Happy Birthday Dash and Callie!

Happy Birthday Dash! The Big 5! March 24th, 2014.

Right after Dash, Thomas and Charlie got home from preschool on Monday, the 24th, we went to Subway for dinner and then to the playground to play. It's so nice to be outside right now! 

Dash is looking taller and and growing up. He's really really sweet. He loves lego guys, lego guys and lego guys. Or whatever Brock and Callie like! He's an awesome dancer. Runs in the family. (They all think they're pretty awesome at dancing.) And he loves to race. But just recently he's started to be torn up about losing. He no longer has Chael as his only competition. The other day he started whinging when he saw that Thomas was about to pass him or get a little ahead of him. There were tears. And a race or two later he even got "physical" about it which he was put in time out for! I'm glad that this sweet boy has some drive. However, he will be a great sportsman because we will not settle for anything less. Lucky kid! 

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle style. 

I filled the cupcakes to high and they sort of looked like cookies on a cupcake. But they tasted great! I added lemon zest, chocolate chips and sprinkles to the cake batter. I even added lemon zest to the frosting. These lego turtles were 75 cents each on taobao. LOVE taobao. 

Charma, Brian, Callie, Prisha, Dash, Chael, Charlie, Brock and Thomas.

When Dash goes to preschool, a local Chinese preschool in our complex, he asks me to give him a certain number of hugs before I leave when I drop him off. We're on 11 now. He asked me, "Mom? What's the number after 10? Can I have 11 hugs today?" He would much rather stay home. And even though he doesn't want to go or be there he still does it and doesn't throw a fit. He's sad when I leave though. But I think he comes around quickly. It's hard for him but we're keeping at it. In our family we teach, "We can do hard things."

Dash's present. A Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle costume!

He reminds me of my brother Rick who was on the small side growing up but was really fast, lean, coordinated and strong. He turned into a buff dude at some point in high school and a really good surfer and water polo player. Rick is now the fastest and fittest dude in his platoon-- as well as the oldest at 38 while most of the other guys are really young. I think Dash will be scrappy and an amazing athlete too. He's also been enjoying learning how to read. He likes to learn and catches on quickly. We've been spending a little time on it and he enjoys working online with learning websites and reading BOB books. He's a really good little dude and we are so lucky to have him in our family. 

Back: Sarah, Mia, Brian, Shauna, Steven, Thijn, Theodore, Anushka, Ayush, Eliza, Naina. Middle: Lakshay, Bany, Anna, Yuxing, Max, Callie, Brock, Sienna. Front: Ronan, Charlie, Thomas, Sammy, Snehal, Anvi, Lucas and Chael. 

Happy Birthday Callie! The big two digits. 10! She can now get her ears pierced. Woowoo! We'll do it this summer. Callie's birthday happened to fall on a half day and the last day of school before their Spring break started. It's a long break this year. So we decided to have "Build-Your-Own Pizzas" for lunch and then go the Children's Park to play. We never made it to the park though. When sending out the email to invite her friends I couldn't leave anyone out and ended up inviting her entire class (18 students) plus a couple of others from the other 4th grade class. And I welcomed siblings to come to. Woops! Some of the children were in the basement making bracelets when we took the above picture. I think Mia, Riva, Mees and Aryan are missing. But there were literally 30 children in attendance, including our own. They were really great and everyone had a good time. I don't think Brian will let me do that again though. haha!

Snehal, Ayush, Mees and Brock building their pizza. 

I bought eight pizza crusts from Andy at Splash and put out the toppings. They got into groups and made their pizzas! Brock later said, "Pizzas are so easy to make." He's a pro now. No secrets to making yummy pizza! 

Aryan, Theodore and Callie made a beautiful pizza that was about to go in the oven.

White Texas Sheet Cake with lemon zest. Callie specifically asked for lemon zest in her cake. She also wanted a zebra on it but that didn't happen. She said she's into zebras now. I guess her love for monkeys is fazing out. I did however manage to put a skateboarder gal on it though! 

Wow! The gifts everyone gave were just so awesome and so thoughtful. Vans shoes, a transparent orange backpack, school supplies, Monopoly, soccer ball, USA soccer jersey with her name on it, Uniqlo t-shirts, Ralph Lauren polo shirt and jacket, light up t-shirt, squid kite, jewelry box, fruit snacks, fun games, pottery workshop... 

Meese and Thijn got her a USA world cup soccer jersey and shorts with her name on it! And the #10. SO COOL!!! These boys are super awesome soccer players. Love them. I don't know what Brock and Dash are doing down there. But they get into it. 

Pinata! I made the cardboard-box easy version and it turned out just fine. I'll post a simple tutorial if interested. It's so much faster then papermache!  

Pinatas are of course a very Mexican custom but also a common thing to do in the USA at birthday parties. You can imagine such a custom with an international crowd like Callie has here at her birthday party. Her peers here are mainly from India, Ireland/Indonesia, Holland, China, Taiwan, and even Iraq. She has one classmate from the States. This was definitely a new experience and a first time for many of these children. And even a couple of my friends who stuck around to help out! It was so funny. There were 30 children lined up to take a swing. Neighbors from around our complex were watching the spectacle as well. Each child got to hit it one time and amazingly, it lasted just long enough for each one to have a go. We decided they had to wait until all the candy fell before they could make a run for it. It was completely crazy when they were given the green light. 

Pinata line up. This was a lot of fun and so intense. We were quite the site for our neighbors in the complex. 

I am so proud of Callie. We recently had student-lead parent/teacher conferences. Her teacher said that she has really progressed in writing and is most improved by far. She also said that she's ALWAYS reading. When Callie first started going to H.I.S. in second grade she was very behind in writing and reading and largely because she went to a local Chinese school for first grade. She had a Chinese tutor for almost 2 hours every day after school just to help her with her homework. We didn't do any work on English. And reading wasn't very easy for her to learn. For Callie, she has put the work in to be where she is. Time on task. It's just really cool to see that her hard work does have positive results. I am thrilled that she, who struggled with reading for a while, LOVES to read. What a great example of hard work paying off. 

On Sunday coming back from Shanghai, Joel left his iPhone in a black taxi! We got home just 10 minutes after they did. He and Brian used an app to locate the lost phone and went in search for this driver and the phone. Quite the adventure! And they were successful. That night when Callie said the prayer, she thanked Heavenly Father for helping Daddy and Joel find Joel's phone. I was so touched that she thought to thank God for his tender mercies. I mentioned her example in FHE the next night and the importance to give thanks for our answered prayers. It was a nice reminder to me. 

Callie is the captain in skateboarding and is a natural leader who takes time to teach and help her peers. Her coach, Jerry, has told me that he's really impressed with her leadership skills and appreciates her way of helping and teaching, her attitude and example. Her soccer coach said she does so well because she's a great big sister! She wrote a really great essay about how having brothers is interesting. It was funny but also showed her great love for her brothers and the pride she takes in having three little brothers. She said that having brothers has taught her to learn how to make them laugh and distract them from crying or doing something they weren't suppose to be doing. She said this has helped her make lots of friends at school. She's a peace maker and is well liked. She has friends who fight over sitting by her at lunch! But mostly, people gravitate to her cheerful nature and light. My friend Yuhai was telling me that she was teaching her sons, Thijn and Meese, Dutch one day and was trying to teach the word cheerful. And Meese who was trying to understand this word said, "oh! Like Callie." She is cheerful. 

At her birthday party we went to the school to play for the last 30 minutes before parents picked their children up at 5pm. Callie was on the field with the boys playing soccer and Brian was referee. He loved it! While Callie was playing soccer with the boys all the other gals where happily playing on the playground doing their thing. She cracks me up. Some of her friends seem somewhat boy crazy already! But Callie is too cool for that. She tells her girlfriends, "My dad said I can't have a boyfriend until after he's dead so..." Callie's friend Sienna spent the night and I was asking them about who liked who and asked her who she liked. She said, "I use to like someone, So and So, but now I don't like anyone anymore. I want to be cool like Callie." 

She thanked me again today for her birthday party. She told me she couldn't believe all the gifts she received and didn't know which one she liked best. She's a doll. We've managed to keep this cute girl alive and well for the last decade. She has grown out of all her jeans and school pants and is wearing MY friends pants. Kristy gave her a pair of navy pants, size 2! And Susan Poon gave her a bunch of pants and jeans she didn't want anymore. Size 2! My friends are super skinny and my 10-year old is getting super big. She also wears a  women's 7.5 in shoes. Crazy!