Shanna has been singing

Row, row, row your goat, gently down the stream.
Mary, Mary, Mary, Mary. Hum hum hum, spaghetti...

Brought a big smile to my face.

Then, tonight, Daddy sneezed downstairs and I happened to be lying right next to her in bed, so I clearly heard her say "Bletchew". I laughed and said "Bless you; as in God Bless You". She laughed and said "Bletchew!" and we went back and forth a bit, laughing at the silly sounding words! She's cute.

Look at Grandpa Tom

Today I got a cute surprise. Grandpa Tom rode over from his place to visit me!

Grandpa's New Bike. Go Grandpa!

Goodbye Grandpa! Come again!

We have been blessed with some very beautiful weather.

A nice day for a picnic.

Funny Conversations

Megan (to Shanna): So, are you busy today?
Shanna: Yep, how 'bout you?
Megan spreads arms wide
Shanna: Big?
Megan spreads arms wider
Shanna: Bigger!!??
Megan spreads arms even wider 
Shanna: So Big??? WOW! Lots of work! Busy everyday, every single day, too busy (big sigh)

Shanna (to Megan): Megan, my office near hospital. What's your office?
Megan: My office is near Wegman's
Shanna: I don't want to go to Wegman's. I go to hospital.

Mommy (to whoever is listening): Mary Alice had a big fly in her room last night.
Shanna: How 'bout me?
Mommy: You did not have a big fly in your room last night.
Shanna: Why?

Megan left her jacket on the bus (3rd day of school) and I found it in the bus garage "Lost and Fountain" as Shanna calls it.

While we were organizing the art table one day, Shanna asked to use the label maker to label the drawer with her colored pencils. She typed out "SHANNA'S PENCILS". I double checked her work and noticed that she inadvertently left out the "C" and the "L"...... :) Obviously, I fixed it before printing!

Shanna's language is growing everyday. I was telling her "Remember how you used to say "a neeny bit"? Now you say "A little bit"." She said "you mean when I was little?"  :)

Everyday, Megan gets off the bus with a note and a scrawled name and phone number of a new friend that she wants to have a play date with! There are some problems in the recording. 

It makes me smile. Every bit of it.

Just Catching Up

At the cemetery

the cousins

Friends I hadn't seen in a very long time, and love very much.

Iris's son and grandson

The girls loved playing with him!

Visiting Grandpa at his new place

Family Day at Grandpa's

Love that hair

Shanna wanted to be a pretty princess

Megan asked to be a monster!

The caterpillars have come and gone. We have one last butterfly still here. He seems to be unable to fly yet, so he may be a foster pet. This caterpillar is doing a "Happy Dance".

This shows all of the many stages; The dark chrysalis is about to hatch. The lime green is just turning from caterpillar to chrysalis. The pale green have been hanging between 1-10 days. The caterpillar hanging upside down is forming his J. and the 3 other caterpillars are getting ready to J. The white/clear things are chrysalis' that have already hatched. An amazing amount of stages in about a 6"x7' space.

For some reason two chrysalis' fell off their hooks. Matthew is helping this one to be born! His chrysalis was on he bottom of the cage, so he needed some help cracking open the shell because he did not have the help of gravity pulling him out upside down.

This one did not want to leave Mary Alice. What a pretty hair clip.

Summer school fun- classroom teacher

Student Teacher

English Second Language Teacher

Classroom Assistant

English Second Language Assistant

Our wonderful Nanny!

Dropping Mary Alice off at camp!

Our friends, adopting Lorelei AnXiang from Shantou. She was a very dear friend of Shanna's. We keep in touch through Skype, although right now in the transition, Shanna can't speak Chinese and Lorelei's English is just starting, so there is a lot of giggling and "showing" precious belongings.

Here are some videos we made and sent to Lorelei AnXiang just before she came home from China with her parents: Shanna is "introducing" us to her.

She is a joyful child.

I know Misty. It's busy.

and last but certainly, not least, a slide show of Marion's life.

First Days of School

Yummy! Made by Mary Alice

Getting back to routines, after such a tough summer. Although it's been more than a month, my heart is still raw. It was especially hard (for me) with the kids going back to school. Something Marion was always a part of, checking in to see how the first days went. Well, Marion, they went fine. There were joys and sorrows, things to be excited about and things to worry about, but all in all, everyone got where they needed to go and throughout the week, adjusted to the routine. Now it's the weekend and we will all gather together again to compare notes, do homework and play.

My girls.

How did she get so old?! 8th grade!

How did he? 11th grade!

The bus stop crowd. Boy those packs were heavy on the first day.