one of the few pictures I have. He was excited for me to eat lunch with him (I figure I've only got a year or two more for that to be cool), but the real hit of lunchtime was breaking out the camera. I think these guys enjoyed posing more than girls! After lunch I headed to JR's room to help start setting up for the party, and it was nonstop from that point on. I helped kids get on their costumes, and then went to work at my craft station. I thought I had planned 2 easy crafts, but with 18 kids, that's a lot of work no matter how easy the craft. At one point I looked at myself and noticed I had paint and glue all over my hands, jeans, and shirt (and I think there was also some glue in my hair). Obviously, I need some little girls in my house...A girl mom would never have been so messy at the craft table! We made hand print ghosts and pom-pom/pipe cleaner spiders. The hand print ghosts worked out great and were a huge hit with the kids and parents. The glue didn't hold the pom-poms to the pipe cleaners as well as I had expected, so that one was a bust. 
Here's one of the only other pictures I took today...JR modeling his hand print ghost. I know it's covering his face, but by this point he was so jacked-up on sugar I was surprised he'd even hold still! So, no, I don't have any pictures of his class in their costumes, but you aren't missing anything. Every little girl had on wings, a princess hat, and/or a tiara. And, of course, they were all completely bedazzled. All the boys dressed in martial arts type wear (like JR), or were a character from Star Wars.
bsolute favorite toy in the house: JR's tooth brush. I spend most of my day trying to keep them out of JR's bathroom. And the second my eyes aren't looking at them, I find them on top of the sink "brushing" their teeth. They love for me to brush their teeth with their own toothbrush, but of course, stealing JR's brush is infinitely better with it being "mechanical" (as JR refers to it). So, JR, I'm sorry. And Grandmothers, I know you're cringing for JR as you look at these pictures!
chool picture, but we also get to have the first snowy day of school picture. Now let's stop and take a moment to examine the first snowy day of school picture. You'll notice JR has on a sweatshirt, jacket, snow-gloves (as apposed to cotton gloves that get wet in the snow), a hat, and you can also see the tops of his snow boots. Harry has on a jacket. Jason and I have told him a million times (and when I say "a million", I'm actually pretty accurate) "Harry, it snows here. It snows a lot. You need a big coat, and you definitely need some snow boots." But since the Chinese know better about all things, (especially about states they had to look up on a map to even know where they were coming to live) Harry doesn't need any winter wear. The things he had in Beijing (that gets maybe an inch of snow a year, maybe) will be just perfect. And as we walked outside this morning to take the first snowy day of school picture, Harry let out a yelp. And though my Chinese is a bit rusty, I'm pretty sure that yelp was "Whoa! Snow feels cold and wet as it hits your bare head...It doesn't feel like Styrofoam peanuts at all!"
