The Week Before Christmas

Lucia was off school the week before Christmas, and we tried to enjoy some good girls time together!  I felt the need to keep her relatively occupied on a daily basis (as I have found that when she doesn't do something "active" in the morning, she won't nap!).

So here is the rundown of our week:
Saturday the 18th - Play Date with Sarah at our house. The girls dressed up like princesses and twirled around!


Playing!

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Boat in the ball pit:

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There's our princesses!

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Twirling Video:


Monday the 20th - Making Gingerbread "Teepees" at Michelle's with some friends and kids. They were supposed to be houses, but my IKEA kit had crumbled a bit. Still tasted good! We ate teepees for several days after.


Another couple of princesses (am I sensing a theme here?):

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Here is what the house should have looked like:

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Here are all the kids! (note: M stayed home with ayi for this excursion)

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And here are our teepees!

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That night I just had to snap some cuteness of Lucia playing with Dada:

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Tuesday the 21st - honestly can't remember what we did... I don't think we went out. Maybe just to the playground at our place.

Wednesday the 22nd - we went to the play area in the mall under Shama - 25 RMB (about $3.75) per kid to play on the trampoline, ball pit, various climbing and oversized boats/twirling structures. We went with friends Neil (from pre-school) and big sister Neha, so mommies got to chat while kids played!


Lucia climbing up the structure:

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Ball!

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Lucia and Neil playing on the boat:

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Magdalena in the balls:

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Neha LOVES Magdalena!

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This ball spitter thing was pretty cool!


Thursday Dec 23 - another play date, this time at Sarah's house. More princess dress up!


Princesses! At first I thought these were Sarah's nice dresses from being in a wedding or something, but my friend Trina told me her terrific tip! She buys flower girl dresses at Goodwill as big as she can find them and uses them for princess dresses. Ingenious!

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Lucia was really having fun!

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So was Magdalena!

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More twirling:

At some point, it's just time for a video:

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Friday Dec 24 - We went to some friends' house for Christmas Eve dinner. They live at a nearby housing structure and had lost their electricity that morning! The management kept assuring them it would be on at 3:30...5:30...6:30... so we all came over at 6 anyway. Around 8:20 when the lights came on, we were ready to go home! Thank goodness for gas burners and potlucks, we still managed to have a great meal and fun time!





This pic is kind of fuzzy due to the flash in the dark room:

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Here's our setup with the flash:

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And without!

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Neha and Magdalena again!

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All the older kids except Neil - at least you can see all their faces!

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Mmmmm... ball!

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Lucia looks pretty too!

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