Our first challenge was beating jet lag. It took us about a week of children wandering around in the middle of the night. Part of the trick was keeping them up late enough in the evening, so I bribed them with things like a big box of crayons and a big drawing pad.
By Saturday, we were all enough on schedule to go out to a play. My Dad, Vivian, Jeff, and I went to see Jesus Christ Superstar at Signature Theater.
I wasn't sure if Vivian would like it or not, but she was excited to see a production in a black box theater after everything she learned at drama camp last summer. The staging was interesting.
Unfortunately, it's not the most clearly plotted musical, and if you don't already know the story it can be quite confusing. Plus Vivian was a bit young to pick up on the more political themes, so I did some whisper commenting to clear things up for her. Luckily, there were only a couple people sitting near us, and they didn't seem to mind. Vivian ended up really enjoying it. It was different from anything she'd seen before.
Our summer break in the States was mostly about camp, birthdays, getting ready to move, and spending time with family and friends. Vivian did a week at rock band camp and two weeks at drama camp. She enjoyed both. In her rock band camp, it ended up being a group of five girls with a teacher who helped them learn covers of famous songs and compose their own original song. Vivian was mostly a singer, but he made them go out of their comfort zone and try something new, so she also did percussion on one song. They didn't have a drum set, so it was markers on a stool kind of percussion. Still, she did a good job keeping the beat.
Drama camp was also a big hit. The first week was comedy, and she got to be a big goof in the final skit. The second week was epic stories from Shakespeare to Star Wars, and she was in a satire of the Merchant of Venice. She got to go with Kaitlyn, so that's what really made it fun, and Jeff's mom got to see the first week's performance which was nice.
I wasn't sure how Elena would do with the transition and being put in a new environment, but she LOVED her first summer of camp. I found a program with "tot" camp for three year olds and they did all kinds of cool projects. The first week had a STEAM theme, and she made goo and learned about rockets. The second week was Star Wars, and she came home with an awesome light saber made out of a foam tube and Christmas lights. The last week was bugs. My favorite thing she brought home that week was a pasta version of the life cycle of a butterfly.
Luckily, both Vivian and Jeff's birthdays fell on a weekend, because most of our week days were filled with shuttling the girls back and forth to camp. Vivian had what she declared to be "the best birthday ever." We did a family celebration during lunch when she got her cake and gifts. We started with Mexipasta in dragon bowls.
Then a slight digestive lull.
Followed by cake,
and presents.
Vivian has been asking for a fit bit for about a year. Jeff and I saw one on sale when we were out shopping, and we couldn't resist. The look on her face was totally worth it. Jeff got one for his birthday too, and now they're applying pressure on me to get one, so that we can all compete. I have a feeling I'll find one under the Christmas tree.
Lunch was just phase one of her birthday though. Phase two was Medieval Tournament and Dinner!
We went with the two families of two of Viv's best friends, plus Judy and Jeff's mom. I splurged on VIP seating for us, and we were in the front row. When they told me that for $15 dollars more I could get Viv a birthday queen crown and a knighting ceremony, I couldn't resist. She appreciated it though.
To make things even more fun, our knight won! All of them were incredible athletes.
It was a Sunday evening, so the mall was closing as we were finishing up. We let the kids run around in the practically empty play area for a while, and the girls had some fun in the photo booth. This one is my favorite.
I agree with Vivian. In a nine year old's world, it qualified as the best birthday ever.
Jeff's birthday the following weekend was considerably more low key. He wanted to go to Fogo de Chao, which is quite possibly his favorite restaurant. It's a Brazilian churrascaria. He got his fill of steak and time with family and friends.
Vivian enjoyed the steak as much as Jeff, but we had to keep an eye on Elena who kept stealing cheese bread and eyeing other people's cake.
The day after Jeff's birthday was the premier of the 7th season of Game of Thrones. In order to fully enjoy the show, we had a full family sleepover at the Viilu's. That way, the adults could watch it together after we got the kids to sleep (or, in the case of the older girls, at least in their room with the door closed). We were not disappointed by the episode, but no spoilers allowed ;-)
The next day we had some more family fun with the Viilus and some of our Thailand friends at the Children's Science Center in Fair Oaks Mall. It was $12 per person to get in, but I felt like we got our money's worth. They had an experiment "bar" where the older kids could try out three different experiments. This one was about testing the density of various fluids.
They had a special area for "5 and under" which was mostly full of older kids, but Elena had some fun with the giant foam building shapes.
There were other hands on and building activity areas, but everyone's favorite was the hovercraft area. They had out a bunch of materials to build your own hovercraft, and an air tube to test it out in.
We took a lunch break and then went back for some more playing and building before calling it a day.
The best part of being home in the States was getting to spend time with family and friends.
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