He put me in the bucket!

Here is Vibram Cowboy Josh on his trip with about 20 other guys to Tiger Leaping Gorge.

I can just smell the fresh air.

They were gone for four days and had a blast even though they missed their wives and kids :).

There wasn't much wild life, but the mountains and water were amazing.

Near the spot the Tiger was said to have lept over the gorge.

This is where Josh received acupuncture on his hamstring before he left making it less painful to hike for 9 hours :).

And back at the ranch...

Last time Jing jing came over we made "Rainbow Cities..."

while Viv & Dassah caught up on their reading.

I was glad to have the camera with me on this particular date night. It was a delight to see the moving clouds roll by as the light breeze gently blew while we ate a cinnamon apple crepe.

a view of the old and new from where we were standing

I read about a technique to teach your child to spell his/her name before turning 3. Even though that's not my goal (or Hadassah's), I thought this activity looked like fun.

D & V both had a great time jumping on the letters as they said them. The only problem is that you're supposed to do this activity like three times a day everyday for a long time. One day was enough for us :).

Here's Caedmon in his friend's combat jeep being maneuvered by grandma!

CHALK!! One of Hadassah's favorite pass-times.

"cooking" being another

This was seriously Caedmon's sleeping position for an entire night; he didn't budge!

The Sunday Coloring Page

Here's for the title of this post. During a family night, prompted by a Family Life book, I asked everyone to put their most valuable possession in this bucket. Before I knew it, my prince charming swept me off my feet and put me in! Ha ha! What a stud.

The kids and I took about a 2 mile walk downtown and were rewarded with ice-cream and a stop at the track at dad's school.

I guess these English teachers have every Monday off and come to play soccer.

But today, getting pictures with the little, white foreigners was higher on the agenda.

Here is our count down until we leave for America- 39 days from today!

So all the kids were drawing while I walked Vivi down the long step and back. When I was on the far end I heard such a commotion I thought there might be a spider or rat or something. Upon our arrival we discovered Hadassah learned how to write an "H" and a "D" to Lily & Caedmon's absolute delight! They were shouting with joy about it. So sweet.

Hmm... DAD! what do we do with an old blue accordion tube? How about make people! Caedmon's of course is named "Uncle Phil."

Lil got her turn, now it's Cade's!

Nate's mom and I decided it was about time for Nate & Cade (Best Buddies) to get their hair cut but we didn't feel like taking the time and making the mess to do it ourselves. The solution: the barber across the road!

The boys had less complaints for these guys than they would have had for us!

It did take a while, but it was worth it.

All ready to go and play again!