Anya’s first grade class had their end-of-year “Culture Feast” event tonight. The first graders opened with some songs, followed by tables of potluck food representing each kid’s family background. Bree happily clapped along during the songs. Once dinner began, all the kids scarfed down their food and proceeded to run amok.
Last Mandarin lesson of the school year for Jan and the older girls. Anya and Liya are winding down their school year, so we figured we’d take a summer break from studying Mandarin with tutor Wendy. Jan’s ready for a break too. He’s also saddened by the certain knowledge that, when school picks up again in the fall, we’ll realize we’ve lost 80% of whatever Mandarin we had learned.
Last day of school. Actually, yesterday was the last day of actual education–today was mostly a half-day party. Anya and Liya both had fun at school, followed by a pool party in the afternoon. When Jan got home, Liya’s eyes were half closed from exhaustion, but she and Anya still wanted to go outside and jump around on the neighbor’s trampoline. No problems falling asleep at night, though!
Anya and Liya had their own activities today, so Jan and Bree headed to the Woodland Park Zoo. It was a perfect zoo day—sunny, but not hot—so plenty of animals were out. We saw one giraffe up close: he stuck his neck over a fence to get to some nearby bushes, but they all seemed to be about 8” away from his mouth. This gap was explained when the giraffe suddenly stuck out his 8” long tongue, which which he could just barely grab on to a few leaves. We walked on to see a number of other animals. When leaving each area, Bree would generally say “Bye-bye!” and wave at them.
Bree’s favorite animals by far were the penguins and the flamingos. In both cases she was quite insistent that we stay for a while. When picked up, she would writhe and cry, “Down! Down!”. She particularly liked watching the penguins swim in the new pool the zoo recently built for them. Bree also got to experience another recent zoo addition: the restored old-time carousel.
At Anya’s last Sunday School class of the school year, they played a quiz game. One of the questions was: “What were the three gifts of the magi?” Anya later told us she had known the correct answer: gold, Frankenstein, and myrrh.
We joked with her that one of the wise men had probably yelled at his assistant: “I said FRANKINCENSE, you fool!” Anya thought this was hilarious.
Anya and her best friend Jane spent a good portion of the past year inventing a language of their own called, appropriately enough, “Anya-Jane Language”. Jan asked her to write down some of the words and their English meanings for posterity. Here’s a sample dictionary:
Anya-Jane Language
Bazooka: bug
Einy: there
Fishala: Mississippi
Hushala: dress
Janya: Jane
Logo: language
Luga: Hello
Meddy: Anya
Monga: trees
Tewo: hotel
(blow once): wind
(blow twice): windy
Liya and Anya can both ride their bikes now. Liya actually got the hang of it last year, and has been improving this spring. Anya fell of her bike at one point last year after we took the training wheels off, and since then has been reluctant to really try again.
As it turns out, Anya breakthrough came when she and Liya were at their grandmother’s place for a sleep-over. Grandma had obtained a bike that’s a good size for Anya, and Anya took it out for a spin. She said she was biking along and doing great before she realized that it didn’t have training wheels.
Angela & Jan were reminiscing about their childhood Father’s Day and Mother’s Day moments. Angela talked about how, every Mother’s Day at her church, everyone got a red or white corsage. One Mother’s Day, Angela picked out the white corsage, because she liked the color better. Her mother was horrified–the colors had significance. Red meant your mother was alive. White: dead.
Father’s Day. Jan spent the morning with Bree, and in the afternoon both of them took a nap. Anya and Jan went for a bike ride around the neighborhood: north to the secret dock, then all the way south to the secret beach. Dinner at Boom Noodle, followed by ice cream at Maggie Moon’s.
We’re in our twelfth year of marriage and we still meet weekly to discuss and plan our lives together. Angela says, “By George, I think it’s working!”
Anya and Liya were flower girls for the wedding of our friends Angela and Jason. Angela’s known the girls for a long time, and used to babysit for them, so it was wonderful that they could be included in her wedding. The girls took their responsibility seriously, to the extent of making paper flower petals they could practice tossing from a basket at home. As members of the wedding party, they attended the rehearsal the day before the big day.
The wedding day was a perfect sunny Sunday, and the ceremony was held in Magnolia Park looking out over the Sound. The girls queued up just before the bride for the processional. When their moment came, they did a perfect job walking down the aisle spreading flower petals. Sabriya, for her part, squirmed a great deal in her seat.
The reception dinner was fun for all three girls. Bree was so excited by the music playing for the newlyweds’ first dance that she ran out onto the dance floor to dance with the new couple! Bree had to go home early to get to bed, but her older sisters stayed for dessert and dancing. They enjoyed the dancing so much that they’re busily trying to figure out who else might get married and invite them to the wedding reception.