Heading back to Taiwan, baby!!!

We are leaving in T minus 11 hours.  Crazy last min airfare booking Donald Lee has thrown us into a whirlwind of hotel reservations, high speed train tickets, easy card research and Modern Toilet restaurant reservations.  We are going to Taipei, Taichung, Huelien (Toroko Gorge) and then back to Taipei.

We have an encouraging email from Taiwan Womens and Children (the agency that handled the Taiwan part of Cormac's adoption) that his birth mom and her mom and dad want to see us while we are in the country.  No confirmed date or time so I am stressing out a bit as I can't booked train tickets to Huelien in case we miss them.

2010 CAAM Dance Recital - "Merry Angel" from Adam Emanoff on Vimeo.

Piper had her first CAAM dance recital last weekend. They were awesome! More cute than actually good dancers. After the recital she said to me "I can't wait for the next recital, when is it?" This is from the girl who doesn't like people to look at her!

At the littles preschool, they are divided into small groups by interests. Last quarter Cormac was in the picnic small group. He loves picnics. They went to the Como Zoo conservatory and looked at a banana tree, pineapple tree and an apple tree. Then we had sandwiches with some apples, bananas and pineapple. Very cute and fun. This quarter I didn't know which small group he had been placed in. I got this note from his teacher and laughed my "A" off.

Dear Families,

Our small group has developed an interest in laundry throughout the past few weeks. The children have practiced washing clothing items in wash bins and we have had the washer and dryer in the classroom. We have also read a story called “Three Little Kittens” where the kittens end up getting their mittens dirty so they have to wash their mittens. The story led to the group learning about the different ways to wash clothes. As a next step, it seems appropriate to go on a field trip to explore a real washer and dryer so they can have a deeper understanding of how they work.

We will be taking a small group field trip on #############. We are going to visit a house in order to look at the laundry machines and explore the different things that can be done with them (e.g. putting in the dirty load, wash settings, time, etc.). The house we are visiting is located on the corner of ####### right outside of Dinky town. We will be walking so cars are not needed. Snack will also be provided while we wait for a short load of laundry to finish.

Ayuko will be going on the trip with the children and me. You are also welcome to accompany us on our trip. Please note below if you would like to come. If you have any questions, feel free to ask.

Thank you,

my new deck
new couch
connor in the cat kennel

Do you know what KidSpell is? It's when kids spell words the way they sound to them. piper has embraced it with vigor!!!! in the bathroom the other night, I found three signs up, with directives for our family. I'll put the translations under them. you can click on them to make them bigger.

You can not waste so much soap! (man, she sounds just like me!!!)
You can not go in the bathtub, Mom and Dad.
You can not say "Butt" in the bathroom. (that one made me laugh alot!)