Mary Clare Goes To The Fair

Mary Clare's class went to the county fair today. We pass the fair grounds every morning and Mary Clare has been squealing with anticipation as each ride and exhibit went up. It rained most of the morning and I was afraid the trip would be cancelled but her teachers braved the rain and were rewarded with the sun coming out shortly after arriving. Nana Pearl came and filled in for me so that I could go with her class and I was so glad I didn't miss it. Just her reaction to her first school bus ride was priceless. She was bouncing in the seat shrieking, "This is fun! This is so much fun!"
Margaret Rose made an interesting observation about these bees - can you guess? I'll save her description for Thursday when Lee brings her down and we all go to the fair together.

Mary Clare's teacher asked her if she wanted to carry the bag of cotton candy that she'd gotten for the class. I advised against it. You can see how much Mary Clare LOVES cotton candy.
Covered in chocolate literally head to toe on the way home from school
Miss Kitty- PoPo made her a cat costume just because and she loves it!
"Kitty's nap on top of the couch. you know." She's a method actor. And apparently she's so convincing that she can even fool the neighbor dog. Rudi freaked out when she went to say "meow" to Miss Etta.
She had a costume malfunction and needed a tail adjustment.

Haircuts

Hey! The girls actually have eyebrows- I'd forgotten. Pa & Grandma took them to Miss Debbie's on Saturday morning for haircuts. I think they both look very nice! Then they donned their rainboots and spent a soggy day at Tweetsie Railroad. Mary Clare has missed her train friend and Margaret Rose was keen to get another look at those can-can girls so she can make sure her Halloween costume is just right. (Don't tell her that we're taking the easy way out and have purchased can-can like dresses from of all places Wally World. They are really High School Musical dresses but one is blue and one is red as requested by our saloon girls. PoPo is making the fancy underwear and feathered head gear.) From the sounds of things the girls had a fabulous time and Pa & Grandma deserve an award (and a long rest) for sloshing around with our Huazhou wonders all day.

The Joy of Cooking

Mary Clare adores her Nana Pearl and was determined to help with the cake we were making for her dinner party. Obviously cooking is just way too much fun!

Once Upon A Time

After dinner tonight the girls disappeared into their room. After awhile things got quiet and I went in to check on them as silence is often a sure sign of impending disaster. Instead of their usual wild girls antics, I found them "reading" Goldilocks and the 3 Bears and Cinderella. They were the 2 books from last nights bedtime stories and the girls were really doing a good job retelling the story to each other. Margaret Rose remembered lots of details and lots of the wording from the stories. The Cinderella is the classic story that involves the fairy godmother turning a rat into a coachman and lizards into footmen. I got the video camera and recorded a bit but had to leave before they were finished with Cinderella. Of course the camera was off for the funniest line of the evening. As I walked out the room I heard Mary Clare "read" - "and then the fairy godmudder said go git you some iguanas." I bet iguanas would make some really fancy footmen!

The girls finished the evening with a scrub in the tub. Bathing suits were for some reason required.

BFsF at the Zoo

I See The Moon

Okay, so we really probably need to learn a Chinese song for Mid-Autumn festival but this year Mary Clare's old favorite worked nicely once again. We started our celebration with dinner from the Teapot. Then we went out to light our lanterns and stroll down the street singing "I See The Moon" much to the amusement of our neighbors. One of them greeted the girls with "Oh! Is it Moon Festival already?" We met her in the same spot last year and I guess you don't forget 2 little sweeties in Chinese clothes singing to the moon. We finished up the evening by reading Round Is A Mooncake and then Margaret Rose and Baba enjoyed eating the mooncakes. Mary Clare and I just like the idea of the mooncake and the festive box they come in :-) The girls keep their crayons in the mooncake tin from 2 years ago.

This was our 4th time observing Mid-Autumn festival. The first time was in Guangzhou in 2005. Then we took baby Mary Clare out to the park next to the White Swan and celebrated with the locals and our travel group. Our wonderful guide XiXi gave each family a lantern to light in the park that night. We still have ours in Mary Clare's memory box.