random news of the week

Annie has been enjoying building houses with these little blocks. She puts two pieces of any shape and size together and says, "yook, I build a ouse".

Will has been building airplanes out of duplos - the other day he made two of them and sent them swooping through the air. He's very excited about going on an airplane to Korea. First we'll be going on an airplane to the USA! Just 3 months to go!
I have been very bad at giving my kids structured activities to do lately, but this week I DID manage one art project: we painted Will's helicopter that he received from A&K&S&E and the next project we'll do will be putting it together. The kids really enjoyed painting and are excited to finish it up whenever I'm in the mood for glue. not today. maybe in a few days. :)

Yesterday our friends came over for a few hours and Annie got to hold the REAL BABY DECHEN. You can see her thrilled grin as she holds the 3 -month old baby on her 27-month-old lap. She LOVES babies!

The last thing I should mention about yesterday was that this dear friend of mine agreed to chop off a little more than a foot of my hair, which has been feeling very heavy as I run each day. I have been ready to chop it shorter for at least a month and now it is shorter... but not short enough for anyone to really notice! We were at the Hostel Dorm Opening Ceremony later that afternoon and of all the people I talked with and ran into there, only TWO people even noticed that I had gotten a haircut and I was wearing my hair down! I even had to point out to Nate that I had gotten a foot cut off. SO, yeah. I'm back to the same look I had my senior year of H.S./freshman year of college. Speaking of which - that's ten years ago this year. Seems like it's gone quickly.