Four Random Things

One. While we are anxiously awaiting for Nonni to arrive in Chengdu (mid-July), we are heading out on our summer vacation now - we are so excited to be taking the girls to Europe!! Actually, we are pretty pumped too, we have never been to Europe together! We have about 10 days that we are splitting between Paris and London and yes, of course, we are sneaking in some time at Disney Paris!! We normally plan our vacations in great detail, but we have been so busy, that we just haven't had a chance - we are hoping this allows for a lot of serendipitous adventures ;).

Two.  We have been having so much fun with friends!  If you remember at the beginning of the year, I set a goal that I would invite one family over to our house at least once a month - well, not only have we done that, but it has paid off dividends for our happiness and well being. We have built a solid network of friends that we enjoy seeing on the weekends and keeping up with through the week. The first year was incredibly difficult for us and I believe building friendships is one of the reasons that year two was so much better! All of this to say, putting in the time and work to build friendships has been incredibly important to my happiness.

Three. Our local Starbucks has been advertising their new affogato for weeks and I finally got a chance to try it one afternoon that I worked from home - yum, it was delicious.

Four. It was show week at the girls gymnastics class - this basically means that the parents got to go in and watch the kids show us what they have been working on. The icing on the cake for the girls - they each got medals. You would have thought they won the olympics, they were so stinking proud.

School's Out!!

Today, is the last day of school for the girls! We officially have a first grader and a kindergartener and we could not be more proud of these two. They both had such a great year :) and we are so proud of them for adapting to life in China so well (it is not lost on us how challenging this must be for them).

I took these pictures a few days before the last day (I was home one morning so we could take a cake to Everly's class to celebrate her birthday!) and looking back to the first day, I just cannot believe how big they are!  

This girl came out of her shell this year. She is smart, kind, funny and will put a smile on your face. She adores when Emma calls her sissy. Her favorite part of school is the crafts. And she loves playing with friends.  She is not easily embarrassed and still beats to her own drum.  We are excited for her to go to Kindergarten!

First day of school :). 

My whole little world.

We remembered that Emma held Everly for the first day of school pictures so we had to re-create that :).

Perfect for each other.

And first day :).

Emma had the best kindergarten year. She made several, new, best friends, learned to read, loved going to real art class and adored both of her teachers. She gave Everly a big smooch every morning when they parted ways getting off the bus. She loves to play pretend with her friends - they play doctor, school, wild cats and their favorite mom and baby :). We cannot wait to see what first grade holds for her!!

First day of school :).

I love these two pictures - so big, yet still so little.

Now, I just have to figure out a way to slow down time - these two are growing up way too fast!

First Haircut

I honestly cannot believe that this milestone took nearly six years to get to, but alas, the girls finally got their first real haircut!! We have given them a few trims at home, but other than that we have done next to nothing. Emma sees herself as Rapunzel so it was hard to convince them/her getting a haircut is a good thing (this stage lasted for the last two years!)! Well, after seeing Ev's best friend get her hair cut and being promised a toy (I know, I know...) we were finally off to get their hair cut!

Before - you can see just how wild and crazy and scraggly it was getting.

It was touch and go for a minute and the only way we could get Ev's to lay down was to let her watch a video on Wes's phone (I know, again, please try to refrain rolling your eyes at me - getting your hair cut was seen as torture to my little girls even though I always rave about the experience).

Cute, nervous smile!

The first chop!!

Emma got her hair washed with Wes (no pictures) and came out to the chair a bit nervous. And a bit angry looking ;).

The after!! A huge rainstorm blew in while we were there so we had to settle for pictures inside.  They ended up loving the experience, Emma kept saying how soft her hair was and how good it smelled :). We will definitely be doing this again!!

Toooooo cute!! I am currently obsessed with their summertime haircuts!

Sydney, Day Three

Day three in Sydney is quite possibly one of the top three days of our trip - it was the day we had planned to do the Bondi to Coogee coastal walk! I had done a lot of research on Australia before we left and I had read that you should plan 3- 3.5 hours for this walk... knowing us and that we would want to let the girls play in some of the beaches along the way coupled with the fact that we don't move that fast - we allowed all day on our itinerary. We got started after breakfast and finished at about 5pm; all of that said, if you have toddlers/small kids in tow - I would allow all day! The walk is a little over 6 kilometers. We weren't sure how the girls would do, but there was a halfway point where we could always call an uber if we needed an out. Turns out, they moved s.l.o.w. but we made it! and had the best time!!

We fueled up with breakfast at Trio.

Our breakfast view (seriously, we sat right on the porch and had the best view of Bondi beach!). Seeing Bondi for the first time was a bit surreal.

After breakfast, we made it down to the beach and let the girls play for a bit. After about 15 minutes, a guy came up to us and told us the waves were super dangerous so at that point, we started the walk :).

The baths (what the pool alongside the ocean is referred to) were my favorite part - I loved the contrast. 

Turns out our first attempt at getting on the coastal walk trail was a dead end ;).

Bondi was fairly quiet on a Monday morning.

Once we started climbing, we got a better view of the bath - we opted not to stop and to go ahead and start the walk (now I kind of wished that we had taken a dip).

No matter which direction you turned, the views were stunning.

Second beach along the walk - we opted not to stop here, instead making our way towards Bronte beach.

Bronte beach!! In case you are wondering, it is a lot of up and down - I read that it was suitable for toddlers, and really it was, but if you are an expecting an easy breezy six kilometer walk - this is not it.

We nearly lost Kanga - mommy to the rescue :).

I don't know what I was thinking not bringing my swimsuit - next time I definitely would have brought it, but it didn't stop me from getting in the water with the girls!

We took a dip in the Bronte baths.

Just a girl and her Kanga (p.s. I love Kanga's shadow).

We stopped at the next beach for a snack, a dip in the water and some crab hunting.

At this point, we were getting tired and I didn't get a picture of the 5th beach (I remember that it was the least impressive). However, we were pretty excited when we rounded the corner and saw Coogee Beach!

We played there for about half an hour to an hour before the sun started to set.

As the sun set, we grabbed some dinner before catching an uber back to our hotel- exhausted, but completely overwhelmed by the sheer beauty of the Australian coastline.

What a fantastic day :). Back at the hotel room, we packed up - ready to head out on our road trip the following day!