first lesson the Monday before last and she will have lessons every Monday afternoon. And she gets to her ride her favorite horse in the whole world - Ponca Pony. She is in heaven!

Tenth Birthday Party of the Year

This is Bri's friend Jacob. He turned 6 on Sept 9 and his party was the afternoon of Sept 11. I had been watching so much coverage of 9/11 - going to his party that afternoon was a really nice diversion. Jacob is the son of one of my closest friends. I have known Miranda for around 10 years now and we met when we both worked at Coldwell Banker. I was at Miranda's baby shower and now her sweet boy is 6 years old. I can't believe we both have kids in kindergarten. How does time fly by so quickly?

Here is my gal ready for a party...

Jacob has a sweet new swingset in his backyard...

The kids got to play some baseball. Bri had never played before...

But look at that swing...

Check this video out. My gal never hit a ball with a bat before. That afternoon, she hit almost every ball thrown at her. And she hit left handed - not sure why. Doug says if she is a switch hitter, he is signing her up for softball...

Mmmm, cake and ice cream. Perfection...

There was also a pinata to hit at the end of the party. Bri had a total blast!

New Raincoat

Miss B has been in desperate need of a new raincoat. Now that Bri is in big kid school and we have to do car line in the mornings and afternoons without an overhang - it is quite needed. Not that it rains all that much in GA, but when it does, this will work. I found this cute one at T@rget on Labor Day weekend. After weeks with no rain, it finally rained on Labor Day thanks to Tropical Storm Lee and Bri took advantage of it. But not long after I took these pictures, the weather took a turn for the worse we had several tornadoes hit the greater Atlanta area, but luckily nothing too close to where I live...
  

Oh yes, she is so ladylike in the above photo. Ahem.

School Dress Up Themes

I honestly don't remember ever having as much fun in school as a kid as Briana does. The kindergartners have been reviewing letters of the alphabet over the last few weeks, and the kids got to dress up on certain days according to the letter they are focusing on.

There was Silly Sock Day for "S"...

Hilarious hair for "H"...

Dress like a queen for "Q" day (I know it is a princess dress, but it is all I had to work with people)...

Wear yellow for "Y" day...

Wear black and white on "Z" day for zebra...

There was also "NFL Kickoff Day" and she had to wear black and red for the Falcons...

And lastly, Bri decided to do her own "mismatched earring" day. She is wearing a shirt Aunt Amy gave her and decided to mismatch her earrings to go with it...

The girl has style. What else can I say?