Elie's 5th Birthday

For Elie's 5th birthday, we had a My Little Pony party downstairs at the pool. She decorated the cake herself with her favorite ponies, and said it was her favorite party so far!

The Lantern Festival

The Moon-Cake Lantern Festival in September is a celebration of prosperity and togetherness, at a time when the moon is at its fullest and brightest. During the Festival, we marched in the annual Lantern Parade! Hundreds of people gathered in an open field just outside of Chinatown. It was a magical feeling – a dark night, but everyone’s lantern illuminating their face. A giant dancing dragon (5 men underneath) led the parade, and all of the kids marched right behind it. There were stilt walkers, fireworks and all sorts of performers.



The following night the American Club had a party and we sampled the Mooncakes. They look like a round petit four, but they aren’t sweet. There were games and music, and Nathan volunteered for the Hula Hoop competition.

Eli's Purple Cast

Dancing to Hannah Montana in the playroom with Nathan, Elie fell down backwards and fractured her arm just above the elbow. We loaded her in a bundle of blankets into the cab and whisked her off to A&E (Accident & Emergency). The doctors were kind and took her X-rays while she sniffled, and around midnight she finally left with a brand new purple cast. Three weeks without swimming. What in the world would we do? Her teacher reported that her popularity grew.
Attached are pictures of Dr. Kok-Poh taking off the cast. He was incredible, brilliantly convincing her to let him run that huge saw up and down her arm, creating a cloud of fiberglass dust all over the two of them.

A New School

Just weeks before the fall term, I got a call from the Overseas Family School – Elie and Nathan had gotten in. We put them on the wait list way back in January, and I promptly forgot, assuming there would never be spots available. But there are . . . Elie and Nathan are now at a big international school. Now they wear uniforms. Now they ride in the tour sized bus to school instead of the mini-van. They want to go down the elevator and wait for the bus alone. I drop them off for playdates and don’t need to stay. Nathan even pees standing up. There are no babies in our family anymore. Everything feels just a little bit different. Time waits for no one – not even the reluctant mother.