End Of Winter Skills Camp

A couple of weeks ago, Briana and a few of her teammates finished up their 5 week winter skills camp (meeting each Tuesday evening) for soccer. After just a few short weeks, I could see that the girls' footwork was improving each week. I cannot wait to see how they transfer what they learned to the spring season.

We picked up Ella on the way to the last practice...

The girls did drills for an hour and then the last half hour of practice, they did scrimmaging...

The coaches are all British and really know their stuff...

I think the girls were good with the camp ending. They are ready to get going on the next season and want to see their teammates that didn't get to attend the camp. The spring season starts the first weekend in March. Can't wait!!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!!!

Last weekend, Briana got all her valentines ready for her classmates. The kids exchanged valentines on Friday and B came home with a bag full of loot!

Hope you all have a sweet day full of fun!

Character Award

On Feb 1, Briana got into my car after school and was so freaking excited. She said "Mama, guess what?!! I got the character award in my class for January - self-discipline!" 

Each month, a student that exhibits the character word of the month from each class is chosen by his/her teacher and given a Cub Character Award.

I was feeling a bit sad for Bri because the last time she received a character award, she was in 1st grade (for punctuality)...

It had definitely been a while. I honestly wasn't sure if she would ever receive another character award. So happy she did!

I was so thrilled for Bri. I was beaming with pride. But at the same time, I was kind of laughing inside when she told me the news.

Since Briana has returned back to school after Christmas break, at least when she is at home, she hasn't been all that self-motivated/disciplined at all. She and I have had several battles over doing homework, getting reports done in a timely matter and staying on task.

The big information sign that sits in front of Bri's elementary school (which flashes all sorts of important updates and announcements) stated last month that the character word for January was "self-discipline." When Doug, Bri and I went to Science Night a few weeks ago, Doug saw what the sign said. Doug said to Briana "See Briana, that sign says the character word of the month is self-discipline. There is no way that you'll get that award because you haven't been very disciplined lately." I of course completely agreed with him.

Heh, heh. She proved us both very, very wrong.

Now I know for sure that my strong-willed, slightly unmotivated and stubborn at times daughter is an absolute angel at school. Her teachers always gush about how well-behaved she is and how she is always on task. She never gets in trouble. I think she got in trouble one time for doing something she wasn't supposed to and broke down crying about it. So, I am quite sure that it is when she gets home that she falls apart on me. I guess she is so self-disciplined in all the other aspects of her life, home is where she can't hold it together sometimes.

As frustrated as I get with her at home, at least I know when she walks out of my house, she does what she is supposed to do. And that makes me happy. She obviously impressed her teacher, so that makes me extremely proud.

And for getting her award, she also got a pencil and some "cub cash"...

The school has this picture posed in lobby hallway with the award winners names listed on it...

So, my kid is self-disciplined. Who knew? LOL! Just kidding of course.

I'm very, very proud. Bri is a great kid and now she has a second certificate to prove it. ;)

Happy CNY ~ Year Of The Monkey!

Happy Chinese New Year 4714!

 Xin Nian Kuai Le!!! 

Our celebration for the Chinese New Year started a bit early this year! And, we still have lots of fun things planned.  

Happy Chinese New Year Everyone!!!

Other January Happenings

Our January was much slower than December ~ thank goodness. The hubbub of the holidays sometimes makes it difficult to just enjoy "regular" stuff.

Briana lost tooth number #20 in January. I cannot believe how this kid loses teeth. I feel like they grow in and then immediately fall out. This has to stop eventually. Right?

I got a shorter do in January...

We found out that Briana's English teacher is going to move away in March. She is having the kids draw pictures of themselves for a book that will be published (she does this each year anyway), but it will help her remember the students she has to leave behind. 

This is Briana...

I love how she incorporated her favorite pandas and her Chinese and American flags. It makes me so happy how she has embraced both of her cultures. 

She says that it is just her rough draft though. She has to trace and recolor it on a special kind of paper. I think the rough draft is amazing ~ I cannot wait to see how the finished product turns out.

Briana and Doug love to play Monopoly together...

Bri's friend Mary came over one day to play...

January also brought more projects and tests in school. Bri did her biography report on Abraham Lincoln...

I crimped Bri's hair one day...

My friend Julie and I had lunch with an old high school friend, Chrissy. It was so good to see her again after all of these years. We had our own 25th high school reunion!

This is us in 9th grade...

The weather in January has been bipolar ~ seriously. One weekend it snowed and the next it was 64 degrees...

 While on the playground, Briana and I spotted a ladybug...

It reminded me of how much I turned to ladybugs during the long China adoption wait. It was a bit surreal to see my China blessing holding that ladybug.

So now it is February. February is going to be crazy busy for us.

We will be celebrating Chinese New Year and enjoying Winter Break. Of course school will still be super busy and soccer season starts back up at the end of February. I'll try to keep up with blogging as best as I can!

All About Science

The night before the snow back in January, Briana's school held a science night (1st annual I believe). Students from the local college came with experiments for the kids to check out.

You probably can't see it, but there is a small light bulb in the middle of the snowflake that Briana is holding above.

That night, it was cold and rainy. Really cold and rainy. I was almost wondering why we were braving the weather to go, but Bri loves science, so we went.

The first station we stopped at was the blow-up planetarium. Only a few people were allowed in at a time. Unfortunately, we were only in there about 3 minutes before we were asked to leave. The gym was getting so crowded and there was a long line of people waiting. It was cool while it lasted...

Then we stopped at the snowflake station...

Then we stopped at the scarecrow station (another light up bulb)...

To be honest, the whole thing was a hot mess. I don't think the school realized just how many kids (and parents) would show up. It was all crammed in the gym. There weren't enough students from the college to keep up with the number of kids from the school. They were taking too long to show each kid how to do an experiment, so the lines were getting ridiculously long. After three stations, we finally gave up and left. Bri said she enjoyed it, so that is what counts I guess. I won't attempt it again until big changes are made.

And keeping with the science theme of this post, the 4H club came to Bri's classroom the other day with some sound experiments. The kids really enjoyed it...

Bri really loves math and science. She really likes to read and draw. She really dislikes to write and spell. And she has been doing a lot of writing and spelling in 4th grade. Ugh - it's been a good year but a challenging one too!

Georgia Snow 2016

We finally got a little bit of snow here in Georgia this winter.

We had two really good snows in 2014 and 2015, but the two years before that we got nothing. So when it does snow in Georgia, it's kind of a big deal because we just don't know if we are going to see it or not. And even after my snowmageddon ordeal back in 2014, I still really enjoy seeing the snow (as long as I'm not driving in it).

 With El Nino happening, I didn't actually think we would see any snow this year. But, it was a nice surprise when we got some.

Because of "snowmageddon 2014," everyone in Atlanta is on edge. Snow wasn't predicted to fall until Friday evening (Jan 22), but most school districts still let the kids out early just in case. Bri got out of school at 12:30 that day.

Snow didn't start to fall until the evening as predicted, but even then, it was more of a snow/ice/rain mix in my part of town. Bri still wanted to run outside and stick her tongue out...

She got a little ice on her hat...

The snow stopped falling during the night, and when I looked outside around 8:30AM on Saturday, there was an ever so slight dusting on the ground. About a half an hour later, it started to snow again. We went outside to enjoy it...

It snowed for about an hour or so and then it stopped. We were outside for a short while. We had just a thin layer on snow on the ground, but the wind really started to pick up and it was freezing. It was not even enjoyable to be outside after a while...

We came inside and I made everyone brunch...

The one person who could have cared less it was snowing outside was this one...

We hung around the house that day and everything was pretty much all melted by Sunday.

I'd love to see snow one more time this year, but if not, it was nice to at least see it once. I'll take it!