We knew that this would be the summer that Maddie had her first horse lesson.  We seized the opportunity because we’ve been able to spend a big chunk of our summer in Oregon.  I knew that Maddie was ready for this because I knew that she understood that it was WORK and JOY to take care of a horse… not just the joy part!  She eagerly got my old saddles out, got the saddle soap out, got the saddle oil out and cleaned for a very long time!  This was after taking a “field trip” to our local tack and supply store which lasted well over two hours.  Note:  we only bought saddle soap!

After researching for a long time while sitting on my couch in Shanghai, we decides to go with Champion Training Center.  Everything out their website made me feel like it was “home” if that makes any sense.  When we go out to the barn for the first time, it was exactly as I would have liked it complete with barn cats, old leather smells, fresh sawdust… it was the kind of place I could spend all day long and never get bored.  What was wonderful about it was that Maddie could have spend all day there.  I’m pretty sure that if we asked her to clean out every single stall at the barn, she would have done so!

Kandice was PERFECT with Maddie.  She was patient and smart and Maddie trusted her immediately.  I saw Maddie’s confidence soar which I love of course!  We took video for a long time and I was able to get it down to just a few minutes so take a peek!

I’m sure this is the beginning of a beautiful relationship with the horse community for Maddie Anna even if we do live overseas.  Horses and horse people have a lot to teach…. I’m thankful that Maddie is falling in love!

Maddie's First Day of School

Maddie is practically a veteran learner at this point!  It’s hard to believe that this is the 4th conclusion to a school year for her.  Ms. Preeti took great care of her in both PreK3 and PreK4, and Maddie has thoroughly enjoyed reading the blog posts from those days.  When she watches the video of the first time she wrote her name in PreK3 though all she can point out is that her “d” is backwards and her “i” looks like a “c”.

Maddie Studies Hard!

Maddie loved Kindergarten with Mrs. Howitt and eagerly looked forward to first grade this year.  First grade was a big leap for Ms. Maddie because all of sudden she had HOMEWORK!!  Perhaps it is my naivety about raising kids in this day in age, but we all were definitely gobsmacked by that one!  She has put her very best foot forward though this year and has loved school.  Most importantly, she’s built friendships, gained confidence and is one of the most polite kids around.

Mrs. Voge was Maddie’s teacher this year and she was quite simply amazing.  Elaine has known Maddie since she was born because Elaine lived with us in Yanbu, Saudi Arabia when we were there.  I taught her son Callum while we were there and now she has taught Maddie.  This world of ours is indeed very, very small and don’t let anybody ever tell you differently!

Maddie and Roqueya

Maddie’s school year was fantastic as she made some new friends and said “see ya later” to some old friends.  I think this is the first year that Maddie really gets the “TCK” status.  Part of being a TCK is saying goodbye to people a bit more frequently than she would if she were growing up stateside.  Maddie said goodbye to her very good friend Roqueya this year as Roqueya is moving back to Canada after being in Shanghai for all of her life.  Maddie met Roqueya when she was in PreK3 and they’ve been good friends for four years.  Skype will keep them connected and I suspect that they’ll stay in contact for many years to come.

Maddie's Celebration of Learning

Maddie’s Celebration of Learning Day was perfect this year as it really showed the vastness of everything she studied and learned this year.  She LOVES science and while I set all squeamish around bugs, she thinks it’s cool to look at them under the microscopes!

Catching up on the blog posting here!!!! One of the benefits of living at the Links are the community get togethers they plan for the kids. This was our welcome back party this school year… I know, I know… I’m a bit lit in posting it but better late than never! Amelia was of course terrified of the entire event but Maddie got her giggles for sure as she hung out with the other kids.

Check out the number of hoops at the end of the video.  And is the girl something like 12 years old?  A veteran!!!

Enjoy the show!

One of the things the girls look forward to is walking near our house to go feed the ducks!  Maddie has been sick for nearly four days now but sometimes you just need to get out or you’ll get cabin fever which in WAY worse! All I have to say is… thank goodness for cheap bread!

Beautiful Oregon days….

Today I woke up sick.  My mom gave me some clothes from Justice and made me feel better.  my mom gave me tylenol and I felt a little bit better.

when I coughed so loudly it hurt my Mom’s ears!

Sometimes, you just need chopsticks to eat Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwiches!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etY1JoslL0c

Amelia and I ate the last Girl Scout cookies tonight and it was delicious.

Maddie’s a Sneetch?  What you say?

Formerly, Ms. McMullin (aka Ms. McMuffin) who is now Mrs. Wild is Maddie’s music teacher and she wrote a play especially for the first graders in Maddie’s class based on a Dr. Seuss book.  For 30 minutes, the children were on stage and they were constantly MOVING!  Maddie was energetic, brave and smiling throughout the entire performance and new her cues very well!  If you would like to “listen” to the performance you can go here:  http://web.me.com/

You can also visit Ms. Wild’s full site here:  http://web.me.com/Sneetches/

This is the book that I read today.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8v9Atm29bao

This is my mom with a bird.

Maddie and  Amelia have to be two of the luckiest kids on earth!  Over the long weekend, we decided to head on out to Hong Kong for a second visit to Disneyland!  As Andy said, his first visit to Disney was at age 12-ish and his second visit was with the girls a few years ago!  Of course, there were tons of pictures and tons of videos from the trip so we decided to put it into a short movie below.

The Easter Bunny even managed to show up!

Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZHz4oKxaxQ

What do they all have in common? Over Spring Break Maddie spelled out her sticky snap words in all of them!  What I love about Maddie is that she knows what techie words to use and she’s only six!

“Mom?  Can I drop my voice on this picture in Pages please?”  I’m pretty sure that I didn’t speak like that when I was six years old!

She did drop her voice on the Pages document but if you don’t have Pages on your computer, you won’t be able to hear it so as Maddie says, “we took a screenshot!”

This time of the year is always interesting because Andy leaves for big chunks of time to go hire new teachers.  This year, he literally was in Shanghai for 12 hours and then got back on plane to Bangkok.  Thank goodness for Skype… we LOVE talking to him on the computer as the girls and I miss him much.  It was actually tougher for him to be in the same-ish time zone in Bangkok because he was always busy when we were home.

His next major trip was to Boston.  Oddly enough, it was easier to connect on Skype because right before we went to bed, we called him on Skype to give him his wake up call!

Tracking Dad's Flight....

The important thing though is that dad is back! The day he flew out the girls and I tracked him on Google Earth as he flew over Alaska toward Shanghai…. way cool!

We did something special this year.  Maddie and Amelia both had a New Year’s dress made and they looked adorable!  Amelia especially felt like a princess because she looked just like her sister.  We are hoping to have Gang of One family pictures taken before summer and we’ll definitely use these dresses for some of our shots.  I have to giggle a bit though because Amelia REFUSED to get measured at the fabric market… even after watching her sister get measured.  They just looked at Amelia and guestimated…  the dress was a bit long but Meelie held it up like a princess! 

The New Year assembly was cute.  The kids sang the alphabet highlighting their favorite Chinese things.  Maddie showed off her knowledge of the Abacus and Olympics…. she did great!

When Andy is gone and it’s just me and the girls over the weekend I have one goal in mind.  Exhaust them! 

What a perfect way to spend a couple of hours on a cold, rainy Shanghai day.  I took the girls to Playland over at a mall and it was awesome from the beginning.  One: as soon as we walked through the gates, they checked both of the girls temperatures AND gave them hand sanitizer.  Two: Amelia tried to escape and they refused to let her out.  Three:  Every surface was padded and adults were everywhere making sure kids were safe. 

I just followed them around for a couple of hours.  I could’ve sat down but I was having fun too!   Hey… to be a kid again!

Maddie’s friend JiaXi just moved out near us and she had her birthday party this weekend.  There were waves of activities and fortunately, both girls were able to go to the party.  Maddie got her face painted, both girls decorated cupcakes, Amelia bounced like crazy on the bouncy castle and the doves during the magic show were an absolute hit!

The Before Picture..

My favorite part was when Maddie’s classmates took special care of Amelia.  The bouncy castle was way too big for her but they helped her climb up and made sure they didn’t jump on her…. too much!

The After Picture...

Riding Bikes in America

Maddie had been planning it for months.  She sat on Santa’s lap and she had the guts to ask him for TWO bikes.  Once dad got it together in Oregon, Maddie took it for a spin the day before we left for Shanghai.

And then… when we landed in Shanghai and came through our front door…. it was there.  Santa really had made it to both places!  There was a brand new bike waiting for her next to the Christmas tree in Shanghai too.

Maddie's New Bike in Shanghai

Maddie must have been a really, really good girl this year!

Grandma Barbara’s birthday was in November so the girls and I tried to record a birthday song…  I know this is a bit late and it’s raw footage but better late than never.  And it’s cute!  Listen below…

Maddie’s class visited our local migrant school in Shanghai.  Li Min students are from families of migrant workers and as Ms. Zhou points out again and again… they are not Shanghainese.  As a result, they really don’t get funding from the government.  So, SAS helps to take care of the kids from Li Min along with many other organizations.  SAS PTSA has purchased playground equipment for the kids, we have combined Sports Days where their kids come to SAS… it’s a very cool relationship.

Maddie’s classmates packed a bag of presents for each of Li Min kids and went to their school today to hand out the gifts, sing songs and be a part of their day.  It was really good for Maddie to go to their school just a short drive from her own little world.  She has a warm house, a warm school and lots of resources.  They had a cold school, cold house and few resources.  Smiles were still widespread though as Maddie and her classmates shared their holiday cheer.  Enjoy the video below… if you’re receiving this in an email, click on the post title above to watch!

Amelia like many two year olds can’t quite get the words together fast enough to say what it is that she wants to say… totally normal.  As a result, she gets frustrated and reacts… totally normal.  Unfortunately, her reaction is sometimes biting.  She knows she’s wrong but sometimes the steam just has gotta get out somehow!  Ms. Zhou found me at school the other day and told me that Amelia had bitten Eva on the arm after Eva tried to take Amelia’s food.  Sigh… I think she bit Eva so hard that Eva had teeth marks on her skin for a few days.  So…. Amelia decided to apologize.  Watch the video below…

Did you know that Eric Carle’s book The Very Hungry Caterpillar is 40 years old?  To help celebrate, Maddie’s school held a Family Literacy event.  It started early in the afternoon for parents while the kids were still in school.  Parents gathered and learned about Digital Literacy, learned about reading to their children… it was good.

The best part was when the kids joined us in the library.  All of the parents and kids sat around in deep bean bags reading books.  They had guest readers for break out groups… it was really fun! Maddie glowed when her dad was the guest reader and Amelia actually stood still while he read!