Home Again

It's nice to be home again -- We returned to a backyard filled with leaves. But today (Sunday) was warmer than yesterday so Emma spent some time outdoors in the sandbox. I like how the first picture, she is just surrounded by leaves everywhere.


Here is Alexa singing and playing her heart out. She and Emma were pretending to go to the airport right before this -- that is why her coat is on!

Bedtime Stories with Puo Puo

Alexa and my mom read bedtime stories together. I was able to find some Dora books translated into Chinese when I was in China, so they read this together.

Thanksgiving Dinner and Karaoke

We had a lots of friends and family over for Thanksgiving Dinner -- 14 of us in all. After the meal, my dad broke out the Karaoke machine that he bought during his last trip to China. Before we knew it, the old folks were belting out "Chinese hits" -- they did this for a good 2 hours!

The lady in plaid is my mom's childhood best friend. They have been friends for almost 50 years! She came from Germany to visit my mom.

After each song was over, Alexa always clapped for the singer. She really enjoyed the "show."

Emma didn't say much, but she was really focused on watching the adults singing to the television.

Thanksgiving in Chappaqua - Gedney Park

We went home to visit my parents in Chappaqua for Thanksgiving -- Thanksgiving morning was unusually warm in NY, so we went to Gedney Park (the park I went to when I was growing up). Here are the girls climbing and getting muddy at the park:


The first picture is me dancing around for Emma, and the second one is her showing off her moves:

Emma and Alexa's new Treehouse

Arturo took off the days before Thanksgiving to work on the girls' new playhouse in the back. It is so cool -- two stories, with a slide and lots of climbing for the girls. We moved our extra play kitchen into the "ground floor."

Rishi's Party

The girls are still taking advantage of mom being away and having lots of candy leftover from parties and Halloween. So here they get to enjoy a treat watching cartoons.



On sunday we continued to hit the party circuit by ourselves, this time we went to Rishi's party.

It all started nicely doing some crafts, this one was a rocket ship.


A little too complex for Alexa who decided to do her own version and not follow the pattern already established.



This is the point of the party when I stopped taking pictures. Alexa decided to close down the place again!! Kids came and went, did crafts, ate snacks, and played with their crafts while Alexa kept eating. We were left alone while all the kids went out to play. We pretty much missed the rest of the acitvities until it was cake time so she was happy to eat again!

Hannah's Birthday Party

Now that Mom is away enjoying Chinese food directly from the source, we decided to venture into the social scene by ourselves. So we hit Hannah's party and we had lots of fun.

The girls did crafts...


Jumped in the moonbounce, although it was too crowded for Alexa, she decided to watch as it was hard to compete for a piece of real estate.


Emma really, really, loved the scooter. She was going so fast on that thing!!!
Hint for Santa... I guess.


Later on Luis decided to organize a game "help me clean the Fall debris in my backyard"; The objective of the game was to move piles of leaves back and forth to see which team (2 teams total) could do it faster... Strangely enough all the kids loved it.


Piñata Time!!

Emma had no reservations smacking the guts of the piñata... In one or two more parties, she may be able to cause some serious damage.


Alexa simply decided to show her more gentle side.