Downtown and Back Again

Vivian had a great second day of school, but was definitely calmer in the afternoon than she was after the first day.  Her second day was also a PE day, so maybe that helped.  We'll see how her first full week of school goes next week.

This is her getting on the "bus":

Friday morning was also the new elementary parent orientation.  I carpooled to the school with some other moms from the neighborhood which was fun.  A lot of the information we got was helpful, but it went about thirty minutes longer than it really needed to.

After the orientation, Elena, Young, and I took the golf cart to the mall to shop at the supermarket in the basement there.  In the short period of time we were at the mall, I ran into three people I know.  I'm not sure whether to feel settled in or to feel unsettled because I'm in the suburbia bubble.  Either way, I'm getting the hang of this, so that's good.

Saturday was a big adventure.  Friends of ours who live downtown were throwing a birthday party for their four year old daughter.  Our neighbors are also friends of theirs, and so we hired a van for the day and made the trek downtown together, which was a great treat for the kids.

The party was a lot of fun.  It seems like most of the apartments have  a floor with a gym, playground, pool, and party room.  The pool and play ground parts are covered on top, but open on the sides.  The party room was enclosed and air conditioned, so the kids would run and play outside, and then come in to cool off and fuel up.  It was great to get together with friends we hadn't seen in a while.

The family throwing the party was also the family that has been holding our car for us, so after the party, the plan was for Jeff and our neighbor family's dad to drive our car back out to Nichada following the van driver who would drive back the moms and all the kids.  We picked up one more kid at the party whose parents and brother had to stay downtown a bit longer, so the van was still a party on the way home.  Of course right before we were getting ready to leave, the skies opened up and a torrential rain started coming down.  Luckily, those kinds of rains don't seem to last too long around here, and it cleared up shortly after we got on the highway.  Jeff stayed close to the van driver who was taking it slow, and we all made it home with no incidents.

Our car in its new home:

I got to try it out this morning.  The whole family got in, and I drove us through Nichada to a nearby gas station, since the tank was getting pretty empty.  Jeff kept worrying that I was too far to the left, but I didn't hit anything, so I call it a success.  Next week I'm going to try and take it to the supermarket which will be the true test.