Kites

The kite you may have seen flying in the previous video was actually free - when Emily went to the bank a few weeks back, she took the kids with her, and they were rewarded with two free kites, which obviously made Bluet very excited as she had wanted a kite for a long time. And when she first flew the kite it did not disappoint - she was a naturally skilled kite flyer. With insufficient wind, she was able to run fast and long enough to get it airborne to her satisfaction time after time

let's go fly a kite

Kite flying, with bonus footage of Ilona talking and laughing

Kindergarten

Bluet loves her kindergarten. Yesterday Bluet's entire class came to visit our house (apparently this is a thing they do - every Wednesday (but postponed by one day because of rain), the teachers take all the kids to 4 different houses. So about 20 small children ran into the house, straight upstairs to Bluet and Ilona's room, back downstairs to eat all the cookies we had made, and about 10 minutes later they were queuing up outside to go onwards to the next house. Bluet was very excited about this visit, talking about it beforehand, helping make the cookies, and holding the basket of cookies to offer all the kids. Then she had to bring this toy duckling to the house, where it would stay overnight, then return to school today with tales of what it had seen. Of course, this meant Bluet had to sleep with it in her bed, and woke me up in the middle of the night when she couldn't find it. In the morning it watched breakfast and getting ready, then was strapped firmly to Bluet's bag for the trip to school.

Also, here are some things Ilona can now do: 1. play with little Lego

2. Do her own hair

Bunk beds

4(?) weeks ago, we headed to Ikea, and purchased a bunk bed for Bluet and Ilona, so now they share the same room. This is going well, most of the time, although now Ilona can get out of the bottom bunk by herself, every morning she comes and wakes us up.  Here they are at ikea (we've been two times already since we got back. One time we hired a car through a car sharing scheme. Bluet was very excited that we had a new red car).

Now they go to bed in the same room, they also take their bath together every night - here they are in the bath together

Bluet also started playing indoor football every Thursday. Here she is after the game, once she had 'run out of power', having some water before heading home

And here are Bluet and Ilona playing together in the basement

And finally, from last week, here they are celebrating Emily's birthday the only way they know how - with cupcakes

 

Family Colours

On our computer in the photo app is a thing where you can take interesting photos with the inbuilt camera. Bluet calls it the 'family colours' because for the last couple of years it has had photos of us in various odd colours (see above). She has finally mastered the mouse, so today asked to use the family colours. If you click on the photo above you should be able to see all the photos she took all by herself.

BLOGSTRAVAGANZA IV!

Better late than never (I hope) here is the last week of our summer trip.


Ilona, ready to hit the road (and dressed for St Louis)

Our final destination was a day in St Louis with Abatha, Scott, Lila and Nate. The highlight of this was when Scott and I got to go to the local record shops........I mean when Abatha, Scott, Emily and I got to go to the Broadway Oyster House and then the BIG Game.......Or maybe it was seeing all the cousins playing together in the sun. In any case, it was a great end to the trip and I think we were all a little sad to pack up our bags and head home......

Apparently all 4 year olds like to climb trees

Bluet, eater of raw fish

Obviously sushi (or really, sashimi, the raw fish bit) is the nicest food in the world. For a while now we have been occasionally taking the kids to sushi restaurants, and trying to get them something they will eat. We assumed they would like the rice and avocado as found in the rolls, because they eat both rice and avocado in other situations. However, add a bit of seaweed and they seem to become unappetising. However, we discovered recently that they both like raw salmon, Bluet especially. So last Saturday while on a quest to buy Bluet a jewellery box (just me and Bluet, which was fun as she talked the whole time), we stopped for lunch at the local sushi chain where I bough Bluet her own portion of salmon sashimi, and she ate it all. Here she is mastering chopsticks. And the jewellery box, decorated with stickers all the way from Nana in Missouri.

It was also almost certainly the last day of summer, so some swimming was in order