Camp Moon Hwa

Last week Abby attended Camp Moon Hwa for the third summer in a row. Camp Moon Hwa is a perfectly WONDERFUL week-long Korean culture camp in Rochester. Abby looks forward to it each summer. Will and I volunteered on Friday (making hundreds of mandu -- Korean dumplings) and Daniel spent the day with other toddlers.

Grandma and Grandpa Engelhardt joined us for a delicious Korean feast with about 300 others. (Grandma especially liked the mandu.) At the end of camp, the children perform drumming, dancing and Tae Kwon Do. Aunt Lisa made it in time for the performances.

Daniel had a fun time running around and Abby looked beautiful in her hanbok performing the lovely Korean fan dance.

Abby and her friend Mira are performing the peacock for me in this photo.

The Last Day...

Today is Abby's last day of first grade. She made this card for her teacher, Mrs. Kohlmeyer. She gave a plant to the school nurse Alice (Abby really enjoyed going to the nurse's office this year). She chose a plant for Alice that "looks like helping hands." Alice really liked that and said she was going to write it down to remember it.

She gave Mrs. Hoban (the lunchroom monitor) a plant that "looks like spaghetti." Mrs. Hoban laughed and laughed! And she was going to give a plant to her art teacher, but the art teacher will not be back to school, so Abby decided to give the last plant to Mrs. Hanson who works in the kitchen. Mrs. Hanson gave Abby a big hug!

And not to be outdone, today is Daniel's last day of being one! We'll celebrate his second birthday tomorrow with a wild, animal themed party. (I had to take the day off from work today because Daniel got kicked out of school yesterday with a fever and was not allowed to return today. But he seems to be on the mend.)

Mother's Day in Minneapolis

Mother's Day was rather nice in 2010 -- I got to sleep in and when I woke up I got to drink strong coffee and read the New York Times as Will made crepes! DELICIOUS!!

We then drove to Minneapolis. Abby and Daniel both fell asleep on the way, so I even got a quiet car ride, which allowed me to continue reading the New York Times in peace!

We went to the Minneapolis Institute of Arts and enjoyed a Mothers' Day music-themed day at the museum. 

We made cool tambourines.

Abby completed a gallery search -- finding music inspired works of art scattered throughout the museum and answering questions about them.

Daniel enjoyed the museum -- especially this great car, which just happens to be one of Granddad's favorites at the MIA.

After the museum we went to Lake Calhoun and enjoyed the water and view of Minneapolis.

Daniel enjoyed wading in the water too.

And all was well until Daniel fell down and got completely soaked!

(I forgot to bring my camera, but thanks to our handy dandy iPhones, we even have photos of our lovely day.)

The Tea Party Invades our Family

This morning Abby came into our room excited that the tooth fairy had brought her Pokemon cards. She said this was her favorite gift thus far. She said, "I like that I don't have to pay taxes for it."

(The night before, the tooth fairy had left her $5. She liked finding the money under her pillow, but was concerned that the tooth fairy didn't give her enough money to cover taxes.)

I immediately launched into an explanation of how wonderful taxes are and listed great things that taxes pay for -- schools, roads, nutrition assistance for low-income people, etc... I told Abby that I like to pay taxes.

Will thought this was all rather amusing and shared his own list of things that taxes pay for -- things like, "the war on terror" (this was said with a bit of a Texas drawl, of course).

And all of this at 6:45 AM before coffee! All I can say is,  if I see the girl forming a militia, I'm out of here!!!!

Tooth Number Five (That Didn't Take Long)

Tooth Number Four

Recently, Abby has really wanted to lose a tooth at school. If you lose your tooth at school, you get to go to the nurse's office and get a treasure box to put the tooth in. Apparently, it's something that happens frequently in first grade.

Take for example, Abby's classmate Bryson. According to Abby, "Bryson is famous for losing teeth at school!" Of the nine that Bryson has lost, Abby thinks eight of them have been lost at school.

Well, Abby's dream came true today. For the last couple of weeks one of Abby's front teeth has been dangling ever so precariously from her gum. Today I went to pick her up and as I was talking with some other moms, Abby went off to play with her friends. All of a sudden I saw her coming toward me with blood on her hands and her mouth. Her friend Nora was on one side and her friend Emory on the other. The girls had their arms around Abby and everyone was talking at once. Apparently, the girls were playing on the bike rack and Nora accidentally pushed Abby. She fell forward and hit her mouth. She started to cry. And then, she "tasted all of this blood" in her mouth and then looked in her hand and "saw this little white tooth!"

What excitement!! The girls insisted we go to the nurse's office. The nurse had already left for the day, but Abby, Emory and Nora made themselves right at home. Nora and Emory thought Abby should sit and rest on the bed. But I insisted that we first clean up some of the blood. Once we'd taken care of that, Abby was determined to get her treasure box with or without Nurse Alice. Abby marched out to the secretary's desk (Nora and Emory dutifully marching behind) and explained the situation. The location of the treasure boxes was disclosed and the girls debated what color Abby should choose. (She went for the green box.)

The girls then returned to the bike rack to see if they could spot any blood

We expect tooth number five to be lost soon. The fall not only knocked out number four, but it pushed number five way out of place!

It's Legal!

It's official!!! This morning we finalized Daniel's adoption! Here are a few pictures and I'll add stories later today. Now we are off to celebrate!

Will takes Abby and Daniel to school Tuesday mornings. This morning Will sent these cute pictures of the bulletin board outside Daniel's classroom.

Easter Eggs, Pokemon Cards, Carrots and Spinach

Will and Abby had to wait for the eggs to cool before they could dye them. So, they read some Harry Potter and then decided to trade Pokemon cards!

And as they do every year, they mixed all of the colors at the end and made the ugly egg!!

Before going to bed, Abby left a plate of organic spinach and carrots out for the Easter Bunny!

Finally Two Smiling Children in the Same Photo!

I find it nearly impossible to get a good picture of both Abby and Daniel in the same frame! By the time I took these photos tonight, Abby, Daniel and I were all grumpy!! (But, I think the photos are pretty good!)

Dancing Stott Children

Abby and Daniel had such a wonderful time dancing tonight to the Carolina Chocolate Drops. I got a little dizzy just watching them!

The Unknown

Abby wrote the following poem for her school's creative writing publication -- the Falcon Tales. Initially, she was resistant to writing anything, but Will and I strongly encouraged her to write something. She came up with most of the poem in the car on our way to pick up Daniel yesterday. She finished the poem tonight! We love it and think it is VERY ABBY!!!

The Unknown

by Abigail Rose Stott

Trilobite, trilobite, what did you eat?

Did you eat meat?

Crinoid stem, crinoid stem, what did you drink?

Did you drink pink ink?

Plesiosaur, plesiosaur, where did you lay your eggs?

Did you lay them on pegs?

Brachiopod, brachiopod, where was your home?

Was it in a poem?


Dinosaurs, dinosaurs, how did you die?

???

Fossils, fossils where do you lie?

???

One Year Ago Today

Exactly one year ago today we left Korea as a family of four!!

We Call Him Robot Man

Daniel got a drum kit for Christmas, but instead of making music, he prefers to wear it on his head! It's quite funny to see him come around the corner like this! We call him robot man, but he simply says, "hat on!"

Science Fair

Today was Abby's school's science fair. The science fair is mandatory for the fourth and fifth graders, but optional for the younger students. Abby chose to participate. Her experiment focused on finding a good way to clean birds' feathers that have been covered in oil in an oil spill.

Abby made her oil spill (vegetable oil mixed with cocoa to represent crude oil).

She dipped a feather in the spill.

She tried to clean the feather. She tested water (this picture), rubbing alcohol, scrubbing the feather with a tooth brush, no-tear shampoo and Dawn dish washing liquid.

Abby's hypothesis was that the no-tear shampoo would work the best, but her two separate experiments proved that Dawn dish-washing liquid was the most effective in cleaning the oil from the feathers.

And today Abby took her research to school. She received a certificate signed by her principal, the green ribbon in this photo and a cool shiny pencil that says SCIENCE WHIZ! Her evaluator's Comments said, "Very nice project about an important problem. I enjoyed your explanation and the display."

Abby told me this evening that she loved being in the science fair. I asked her what she loved about it. She said that she sometimes gets bored at school in the afternoon and today with the science fair she got to leave class to go talk to the evaluator. She thought that was great! She's already planning on participating next year!

Four Months with the White Stuff

The grandparents and a few others might wonder why Abby is barefoot in this photo and find themselves worrying about pneumonia and other such ailments. But really, after enduring four months of snow (our first snow was October 12) and looking out the window to see the white stuff falling once again, you just sort of become immune to it and say, "what the heck!"

Reading

There is a lot of reading taking place in our house these days. Will and I read a lot to Abby and an increasing amount to Daniel. (I never thought books about trucks could be so fascinating!) Abby is reading on her own more and more as well. And now, sometimes when Abby and Daniel seem far to quiet and we go to check on them, we find the two side-by-side with Abby reading a book to Daniel!

Snow Picnic

The East Coast recently got a lot of attention for all of its snow, but here in Minnesota, we simply quietly deal with it. Picnic anyone?

P.S. I think most smart midwesterners put their picnic tables away before the snow falls.

Happy Children

Abby and Daniel are just great children and love each other. Abby loves to make Daniel laugh and Daniel loves ALL THINGS ABBY!

Could Daniel be any cuter?