Disneyland

Susan and I got to Disneyland on Friday!. We had a great time riding the carrosel, the flying elephants, and the teacups. She got herself made into a princess at the Bibbity Bobbity Boutique. I have some good pictures, but will have to add them later because this computer has no way to add them. We had dinner with the others and watched the fireworks. It was fun. There were a lot of people because it was the beginning of a holiday weekend. I was surprised at the number of people arriving at Disney Downtown as we were leaving about 10:15.

Discovery Center video

Discovery Center

Susan and I went to the Discovery Center on Friday. There were so many things to do and see that we spent about 4 hours there. An owl landed in the front yard earlier this month, so Susan was interested in the raptor birds exhibit. There were all kinds and sizes and colors of owls. We found out what they eat, what their bones and pellets and feathers look like, the sounds they make.
After lunch we went into the hand-on exhibits. Susan really like the sand spinner, the big bubbles, and the ball wall. We made chutes with PVC pipe pieces and sent balls down them to see where they would go.

ball wall

bubble sheet

mirror wall

sand spinner

Another giraffe video

Giraffe video

Music

While we were in Abilene, we had a chance to make music in the evenings. Marlene played her guitar and the piano. She let us use her drums and tamborine. We had taken Susan's tamborine and guiro. She is very good at pattern repetition. That was fun. We sang some old songs and Susan's favorite from Island Princess, "It's Magic".
We are going to the grocery and swimming today. Tomorrow, I think we will go to the Discovery Center or Botanical Gardens and feed the ducks at Medi-Park Lake. Time is getting short for Susan to be with us.

Zoo

Here are a few other pictures I took at the zoo. The tiger was pacing back and forth, poor thing. The rhinos were snoozing in the heat. We envied the turtles and waterfowl their cool feet. There were monkeys, reptiles, and a nice shop.

Outside the zoo we found a playground for Susan while Garrett went for food. We ate under a big mesquite and watched the people and ducks. It was peaceful and hot. We went back to the house to cool off and nap.

Abilene

My brother Garrett and his wife Marlene with dogs Scruffy and Cassie recently bought a house in Abilene after living in a duplex for most of a year. We hadn't seen the house, and they hadn't met Susan, so she and I went to see them for the weekend. It is theoretically a 5 hour drive. That doesn't include stopping for things a 5-year old wants to see: sunflowers, prairie dogs, food, plus a quilt shop and gas and drinks for a sleepy driver.

The hit of the weekend was their dog Scruffy. Susan just loved this big gentle dog and wanted to see her every few minutes, take her on walks, feed both dogs treats. She has talked about

"Scruff" ever since and wanted to see him again. Yesterday she asked several times if we could go back.

We went to the Abilene Zoo Saturday. The day started with rain and turned out hot and humid. We all loved watching the giraffes eat some special crackers. Their tongues are amazing. It's a very nice small zoo.

More ducks

One night last night we went to feed the ducks, see the rabbits, and get ice cream again. The rabbits were out in full force at Dreamland, but pretty skittish. The ducks were glad to see us. We went to a different part of the park and fed them off of the fishing float. It was good because we were out in the water.

Camp is over

Susan and I have been swimming several times each week since camp ended. On Monday the 9th, she couldn't swim; by Monday the following week, she was swimming fairly well. I don't swim much myself, but I was able to teach her to swim on her back and to dog
paddle. The flow of the lazy river helps because it moves her along. She can swim about 30 feet now on her back. It's amazing.

We also have been to the playground at Conner Park, sometimes walking over with Brianna. It is about 4 blocks away. Both love to do that. The last time Brianna went with us, she had taken her shoes off and found some she liked better, someone's red sandals.

I tried to take some pictures that evening, but the camera batteries were dead. My friend Linda gave Susan a stuffed dog belonging to her granddaughter Macy. She has carried it and slept with it ever since. At first she called it the Chinese words for Small White, but now its name is Bella.

Ryan

Here is Ryan William Chen. He was born Tuesday, August 4, 2009. That is about all we know. We should be able to talk to Silvia and Neil later today or tomorrow.

Baby brother

Susan's brother Ryan was to be born Tuesday. We haven't heard from them yet, but they expect to be home from the hospital tomorrow, so we will get to see him tomorrow night. His name is Ryan Garrett Chen. We can hardly wait to see him. His quilt is quilted and just needs the binding.

The memory stick in my camera failed, so all the pictures of the students from Taiwan and the KinderMusik picnic are lost. I need to go and find a new one.

Susan is fixing her own hair. She makes elastic bands out of her bead string and makes a pony tail. She has some little frog clips to hold the short hair on the sides. She washes it and brushes it herself. She doesn't use the pink bands her mother brought from home.

When we went to the quilt shop hop a couple of weeks ago, Susan picked out a piece of rainbow fabric and wanted a "flying" skirt made of it. That means a circle or near-circle skirt that will fly when she spins. It is nearly finished. I had trouble figuring out a waistband but finally used wide bias and elastic. She can wear pink, green blue, yellow or orange shirts with it.

Dinner

The Taiwanese students in Garrett's class came for dinner Friday. I fixed a pork loin, peppers, and chocolate chip cookies that Susan baked for me. They brought several dishes: tofu salad, fruit, chicken and cucumbers, cabbage and pork, fried rice. We had a good time together. Kate will be leaving in a week. I took some pictures, but my memory stick seems to be corrupted, so I lost them.

I'm especially sad to loose the pictures taken at the KinderMusik picnic Thursday. The children had fun dancing and singing and playing with the sticks, maracas, and bells. Maybe someone will have some I can copy.

KinderMusik

Here are the pictures from the paper.

Picture of KinderMusik

I'll try again with my pictures.

Susan is playing the chimes with the teacher, Miss Celeste, and trying the xylophone.

Susan made the paper

Susan's KinderMusik class is in the Amarillo News today! One day while we were at the class, a photographer came to take pictures. You can see and hear what the class is like at this address: http://media.amarillo.com/photos/Kindermusik_Slideshow/index.html. You can see the article at http://www.amarillo.com/stories/080209/fea_fea1.shtml. For some reason, I cannot paste into this blog or I would put more than the pictures.

Camp Tatanka

Here are some pictures taken this week at Camp Tatanka. The campers do a variety of activities each week: swimming, stories at library, visits to museum, games, drawing and coloring, puppet shows, snow cones. Susan has a picture she colored with markers. She is playing frisbee with someone and swimming. The older girls really take a lot of time with her. I gave one the camera one day, and she took about 50 pictures.

Sand!

Thursday was Brianna's night to come. Garrett and Carl were not here for dinner, so it was just us girls. We had a great time. We made some necklaces with Susan's foam beads.

I had gotten ready by buying a bag of sand. It was raining, so we put the sand in the toy bucket and took it out on the front porch. The sand was damp and molded well. We packed it into cups and the pink bucket and made sand towers. Brianna loved squashing them. We must have played out there over an hour. Everyone and the porch were covered with sand. When the rain quit, we cleaned up, including our feet in the wet grass.

The girls took a bath and dumped water on each other's heads. That was good because it got the sand out. We read some books and drank milk to settle down. Settling was hard for both girls.

Susan is five

Yesterday was Susan's fifth birthday. There is a little bit of a problem with that because, in Taiwan, she was counted already as 5, and would move to 6. Here she is five, and she understands that there is a difference.

I got a cake from United since they had one with 3 of the princesses. She loved it. Carl was here at the house, but got a call just as we sat down to eat that he had to go to work. We did two other special things, new Legos and the movie Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs. We have had fun with the Legos. She thought the movie was scary. She doesn't understand about talking softly in a movie theater.

Sat. we went to the library for more books. We ate at our old favorite Celia's (been going there over 40 years), and Lluvia made a fuss over Susan. She had rice and boiled chicken. She said the guacamole was yucky.

Friday we went to see the prairie dog towns near here. We had read a book about them, so Susan was eager to see them. I was amazed at how many there were off of Hicks/Pondaseta Road. They can really run when they think there is danger.

Clay Warriors

I mentioned the Magic Tree House book. The last one we read was called The Day of the Dragon King. It was about a visit of the two children to the time of the Dragon King in China and to the tomb and clay warrior figures. We talked about how the statues were real. The next day we went on the Internet and looked at pictures. If you want to read more about the warriors, look at http://www.galenfrysinger.com/warriors_xian_china.htm. Here is a picture.

We had to try making clay soldiers with Susan's amazing clay. How did we do?

Rabbits

One of Susan's favorite places has always been Dreamland Cemetery. She loves to watch the critters that live there. No, not ghosts, rabbits! She talked Grandpa into driving out there last night not long before dark. We saw a lot of jack rabbits, sometimes as many as 4 together. One was about as big as a dog. They just peacefully nibbled or rested in the shade. When they were alarmed, they ran fast.

Fair and parade

Canyon always has a big do for July 4th, and this year was no exception. There is a fair on the square, a parade, fireworks and activities in the park near us. We did most of it.

The parade started in a different place, east of town at the sports center and came to the square, so it seemed a long time coming while we waited on the curb. It was VERY long. There were floats, color guards, old cars, horses, fire trucks, and many other things to see. Susan caught some bubble gum. I'll add pictures from the parade.

We walked around the square and got free stuff--note pads, pens, pencils, necklaces, a rain gauge, candy, bookmarks. We bought water because we were hot and thirsty, but we didn't stay to eat; there were too many people. The crowd was estimated at 30,000 for the day.

About 8 Susan and I walked to the park near the house. She jumped on those big bouncy blow-up activities. I don't know was to call them. There was a castle, a surf board, and a big room. She really wanted to climb the rock wall and come down on the rapelling rope, but she was too small, thank goodness. My friend Jane and her 11-year-old grandson Xander joined us for the fireworks. He had a marshmallow gun made of PVC pipe that shot tiny marshmallow. We got home about 10 p.m. It was a very nice day, but Susan thought we had to do too much waiting.