Halloween Party at "Old Carmella's School"

Tonight (10/26/07) we went to a Halloween party at Kaeli's Montessori school that she attended last year. She got to see a lot of her old friends. This picture is her with Maddie, a good good friend, and Loren, who is a new Arcadia student. Maddie and Kaeli were shy with each other for about 5 minutes, and then back to good friends. We hope to set up a play date for the two of them soon!

Zoo Boo Day

Kaeli and I spent our "special day" this past weekend at the zoo. We didn't know that it was Zoo Boo day, and there were lots of kids in costumes. Kaeli got her face painted with a big beautiful butterfly. We completed a bat scavenger hunt in the aquarium, and rode the carousel, and had lunch at the cafe, where Kaeli polished off a pretzel with something that was called "cheese".

After about three hours at the zoo, we went to Owen Beach to watch the high water and waves, and then drove the Five Mile Drive and saw lots of racoons!

A Clean Room and A Proud Girl!

Kaeli was quite proud of how clean her room looked after she worked on it while MaMa was working on cleaning her own room. MaMa was especially amazed at how clean it was, and asked Kaeli where she had put everything.

Kaeli gave MaMa a REALLY big smile and threw open the door to her closet, where she had neatly piled everything that didn't have a specific home.

Riding the Carousel

Racoons on Five Mile Drive

A family of four racoons, waiting for dinner delivery on Five Mile Drive at Point Defiance. We saw a total of NINETEEN!! on the drive, all on the left side of the road. I didn't understand at first why each group (1 of 2 racoons, 4 with 4 racoons, one single lonely one) were all on the left side of the road and all approached the car each time I stopped! And then I saw a car pulled off to the side and the driver was feeding the racoons. We'll have to do this drive again, next time with fruit!

Mid-Autumn Moon Fesitval

MaMa and Kaeli went to Portland for the Mid-Autumn Moon festival in September. We saw a parade through Chinatown, and watched the Portland Taiko drum company perform, along with a reggae band and girls from the International School dancing. We walked through exhibits, and had a wonderful Thai lunch. During the reggae performance, the band handed out percussion instruments and Kaeli got a drumstick and cowbell, which she seriously played for several songs. NaiNai took a turn holding the bell for Kaeli for awhile, but most of the time Kaeli stood and held it while she kept time with the music. We had a wonderful time!

Cupcake Jones

Kaeli and Madison at Cupcake Jones, where Amy, David, MaMa, YeYe, NaiNai and the girls all had delicious cupcakes after our visit to the Portland Chinese Garden and Hanna Andersson's. We discovered that Kaeli's picture is on the wall in the shop, eating her first cupcake!

Portland Chinese Garden

YeYe pond-side.

Kaeli and Madison at a standstill for two seconds.

Amy and the two "Kunming sisters"

A beautiful view in the Garden.

Proud and Happy NaiNai and YeYe

This is a wonderful picture of NaiNai and YeYe enjoying their granddaughter Kaeli. We were having lunch at a Thai restaurant in Centralia, where we met to do our "hand-off". After lunch, Kaeli went with NaiNai and YeYe to her "Portland House" for a week's vacation between the end of summer Chinese school and the beginning of her new L&L preschool.

Playing Dress Up

Kaeli loves to play dress up. She and Katika, who takes care of her while MaMa is at work, have wonderful times together. Katika brought over a beautiful sparkly black dress for Kaeli to model, and they took lots of pictures of themselves!

Our Day at the Zoo

Sundays are our "special day". Kaeli and I spend the entire day doing fun things together, whatever Kaeli wants to do! Except for the airplane rides she's been asking for recently! Today we had breakfast at McDonald's, where Kaeli is much more interested in playing in the tunnels and slides than eating her eggs. Then we went to the Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium, where NaiNai and YeYe bought us a membership. It is a nice small zoo set on a steep hill looking out over the sound.


Kaeli loves to use the map to decide what we're going to do next. We usually have to sit on a bench to look at the paper map that we carry with us and then confer about where we've been and where we should go next. She very carefully points out and names each animal we've seen, and then suggests what ones we should see next.

The day was warm, and we took a break to have "ice cones". Kaeli has become very adept at eating them and not making too big a mess anymore. We also got water and lemonade later.

Our Day at the Zoo (continued)

Kaeli asked for FIVE rides on the carousel, and MaMa agreed. Kaeli kept track of them - counting how many we had done and how many were still left

Watching the Wildlife Show, we sat in the center of the front row, where all the birds in the show swooped right over our heads. We saw a bald eagle, a barn owl, and a vulture. We also saw a porcupine, a beaver, an armadillo and some rats. At the end of the show, Kaeli donated some money to the animal rescue fund and a macaw parrot helped put it in the box.

These are the two show presenters, who Kaeli really enjoyed!

When we finished riding the carousel, Kaeli tried her hand at the "Lover's Tub", a round seat with a stationary pole in the middle. You twirl yourself around by pulling on the round disk in the middle, which doesn't move. You can get going REALLY fast! Kaeli loved it!

Kaeli was quite tuckered out by the end of our five hours at the zoo! She laid down for a 10 second rest and then was recharged and good to go again!

At the end of the day, we stopped for the traditional balloon animal outside the zoo. Today Kaeli asked for a mouse.

Our Stylist

Katika taught Kaeli today how to "style" her hair. While MaMa and Katika were catching up at the end of a long day, Kaeli disappeared upstairs and came down in all this fine regalia. She was quite pleased with knowing how to put clips in her hair all by herself now!

She carefully went through all of her hair accessories and pulled out all the pretty painted wooden ones from Hanna Andersson and used them - the clips and the necklace. She added two bracelets and the large yellow butterfly ring and the blue sunglasses to complete the effect. What a model!

Olympia Blueberry Picking

Kaeli, her friend Elena from Chinese school, Elena's MaMa, and NaiNai and I went to a wonderful, huge blueberry farm in Olympia to pick blueberries. There were acres of tall blueberry bushes and we had a lot of fun!

Kaeli is a VERY good blueberry picker! She had several cups of berries in her bucket at the end of the morning, even with Elena "borrowing" handfuls every now and then! I think Elena put more in her mouth than in her bucket.




NaiNai and MaMa made blueberry pies - one regular size one and one just Kaeli's size - with a "K" and a heart of dough as the top crust. Kaeli and Katika ate the "K" pie together to celebrate Katika's birthday.