Happy Chinese New Year!

I took the kids to the local Asian market for their celebration.  They had a kung fu demonstration and the lion dances.

 

 

 

Then they brought out the dragon.  The whole thing ended with a huge string of firecrackers going off.

 



 

 

 

Not much to see, but very loud and noisy.

 

Logan took Red envelopes to school for his classmates.

 

I ordered these for the kids.  Luckily, they still had last year's left so Logan got the snake for this year and Sophie got the dragon with the traditional Chinese dress.

 

 

Spelling Test Success

Logan has been struggling with his sight words.  They started doing spelling tests 3 weeks ago and he's had absolutely no success with them...until today.  Today he got 4 out of 5 words correct.  I would have been happy with 3 because he has such test anxiety but I was over the moon with 4 (the 4 we worked on this week).  I told him we could go do whatever he wanted then gave him some ideas (chuck e. cheese, movies, bounce place).  He chose the bounce place so as soon as we got home from school we loaded up and headed to the mall.  They had so much fun (although after the stock show earlier Sophie was getting tired).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sophie at the Stock Show

I decided to stop feeling guilty about doing stuff with Sophie while Logan was at school.  I'm just making sure he also gets time with me too.  Today, we headed to Fort Worth for the stock show.  We walked through the stalls looking at cows, pigs, and the children's barnyard.  Then we had some lunch while we watched a cow milking demonstration.  Then we found the petting zoo.

 

This was the smallest goat in the area and of course Sophie was all over it.  I finally convinced her to just sit down and let it come to her.  It climbed onto her lap and fell asleep.  Aww!

 

Afterwards, we headed to the carnival.  Sophie got to ride some rides and even played a game and won a prize.  On the first ride, she said, "I wish Logan could see this."  She was the only one on most the rides and we had no wait times at all.  There was one of them that she thought was too fast, and since she was the only one the operator just stopped it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had a little bit of time before we had to pick up Logan so we went to the science museum to play in the children's area.  We both had a lot of fun.

Kids Chores

I've been trying to have the kids help me out around the house more, but finding chores that they can do is challenging.  Logan started out helping Daddy empty the dishwasher.  It didn't take long for him to be able to do it by himself.  Of course, Sophie wants to do what Logan does...so now she helps too.

 

 

 

Other chores the kids do on a weekly basis:

• putting away their clothes
• empty the waste baskets
• take out recycling
• bring in recycling bin
• clean dishwasher door
• clean oven door
• feed the pets
• dusting the baseboards
• cleaning doorknobs
• cleaning light switches

Sophie Tot School January

Sophie likes to do "homework" while Logan is doing his.  So I've started keeping some of her tot school stuff set aside for those times.  In addition to the letter worksheets, I also use some workbooks I found for cutting, tracing, folding, and pasting.  I also try to find other activities that coorespond to the theme.  And we've been adding some new signs.

Collage Art

 

Sophie loves water play.

 

We used her snack with the counting mat.

Finding the matching birds.

Swinging Siblings

I've had people ask me about how Logan and Sophie get along, with the assumption being that they might act different than other siblings since one is adopted, or because they came into the family out of birth order.

As far as I can tell they act like any other brother and sister...they fight, they play, and they, well,  everything in-between. They speak for each other and Logan can be very protective of his sister especially with new people.  Sophie has started asking for "Brother" when she's upset.

 

Someone even asked if I felt guilty for Sophie bringing home an older child.  My answer to that is a resounding, "No!"  I brought Sophie a playmate for Christmas that year.  From day 1 they have been playing and running and giggling together.  And not once did she hear "Don't touch the baby" or "Not now, I have to feed/burp/change the baby".

 



They don't always get along but this is how I choose to remember them...helping each other and having fun!

Indoor Safari Park

Logan had another day off from school for a teacher development day so I took them to an indoor play area.  The kids had a great time. I did think  the place was a little pricey but I had a groupon so it was okay.  As part of our pass, the kids got a train ride and an animal ride.