Du Li Ri

Happy Independence Day, everyone! This will be mainly a picture post to let everyone know what we've been up to-- and to show off my amazing photography skills. Be in awe.

From the news I'm hearing from home, it sounds like I'm not the only one who had a change in plans for their 4th of July celebrations. I'm very happy that the Los Alamos fire didn't make its way into town, but it did put a damper on celebrations. Meanwhile in China, we originally made plans to travel to Dalian (a city 4 hours away on the coast) to celebrate Independence Day with some Americans down there. But with a month-old baby and a toddler in tow, we decided to can it. We stayed home instead.

But here is a picture of Penny in her 4th of July, Yay-America ensemble:

Isn't that the cutest dress?! Yeah, I made it. Last year Penny had a 4th of July outfit, and she wore it all weekend. I decided she needed one for this year, so I made it for her, and it fit just right.
She wore it to a party on Friday night (for a German friend celebrating getting her visa.... we were the only Americans there). Then she wore it to church on Sunday. I forgot to have her wear it on the actual Fourth of July. Oops.

And this week we are lucky to have Kevin's mom come to visit us. She is having a great time visiting with Penny and Meimei..... oh, and Kevin and me too! Meimei loves being carried and held by her Ah-ma, and of course I love having another person around to play with the girls.

We joke that when we go out people probably think she's the nanny. But we know who is who, and that's what's important.

Just another picture of Meimei chilling in her swing.

The other night Penny started an evening ritual of going through her books one by one, reading each one page by page, and being enthralled by it for almost an hour-- until we need to throw her in bed. I love that she's enjoying reading her books!

And the other day I noticed Penny had gone into my room where Naomi was sleeping. It was really quiet for quite a while. I know Penny has the best intentions, but she's not always very careful with her little sister. When I went to check on here, this is what I found: